THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



201 



of brood, as the tops of the frames are used 

 for storing lioiiey nearly all the time. 

 Lawrence, Kan. N. Cameron. 



Fortbe American Bee Journal. 



That Queen Bee. 



Bees have wintered very well considering 

 the terrible cold weather of Dec. and Jan. 

 My bees commenced to carry in pollen on 

 the last day ot March. I have been a bee- 

 keeper upwards ot 20 years, and never 

 knew them to carry it in so early in the 

 season but once before. We had a cold 

 April, and bees dared not venture out of 

 their hives. 



1 want to say to Mr. F. Searles, through 

 the JoUKNAL, that 1 intend to raise as good 

 queens as any man, and if he has read the 

 A. B. J. tor tlie last 15 years he knows that 

 I do, and have the credit for it, too. i hnd 

 that those queens were sent him on Sept. 

 asth. if his bees breed drones all winter lie 

 must expect to raise black ones. As my 

 bees do not raise drones in winter, I cannot 

 say whether they would be black, yellow or 

 white. 



Does not this statement about breeding 

 drones in winter seem rather curious to 

 most readers ? it does to ine. 



A prominent bee raiser in Ohio wrote to 

 me that he had some hue italian bees (much 

 better than mine, in his opinion) and 

 advised me to order some of nim. 1 sent 

 him $15 and in due time 3 queens came. 

 Two of them were the color ot our native 

 queens (black) and one was yellow. This 

 was several years before those black Italian 

 queens were imported. I returned the two 

 black queens by return mail and kept the 

 yellow one. Ot course i was disappointed 

 in the color of them, as the person of whom 

 they were ordered promised me something 

 very nice. 



A short time after he had received the 

 queens, a very promineut bee-keeper, and 

 one who formerly wrote a good deal for the 

 JouKNAL, and who afterwards gave up the 

 business to practice medicine, with cold 

 water, made him a visit. Of course, those 

 two queens were trotted out, and lo ! be- 

 hold, tliey were both yellow. Probably the 

 visit to New England caused their color to 

 change. They were yellow, for both queen 

 breeder and visitor said so. The one re- 

 tained proved to be a very inferior hybrid. 



JSow the part of the story that i want 

 friend Searles to read is this: i have been 

 informed by several very prominent and 

 well-known bee-keepers that this same 

 man, who had such pure stock, has been 

 breeding all his younger queens from 

 queens he obtained indirectly of me. They 

 •were not bred on Kelly's Island, 15 miles 

 from the main land, as per advertisement; 

 for Novice says that this man never raised 

 any queens there at all. 



1 tnink my queens are fully as good as 

 friend Searles' (if we except the unusual 

 quality of breeding drones in winter). I 

 have bred queens for 15 years and occasion- 

 ly we get orders from customers that we 

 supplied with queens during the hrst season 

 we began business. We have an order now 

 for 50 queens to be sent as soon as they can 

 be raised, from a man we have supplied for 

 years. 



Mr. Searles' opinion of our queens and 

 that of the two well kuowa bee-keepers iu 



N. Y. State, as given in our advertisement, 

 differs greatly. If friend Searles sends me 

 a queen, send it by mail, and not through 

 the JouitNAL. I w'ill be responsible for her 

 if she dies in transit. H. Alley. 



Wenham, Mass., April 12, 1877. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Centennial Award on Extractors. 



Friend Newman:— On page 1.58, May 

 number of tlie Journal, concerning the 

 query of M. D. T. about the award of the 

 Centennial Exhibition on American honey 

 extractors, who says he can only hnd one iu 

 the otiicial list, I would say tliat i have not 

 seen the official lists, and if i had, I should 

 not be surprised to not hnd it, for you know 

 that it Wits almost impossible during the 

 exliibition to hnd some exhibits on the list 

 —after hnding the exhibit itself, i know 

 it was for me, and I know that it was much 

 trouble for others to hnd in the catalogues 

 all the exhibits; for some of them were not 

 catalogued at all— although on exhibition, 

 properly entered, etc. Among tlie numer- 

 ous exhibits mistakes were liable to occur. 

 You ask for a copy of the ofhcial notice or 

 reference to the page in the official lists, 

 where it cau be found. As I have no of- 

 ficial lists to refer to, and cannot well copy 

 the Centennial seal, i send you the original 

 document, as I received it. 



Some have asserted that 1 received no 

 award at Fhiladelphia, and that 1 was ad- 

 vertising what was not so, by saying that I 

 had, but i think the enclosed document will 

 satisfy you that I only represent facts. 

 Allow me to say further that the extractor I 

 had on exhibition was one that i had used 

 in my own apiary for two years; it was not 

 made for the Centennial show, but for use. 

 1 merely cleaned it up a little and sent it 

 on, after having received permit to do so. it 

 appears that the judges were practial bee 

 men (at least Gen. Oliver, of Salem, Mass., 

 who was the judge, is); they saw in it a 

 '* special fitness for the purpose intended," 

 and granted me the award of the grand 

 medal and diploma, i know, from the 

 great number sold and many favorable re- 

 ports received (not one word of fault found 

 in their use, from my customers) that it is, 

 as one man of large experience in apiculture 

 expressed it, the best extractor made; and 

 he speaks from practical knowledge of 

 other machines. 



HONEY KNIVES. 



In regard to the round-pointed, curved- 

 blade honey knife, i do not claim to have 

 made the first one — because i don't know 

 what others have done before me. 1 only 

 said i made the first one i ever saw or heard 

 of, in 1871; you printed it 1870— either a slip 

 of the pen or type. 



The weather is very cool; the fruit blos- 

 soms are very few; the trees appear to 

 forget that it is the middle of xMay; bees are 

 dwindling badly, i have had to double 

 some, and shall have to double up more un- 

 less it warms up faster than it has for the 

 past four weeks; but we hope for hot times 

 bj'-and-by for our bees, and expect as usual, 

 good things from the Journal. 



Frank VV. Chapman. 



Morrison, 111., May 15, 1877. 



[Friend Chapman sent with article the 

 original award of the Centennial Commis- 



