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THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



According to ray observations very 

 few queens are lost in this way. The 

 great loss comes from persecution at 

 home. I have spent hours, days and 

 weeks, looking up this matter, and I 

 have been astonished to discover how 

 many young queens are persecuted 

 and "balled " by the crankish workers 

 at the time they are engaged in their 

 •wedding flights. The average writer 

 and author speak uf the "queen's mat- 

 ing" as though she took but a single 

 flight into the air to mate. Such is not 

 the fact, The queen under ordinary 

 circumstances never makes less than 

 three trips into the air, and frequent- 

 ly a half dozen trips before she mates. 

 I remember of seeing one queen take 

 fifteen trips into the air before she 

 was mated. 



I can introduce virgin queens of any 

 age by confining them in a nursery on 

 all sealed brood that is hatched rapidly, 

 and keeping them in the nursery till 

 enough young bees are hatched to form 

 a small nucleus, when the combs with 

 bees and queen are placed in hives in 

 the yard when the queens are soon 

 mated. But this plan is too expensive 

 for practical purposes, but it is a good 

 thing when one wishes to save valua- 

 ble young queens without taking any 

 risk. Very valuable laying queens 

 may be introduced by this plan with- 

 out any risk. My nursery is simply a 

 hive body with a wire cloth bottom 

 and divided into three departments. 

 It is kept warm by setting it over a 

 strong colon}'. 



It appears that quite a number of 

 virgin queens were sent through the 

 mails the past season to be mated in 

 the yards of the purchasers. It would 

 be interesting to know what propor- 



tion of them became laying queens. I 

 have only heard from a half dozen of 

 them and only one of the number lived 

 to lay eggs. Mr. D. A. Jones claims 

 that there is much virtue in introduc- 

 ing virgins "after night." Mr. Alley 

 uses tobacco smoke, and Mr. Pratt 

 recommends little spiritless nuclei. 

 According to my observations the lat- 

 ter will succeed best. If you want to 

 introduce aged virgins the smaller 

 your nuclei the better your success 

 will be. But in my opinion until we 

 learn more about introducing virgin 

 queens, the safest way is to use queen 

 cells. — G. W, Demaree, in Bee-Keepers' 

 Guide. 



The tyro in bee-keeping is generally 

 an enthusiast ; this is well, and the 

 successful bee-keeper is the tyro who 

 has had the courage and perseverence 

 to keep up this enthusiasm to the end. 

 Bee-keeping cannot be learned in a 

 day , nor a fortune made from it in a 

 year ; each step as you advance may 

 show you a mistake you have made, 

 and the point is to avail yourself of this 

 experience and not commit the error a 

 second time. Thus each step is a true 

 advance, and you may be sure that if 

 this is the case with you, dear reader, 

 all you have to do, to reach the goal 

 you are after, is to keep on stepping. 



Our first advice is to take a period- 

 ical devoted to bee culture. We care 

 not if it he this one or some other, 

 only provided it will advance you. 

 Never get to that stage where you 

 think you cannot learn. When that 

 deplorable state is reached you had 

 better give up the pursuit, for you 

 have not reached the goal and you are 

 standing still ! Never try to economize 

 by stopping your bee paper, for you 



