THE AMElllCAN AJ'ICULTURLST. 



57 



tion (|)ei])en(liculai). those of the lat- 

 ter are deposited in all ways. 



Then, again, a gootl queen rarely, if 

 ever, skips a cell ; the inferior cjueen 

 will " jump" a good many. It seems 

 to us that even the novice can judge of 

 the (juality of a cjueen, if these simple 

 rules are observed. 



When a queen commences to lay, she 

 deposits a kw eggs on one side of the 

 comb and then goes to the other side 

 and lays in those cells exactly opposite. 

 This she continues to do till the entire 

 comb is filled. 



But few of the thousands of those 

 who keep bees ever heard a queen 

 " pipe." 'I'he fact that the piping is 

 heard but once a year, and that just be- 

 fore a second swarm issues, is why so 

 few beekeepers have experienced any- 

 thing of the kind. By placing the ear 

 to the side of the hive on the evening 

 of the seventh day, or on the morning of 

 the eighth day after the first swarm is- 

 sued, the piping of the young queens 

 may be distinctly heard. The piping is 

 made with the rapid vibration of the 

 wings before the queens leave the cells 

 and, curiously enough, no two queens 

 give the same tones. While one queen 

 pipes on a high key, another does so in 

 a low, base tone, and still another ap- 

 pears to be located a long distance 

 away. 



The reason why the piping is done is 

 not exactly or clearly understood. 

 When the piping commences, the caps 

 of the cells are cut nearly off and the 

 young queens are ready to emerge there- 

 from. The piping seems to indicate 

 that the unhatched queens are ready to 

 lead off the second swarm, or it may be 

 made by one queen in order to ascertain 

 whether there are other aspirants to the 

 throne of the colony. 



KAILED TO WINTKR. 



Mi:. Ali.ky : — Please send inc one of 

 your nice f|Uoens as I have a queenless 

 colony. The queens I got of yon last year 

 carried tlieir colonies throush the winter 

 all viirht. Those purchased from other 

 parties failed to Avinter their colonies. 

 Little Best, N. Y. W.m. H. Tompkins. 



OLIIT'INGS FROM K. L. DJATTS 

 PAPEU.S. 



Wl-; WANT BirrTER QUICKNS, NOT CUKAPEU 



Any beekeeper of experience knows 

 first that the ordinary honey-producer 

 cannot produce as good queens as can 

 the special breeder; second, that he 

 cannot raise queens (good or poor) as 

 cheaply as he can purchase them ; and 

 third, that no one, queen-breeder or 

 not, can produced No. i queens, tested 

 for strength and prolificness, as well as 

 purity, for Ifss than three dollars each. 

 Now, such being the admitted fact, 

 does it not savor of " a trick of the 

 trade," if nothing worse, for any one to 

 advertise queens at less than the above 

 figure. It is true that (jueens can be 

 reared promiscuously at a profit, at one 

 dollar each, but who is there of us who 

 wishes to run any chance whatever of 

 deteriorating the stock we now have ? 



If any one thinks a bee is a bee and 

 nothing else, and that one bee is just 

 as good as another, that one will not 

 probably see the point of this article ; 

 but the apiarist who desires constant 

 improvement in his bees, as he does in 

 his cattle or horses, can fully appreciate 

 my idea, which is this : it requires care 

 and skill to improve bees as well as any 

 other form of stock. It cannot be done 

 without much care, and the exercise of 

 great skill. Not only must the best 

 queen mothers be used for the purpose, 

 but equal, if not greater care must be 

 given to the rearing of drone mothers 

 also. We can select personally the 

 queens from which we rear our queens 

 and drones, but we cannot select indi- 

 vidual drones to mate such queens, but 

 must depend on their meeting such 

 drones as are flying when the marital 

 trip is made. Now, does any one sup- 

 pose for a moment, taking all things 

 into consideration in connection with 

 breeding alone, that the price I have 

 given is too high, and when there is 

 added the great risk to queens, in mak- 

 ing their wedding flight, can any one 

 think for a moment that m}' figures are 

 high enough ? If they do, let them "try 

 it on," and my word for it, they will 



