THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



159 



Miss Jeiinie Atchley sftys, in JSIissnnri 

 Jieckefper, "When a person tliinks lie or 

 slie can tell wliat a (jneon is altoirellier by 

 lier looks, I am iiere to tell yon tliat sneh 

 a person is simply oil" liis base." Your 

 head's level, Jennie, no nnitter how you 

 put np your back hair. — Stray Straws. 



The above item is just wliat we 

 need at (his time. The An has a few 

 readers who think tiiey can tell by the 

 looks of a queen whether she is fer- 

 tilized or not. Below is a sample of 

 such letters as come here occasional- 



The fellows wiio write them do not 

 stop to consider what they aie trying 

 to do. l'eo[)le who have an idea that 

 an editor stands ready to i)iiblish his 

 minor complaints, or one who is ready 

 to "blow lip" a |)ei'son without proper- 

 ly investigating the matter are queer, 

 to say the least. Editors are resi)onsi- 

 ble for what they insert in their pa- 

 pers. Here is a specimen letter : 



Fkankkord, Ixd., Oct. 3, 1891. 

 Mu. IIicNUY Allkv :— The last queen I 

 got of you was a nice looking queen ; but 

 she was not mated nor never iiad i)een. 

 She has never laid an egii. I have four 

 bee men that know she is not united nor 

 never has been. She can not fly. I liave 

 handled l)ees for sixteen years ; that is long 

 enon^;]) for any man to know ■whether a 

 queen is mated or not. This is the first 

 time this kind of a trick has been played 

 on me. Now I want to know if you will 

 leplace the queen. If you don't your name 

 s Denius; by that I mean I will publish 

 you in all tlie jnurnals. AVe like your 

 queens and if you will do what is riirht, 

 yon Avill have a i)retty good trade. Write 

 as soon as you get this and oblige me, 

 Jksse Altum. 



"What innocence! Do you really 

 own all the l)ee journals, and can you 

 command them at pleasure? Just 

 think of it, here is Bro. A. and four 

 other smart bee men who can swear 

 as to whether or not a que eii is fertil- 

 ized. 



Well, now, we have been in the bee 

 business, the qtieen-rearing part, you 

 know, for thirty years, and we cannot 

 tell certainly l)y looks of a queen 

 whether she has been fertilized or not. 



Now queens shipped by mail are very 

 small al'ter being knocked al)out in 

 the pouches several days, and no man 

 can decide correctly under the cii'- 

 cnmstances whether a queen is mated 

 or not by her a[)pearance. 



The queen in question was fertil- 

 ized, that is the funny i)art of it, 

 and had laid her combs full of eggs 

 before she was mailed. No queen goes 

 out of the B. S. Apiary till she has 

 laid more than 1000 eggs. There is 

 no way so practical to keej) the nucleus 

 supplied with eggs and bees, as it is 

 to let the young queen till the combs 

 before they are removed. "Tiie queen 

 did not lay," says Bro. A. Nothing 

 strange about that. The wonder is that 

 an3' queen lays after being thrown out 

 a mail car going forty miles an hour as 

 they often are. In such cases as is 

 above cited when the queen fails to 

 lay, she is most generally stung when 

 introduced. Such queens are tolerated 

 on the combs several weeks and then 

 disap[)ear. 



The idea that this man should 

 threaten to publish in case we did 

 not replace the queen at once is rather 

 fresh. Wonder if it would not be a 

 good idea for people to wait till a fel- 

 low has refused to make good his 

 guarantee before the threat to pub- 

 lish is made. Bro. A. is all light, 

 though a little hast}' in making the 

 threat. 



Hei'e let me say that any customer 

 can get satisfaction without threaten- 

 inir to publish me in the bee i)apers. 

 After you have made the threat you 

 cannot get your demands met till the 

 threat is withdrawn. 



We do not want the trade of any 

 man who thinks we will send him vir- 

 gin for fertilized queens. 



The best evidence that the queen 

 sent to friend A, was not a virgin is 

 the fact that he had introduced her 

 successfully. Weclaim that noonecan 

 introduce a virgin queen liy any ordi- 

 nary method of introibiction to a full 

 colony of bees. It cannot be done by 

 inexperienced beekeepers at any time. 



