134 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



July 



Why go so far from nature's way to rear 

 queen-bees ? Why not rear queen bees 

 by a method that comes nearer to the 

 way the bee does it ? Why spend so 

 much time in making cell-cups and 

 transferring eggs and larv;e ? Give the 

 bees a chance to construct cell-cups and 

 to rear queens in their own way. 



If queen-deahu's persist in rearing 

 queens the way they do, I really believe 

 the bee industry of the world is on the 

 road to ruin. Where are we to-day as 

 compared to the years 1865 to 1885 ? In 

 that period we had but one disease 

 among bees ; now we have a good many 

 bad and fatal bee-diseases : Foul-brood, 

 pickle-brood, dead-brood, dysentery etc. 

 What is the cause of it all ? 'Tis the 

 way queens are bping reared, in my 

 opinion. In-breeding so much for color; 

 rearing queens in chambers over the 

 bro'jd-nest and the cell-cup-and-trans- 

 ferring-larvte mode of producing queens, 

 is working destruction in thousands of 

 apiaries in this country. Mother-bees 

 cannot be otherwise than constitution- 

 ally weak. Her intirmities are trans- 

 mitted to her progeny. Colonies are so 

 weak that they cannot resist the inroads 

 of disease. We must return to and 

 adopt the methods for rearing queens 

 that were in vogue thirty-five years ago. 

 In those years there were no complaints 

 about bee-diseases, spring dwindling etc. 



If I had the time, friend Hill. I would 

 like to discuss this matter at much 

 greater length. I cannot get tinn' to 

 write articles for publication. 



Wendhara, Mass. 



[We have become so accustomed to 

 "kicks" that we do not mind them at 

 all. We usually receive a number of 

 them each month, either for having said 

 some particular thing, or having failed 

 to say it. However, it often occurs that 

 knowledge is gained by these "kicks." 

 and we always give them the same warm 

 welcome which is extended to letters of 

 commendation. 



If we have ever said that any queen- 

 breeder might not have a breeding queen 

 worth two hundred dollars, it was so 

 long ago that the matter has been en- 

 tirely forgotten. Twenty years' experi- 



ence as a honey-producer and breeder 

 (or "raiser") of queens has given an ap- 

 preciative idea of the value of a breeding 

 queen having the desirable character- 

 istics of such. All that Mr. Alley says 

 of the great value of such a queen to the 

 breeder, we can endorse; but nothing 

 that he says has the slightest bearing 

 upon the point which his article pur- 

 ports to criticise. We have conJemned 

 the practice of placing a fabulous cash 

 value upon a breeding queen, as an ad- 

 vertising dodge. We believe it to be an 

 imposition upon those who are not 

 familiar with the business ; and it is the 

 mission of a bee-journal to guard its 

 patrons against the loss and disappoint- 

 ment which is bound to result from such 

 a catchy yet silly fad. It is not probable 

 that any experienced poultryman would 

 De deceived by an advertisement which 

 offered settings of eggs "from a hundred- 

 dollar hen ;" but the enthusiastic novice 

 would long entertain an intense longing 

 for such valuable (?) stock. The fact 

 that a queen-breeder might honestly 

 decide in his own mind that he would 

 not take :fl50 for a certain queen in his 

 possession, would not justify him in ad- 

 vertising the same queen as a "hundred- 

 and-lifty-dollar queen." We believe this 

 practice was begun without weighing 

 the result ; and we believe Mr. Alley has 

 seen about the last of such foolishness. 

 Something more substantial and sig- 

 nificant than dollars and cents will be 

 used to designate merit in bees of the 

 future. — Ed.] 



"A beginner is quite likely to fall into the 

 error of increasing his colonies too rapidly." 



INTRODUCING QUEENS— THE 

 YELLOW WAX DISCUSSION. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



REPLYING, Mr. Editor, to your 

 question, page 85, the fact that 

 so many have advocated and prac- 

 ticed introducing queens in the evening, 

 while no one has reported adversely, is 

 worth something as proof that there is 

 reason for the practice. To your ques- 

 tion why night (I should say evening) is 

 better than day, I think it has been ad- 

 vanced that after bees have ceased to 

 fly, there is not the same suspicion and 

 fear of intruders as there is during the 

 time of full flight. Suppose a new (jueen 



