SUPPLEMENT 



TO THE 



AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



Wenham, Mass., April, 1890. 



That hundred-dollar queen. 



In the October (1889) issue of the 

 Apiculturist, we gave a brief de- 

 scription of one of the valuable Ital- 

 ian queens we have in the Bay State 

 Apiary. We have but a few copies 

 of that issue left, and as the demand 

 still continues for that particular num- 

 ber by beekeepers interested to know 

 the history of what we consider the 

 most valuable Italian queen bee in 

 the w^orld, we find it necessary to de- 

 vote a little more space in the Api in 

 order to acquaint our hundreds of new 

 subscribers with the history of this 

 wonderful colony of bees. 



This queen was reared in the Bay 

 State Apiary in the season of 1889. 

 As soon as the young bees had com- 

 menced to work in the fields we saw 

 that this colony possessed real merit 

 and were superior in many respects 

 to any other bees in our apiary. A 

 brief description of the good points 

 of this colony can but help to interest 

 our readers, new and old, as we now 

 can add another good feature (that of 

 wintering) this colony possesses in 

 addition those good points mentioned 

 last fall. 



Of the fiftj^-eight colonies of bees 

 in the Bay State Apiary including 

 German, Carniolan and Italians, there 

 is not one colony that has wintered 

 quite as well as this one. There have 

 been no dead bees about the hive, 

 mould nor moisture. The bees have 



remained perfectly quiet all winter. 

 The hive is now crowded with bees. 

 This colony was the lirst one in the 

 apiary to carry in pollen, a thing they 

 did on March 14, three da3^s earlier 

 than we ever before knew bees to 

 gather pollen here in New England. 



When working on golden rod last 

 September this colony commenced 

 work an hour earlier and worked an 

 hour later than any other bees we 

 had ; consequently they stored enough 

 honey to carry them through the win- 

 ter. This, in our opinion, is one of 

 the best features a colony of bees can 

 possess. 



The queen is one of the most pro- 

 lific we ever saw and the disposition of 

 the workers is all that the most timid 

 person could desire. I can remove the 

 honey-board or top-board at any time 

 and not even one bee will fly from the 

 combs. Have never used any smoke 

 when opening this hive and removing 

 the combs, and have not been stung 

 by these bees. 



I am free to state this colony of 

 bees is the only perfect one we have 

 seen in our thirty years' experience 

 in beekeeping. Every good point that 

 bees should possess is combined in 

 this one colony. There is not a bad or 

 undesirable feature about them. 



We shall rear 3,000 young queens 

 from this queen the coming season, 

 and all will be fertilized by drones 

 not at all related to the mother. No 



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