THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



101 



I nm gradually being reconciled to 

 a closed-end tVan)e. Unless some one 

 invents a, no\el way of fixing hanging 

 frames prett}' soon, I shall l)e entirely 

 shifted. Closed-end frames are much 

 better for breeding up. 



How can we form any idea of the 

 value of a cross of different races un- 

 less we breed for purity at the start? 

 The purcliasers of queens should be 

 the ones to experiment along this line, 

 not the breeders. 



Dr. Morrison recommends carrying 

 a drone-laying virgin queen through 

 the winter in order to secure early tly- 

 ing drones. He says he can get them 

 flying in April by so doing. Are they- 

 good for anything? Are not the 

 queens mated to them drone layers? 



Such rtroiies would be worthless, and every 

 queen mated to them would be worthless, too. — 

 Eu.j 



I believe, b3^ the proi)er manipula- 

 tion of dvo/ie-excluding nectar at 

 swarming time, that the honey pro- 

 ducers could elevate the standard of 

 tlieir own bees. They could, at least, 

 hold it up. The natural tendency is 

 to backslide. 



There is an erroneous impression 

 going abroad that another entire out- 

 tit of supplies is necessary in order 

 to work tlie self-hiver to perfection. 

 Please tell them that they can use an}^ 

 old, cheap box just as well. By cov- 

 ering said box with wire cloth, would 

 the bees not cluster inside until hived? 



There is considerable being said of 

 late about queen breeders training 

 bees to swarm by the forcing metliods 

 they employ. Fray tell us are not 

 natural cells constructed during the 

 keenest swarming excitement? Cells 

 developed over an excluder are more 

 like the superseding process and will 

 have a tendency to lessen the swarm- 

 ing fecer. i3y this I do not mean 



" breed out swarming," for I do not 

 believe such a thing possible. 



This is a good point, fiiend Pratt.— Ed.] 



The importation of foreign races 

 into Ital}', Germany and Austria will 

 veiy soon ruin the export business for 

 those countries. Unless a breeder is 

 honest it is folly to send 3-our money 

 across the water for imported stock 

 from lands where other ioreign blood 

 has been introduced. In America we 

 have as pure bees as can even now be 

 obtained from many breeders in both 

 Italy and Austria. Our foreign friends 

 will need to take vrarning before it is 

 too late, or they will lose the large 

 patronage America has been giving 

 them. Keejy your bees pure, breeders ! 



The reputation of the Carniolan 

 bees will depend entirely upon their 

 purity. 1 believe A. 1. Root and 

 those who have written disparjigingly 

 about the Carniolan race of bees, have 

 not been furnished with pure stock. 

 Tlie markings of pure Carniolan bees 

 are very distinct; thci'e should not be 

 a speck of decided yellow on them, 

 but all should show "rust" near the 

 joint of the body and a series of light 

 hairy bands to the tip of the tail and 

 about the thorax. If pure their tem- 

 per will be decidedly mild, and the 

 heavy combs will tell the story of their 

 power to gather honey. 



You will hear men say that tliey do 

 not believe there is any difference in 

 the bee of to-day and that of fifty 

 3 ears ago. How is it, then, that we 

 can now get larger 3'ields of honey ? 

 Who of our large Italian and Carnio- 

 lan beekeepeis would go back to the 

 bees of fil'ty 3'ears ago? Is thei'e a 

 man of us who woukl part with his fa- 

 vorite strain of any of the foreign 

 races for those little fiendish black 

 bees? If we have made no improve- 

 ment in our bees in the last fift3'^ years, 

 it is our own fault. Unless a man 

 can improve the qualit3' of his stock 



