Tmm MMERicart be® journhil. 



377 



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tailing in stores, lie preferred the pint 

 glass-jars, and jelly-glasses with screw 

 tops. 



Mr. Kindree agreed with tho Presi- 

 dent as to the packages for shipping 

 honey, but for show purposes lie pre- 

 ferred glass. Several other members 

 exjjressed themselves in similar terms. 



Eighteen members present reported 

 an aggregate of 445 colonies last fall, 

 and 397 Colonies this spring. 



It was decided to make the same 

 offer as last j-ear with reference to 

 prizes to be offered for honey and api- 

 arian supplies at the Cayuga, Jarvis 

 and Rainliam shows, and delegates 

 were appointed to attend to the matter. 



The next meeting will be lield at 

 Fisherville, on the last Saturday in 

 August, 1889. 



E. C. Campbell, Sec. 



BEE-HIVES. 



« The Coiuiiis Hive " is .Already 

 Here and in Use. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



By J. E. POND. 



Mr. J. W. Tefft, in his article on 

 "The Coming Hive," on page 346, 

 gives some tiptop points, and two 

 paragraphs on page 348, from the 

 article, are so much to the point, that 

 I quote from them as a text. He says 

 that the coming hive should be " con- 

 structed with the view of giving the 

 queen full power of reproduction, and 

 hereby hangs the whole ' law anil gos- 

 pel' in bee-keeping." Again, he says : 

 "Keep the bees in one strong colony 

 until after the honey-harvest," etc. 



Now in the above, Mr. Tefft hits the 

 nail on the head squarel)' ; the point 

 he makes is correct, and cannot be 

 gainsaid or denied. The point, how- 

 ever, remains — what is the size of 

 hive that will accomplish just this ? 

 Do different localities require different 

 sizes ? To the latter question I un- 

 hesitatingly say. No ! and, further, 

 that were it not for an evident desire 

 on the part of many to be " cocks of 

 the walk," we should have less bother 

 in regard to size of hives, and hear less 

 in regard to this, that or the other 

 claim of originality or improvement. 



The matter of iirotected hives need 

 not be considered in this connection at 

 all, as any size of hive can be pro- 

 tected by chaff or dead air-spaces, in 

 it.s manufacture, or by any outer cover- 

 ing when needed, if needed at all ; the 

 point simply being what interior size 

 of hive will best accommodate the 

 varying requirements of a colony of 

 bees with an ordinarilj- prolific queen, 

 during a given or any season. The 

 discussion on this point has taken a 



wide range in the past ; and at times, 

 I am sorry to say, some ill-temper has 

 been displayed, but certain proofs 

 have been set out in the way of statis- 

 tics, that must stand as such for all 

 time. 



Now what is the evidence ? The 

 ordinary "Langstroth hive" (and I 

 now speak of the interior dimensions 

 of that Laugstroth liive that carries a 

 frame that will take in length four 

 4J^x4| sections, and being 14j inches 

 wide), has given the best general re- 

 sults, and to-day stands unrivalled as 

 an " all-purpose hive." It is large 

 enough for any queen ; it can be con- 

 tracted to any required size ; it can be 

 made double-walled, filled with chaff' 

 or not, or can be jirotected with an 

 outer covering, as desired ; and it is 

 free from any patented complications. 

 Now what more can be desired ? I 

 have used this hive for years ; none 

 has been found better, and I have 

 tested about all ; none can be found 

 that in the hands of the ordinary bee- 

 keepei-, will prove more profitable, or 

 practicable. 



I speak with positiveness on this 

 subject, for the proofs sustain me ; and 

 till statistics show differently from 

 their present aspect, I shall stick where 

 I now stand. 



North Attleboro, Mass. 



DRONES. 



The Rearing of Drone§ from 

 Pure Queens. 



•Written, Sor the American Ben Journal 

 BY L. STACIIELHADSEN. 



On page 260 is reproduced some 

 parts of Mr. Doolittle's new book, in 

 which is stated the idea that, "a pure 

 queen, however mated, must produce 

 a pure drone of her own variety," is a 

 theory only derived from the fact that 

 a virgin qneen can lay eggs, which 

 will produce drones ; and he says that 

 the drones of a niismated queen are 

 not pure at all. Although Mr. Alley 

 and some other bee-keepers are on his 

 side, nevertheless it is a mistake. 



That those drones are pure, is no 

 mere theory, but a proven fact. When 

 Dr. Dzierzon introduced a single Ital- 

 ian colony into Germanj-, he roared at 

 once many queens, which were of 

 course mated witli (iernian drones. In 

 the second jear lie used the drones of 

 these queens exclusively. He never re- 

 ceived another queen, nevertheless his 

 Italian bees remained pure, and were 

 even improved in color and working- 

 qualities, by careful selection. For 

 years he always received the first pre- 

 mium for his queens in competition 

 with queens directly imported from ' 



Italy. Many other experiments have 

 proven that those drones are pure. 



Mr. Doolittle explains at some 

 length that he is willing to prove his 

 view. I may ask here, has he ever 

 made this experiment ? If we take 

 into consideration that he sells Italian 

 queens, it does not seem probable that 

 he kept only black droues in his 

 apiary. He may have experimented in 

 an out-apiary, but how far was this 

 frf)m any other colony ? What cer- 

 tainty have we that not a drone of any 

 other colony mated with one of his 

 queens ? Tlie way in which Mr. Doo- 

 little recommends to have drones of a 

 certain race only in an apiary, will 

 do very well for practical imrposes — 

 for rearing queens for tlie market ; for 

 a large percentage of the queens will 

 be puiely mated ; but for an experi- 

 ment of this kind, it is much too un- 

 certain. Somewhat better is the so- 

 called " Koeliler's method," but herebj- 

 too some few queens may be mismated. 



Italian bees have been introduced 

 in this countrj- for many years, and 

 consequentlj' it is nearly impossible to 

 sa}' that any colony is entirely pure 

 black. Six years ago I introduced the 

 first Italian queen into this locality, 

 and now a bee-keeijer si.x miles from 

 my apiaiy has among his over 200 

 colonies, not a single one certainly 

 j)ure black, and no other Italian queen 

 was introduced here except by me. 



By Mr. Doolittle's experiment, any 

 one of the colonies which are selected 

 to rear these drones, may supersede 

 the queen unknown to the bee-keeper, 

 and then produce half-pure droues. If 

 in this or any other way, a little trace 

 of the yellow race is in the stock, some 

 j-ellow queens will appear. If from 

 these queens more are reared, and 

 always selected in the color line, the 

 black traces are more and more bred 

 out ; some queens maj- be mated with 

 hj'brid drones again, and you have 

 real hybrids. 



So we see that this experiment gives 

 occasion for so many mistakes, that it 

 is no proof at all. If very carefully 

 conducted, I know that it will result 

 to the contrary of Mr. Doolittle's view. 



The idea that these drones are not 

 quite pure, has its origin in the ex- 

 perience of queen-breeders, that some 

 of the queens reared in tlie apiary are 

 darker than other ones and their 

 mother, and produce darker workers ; 

 but this is nearly always so, because 

 the Italian bee is far from being a 

 quite pure race. The idea that eveiy 

 queen imported from Italy is neces- 

 sarily pure, is .a great mistake gen- 

 erally made in the United States. If, 

 now, some darker queens are bred, the 

 bee-keeper thinks that some black 

 " blood " originates from these drones; 



