46 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



to him and got no satisfaction. I said, 

 "If he has done that I will write to Mr. 

 Muth about it, I have done business 

 with him." So I wrote to him about 

 it and .he answered that he was satis- 

 jfied there was no such thing as any dis- 

 eased bees sent from this yard. I met 

 this German and told him the reply I 

 Tiad received. He said to me: "I saved 

 it and I will bring it and show it to 

 you." So, he finally brought the combs 

 to my house one day when I was not 

 in. My wife was there. He said: Here 

 it is, Mrs. Coppin; I have brought those 

 loul brood combs to show you, those I 

 got from Cincinnati. She looked at it 

 and said: "There is no foul brood in 

 this." He said: "What is it? It is half 

 full of something." She said:* "It is pol- 

 len* It is as nice clean brood comb as 

 I ever saw; you simply have been de- 

 ceived; it is pollen." 



So you see how parties get blamed 

 for things they are not guilty of. He 

 had been transferring a lot of bees 

 . ^imself for years for foul brood and 

 probably there was not a bit in his 

 place; at the same time he could be 

 -finding fault all the time. 



Mr. Dadant — What Mr. Coppin has 

 '^ just said puts me in mind of one of 

 . the troubles that people have who buy 

 que^^ns. A great many introduce queens 

 an d;^ don't look any further; the queen 

 is killed and another one liaised from 

 their own bees and they never know 

 they have not the. queen they bought; 

 I know it. to be a fact in a great many 

 'instances. ' 



One , of the great men of the east 

 who^'Claims to introduce queens by the 

 smoke method without failure was said 

 never to have looked into the hive after 

 life introduced a. queen and that is why 

 he; succeeded so well. 



Mr. Mandle— What is the difference 

 between three banded and leather 

 color? : . ' 



Mr. Dadant — A leather color must 

 be three banded. The three banded 

 may not be le;ather color; it may be 

 light yello"jv. In the Italian bee the 

 bandfe may be more transparent. 



Mr. Mandle — You see every once in 

 a while— advertised by a queen raiser 

 ^three banded or leather color; I 

 Tiave wondered several times what the 

 <3ifference was. 



Mr. Dadant — That is a misnomer. 



President Baxter — There may be five 



banders. The difference between 

 leather color and light yellow is this: 

 In the leather color, the part of the 

 body between the bands is dark, a 

 leatherish color, while in the five 

 banded it is generally a' very bright 

 yellow; it looks more like gold. 



Mr. Mandle — I have noticed in my 

 bees, every once in a while they have 

 a queen that shows hardluy any rings 

 at all. 



President Baxter — Be careful about 

 this — the bright yellow color bees and 

 the five banders; you take the three 

 banders and the leather color, nine 

 times out of ten you will have much 

 better bees. 



Light yellow bees as a rule have 

 been bred for color, and as a rule they 

 are very cros«; they have not the 

 good qualities; the Cyprians are good 

 workers and prolific but they are hor- 

 nets otherwise. 



Mr. Mandle— I have bees from a 

 southern breeder that are advertised 

 Goldens. 



President Baxter — You ought to test 

 them for several years; get one that 

 will last; one that will do the business 

 from year to year and give the best 

 results when there is drought of honey. 



I have had some bees that all I 

 had to do was to look in the front of 

 the hives to see how they looked, and 

 I knew whether they had a supply 

 enough for the winter or not; that is 

 just the difference there is between 

 bees. 



I have some as yellow as gold I got 

 this summer and I had some hopes 

 they would be fine, but this fall they 

 don't show up; some of them had to 



be fed. 



I have been dealing with several 

 queen breeders, some in Texas, some 

 in Louisiana, and Tennessee, and so 

 on, and I know the ones I want to 

 stay with and those that I don't want 

 to have anything more to do with. 



Mr. Diebold — Speaking about queen 

 breeders; I sent to Mr. J. P. H. Brown, 

 of Augusta, Ga., for queens — bright 

 yellow bees, nice looking, but the 

 crossest I ever saw; Italians are gen- 

 erally supposed to be the mildest bees 

 — but those were crosser than the ordi- 

 nary black bee; whether or not they 

 were Italians, I don't know, but they 

 were the crossest bees — 



President Baxter — The pure Italian, 



V 



