' There is no use to deny the fact that we 

 have done little or nothing to inform the 

 public of the superiority of extracted honey 

 over its competitors. We have been too 

 busy manufacturing supplies, and bee- 

 keepei's to buy them. If we expect to 

 increase the demand for our product, we 

 must increase the consumption. We can do 

 more unitedly, thtin alone. Nearly every 

 leader in the convention has asked the press 

 to help forward production; and they have 

 often done so. Who has askt'd them to for- 

 ward the consumption of honey? Produc- 

 tion of honey is in advance of consumption, 

 in this covnitry, to day. 



Supply and demand has the same influ- 

 ence on the success of our business as upon 

 all others. We must strive to keep demand 

 in advance of the growing supply, or some 

 of the weakest among us will be forced to 

 abandon the business. James Heddon. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Fertilization in Confinement. 



REV. M. MAHIN, D. D. 



That by careful and judicious selection, 

 bees, as well as any other stock, can be 

 improved, does not admit of a doubt. Very 

 great differences are observed in the tem- 

 per, and in the productiveness of swarms. 

 This is true even of those that are very 

 nearly related. I have raised two queens 

 from the same mother, at the same time, 

 and have given them, as nearly as possible, 

 the same advantages as to bees and combs; 

 and while one colony has been prosperous, 

 becoming strong in numbers and ricii in 

 stores, the other has hardly lived. Now, 

 aaueen raised from the poor one might be 

 prolific, and produce good workers; but any 

 one would prefer to have a queen from the 

 prosperous colony, as more likely to possess 

 the qualities desired. 



With our modern facilities for liandling 

 bees, it is easy for us to select the mothers 

 of our queens; and it is' a fortunate fact, 

 that in bees the mother impresses her own 

 character on her progeny much more 

 strongly than the father does. In* many 

 cases, the progeny of a pure Italion queen", 

 fertilized by a black drone, will be so nearly 

 like pure Italians that only a practiced eye 

 can detect the difference. I have now a 

 colony of half-blood, bred from a very finely 

 marked stock, in which I have failed to find 

 a single bee that has not three distinct 

 golden bands. Yet, tlie want of uniformity 

 in color, some being light and others dark, 

 convinces me that they are not pure. On 

 the other hand, a black queen mated with 

 an Italian drone, will produce be^s with 

 little trace of Italian blood. Notwithstand- 

 ing, it is more important to have queens 

 bred from good mothers than from good 

 fathers, it would be a great advantage if we 

 could select the drones as well as the 

 ueens, from which our breeding stook is to 

 be reared. Can we do it? And if so, how? 



These are questions which have not yet 



been satisfactorily answered. I have been, 

 for several years past, among those who 

 believe that the object can never be suc- 

 cessfully accomplished. I have no faith in 

 any plan that allows the young queen to 

 retain her ability to fly. It is impossible to 

 so construct the entrance to a hive that the 

 workers can pass and repass, and that a 

 virgin queen cannot. There is usually a 

 little dilt'erence in the thickness of a virgin 

 queen and a worker; but it is so little, that 

 where the worker can pass, the queen will 

 manage to squeeze through; and then all 

 the labor is lost. 



If the fertilization of queens can be con- 

 trolled at all, I think the first thing to be 

 done is to clip their wings, so that they can- 

 not fly. Then the queeu must be watched, 

 and wllen the young queen comes out, set a 

 wire cloth cover, (such as are used to cover 

 dishes at the table), over her, and catch 

 such drones as you want and put under the 

 cover with her, leaving her in the sunshine 

 and where the workei's of her own colony 

 can feed her through the cover. If the 

 experiment does not succeed within 10 or 15 

 minutes, let her go back into the hive and 

 try it again the next time she makes her 

 appearance, which will probably be in 5 or 

 10 minutes. 



I have not tried this plan, but I recom- 

 mend it to those who have the time and the 

 patience to give it a fair trial. My reason 

 for thinking that it may succeed is that 

 queens that cannot fly sometimes become 

 fertile, copulation taking place, no doubt, 

 outside, in front of the hive. 



When I was a boy, my father and I were 

 looking at a couple of swarms of bees, liived, 

 perhaps, the day before in log gums, when 

 we noticed one of the queens come out and 

 flyaway. We supposed, that being dissat- 

 isfied with the domicile we had furnished 

 lier, she had gone to the woods to find a 

 hollow tree, to which she might lead her 

 subjects. On her return, my father caught 

 her and clipped one of her wings. Observ- 

 ing the other hive standing on the same 

 bench, and next to the one just mentioned, 

 we saw the queen come out of it, and she 

 was cought and clipped also. And then 

 trouble began. Neither queen was impreg- 

 nated; and we had to watch them day after 

 day, and return them to the hives, until one 

 time Avhen the family was away from home 

 until after dark, one of them staid out all 

 night and perished; and the bees went in a 

 body into the hive of their next door neig- 

 bors, and went to work. We saw nothing 

 more of the other clipped queen until 

 swarming time the next summer, when she 

 came out with a large swarm of bees. She 

 had been fertilized, and had got back into 

 the hive, the day we were away from home. 



A few years ago, I clipped a wing of a 

 young queen to prevent ner fertilization, 

 that the drones in her hive might be spared 

 to fertilize some queens that were about to 

 hatch. It was late in the fall, and most of 

 the hives, all, in fact, that had fertile 

 queens, had destroyed their drones. After 

 all, my young queens had been impreg- 

 nated, I opened the hive containing my 

 clipped queen, and discovered that she had 

 been fertilized; probably, within the previ- 

 ous hour. 



