206 



THE AMERICAN APTCULTURIST. 



They did not increase in size very 

 much for the first three days. On 

 the fourth day I could see that tliey 

 were intending soon to commence 

 to lay. On the fifth day one queen 

 had deposited a few eggs. At that 

 time friend H. was in Ohio, and 

 telegraphed to me to send him 

 eight of the queens, lie having 

 talien two of them with him. This 

 left but two of them on ray hands, 

 and both of tliese are depositing 

 eggs vigorously. The one that 

 was introduced to a full colony 

 laid some drone eggs the first day 

 and there is now a large quantity 

 of capped drone brood. As soon as 

 this brood is capped, I shall com- 

 mence rearing Holy Land queens 

 from this imported stock. These 

 queens were bred by the Balden- 

 sperger Bros., at Jaffa. 



Now note what friend H. says 

 regarding the working qualities of 

 this race of bees. 



" With but between fifty and 

 sixty colonies of bees, they have 

 5200 lbs. of honey gathered in six- 

 teen days during the height of the 

 season, besides increasing the num- 

 ber of the colonies considerably'. 



I am a lover of the Holy Land 

 bees and can siiow some of the 

 largest colonies of this race that can 

 be found in this country, and they 

 are so much superior in every quali 

 ty to any of the others, that I 

 expect soon to see them universally 

 adopted. 



Henry Alley. 



Dear Sir : 

 I HAVE been trying to find time 

 for the past month to write an ar- 

 ticle for your journal, but on ac- 

 count of the very busy season at 

 the bank, I have been unable to 

 do so. Even my most important 

 correspondence is sadly neglected, 

 and my answers to long and 

 friendly letters are contained in a 

 few words on the back of a postal 



card. The subject I have in mind 

 is one of great importance to lioney 

 producers: it is " Feeding." 



Everywhere that I have tried to 

 introduce honey I am met by the 

 question, " Do you feed your 

 bees?" and I have to answer 

 " Yes," and then I have to explain 

 that I do not feed during the time 

 that honey is being gathered, also 

 my times and method of feeding, 

 and much more with which I will 

 not weary you. The trouble is, so 

 many beekeepers feed so heavily 

 while the bees are storing honey, 

 that the so-called '^comb-honey" 

 is half syrup (" a la Cotton"). 

 Grocers know this and so it is next 

 to impossible to get a fair price for 

 honey, even if you are luck}' enough 

 to make a sale. 



The only way that I see to get 

 out of this fix that we are in, is to 

 feed nothing but pure honey (di- 

 luted with water) during the honey 

 season, and only use sugar food in 

 earl}' spring and in the fall. I 

 have had to come to this, and now 

 I can certify as to the purity of my 

 honey ; I never have fed in the 

 summer unless there was a time 

 that bees could not get enough to 

 live on, and then barely enough to 

 keep them from da}' to day. / was 

 always sure that my hone}' was 

 pure but now I can convince even 

 a grocer of that fact. 



If I do not get a chance to write 

 a short article on the subject be- 

 fore the time for publication of the 

 next "A pi" can you not say some- 

 thing about it in the "Notes?" 



Bees are doing well here consid- 

 ering tlie amount of cold, windy 

 and rainy weather we have been 

 having, but now it seems to have 

 started into a term of hot and 

 damp weather; if so, bees will 

 " boom." Hoping that you are in 

 good health and spirits I remain 

 fraternally yours, 



A. C. Miller. 



Providence, Aicg. 4, 1884. 



