l82 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



years old. If they had been in 8-frame 

 hi\es, and in a cai't'ful man's hands, 

 that honey woukl have been on the 

 marlcet in sections years ago. 



I want to say to beginners, and to 

 all Avlio are disposed to be imitators; 

 Watch and wait; and when yon see 

 a man who is caring for more bees 

 wilhont help than you are, and is 

 really shipping more honey than you 

 are with your old reliable Langstroth 

 system, then change, and not till 

 then. 



'Blessed be the name of Langs- 

 troth.' 



PREMATURE JUDGING OF QUEENS. 



A Purchased Queen may Turn out very Poorly, 



Yet her Daughters may be Excellent 



Queens. 



If there is anything that has piiz- 

 led some (lueen lireeders, and given 

 them no end of worry, it is to send 

 out a fine tested queen, and then have 

 the purchaser condemn her in unmeas- 

 tu'ed terms. It is quite likely that the 

 purchaser is telling the triith, and that 

 it is the journey and the method of 

 introduction, or something of that 

 sort, that has injiu-ed the queen. I 

 remember one instance in which I sold 

 a nuui a (pieen, and he complained the 

 next spring of the poor qiialities of 

 the (pieen. I with difficulty persuaded 

 him to give the cpieen a further trial, 

 nnd to try her daughters. Eventually 

 he bought 30 more (lueens of the same 

 sli'ain. So many times I have urged 

 bee-kei'pers to value a purchased 

 nnoen for the stock that can be se- 

 ciu"(>d from her eggs, rather than for 

 wli.it she can do herself, that it is re- 

 freshing to come across something in 

 tlie s.-inie line from the pen of T'ro. 

 lioolittie, in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. I would be glad to copy the en- 

 tire ariic'.e. but lack of s])ac(> ])i'events. 

 The following paragraplis, however, 



contain so much truth upon this sub- 

 .^(■ct, that I must make room for them. 

 Bro. I'oolittle says: 



"Kegardnig the many queens pur- 

 chased by Messrs. Gallup and Alley 

 being worthless, I take it they were 

 speaking metaphorically. I cannot 

 Diink tliey fully meant what their Inn- 

 guag;' would convey. As Dr. Gallu,i 

 alludes to the matter of an exchange 

 of queens between him and Dr. Ham- 

 lin's uest and proliiic queens proved 

 m the other's hands to be the same 

 worthless degenerates ('!), whic)i woulrl 

 iiot keep two or three frames hllec! 

 AA'ith brood with all the coaxing at 

 these Doctors' commaiuls, these queens 

 l>eing similar after the exchange to 

 those which have been so roundly 

 and immoderately condemned, it would 

 appear that such language conveyed 

 more than was really intended. 



And as proof of this I will say that 

 I had one of those worthless (V) 

 Hamlin (lueens sent me as a premium 

 for securing the most subscribers to a 

 certain bee-paper in a given time. The 

 queen came in .Tune, and as she was 

 from one of the best breeders of the 

 seventies, I thought to give her th*^ 

 best possible chance, Avhicli I did. 

 Imagine my surprise to find that with 

 all my e::tra care and coaxing, I could 

 get her to put eggs in only three Gal- 

 lup frames, and very scattering at 

 that. I came very near pinching her 

 head off in the fall, but finally con- 

 cluded to give the colony frames of 

 brood and honey from other colonies, 

 and thus the colony was gotten 

 through the winter. The next season 

 she proved no better than she had the 

 years before, and I have no doubt Dr. 

 Gallup would have called h(>r a 

 'worthless degenerate,' and Mr. Alley 

 would have alluded to her as 'worth- 

 less as a hotise-lly.' Was she thusV 

 Well, we shall see. 



I had her in my hand one day, be- 



