496 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



Victor^ 



Superior 



Italians.. 



W. 0. Victor, 



Queen Specialist. 



Wharton, Texas. 





I have told you from time to time what 

 Messrs. E. R. Root, W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson, O. L. Hershiser, and a great 

 many others, prominent in apiculture, 

 have had to say in reg^ard to my bees, 

 and I have many similar testimonials 

 that I v?ould be g"lad to use, but space 

 forbids. I will have to quote, however, 

 from so prominent a person as G. M. 

 Doolittle. as follows : 



" I kept one of the queens I bought of 

 3'ou last season, and she approached 

 the nearest to tnine of any thing I have 

 had for a long time.''^ 



I am filling- Mr. Doolittle's order for 

 40 queens this season, 36 of which have 

 gone forward. 



Mr. O. P. Hyde paid me a visit a few 

 days ago, and I invited him to inspect 

 my apiaries with a critical eye. I was 

 often pleased at the high compliments 

 paid my bees by him. He said that lie 

 had never seen any thing like it before 

 (yard No. 1); that the absolute uniform 

 marking (3 band) and gentleness ivere 

 simply wonderful. He made frequent 

 mention of the superior size and beauty 

 of the queens ; and in conclusion stated 

 that I had the largest and best equipped 

 queen-yard that he had ever seen, which 

 would include many. 



Heretofore I have been very modest in 

 my expressions in regard to my bees, 

 leaving their praises for others to sing. 

 I can be quiet no longer, and will have 

 to say that / knozv that yard No. i is 

 composed of the best bees for honey gather- 

 ing, uniform mari<ing, and gentleness, I have 

 ever seen, and believe thej'^ are as good 

 as there are in the world, regardless of the 

 price asked or the reputation of the 

 party offering them for sale. There is 

 not a queen in any of my full colonies 

 that is not worthy of being classed as a 

 breeder, therefore all my mating drones 

 are of the highest grade. The stock is a 

 combination of the Root Red-clover, J. 

 P. Moore, Hutchinson Superior Stock, 

 and selections from my stock that I have 

 used for years, and which furnished the 

 bees that were awarded the diploma at the 

 Pan-American. I am using as breeders 

 nothing but the very best that can be 

 selected from over 100 colonies, all of 

 which have been tested in every re- 

 spect. One of them headed a colony 

 that gathered right about 400 lbs. of 

 honey last season, and is still keeping 

 lip the lick. 



The increasing demand for queens from 

 this yard since the first of June forces 

 me to advance the price to that aslced 

 before June l,viz. : Untested, $1 ; 6, $5; 

 12, $9. Select untested, $1.25 ; 6, $6 ; 

 12, $11. I am out of tested and select 

 tested at present. Breeders, $5 to $10, 

 according to superiority, tongue-reach, 

 etc. Queens from Yards 2 and 3 at 

 catalog prices. 



