AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



421 



A queen reared where there are no 

 drones, is short lived. Her progeny lack 

 vigor, as well as vitality to stand the 

 Winters. The honey-gathering qualities 

 are poor, and she also fails to keep her 

 colony up to the standard in working 

 bees. It is evident to me that bees that 

 have no drones have not the necessary 

 power to feed the queen while In the 

 embryo state. 



Just what influence the drones have 

 over the worker bees while making and 



MR. J. W. TEFFT. 



feeding queen-cells before they are sealed 

 up, I do not know. Perhaps the queen- 

 breeder who is a specialist can tell. 



If the drst batch of queen-cells are all 

 cut out and thrown away, and new eggs 

 are given, they will rear a superior 

 queen, like unto a diamond in value. I 

 want no queen honey-bee, unless she 

 comes into the world in the natural way, 

 but such queens cost something. But 

 we appreciate what costs something. 



One of the greatest mistakes made by 

 a majority of bee-keepers at the very 

 outset, is the manner of buying queens 

 and supplies. There is an everlasting 

 hunt for cheap queens and hives. How 

 often we see bee-keepers who would not 

 plant poor seeds at any price, search for 

 cheap queens and hives, and, in the end, 

 some far-away breeder or dealer fills his 

 order with queens or bee-hives that a 

 first-class bee-keeper would not use even 

 if he could get a bonus for so doing, 



Buffalo, N. Y. 



Mm ExMMts at Fairs. 



S. F. & I. TKEGO. 



We have read Mr. Geo. F. Robbin's 

 rules on judging exhibits of bees at 

 Fairs, and consider them very unfair, as 

 it practically bars the golden Italians. 



We wonder where Mr. R. found his 

 "prevailing verdict" — surely not in the 

 advertising columns of the bee-papers, 

 or in the number of orders such as ad- 

 vertisers are receiving. If their very 

 yellow bees are worthless, how is it that 

 5 per cent, of our customers of 1891 

 had orders booked for 1892 before 

 March 1, 1892. And among those cus- 

 tomers are such men as E. F. Quigley, 

 and G. W. Rouse & Co. ! How is it that 

 such men as Messrs. Hutchinson, Hilton, 

 Doolittle and many others less promi- 

 nent will tolerate such bees? 



Possibly there are very yellow bees 

 that are worthless, but they are not bred 

 by the leading breeders of golden Italians. 



Why is it that every breeder of yellow 

 Italians is preparing for a very busy 

 season, if these bees are not good ? 



We are aware that some of the dark 

 Italians are great bees "for business," 

 for during the five years that we had 

 them, we frequently came rn painful 

 contact with their "business end," and 

 were made fully aware of its presence. 



We would suggest this as a scale of 

 marking : 



Size of bees 30 



Color and markings 20 



Quietness 10 



Brood and queen, each 10 20 



Quantity of bees 10 



Style of hive 5 



Style of comb 5 



The above may not be perfect, but it 

 is nearer fair than Mr. R.'s, and bars 

 none that are Italian bees. 



Swedona, Ills. 



iW "I. E. Snider, an apiarist of Utah, 

 says their principal pasturage is sweet 

 clover, and consequently their main 

 honey crop comes in the Fall. The 

 quality of the honey is excellent, and the 

 quantity is almost unlimited — thousands 

 of acres of sweet clover go to waste 

 every year because there are not enough 

 bees to gather the nectar. 



IW " Oh, come to the point," said the 

 bee as he lit on the orator's neck. 



