THE AMERICAN, APICULTURIST. 



263 



To do this I fed sevei-al colonies very 

 liberally with the best houey slightly 

 diluted with water. I had no trouble 

 in getting the bees to take away all the 

 honey given them. Although I fed them 

 with'nice syrup for a long time, not one 

 particle of it was placed iu the untin- 

 islied sections. The reason why the 

 bees would not do as I desired is well 

 known to all experienced apiarists, 

 though it did not occur to me just at 

 that time. The fact that bees will uot 

 mix the different kinds of honey was 

 why they would not finish out the un- 

 capped cells. Instead of working in the 

 sections, the brood-combs wei-e filled 

 so solid that it was necessary to use 

 the extractor, iu order to give room for 

 the queen to deposit eggs, and keep 

 up the supply of brood. 



In my opinion it will not pay to "feed 

 back," and so far as I know, no one 

 has ever made it a success. If a supply 

 of honey could be had, the same as the 

 bees are storing in the section, just at 

 the time the flowers are giving out, it 

 it might do to "feed back", but even in 

 that case I doubt the expediency. Such 

 feeding should be done at night while 

 the bees are still gathering some honey. 

 When the harvest is ended, feed only 

 iu the daytime. The feeder I used on 

 such an occasion was a common tin 

 pan, one that would hold about four 

 quarts, the pan was placed in front of 

 the hive, on the ground, and all was 

 covered by a cloth to protect the bees 

 from toads and to retain the warmth. 

 A small opening only was left for the 

 bees to enter the pan from the alight- 

 ing-board. A strong colony would 

 take away several quarts of syrup dur- 

 ing the night. 



Wenham, Mass. 



QUESTION BY A. K. BONNEY. 



In preparing the strips of comb con- 

 taining eggs for queen-rearing after 

 Alley's method, is there any objection 

 to leaving every third egg only, instead 

 of every other one? 



Adelaide, So. A^istralia. 



ANSWER BY H. ALLEY. 



A good many years ago, and long 

 before the adoption of our present 

 method of queen-rearing, we conduct- 

 ed many experiments to compel bees 

 to build queen cells in such a way that 

 all could be removed without destroy- 

 ing any. Pieces of comb containing 

 esgs were cut into separate cells. 

 Each individual cell was fastened to 

 the comb or to the underside of a 

 frame, by a mixture of warm beeswax 



and rosin. A few years ago, some one 

 conceived the idea of placing cells 

 containing eggs upon a stick, and of- 

 fering them for sale. The idea was so 

 ridiculous that the trade in that line 

 of goods was soon abandoned. After 

 repeated attempts to rear queens by 

 the single cell method and failing each 

 time I gave up the idea, as not one 

 queeu so reared was of the least value, 

 the young queens were very small and 

 worthless. I could never account for 

 this very singular freak, — could I rear 

 good queens by such a method I would 

 abandon all others. To reply more 

 directly to the question of Mr. Bonney 

 I will say that the same objection was 

 found to destroying the eggs and leav- 

 ing the third one for a queeu cell. By 

 removing every other cell and follow- 

 ing the directions as given in the 

 Handy Book, one will surely rear the 

 finest queens. 



QUESTION BY A BEEKEEPER. 



What is the cause of the different 

 shades in the marking of the Italian 

 bees? Some are of a dark orange hue 

 and others very light. 



ANSWER BY A BEEKEEPER. 



We never supposed that the Italian 

 bees were a distinct race. It is sup- 

 posed by many prominent apiarists 

 that the Italians are a race of hybrids. 

 This fact must account for the differ- 

 ent markings and shades in color. The 

 fact that we get the beautiful Albinos, 

 the leather and orange colored Italians 

 all from the same race seems to con- 

 firm the supposition that the Italians 

 are a distiuct race of bees. Neverthe- 

 less, fine yellow queens which produce 

 bees of uniform marking usually du- 

 plicate themselves in their queen pro- 

 geny. But the impurity will crop out 

 occasionally and a black or striped 

 queeu will emerge from a cell, while 

 from the adjoining cell would emerge 

 one of the most beautiful queens. 



The Italians are the only "race" of 

 bees whose queens will produce work- 

 er bees that show strictly pure and 

 uniform markings. The Cyprian, 

 Holyiand and Syrian queens produce 

 bees that show from one narrow to 

 three yellow bands. And queens from 

 these races produce very dark or 

 striped royal progeny. 



QUESTION BY CHAS. H. SMITN. 



Several gentlemen in this place 

 claim that comb honey is manufactured 

 iu New York and Brooklyn; that the 



