126 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



gin queens to nuclei would be adopted. 

 Ouf plan of introducing unfertile 

 queens is this: In all cases the bees 

 must be queeuless three days. Then 

 the enti ance to the hive is closed with 

 a plantain leaf, and tobacco smoke 

 blown in at the top of the hive among 

 the bees. There is no advantage in 

 introducing the smoke at the top of 

 the hive, but as all our nuclei hives 

 have an inch hole in the cover, this 

 is found the most convenient place to 

 put the point of the pipe we use, 

 and also to "chuck" the queen in. 



After giving each colony one good 

 puff of tobacco smoke the queen is 

 given the bees immediately. Not two 

 per cent is lost. Not less than sixty 

 unfertile queens were introduced at 

 one time on Aug. 3, and not one was 

 destroyed, and it took just thirty-five 

 minutes to introduce the lot. — Eu.] 



beekeeper first proceeds to "unite" 

 their odor by spraying both colonies 

 alike with peppermint water, or in 

 some otlier way of his own. Bees thus 

 prepared never fight when united. — 

 Exchange. 



forty colonies of reautiful bees. 

 Friend Alley : 



The Italian queen received July 2 

 is doing finely ; young bees hatching 

 out and they are beauties. I now 

 have forty colonies and they are all 

 first-class. Every person that sees my 

 bees thinks they are the finest bees 

 they ever saw. They are all from 

 your stock. I had a fine crop of su- 

 mach honey in July. 



A. 11. Sargent. 



Thayer^ Kansas. 



HOW BEES KNOW EACH OTHER. 



In "Combe's System of Phrenol- 

 ogy," page 281, the following sentence 

 occurs, says a writer: "All the ani- 

 mals which belong to a herd, and also 

 all the bees in a hive, from 20,000 to 

 80,000 in number, know each other." 



The statement in regard to bees is 

 undoubtedly true ; but when it is used 

 to prove that bees have the organ of 

 "Form," and recognize their fellows 

 by its exercise, the author only proved 

 that he knew less about bees than 

 about phrenology. 



The fact is, that bees do not drive 

 an intruder away or kill him, because 

 they know him to be such by his size, 

 form or color, but because his scent 

 (hive odor) is different from their 

 own. 



This is soon found out if we attempt 

 to unite two colonies of bees without 

 the proper preliminary manipulations 

 knowni to all intelligent apiarists, for 

 a slaughter at once begins. 



A peaceful and harmonious union, 

 however, is easily accomplished if the 



WORTH TEN DOLLARS. 



I have two hundred and fifty-one 

 swarms of bees ; tlie best bees 1 have 

 in my yard are from a queen you sent 

 me ; she is the most prolific queen I 

 ever saw and the best honey gatherer ; 

 her daughters all seem equall}^ as good. 

 She is now four years old and 1 would 

 not take a ten-dollar bill for her. Bees 

 have done pretty well this year up to 

 date, think 1 have about 8000 lbs. of 

 comb honey. 



G. W. Wirt. 



Oronoco. 



OUT-DONE ALL OTHER COLONIES. 



Mu. Alley : Punic queen received ; 

 not a deatl bee in the cage. 



The colonies which I introduced 

 the Italian queens to you sent me last 

 year out done all my others. 



J. H. Brown. 



Rochester, New York. 



