208 



cannot be reared in any yard where 

 there are 200 colonies of what many 

 would call pure Italian bees. All the 

 200 colonies of Italian bees would not 

 produce beautiful and well marked 

 drones. Even if they were all beauti- 

 ful drones, the queens fertilized by them 

 would not duplicate themselves in queen 

 progeny every time. I select a queen to 

 rear drones from, with as much care as 

 I do to rear queens from. Only the 

 drones from one queen are permitted to 

 fly in our yard to mate with the young 

 queens. 



Queens fertilized as above will not all 

 produce pure progeny. Like does not 

 produce like any more in bees than in 

 other animals. ' Those who have gone 

 into the fancy fowl business know how 

 hard it is to get just the right feather. 

 It is somewhat so with bees. We once 

 tried to do something with fancy pig- 

 eons. Could get a beautiful pair of 

 pigeons at a high cost but the progeny 

 from them was another thing. Once in 

 a while a well marked youug bird could 

 be reared. No doubt about the purity 

 of the blood, still they did not breed to 

 a feather, as we supposed they would 

 before we had been through the mill. 

 The chances for getting pure queens 

 are very much better, at least I have 

 found it so. 



Wenham, Mass. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Consequences of Trusting to Luck. 



C. F. MUTH. 



Keports from different localities indi- 

 cate that last winter was very hard on 

 bees, and one which will try the quality 

 of the bee-keeper. A large number of 

 colonies were killed, and some of our 

 sanguine friends have an idea that 

 enough damage has been done to ad- 

 vance the price of honey another season. 

 Such would, indeed, be a boon, and an 

 occasional winter of that sort might be 

 a blessing in disguise. The honey mar- 

 ket is demoralized, honey is below par, 

 and sales are unsatisfactory to both pro- 

 ducers and dealers. 



There are several good bee-keepers in 

 our neighborhood. Friends Hill, Sav- 

 age and Curry, who have had no loss to 

 report in wintering for years, have 

 none to report now. We have no house- 

 apiaries, no bee-cellars, we need no 

 chaff-hives and wintering gives us no 

 extra trouble. I was as fortunate as 

 any one of my friends, up to last win- 

 ter. For the first time I trusted to luck, 

 and now realize the exact position of 

 those who are in the habit of doing as 

 I have done. 



It will be remembered that last fall I 

 was building a new house; an apiary 

 was to be on top of it. My bees had to 

 be moved to the farm of my brother, 

 in August, where several acres of buck- 

 wheat bloomed all the summer and fall, 

 yielding just enough to damage our nice 

 white clover honey. My brother Henry 

 asked my permission to put honey- 

 chambers on my hives, to which I did 

 not object. The buckwheat started 

 them to breeding again, and, when the 

 second stories were removed with what 

 little honey they had collected or foun- 

 dations built out, there was no time for 

 the bees to collect a new supply of win- 

 ter stores. I was to go out and admin- 

 ister to their wants before the cold 

 weather commenced, of course ; but, 

 building and other business prevented. 

 I had no day during the fall to spare, 

 to take a 9-mile ride, to look after my 

 bees, and winter commenced before I 

 had time to cut winter passages through 

 the combs. The result is that I can 

 sympathize with those who trust to 

 luck every year, but have a large crop of 

 honey once in a while, and credit it all 

 to their own skill, inspiring others with 

 their great inventions in bee-culture, 

 but during the next winter, they lose 50 

 or 75 per cent of their bees, or all they 

 have, as the case may be ! 



The first few days of March were 

 pleasant. My brother Henry reported 

 every one of my colonies in good con- 

 dition and fiying lively. It was my in- 

 tention to leave them in the country 

 until May, because I knew from expe- 

 rience that there is less chance in early 

 spring, for bees to get trapped, behind 

 windows, etc., and that in consequence 

 they increase faster than in the city, 

 but being uncertain as to the state of 

 their stores and not having time to look 

 after their wants, while away from 

 home, I had them brought in about the 

 20th of March. 



There were live bees in 9 hives. So 

 few in some, however, that only 8 were 

 left a few days ago, after they were 

 placed on their new stands. This was 

 the remnant of 30 colonies of bees, 

 which were in good condition last fall. 

 Two weeks later, and not a bee would 

 have survived. The verdict of a coro- 

 ner's jury would have been : "Died of 

 Starvation." 



I don't wish this this article to come 

 under the heading of " Blasted Hopes " 

 because I had, under the circumstances, 

 no business to hope for anything else, 

 and my object at the present writing is 

 to show the consequences of trusting to 

 luck. The result is alike in every busi- 

 ness, and demonstrated in so many fail- 

 ures around us. 



