146 My Bees 



from these eggs are flying around. Much has 

 been said of late as to the superiority of the 

 Italian bee, which carries three yellow bands 

 upon its body, over the native black bee, and 

 as high as $50 have been paid for a good Italian 

 queen. Means have been devised of so pack- 

 ing queens that they often come from Europe 

 by mail, and are sent all over the country in 

 the same way. The average price for a good 

 queen is at present one dollar. At the end of 

 my first summer's experience in the bee busi- 

 ness, and after allowing my bees to take care 

 of themselves for the six weeks from the middle 

 of September to the end of October, I found 

 that I had twelve pounds of honey stored up 

 in boxes, and that the nine frames of the lower 

 part of the hive were completely full of honey 

 and weighed eight pounds apiece. I took out 

 three of the frames which were filled and left 

 in six for the winter, thus giving the bees 

 nearly fifty pounds of honey to live upon. 

 The preparation for winter in Jersey is simply 

 to take off the top and side boxes, filling up 

 the void with sawdust ; I left the hive out-of- 

 doors, and I have followed the same plan in 



