THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



57 



are filled bj' Aikin shortly after the ex- 

 tractitiij or before granulation; and 

 the honey statement in the lithograph 

 design explains how the honey may be 

 reliquefied after placing it in a pan of 

 hot water. 



These lard-cans have the advantage of 

 cheapness, being almost the cheapest 

 article that can be bought. vSelf sealing 

 is rendered unnecessary, because the hon- 

 ey candies so quickly it will soon be as 

 solid as so much lard, and hence maj- be 

 shi]>ped safely to almost any point. 



Mr. .Vikin's favorite method for pack- 

 ing for shipment was to put these pails 

 inloconnnon, cheap cracker-barrels, pack 

 straw between them, head the barrels up, 

 and, presto I thev are ready for any kind 

 of rough handling, and for almost any 

 distance 1)y rail. 



It developed in the discussion that very 

 manv were fond of candied honey; and 

 Mr. Aikin had no doubt been responsible 

 for educating consumers in his locality 

 to the palatability of honey in that form. 



SUPERIOR BREEUIXG OUEENS. 



Why the Queens of some Breeders do not 



Come Up to Advertised Qualities; Con- 



iroilinii the Parentage of both sides; 



Another Rt-tord-breaking 



Queen. 



Our'huesand methods of management 

 are probably not perfection, but they are 

 pretty fair, at least; our methods of put- 

 ting up honey and marketing it may pos- 

 sibly be considerably improved; but at 

 present the most promising field in which 

 to turn our energies loose si in that of im- 

 proving our stock. Too many of us look 

 upon bees as bees, in something the same 

 way as a country merchant buys butter — 

 it's all butter. The man who has kept 

 bees many years, trying diflferent strains, 

 and keeping his eyes open, well knows 

 that there is a great difference in bees. 

 The most of us know this. The trouble 

 is that we do not put our knowledge in- 

 to practice. Right in this line of thought. 

 Gleanings publishes a nio.st excellent 

 article by that veteran, J. V. Mclntyre, 

 of California. Mr. Mclntyre also points 

 out the difficulties to be encountered in 



securing good stock, and tells of his final 

 success. Here is the article: — 



I have never advertised queens for sale, 

 but have bought queens from every breed- 

 er in this country who claims to have any- 

 thing superior, and I am sorry to say that 

 I am general!}' disappointed. Why is it 

 that we are so often disappointed in buy- 

 ing the daughters of a queen claimed to 

 be very superior stock ? These daugh- 

 ters should be all that is claimed for their 

 mother, and we are disappointed if they 

 are not. 



There are several reasons why the young 

 queens may not be as good as we expect 

 from reading the advertisement. First. 

 The claims may be exaggerated; but I 

 have charit}' enough to think that this is 

 not where the trouble generally comes in. 



Second. The young queens may not 

 be as well reared as their mother was. I 

 believe this is true in about ninty-nine 

 cases in one hundred. We find a very 

 superior queen in the apiary, probably 

 raised under the superseding impulse, 

 and start out to duplicate her by starting 

 a large number of cells from her larvie in 

 a queenless colony, or in a super above 

 a queen-excluder, which is about the 

 same thing, as the bees regard that part 

 of the hive as harmless; and the result is 

 a lot of queens below the average in qual- 

 ity. To duplicate your fine breeder the 

 young queens must be reared as close to 

 nature's best way as possible. The Doo- 

 little cells placed in the middle of a brood- 

 chamber, where the colony is supersed- 

 ing its queen, or preparing to swarm, 

 give the best results in my hands, and 

 the superseding colony is better of the 

 two. 



Third. The young queens may not 

 have married as well as their mother, 

 and their chiblren inherit a lazy disposi- 

 tion from their father. .\s in the human 

 family, this is a hard matter to control, 

 but it is best done by laising an abun- 

 dance of drones from an equally good 

 queen in no way related to the one you 

 rear queens from, and by killing inferior 

 dro7ies. 



I'ourth. Queens are often injured by 

 long confinement in the mails, especial- 

 ly if they are laying rapidly when caged 

 and shipped. When a queen comes out 

 with a swarm she is in the best possible 

 condition for a long journey by mail. 

 The overies are then small, and not so 

 liable to injury as when they are large 

 and full of eggs. 



Larger cages should be used for ship- 

 ping valuable breeding-queens. The ex- 

 port Benton cage is none too good to mail a 



