THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



183 



drenched and pouring a constant 

 stream of water into swarm number 

 three, we at last compelled the latter 

 to cluster within ten feet of the former 

 and as soon as they became quiet we 

 secured the bees in separate swarm- 

 ing boxes, caged the queens and 

 cared for the bees. 



We had no trouble however where 

 the colonies were provided with drone 

 traps. No apiarist should be without 

 a good fountain pump and we have 

 seen none that equals the "Whitman." 



Absconding swarms can, as a rule, 

 be compelled to alight by the dis- 

 charge in their midst of a loaded gun 

 filled with fine shot. This has often 

 been tested by John J. Gould, of 

 Ipswich, Mass. It might be well 

 where a large number of colonies 

 are kept to keep a loaded gun ready 

 for use. Perhaps, however, some of 

 our readers have a safer and more 

 simple and effective method for pre- 

 venting the swarms from absconding. 

 If so we would be pleased to publish 

 any orignal method that they may 

 choose to send us. 



We are having wonderful success 

 with our new "combination nursery 

 and introducing cage" (the invention 

 of Mr. Alley). 



Out of the hundreds of virgin 

 and fertile queens that we are con- 

 stantly introducing hardly one is lost. 

 This is the only perfect, simple and 

 practical introducing cage that we 

 have ever known and every apiarist 

 should have at least one nursery 

 filled with these cages for use in his 

 apiary. Its uses are many and dur- 

 ing the swarming season every choice 

 swarming cell can be saved and the 

 young queens cared for until they 

 can be used and this with but little 

 trouble or expense. 



We have in our apiary a number 

 of queens that are well worth ^50.00 

 each, and our superintendent says 

 that the hatching bees in the nuclei 

 show that we have shipped several 

 hundred queens equally as good as 

 those that we now have. 



Some of our colonies have already 

 stored upwards of one hundred 

 pounds of honey this season and 

 Mr. Alley says that during his exper- 

 ience of twenty-seven years in bee- 

 keeping he has never but once before 

 known them to do as well. Our su- 

 perintendent, and indeed all those 

 who have visited our bee farm, agree 

 in the statement that they have never 

 seen a larger or finer collection of 

 queen bees than we now have on 

 hand. This may seem to be strong 

 language but it is a fact that we 

 would be pleased to demonstrate to 

 to all those who choose to favor us 

 with a visit. 



We are continually receiving tes- 

 timonials even stronger than the 

 statements that we have made and 

 it is a pleasure to us to know that 

 the queens and goods shipped by us 

 are giving universal satisfaction. We 

 propose to furnish only first-class 

 queens and goods. 



We are receiving the same ques- 

 tions over and over again regardingthe 

 care and introduction of fertile and 

 virgin queens, but as brief answers 

 are not enough, we advise all those 

 who wish to become conversant with 

 the rearing and care of queen bees 

 to purchase "Alley's Handy Book," 

 third edition, as it is "authority" on 

 all such questions. The work is for 

 sale at this office at $1.50 per copy. 



Occasionally, a customer ^vrites 

 that his queen "was successfully in- 

 troduced but does not lay." The 

 fact is, the queen was not success- 

 fully introduced, but was stung when 

 liberated from the cage. 



When this is the case the queen 

 to all appearances is all right as there 

 are no marks of the sting. In a few 

 days, however, she will be missing, 

 and queen cells are started. 



With the most explicit directions 

 there are those who ?<;'/// lose queens 

 when introducing them, and one 

 /iii/sf become acquainted with the 

 habits of the bees ere he thoroughly 

 understands why these things are so. 



