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505 



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The same maj' be said, but ia a still 

 more marked degree, of comb honey. 



I suppose the main object the writers 

 have in view in these articles is to aid 

 bee-keepers in making good displa3's 

 at local fairs. It is noticeable, that 

 those who have treated the subject 

 describe the methods followed by 

 themselves or those they have seen 

 adopted by others, which have met 

 their approval. 



At honey-shows the competitive^ 

 prizes are usually confined to the 

 rpinlitii of the article shown, and it is 

 upon this that judges usually base their 

 awards. This is right as far as it goes, 

 but the prime object of honey-shows is 

 to attract attention and advertise the 

 goods. 



As 90 per cent, of the visitors at 

 fairs cannot tell, by cursory inspection, 

 between what is good and what is poor 

 in quality, it follows that attention 

 should be given to appearance. To 

 this end, a departure from the usual 

 rule cannot be made too soon. Prizes 

 should not be coufinded to quality. 

 Good taste and neat arrangement 

 should come in, be recognized, and 

 rewarded. This ma}' be done without 

 injustice to any one. A man with 200 

 pounds of honey may make as neat, 

 tasty, and S3'rametrical a display on 3 

 feet space as one with 4,000 pounds 

 can make on 20 feet of space. 



Any hard and fast rules laid down 

 for the form of staging, upon which 

 exhibits are to be set up, are entirely 

 useless. It is manifest, that, to do jus- 

 tice to all, no competitor should have 

 advantages over his fellows in a more 

 advantageous arrangement of the 

 frame-work upon which the show is to 

 be made. It follows, then, that what- 

 ever the design, the staging should be 

 uniform throughout. The taste and 

 ingenuity of the respective exhibitors 

 will then be brought into play in the 

 superstructure he raises to show his 

 wares. 



Most of the designs I have seen for 

 staging are after the step-ladder style. 

 To my thinking, this is the worst form 

 in which staging can be built for 

 honey-shows. It gives little or no 

 opportunity for the exercise of judg- 

 ment, or the display of ingenuity in 

 the make-up of an exhibit. If " variety 

 is the spice of life," it should have a 

 place in all honey-shows. Little of it 

 can be thrown in if this style of frame- 

 work is employed. 



What, then, is the best form for the 

 permanent fixtures in a building where 

 honey is to be displayed ? Where a 

 number of people are to compete, the 

 simplest is the best — at least this is my 

 opinion, and the simplest is common 

 tables. These should not be less than 

 six feet wide. Space upon these should 

 be allotted, in proportion tothequantitj- 



each has to show. Then each will be 

 called upon to build up his own super- 

 structure and decorate it. It is easy 

 to understand, that by this arrange- 

 ment variety will be secured ; for every 

 man will have liis own notion of what 

 is most suitable. 



These superstructures will take dif- 

 ferent forms in proportion to the 

 amount of honey and the character of 

 the packages to be placed upon them. 

 I hold that no man can have a correct 

 notion of what is the best form in 

 which his exhibit should be arranged, 

 without a full knowledge of what is 

 available to make it with. How can a 

 man suggest a design for his neigh- 

 bor's show, without a knowledge of 

 what his neighbor had to show ? 



Owen Sound, Out. 



VIRGIN QUEENS. 



Safe IM[etliod§ of Introducing 

 Virsin Queens. 



Written, for the American Bee Journal 



BY G. W. DEMAKEE. 



No important manipulation of bees 

 seems to be so poorly understood as 

 that of utilizing virgin queens in the 

 stocking of the apiary, or in fui-thering 

 the interest of the queen-traffic. Most 

 apiarists imagine that because a virgin 

 queen cannot with any certainty — ex- 

 cept the certaintj' of failure. — be dump- 

 ed into a hive among queenless bees, 

 the whole thing is impracticable. 



Then, again, they are puzzled be- 

 cause a virgin queen that has just cut 

 her way out of the cell, may stagger 

 in among any queenless bees unnoticed 

 and unmolested, while if she is de- 

 tained until she is several days old, she 

 will be treated as a disturber of the 

 peace, and usually " balled " and 

 killed. Let us look at this matter a 

 little as it applies to the economy of 

 the propagation of the I'ace. 



When a colony prepares to cast a 

 swarm, the bees do not " hew to the 

 line," and rear just the number of 

 queens that will be needed to carry out 

 the enterprise, but nature displays a 

 profoseness sometimes in connection 

 with swarming, that astonishes the old 

 veteran himself. A " surplus " of vir- 

 gin queens becomes a disturbing ele- 

 ment in the settlement of life in the 

 economy of the honey-bee. Every 

 close observer has seen swarms of bees 

 with a half dozen or more virgin 

 queens with them, and have seen the 

 swarms divide into two or more clus- 

 ters when they " settle." 



Sometimes such swarms are un- 

 manageable until the disturbing ele- 

 ment is removed by the apiarist. Such 



swarms will often sulk when hived 

 with all the young queens, and finally 

 "runoti'" bix'ause of their unsettled 

 state, and discontent. I lost a large 

 svvarm (the colony having superseded 

 the old queen) the present season from 

 this cause. 



The why, then, that queens, after 

 they become old enough to be a dis- 

 turliing element are instinctively re- 

 jected by queenless bees, is apparent 

 enough, and this instinctive suspicion 

 and hatred of virgin queens by the 

 workers, when they approach the 

 mating period, stands in the way of 

 easy or careless manipulation. The 

 apiai'ist must understand the instincts 

 and habits of bees in this connection, 

 to enal)le him to overcome the difficul- 

 ties ill the way. 



When a laying queen is taken away 

 from a colony or nucleus, a period of 

 time must follow when the worker- 

 bees despair of finding the lost queen, 

 and before queen-cells are started. At 

 this stage of things, a queen — either a 

 virgin or laying queen — will usually 

 be accepted with tokens of gladness. 

 This crisis takes place in about six 

 hours after the queen has been re- 

 moved, but as the time varies consid- 

 erably, I take the precaution to cage 

 the queen on top of the frames where 

 I can see the actions of the bees to- 

 wards her, by simply turning up the 

 quilts. 



If I find the bees (when the quilt is 

 first turned up) clustering on the cage, 

 and biting at the wire meshes, the 

 queen is left in the cage for a i-econ- 

 sideration. At such time as the cage 

 is found neai-ly deserted by the bees, 

 and only a few bees are found crawl- 

 ing over the cage with the careful 

 circling motion, like bees guai'ding a 

 queen-cell, the queen will be safe, 

 whether a virgin or a laying queen, 

 and the bees may be permitted to lib- 

 erate her by eating out the soft candy. 



These proceedings are governed by 

 the intelligence of the apiarist, and 

 luck or cliance has little to do with it. 

 I frequently introduce virgin queens 

 old enough to mate, in this way. I 

 had a virgin queen mated on the 

 fourth day after removing a laying 

 queen, the present season. Of course 

 there are failures where there are op- 

 posing forces to overcome. 



Satcr Way ot Introduction. 



Prepare a hive by hanging in it a 

 frame of hatching brood — no unsealed 

 brood is admissible ; put by its side an 

 empty comb, and a division-board, and 

 close the top of the brood-chamber 

 with a closc-titting cloth, and close the 

 entrance to the hive so as to exclude 

 the light at that point. Now turn back 

 tlie cloth and shake into the hive a 

 (piart or more of bees — from one or 



