186 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



This simplifies the matter con- 

 siderably and makes less work. 

 If any of your readers have not yet 

 received a copy of my little pam- 

 phlet, I shall be pleased to mail it 

 free on application. 



Jerome Twichell. 



Friend Locke : 



Bees are backward this season : 

 swarminghasbut just begun. I have 

 colonies tiiat made preparations for 

 swarming in fruit bloom that are 

 ready to issue now and are waiting 

 for a warm day. Clover has been 

 in bloom for some time. Strong 

 stocks have stored some surplus 

 but nothing to speak of. Basswood 

 will open in about ten days, but 

 not more than half of the trees 

 will bloom ; yet with the help of 

 teasels which are now beginning to 

 yield I hope for a fair honey crop. 

 I am glad to note the rapid im- 

 provement in the " Apiculturist." 

 It is, to me, the most valuable bee 

 publication we have. I am sure of 

 finding something new every time 

 it comes. 



Your "presumption" in regard to 

 friend Alley's article (page 164 

 current vol.) is quite right I believe, 

 as I maintained in a recent article 

 that the queen will gratify the 

 wishes of her colony as far as she 

 can. My young queens always lay 

 drone eggs, where they are in any 

 thing like a full stock by the time 

 their first worker brood hatches. 



Now that we are on this subject 

 of drones, may I ask you a question ? 



Can we tell when a pure Italian 

 queen is purely mated by her drone 

 progeny ? I do not mean by purely 

 mated just simply to give three 

 banded workers but rather what we 

 call a breeding queen. ^ 



iGenerally daugliters of pure Italian queens 

 will produce bright, well-marked drones re- 

 sembling the stock tVom which tliey came, 

 even though they are mated with black drones. 

 It is always well to select a queen whose 

 drones are well-marked but in answer to your 

 question we would say— not accurately.— Ed. 



I would suggest to J. D. Wands 

 that there is such a thing as too 

 much honey and too much room 

 to winter well ; the size of hive must 

 be suited to size of colonies with, 

 in my locality, about twenty lbs. of 

 honey in cellar or twenty-five on 

 summer stands. I prefer basswood 

 honey or sugar syrup to anything 

 else. My average loss I am posi- 

 tive is below the average in the 

 forests around me. The secret of 

 well wintering with me is to have 

 a hive full of young bees and twen- 

 ty to twenty-five pounds of good 

 feed for them and then let them alone 

 till warm weather comes. 



C. M. Goodspeed, 



Thorn Hill, Onondaga Co., N. T. 



BOOK NOTICES AND 

 REVIEWS. 



Mr. Thomas G. Newman, 925 

 West Madison St., Chicago, 111., ed- 

 itor of the American Bee Journal, 

 has kindly sent us a copy of the "Bee 

 keeper's Convention Hand-Book." 



It is very neat, tasty, and con- 

 venient, and recommends itself to 

 all those who wish to keep posted 

 on convention matter. Price fifty 

 cents, sold by the author. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Mr. Alley, who was in our oflSce 

 recently, stated that a short 

 time since he sent a queen to a 

 gentleman in Arkansas and the 

 cage and bees have been returned. 

 They were ten days in transit and 

 have been home about four or five 

 days, making in all fourteen or 

 fifteen days that they have been 

 confined in the cage and not one 

 of the bees have died. 



They were fed on " Good " candy 



