produces honey of beautiful quality from 

 white sage, and from Florida we have honey 

 Irorn orange blossoms. 



After the demonstration of the beautiful 

 theory of emptying the combs by centrifugal 

 force,' one would suppose that tlie apiarist 

 would restcontent for a season. Buttliespirit 

 of Improvement which possesses alike tiie 

 whittling Yankee Josey, and the profound 

 scientist, urged the bee-keeperto still furtlier 

 demonstrations of his skill, and the very latest 

 invention which has been successfully tried 

 during the past season is the manufac- 

 ture from beeswax of artificial comb or comb 

 foundation ; this is given to the bees in beau- 

 tiful yellow sheets, and is readily worked out 

 by them into comb and tilled Vr'ith honey. 



I have thus briefiy explained some of the 

 Jiiost important improvements in bee culture, 

 and the great problems that are now receiving 

 the attention of the progressive apiarist, is to 

 both increase and cheapen the product, mak- 

 ing it an article of necessary use in competi- 

 tion with cane sugar, and an article of export 

 to foreign countries. American honey is prov- 

 ing superior to European honey, and a de- 

 mand has been already created. 



With extracted or liquid honey the bee- 

 keeper has met with many difiiculties, one of 

 whicli is adulteration, but the greatest is the 

 ignorance of the purcliaser. The distinctive 

 peculiarity of lioney to crystallize or candy has 

 been a detriment to its sale, while that very 

 quality alone of all others should recommend 

 it to tlie consumer. Nearly all pure liquid 

 liouey will candy, and in that condition will 

 keep for years: and tlie application of a little 

 heat at any time will render it liciuid again. 



It has been said that our land tlows with 

 milk, it should further imitate tlie promised 

 land described in sacred history, and flow witli 

 both milk and honey. We have within the 

 tiny flower a spring of delicious nectar, and 

 wherever its humble lot is cast, either upon 

 our hill-sides, in our forests, oraround our very 

 doors, the air we breathe is made fragrant 

 with the evaporation of its wasted sweetness, 

 wasied for the want of our tiny insects to 

 gather it. John H. Martin. 



Hartford, N. Y. 



Good Queens— How to Get Them? 



KEAD BP:F0RIC tiie ADDISON CO., VT., BEE- 

 KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



Ever since the Italian bee was introduced 

 and raising queens for the public became an 

 object, a disposition lias been niaiiifested by 

 eacli breeder to nialve the public believe 

 tliat liis queens were tlie only j^ood and pure 

 ones to be found in the niarlcet. While this 

 may have bee true in some cases, it is my 

 opinion that very many poor queens liave 

 been sent out at liif^li prices, and at the same 

 time the queens may liave been pure Ital- 

 ians. I will liere consider briefly what con- 

 stitutes a good queen. 



First.— A good queen should be a pure 

 Italian, not of the lightest hue, as I prefer a 

 dark queen or one that has dark progeny, as I 

 consider the dark ones better box workers. 

 She should be large and lively. I speak of 

 their being lively because I And some bees are 

 like some men— rather moderate— they move 

 about as though they were lazy, and so I find 

 them, particularly the workers. 



Second.— A good queen will comence tolay 

 early and lav abundantly all summer until 

 Jate in the fall. You may say that any queen 

 will lay early if she has sufficient quantity of 

 bees. Very true, a good queen AVill produce 



long-lived and hardy bees and therefore will 

 always have a strong swarm, hence the neces- 

 ity for breeding such queens. 



Third.— A queen should produce workers 

 that are good honey gatherers, ( and for me 

 good box workers.) and for this purpose I pre- 

 fer a large and strong bee. I find a great dif- 

 ference in tlie size of worker bees. Some 

 queens produce small bees. Small bees are 

 not so good box workers and they are more 

 apt to sting. I find that queens reproduce 

 themselves, and would. not therefore breed 

 from such queens. 



Fourth.— I like a queen whose progeny 

 are quiet and of a mild disposition, so that 

 when you take out a card of comb from the 

 hive the bees will remain quiet andj not run 

 from one side of the comb to tlie other, and at 

 the same time give you four or five stings be- 

 fore you get through looking theiii over. I 

 would also have bees prompt to defend them- 

 selves against robbers. 



Fifth.— One of the best'qualities'of a good 

 queen, in my opinion, is a non-swarmer; one 

 that is contented to stay at home and attend 

 to business. Such a queen will produce bees 

 that will store their honey in boxes and leave 

 the brood chamber for the queen to lay in, 

 consequently keeping the combs full of brood 

 and the colonies always strong in workers. 

 Such a queen will most invariably produce 

 good box workers. You have, no doubt, all of 

 you, been puzzled at times to know why cer- 

 tain swarms did not go into the boxes, while 

 at the same time they were as strong and even 

 sometimes stronger than tlieir neighbors 

 which were working readily in boxes. I have 

 had such experience, and have come to the 

 conclusion that it is in the strain wc breed 

 from. All strains have their peculiarities, 

 and we .should therefore consider all of these 

 POINTS when breeding queens. 



I had but three queens last year tiiat 1 

 would breed from. I have but one of them 

 left now, but I have a number of young 

 queens tliat I liope will jirove to be wliat I 

 call good ones. There are many other points 

 on this subject that I might speak of, but 

 for fear of being tedious, I will pass to con- 

 sider briefly 



THE BEST MODE OF RAISING QUEENS. 



In tliis as in other branches of bee-keep- 

 ing, I do not claim to be an expert. I have 

 never raised queens for the market; I mere- 

 ly raise for my own use. I can, therefore, 

 only give my mode, and to this branch of 

 the business I have given much thouglit and 

 iiave come to the conclusion that it is best 

 to breed with great care. 



1. I would not breed from a queen until I 

 had summered and wintered her, or in other 

 words, not until she is a yearold and even two 

 years are better. At that age I have had a 

 chance to test her good qualities— whicli should 

 be many. Another reason why I prefer an old 

 queen to breed from is, she has become more 

 mature, and consequently her progeny will be 

 hardier and longer lived, queens as well as 

 workers. I do not see why this rule does not 

 hold good with the bee as well as with ani- 

 mals. I therefore would not breed from a 

 young and untested queen. I believe that all 

 of the above good qualities can be attained by 

 careful bi'eeding. 



2. There are many ways of raising queens. 

 Some prefer to raise them in full colonies, 

 others, for economy raise them in nuclei, and 

 claim that the.v are as good as those raised in 

 full swarms. For my part I see no difference 

 as long as nature is complied with. They are 

 as good and perfect, if raised in nuclei as any 

 other way. In fact, I prefer to raise my queene 



