170 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



Hearn stiaiu of Italians, and se- 

 cured first premium on them. At 

 the Mich. State Fair, these bees to- 

 gether with those shown by Mr. 

 Timpe, were left out in the cold en- 

 tirely, the jnd>;e claiming that they 

 had too many yellow hands. He said 

 that one characteristic of the Italian 

 bee is three yellow bands — to have 

 more than this would bar them out 

 just as soon as to have less. We 

 shall not ex|)ress our opinion here, 

 but should be glad to hear from 

 others, particulai-ly from Prof Cook. 

 Can an Italian bee have more th;iu 

 three yellovr I)ands? If so, ought it 

 to count against it when com[)eting 

 at fairs?" 



Mr. Hearn says he cannot imagine 

 how we know as to his manner of 

 breeding queens. I will tell him. 

 We know that there is but one way 

 to produce those five-banded bees and 

 that is by inl)reeding. Our expe- 

 rience and ol)servations in queen- 

 rearing the past thirty years has taught 

 us all we know as to how very yellow 

 bees are |)roduced. Does not Mr. Hearn 

 acknowledge the fact of the manner 

 he produces the color when he says 

 he practises in-breeding to produce 

 four points, and color is one of those 

 fine points? 



Mr. Hearn proposes that we both 

 send Prof. Cook a queen and a pound 

 of bees and let him decide which do 

 the best. Just as though that would 

 settle anything ! How foolish to pro- 

 pose such a way of settling an impor- 

 tant question like this. I am willing 

 for my thousands of customers to de- 

 cide the matter. 



The judges at the Mich. State Fair 

 did just right in leaving out five- 

 banded bees ; that is, if they were en- 

 tered as pure Italians. Who ever saw 

 a five-banded vvoiker bee from an im- 

 ported queen. Mr. Hearn in breed- 

 ing out the true color of the Italians, 

 also breeds out the honey-gathering 

 qualities as well. 1 do not l)elieve 

 Mr. Hearn can show a testimonial 

 from any one he has sold his five- 



banded bees to that says his bees are 

 good lioney-gatherers. Trot 'em out, 

 Brother H. 



I will tell you what I knovv about 

 your five-banded bees, brother Hearn. 

 A prominent beekeeper who purchased 

 queens of you said that your bees 

 are as handsome as any in the world, 

 but so far as gathering honey, he had 

 just as lief have so many flies. 



While vve are discussing handsome 

 queens and bees, let me call vour at- 

 tention to the testimonials below from 

 Mr. Thralls on this page. 



Why, brother Hearn, at the Rhode 

 Island State Fair, there were some 

 ten or twelve large and small colonies 

 of Italian bees. The colony that did 

 the best that year and which were 

 the handsomest bees, had a queen 

 which was reared in the Bay State 

 Apiary. Don't put up the $100 

 friend H. I know you wotdd lose it. 

 How ba<l I shoidd feel when reach- 

 ing out my hand, to scoop it in. 



^pkulturlst IllaU-Bo^. 



"Would not take $10 loi" his queen. 



B'acksville, W. Va. 

 Mil. Alley: I enclose an order for four 

 queens if yon have tliein on hand. They 

 are for parlies wlio insist upon my gettiii'^ 

 tliein from you. Do you want to know 

 why tliey want them from your apiary?- 

 I will tell you. I had a colony of bees on 

 exhibition ;it a fair that wei'e reared from 

 a queen you sent nm .June 20, 18'.)0. They 

 are the most l)pautiful bees our people 

 ever saw. The queen I would not sell for 

 $10. I showed her to a man who has kept 

 bees for thirty years. " Why," said he, 

 "she is superb, I never saw such a queen 

 bee in all my life." I tell you. friend Al- 

 ley, this is the expression of every one 

 who saw that queen. 



Samuel Thr.u:.ls. 



The admiration of all, it seems. We 

 will not brag of the number of testi- 

 monials we have of this kind. Just 

 watch tlie Api and they will appear 

 sooner or later. 



