THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



183 



narrow yellow-band." But " more 

 or less" exactly covers the point we 

 made. 



I do not think queens are fertilized 

 far from the apiary. I am not a be- 

 liever in the ''four mile" theory to in- 

 sure i)urit3'. 



The old man who saA's drones con- 

 gregate at certain places is right. They 

 do; that is in and over the a|)iHry in 

 which tlie young queens are located. 



Some twenty-five years ago I was 

 strolling on tlie hills some tvvo miles 

 from my apiary and that distance from 

 any bees. It was in the forenoon of a 

 fine June day ; just such a day as bees 

 gather large amounts of hone}'. This 

 roaring as of bees in the air was heard. 

 I spent about an hour trying to find out 

 what the roaring was, but all to no pur- 

 pose. No bees could be seen in the air, 

 and although we roamed about in a ra- 

 dius of half a mile the roaring contin- 

 ued. Then again it could not have 

 been drone bees as drones do not fly in 

 the forenoon. This same roaring can 

 be heard on any pleasant June day. 



Now about warranting the purity of 

 bees and queens. We warrant all our 

 queens and have always done so, even 

 when theie were fifty colonies of hy- 

 brid and black bees within half a mile 

 of our apiary; little or no complaint 

 was heard from my customers of im- 

 pure queens any more than there is 

 now, and there are no black bees with- 

 in four miles of our yard. 



All tliat is needed to insure purity 

 is plenty of pure drones in the same 

 yard with the young queens. 



I regret we have not the space for 

 more extended remarks on this point, 

 and in conclusion we respectfully re- 

 fer friend R. to Dr. Tinker's article on 

 another page of this issue." 



Uniting bees. 



"If I had four small colonies," says 

 a correspondent in the American Bee 

 Journal^ " that I wished to unite, I 

 would move them together, and let 

 them get well established in their new 

 location before disturbing them. I 



would move them in the evening, afte^ 

 all the workers had returned from the 

 fields, and put grass or straw in front 

 of the hive entrance, so that they 

 could not leave as usual ; a board in 

 front, to bump their heads against, 

 will cause them to notice a change in 

 their location." 



I would do nothing of the kind. If 

 I had colonies that I wished to unite, I 

 would do this : When the brood had 

 all hatched out the combs, I would 

 take the bees into the bee-room, give 

 them some tobacco smoke and then 

 brush all from the combs into what 

 we call our swarm-box. I'his is a 

 box with wire cloth bottom and a 

 movable cover which is also covered 

 with screen wire. 



Here 1 would let the bees remain 

 queeuless three days ; then dump 

 them down in front of the hive they 

 are to occupy and let a queen run in 

 with them. By this method the bees 

 would not quarrel, and few if any 

 would return to the old location. 



Of course the bees will need feed- 

 ing while confined in the box. As every 

 one knows how to feed bees under 

 such circumstances 1 will not mention 

 it here. 



^piculturlat ilTaU-Bo;f. 



Six fine queens. 

 Harru'ttsviUe, Ont., Can. 

 Mil. Alley : I received tlie six queens 

 all ill good order. They are flue ones. 

 Send $3 for three more. 



Edwin Lewis. 



A large queen. 

 • Wdah, Cal. 



Mr. Alley : The queen I got from you 

 is the largest aud most prolific oue that 

 we have. Her bees are flue. 



C. C. Thomas. 



Highly recommended. 



Santa Anna, Cal. 

 Mr. Alley: Herewith find ,f 1 25 for 

 one Italian queen. A neighbor has been 

 getting his queens from you and speaks 

 very highly of them. 



G. S. Fox. 



