232 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



are no such men anions bee-breeders, but 

 it is only a hypothesis. Our dishonest man 

 will send, for i^i each, all his tested queens, 

 and the buyers will get only scrub or hy- 

 brid queens. 



Don't you see that with this unwarranted 

 queen business yon oj^en the door to dis- 

 honesty? It would be a long time before 

 such frauds could be detected; nobody com- 

 plaining, as the mieens are not warranted. 



'•Reader and Dealer" aslcs if my $i7 im- 

 ported queens are as good as when 1 used to 

 sell them at ^lo ? 1 thinli that my $7 ones 

 are better, for they arrived in better health. 

 When I was compelled to sell them so dear, 

 too dear for the buyer, too cheap for me, for 

 some of the queens" delivered at $15 cost me 

 ?30, and hives $W each. These dear queens 

 were poorer than the $7 ones, for most of 

 them were sick on their arrival with tlieir 

 health more or less impaired. 



Both of my opponents thinlc that I have 

 written my article to help my business of 

 imported queens. They don't consider that 

 if my article has any influence, it will be in 

 favor of the dealer in warranted or tested 

 queens rather than imported. A bee-keep- 

 er who cannot pay as much as S3 for a test- 

 ed queen, will not be likely to buy an im- 

 ported one worth twice that price. 



Both of my opponents seem to think that 

 $1 queens are as good, if not better, than 

 imported ones. As Adam Grimm made a 

 handsome profit with bees, I will quote him 

 once more. On May 35, 1875, he wrote me 

 that, with the old race of Italian bees his 

 honey crop was light; but that since he had 

 imported extensively he liad loads of honey 

 if any could be found in the fields." He 

 ordered 2 imported queens to infuse some 

 new imported blood in his apiary. Such 

 testimony will counterbalance a great many 

 assertions of bee-keepers who have never 

 tested imi)orted queens in comparison with 

 the home-bred ones of 40 generations of in- 

 and-in breeding. 



"When the time for rest arrives for me, I 

 shall recollect with pleasure that though 

 importing may be aljandoned as a losing 

 business, I have persevered in spite of the 

 losses, difficulties, and oppositions coming 

 from every side; and that I was at last re- 

 warded by seeing the business becoming 

 profitable and extending itself enough to be 

 practised by others, and that the number of 

 my sales steadily increased year by year. 



Such results prove either that most of the 

 American bee-keepers are void of common 

 sense, since they buy queens at 5p7 each, 

 when unwarranted ones cost only .fl; or 

 that the imported queens have some quali- 

 ties that the generality of home-bred ones 

 do not possess. 



I beg the reader to forgive these praises 

 of imported queens. I should not liave thus 

 extolled their merits, liad not my opponents 

 changed the battle ground by attacking the 

 imported to defend their cheap queens. 



Ch. Dadant. 

 Hamilton, 111., June 10, 1877, 



For the American Bee Journal. 



A few more Straws. 



Mr. Bingham writes me that I was mis- 

 taken in regard to his writing me that there 

 was honey enough upon the market to last 

 another year. My father wrote just this, 



home to me, while Mr. B. stated that mucli 

 was being carried over, where he had 

 traveled, which would probably etfect tlie 

 early market. If we have a great deal of 

 work and numerous letters, we are 'apt to 

 write liastily and depend upon our memory 

 rather than looking over back correspon- 

 dence to quote from, as we should do. My 

 father's letters arriving in the same mail 

 with Mr. B's, gave the impression as stated 

 in my article in June number. 



Mr. Editor, the " questicms and answers" 

 in tiie Journal are of much value to all of 

 us. To the old veterans as well as the new 

 apiarists. A fool may ask a question a wise 

 man cannot answer; two heads are better 

 than one, etc., goes to prove it. Who will 

 answer the following questions from ex- 

 perience, no opinions wanted, I have some 

 of them on hand : 



1. Will bees cut through duck cloth? 



2. Will they cut through stock A grain- 

 bag ? 



3. If not, why wouldn't a good way to 

 feed be to raise the board covers and pour 

 thin liquid sweets on top of the duck ? 



4. Would the bees not take the thin warm 

 liquid through the meshes (it would most 

 drip through, if not quite) but not gnaw 

 through ? 



5. What makes certain worker bees go 

 over the combs, or run about the entrance 

 of the hive shivering or shaking them- 

 selves? 



I have got a lot more questions, but will 

 reserve them till next month. 



Novice lets ns down easy on to a piece of 

 foundation. I knew something was going 

 to make bees and honey cheap. 



I made (original) the first curved-pointed 

 honey knife in June, 1871. No doubt many 

 others did the same. The sunken places in 

 the combs suggested it to me, so I bent up 

 Ma's old, worn thin, case knife. I use this 

 case knife yet in preference to Peabody's 

 or Winder's old or new style, all of which 

 are in the rack side by side. Who can fur- 

 nish a better one ? 



I am not only right, but I'll bet a cent, I 

 am ®n the popular side of the smoker ques- 

 tion, and that Novice is on the other (as 

 usual), and that the bee-keepers are going 

 to leave him out in the cold. He will crawl 

 in at such a small hole, and so quietly, by- 

 and-by, that we'll forget he ever put the 

 Qninbv smoker above Bingham's. 



Mr. iB. showed me that many times an 

 extra smoker did the work of a man in the 

 apiary, so I bought four, two for each 

 apiary. I think more of them than of any 

 other fixture I have, and I am confident 

 that time will bear me put consistant and 

 correct. 



For once I will lav aside my usual morali- 

 ty, and bet ]Mr. Ch. Dadant that those dollar 

 queens and 75 cent bee hives are worth tjie 

 price, just about. Perhaps tliere are queens- 

 and hives worth more. 



The bleached comb foundation that Nov- 

 ice sent me last year, that he knew nuist 

 bring an admission out of me, was then, 

 and is now, as near as I can determine im- 

 practicable. I never had any pure un- 

 bleached wax foundation, I am putting 

 some to the test in every way I can think 

 of now. We must be careful to separate 

 possibles from practicables. What can be 

 done is easy to demonstrate, but what can 

 be consistantly and profitably df)ne, is not 

 quite so easily understood. Tliis last is 



