THE AMERICAN APICULTURJST. 



believe that Italians will degenerate into 

 blacks." Yet I will give you a single 

 item of my experience that troubles me. 



I have for years kept Italians, bring- 

 ing in a fresh imported queen every 

 year or two. After keeping that up for 

 a number of years, I reasoned that as 

 there were very few other bees in the 

 neighborhood the Italian blood must 

 predominate so much that if left to 

 themselves my bees would themselves 

 weed out the one-banded fellows. Al- 

 though I had had no pure blacks for 

 years, I soon found that I had two or 

 three colonies that were simon-pure 

 blacks, at least so far as color was con- 

 cerned. 



Now the question is, did my yellow 

 bees turn black, or were the few sur- 

 rounding l)lacks so powerful in charac- 

 ter as to overcome? 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



LETTER FROM A BEGINNER IN THE 

 BEE BUSINESS. 



I thought you would like to hear 

 from our section of the country in re- 

 gard to bees and honey. This has been 

 a very poor season for honey. My 

 bees have not stored enough honey to 

 winter on, and no surplus. My neigh- 

 bor beekeepers say the same. During 

 the early part of the season bees did 

 pretty well ; I shall have to feed for 

 winter. 1 have nine colonies of Italians, 

 the best and nicest bees I have are from 

 the daughter of your $ i oo queen. They 

 are the brightest and largest bees in my 

 apiary. 



I am only a beginner in t'^e business ; 

 this being a very poor season to com- 

 mence. I hope by next year we shall 

 have better success with both honey and 

 bee rearing. 



Geo. W. Snydkr. 



Burket, Ind. 



As for the matter of stores left in a 

 large hive after the harvest, that is all 

 fol-de-rol. It will be consumed at the 

 end of the hai-yest and count for noth- 

 ing after all. 



CHIPS AND SHAVINGS. 



INTERHSrlNG NO lES OF PRACTICAL VALtTE. 

 (Jonluctku by E. L. PkATT. 



8-frame hives, L size, are plenty 

 large for all purposes. 



1 2^ cents per ounce is a pretty fair 

 price to receive for Hoarhound honey. 



It is an easy matter to keep bees but 

 to make them pay is a different story. 



How the beekeepers are swinging 

 into line on the winter cas^s and closed- 

 end frames ! 



There is no pursuit that can be 

 worked with bees to such advantage as 

 gardening under glass. 



I know where there is a remote yard 

 of Carniolan bees that have run to 

 pure bright yellow, unmolested. 



The market calls for even a smaller 

 box than one pound. We shall pro- 

 duce honey in 1 1 sections next year. 



I have not the time or patience to 

 look up queen cells in a colony that 

 has swarmed. There is a neater and 

 better way. Use a queen-trap. 



The prospects for 1891 are very en- 

 couraging, to say the least, since we 

 have been receiving orders for queens 

 about all winter. 



Depend upon it that yellow Carni- 

 olans are going to lead in popularity 

 another season. I have believed all 

 along that the Carnies would lead some- 

 time. 



It is all very well to follow Bro. 

 Joshua Bull's advice in introducing; 

 but suppose we have no colonies with 

 virgin queens, what then? The candy 

 plug method for the novice, tobacco 

 smoke for the expert. 



It takes three kinds of smokers to run 

 us in the height of the queen season. 

 A Bingham for all-day work, the old 

 pipe for queen work, and a Clark to 

 burn excelsior for ten-minute jobs. 

 We always use a snap match and can 

 give you smoke in all styles in less than 

 a shake. 



