158 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



We should be pleased to have 



Mr. D send us some of those 



drones that will pass through the 

 Jones' zinc ; we would like to ex- 

 amine them. 



We have lately been using some 

 fine foundation that we received 

 from Messrs. Dadant & Son and it 

 works like a charm. That received 

 from Mr. Falconer was also fine, 

 but we received from one other party 

 some that would sag badly in spite 

 of all that we could do. We are un- 

 able as yet to give any reason for 

 this, excepting that from some cause 

 at present unknown, the wax was too 

 pliable and elastic. 



Perhaps Mr. Dadant will explain 

 the cause for this sagging of the 

 foundation. The samples referred 

 to were quite heavy and seemed to 

 be made of fine, pure wax. 



Our sweet clover and comfrey 

 are doing finely, and we have sown 

 two acres of silver hull (the best) 

 buckwheat. This is to keep our 

 full and nucleus colonies busy after 

 the main sources of honey are gone. 

 Nuclei must be fed when pasturage 

 is scanty and but little honey is be- 

 ing stored, else they will continu- 

 ally swarm and mix up the queens 

 and " raise your dander." 



New subscriptions are coming in 

 so fast as to keep us busy and we 

 are pleased to know that the queen 

 bees sent in connection with the 

 journal give such genuine satisfac- 

 tion. Occasionally one will secure a 

 queen whose workers will not all be 

 well marked, but she will prove none 

 the less valuable or prolific. 



While the beautiful bright yellow 

 queens are handsome and good, 

 otherwise, yet we prefer the rich or- 

 ange hue ; it seems as though queens 

 showing the latter produced more 

 hardy progeny. 



We are now selecting and testing 

 our stock for another season which 

 will give us time to compare our 

 queens critically. 



Unfortunately our time is so taken 



up with the queen business and the 

 Journal that it has been impossible 

 to do much with getting surplus 

 honey. 



We find that if, after a colony has 

 cast a swarm, you introduce a laying 

 queen at once into the old colony 

 much time is saved. We have al- 

 ways found it an easy matter to do 

 this. 



The season thus far, since spring 

 set in, has, in our locality, been a 

 very fair one for the honey busi- 

 ness, but a trying one for queen- 

 rearing. 



Everything seems to warrant a 

 fine crop of honey wherever the 

 basswood is abundant, as our corre- 

 spondents report that the trees seem 

 full of buds. 



We have seen no good reason as 

 yet why the best grade of honey 

 should be stored in sections without 

 separators and unglassed. 



So long as honey remains a luxury 

 the better class of purchasers will 

 not find any fault with the glass and 

 will even call for it. It may be well 

 for some to get up an excitement on 

 a " special" style of sections, etc., 

 but "the proof of the pudding is in 

 the eating." 



It is well perhaps to secure a por- 

 tion of the crop in the one-pound 

 sections, but we prefer for all pur- 

 poses the si X si X 2 glassed. 



What can have quieted the ex- 

 citement overtlie "reversible frames" 

 so suddenly? Perhaps like the rest- 

 less wave which spreads its strength 

 on the beach, this subject has 

 merely receded to gain force ; well, 

 any thing for a boom. It pays some 

 one perhaps ( ?) who? 



What a wonder it is that one col- 

 ony that we have at Salem and one 

 that is in a hive which has remained 

 in one position and has been undis- 

 turbed for fully twelve years, never 

 perished during the cold winters, as 

 it had no protection and was of 

 course filled with "pollen" which to 

 our knowledge the bees never re- 



