GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



SENDING OFF FOK DRONES. 



I kept the black drones beheaded, not allowing 

 one to hatch, and there were no other blacks within 

 four miles. A short time before I wanted drones 

 for my young- queens, I found, upon a'eareful and 

 thorough examination, that I had no drones. I im- 

 mediately went to Grand Meadow, and got a card of 

 drone brood that had already commenced to hatch, 

 from one of Mr. Greening's best queens. I inserted 

 the card among my Italians, after daubing them 

 and the Italians we'l with honey. My neighbors 

 laughed at me, but it was a success, and I have to- 

 day fourteen, nice, strong colonies of Italians, and a 

 little surplus honey. 1 raised all my queens. The 

 season has been very dry, and there has been but 

 little increase and but little honey gathered, so far 

 as I know. 



I have not grown as fast as some of your ABC 

 scholars, but, taking every thing- into consideration, 

 I feel satisfied. I have not given a detailed account 

 of my operations, but if there is one in the class 

 who would like it, I will give the information at any 

 time. 



I am pretty well satisfied of some things. In rais- 

 ing queens, I shall start my queen cells in good, 

 strong colonies. I shall also be as particular about 

 my drones as I am about the queens. I shall never 

 divide without having young, laying queens to in- 

 troduce. I shall keep extra queens on hand. I in- 

 tend that a colony shall never be without a queen 

 longer than it takes to introduce one. Keep them 

 strong all the time. Handle the little fellows eare- 

 fully and gently and know (don't guess) their condi- 

 tion and wants at all times of the year. 



Wells, Faribault Co., Minn. J. P. West. 



f$C "f roi^rfj;." 



[This department is to be kept for the benefit of 

 those who are dissatisfied; and when anything is 

 amiss, I hope you will "talk right out." As a rule 

 we will omit names and addresses, to avoid being 

 too personal:] 



IMPORTED QUEENS AND THEIR DEES NOT, 

 AS A RULE, REING HANDSOME. 



fGIVE the following letters, because there 

 are so many dissatisfied with their ini- 

 — ported queens, and because it seems so 

 impossible to have it well understood that 

 the queens of Italy are not yellow, as a rule, 

 nor are their worker bees as yellow as the 

 most of the Italians from the dollar queens. 



Enclosed, please find $5.00, for which please send 

 me one pure, imported, Italian queen bee, not over 

 one year old, a good honey gatherer, docile, and a 

 prolific breeder. In fact, I want a first class bee in 

 every particular. If you have not got what I want, 

 please return the money at my expense. If the en- 

 closed amount is not sufficient to pay for what I 

 want, or is less than the price for what I want, 1 will 

 remit balance on receipt of bill. J. G. K. 



Sherwood, O., July 23, 18T9. 



After reading the above, I decided that 

 our customer did not care particularly for 

 color, but wanted a good, prolific queen, just 

 such a one as I would select for myself, if I 

 was going to raise honey, and so 1 sent him 

 one of our $.5.00 queens. The following is 

 his report in regard to her : 



The queen you sent me the 28th of July arrived 

 the first day of August. I put her into a hive of 10 

 frames 12x12, with young bees that had never seen a 

 queen. August 3d, she commenced laying 1, 2, and 



3 eggs in one cell, having plenty of room. Aug. 13, 

 she began to lay pretty fast and regularly. She has 

 now 8 frames full of brood, a good swarm of bees, 

 and plenty of honey. I have 20 young queens, her 

 daughters. The said queen is very dark, almost 

 black, and small, nearly a dwarf. All her young- 

 queens are like herself. Her workers are small, and 

 dark, and have 1 to 2 bands. Some apiarists have 

 called her a poor hybrid. I have kept Italians for 12 

 years, and have now 137 stands, and I must say, if 

 this is an imported queen, they must have blacks in 

 Italy. She is not fit to have in a good colony, much 

 less to breed from. I sent you $5.00,' told you I 

 wanted a first class queen in every respect, was 

 willing to pay you your own price, and if you had 

 none to send my money back. 



The $5.00 I do not care so much for, but the disap- 

 pointment I would not have had for $50. I thought 

 to raise 50 or 60 pure queens this fall yet, to take the 

 place of hybrids. I fear it is too late now. Please 

 send me a choice, good queen, an imported and test- 

 ed one, or send my money back, and I will send you 

 your queen. J. G. K. 



Sept. t), 1870. 



"We ordered the queen returned with a 

 good number of her own bees, and sent at 

 once a $6.00 one in her place. I presumed 

 her small size must have been from the fact 

 that she had just stopped laying in the fall, 

 and almost any queen, at such a time, looks 

 insignificant. In regard to her being a hy- 

 brid, I supposed our friend felt a little vexed, 

 and therefore spoke a little extravagantly. 

 It is quite human, when we get vexed with 

 a queen, or even imagine we have been 

 wronged in the purchase of one, to call her a 

 hybrid. You will see from the following 

 postal, how nearly I was right : 



To-day, I send, by express, that 5 dollar imported 



queen. Von are right; she is no hybrid, but dark. 

 1 AH the young bees sent with her are her bees. I 



wish you could see some of her queen-;. The last 

 j queen you sent, I think, i< all right. Honey gathei- 



ing and queen raising arc poor here this fall. 

 Sept. 23, 1879. J. G. K. 



The queen came to hand, and, to my sur- 

 prise, was not only of fair average size for 

 queens in the fall, but she was rather lighter 

 in color than the average queens as we get 

 them from Italy. Still farther, her bees 

 were good, well marked Italians, though of 

 course dark, like all the imported progeny. 

 This season, I have purchased queens from 

 different breeders, and from different dis- 

 tricts in Italy, and if 1 thought all of the 

 imported queens I send out would equal 

 this discarded one in color, size, prolificness, 

 &c, I should be very happy. 



One more point; do you not know, my 

 friends, that we sometimes are persuaded 

 that a thing is not right, and by dwelling on 



; it, we get more and more dissatisfied, until, 

 finally, we think we have really been wrong- 



i ed, when there is little, if any. ground for 

 complaint. I do not mean to say that such 

 was necessarily the case in the above trans- 

 action, nor do I object to your sending things 

 back when they do not suit you ; but, is there 

 not a lesson here that we may all think of 

 with profit V By shrewd insinuations, you 

 can make a child satisfied or dissatisfied with 

 almost anything he has, and are we not all 

 but children of a larger growth ? 



Now, my friends, bear in mind that I have 

 warned you before hand, that if you pur- 

 chase an imported queen of me, it is quite 

 likely that some one unacquainted with 

 them will be quite sure to pronounce them 

 hybrids, sooner or later. A $3.00 tested 

 queen will give you much prettier bees. 



