268 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



friend of the Api, has stated in a pub- 

 lic letter that 'Mr. Locke published the 

 best l)ee journal ever published in the 

 history of the past." Well, the Api 

 was flrst-class and no mistake, but, if 

 the opinions of some of the foremost 

 beekeepers in the world (and we know 

 they are competent to judge) are of 

 any value, the An is far ahead of what 

 it formerly was. Now, the present 

 manager onl}' claims credit for this 

 in the clioice he has made of the con- 

 tributors. 



We never did approve of publishing 

 the old history of bees, such as may 

 be found in the columns of the Api of 

 several years ago. Our readers want 

 something new and fresh every issue ; 

 we have given it to them. 



W^e shall now have more time to de- 

 vote to the API and hope to make still 

 furtlier improvements in its general 

 make-up. 



Mating queens in confinement. 



— We can s(.e no good to couie from 

 the experiments wliich Prof. McLean 

 is couducliug iu order to have queeus 

 mated iu coutinement. Wliat is to be 

 gained even could it be shown that 

 queens can be mated to any drone se- 

 lected? 



The manager of the Api has been 

 rearing queens nearly thirty ye irs, but 

 no trouble has been experienced by us 

 in getting queens mated in the open 

 air, by the drones from any parlicuhir 

 queen desired. Since the advent of 

 the drone and queen-trap we have per- 

 fect control of both queens and drones. 

 With the use of the traps, hundreds of 

 colonies of black bees may be kept in 

 the .same apiaiy with a few colonies of 

 pure Italiaii bees, yet not one of the 

 young queens will be mismaled. It a 

 person has plenty of time and money 

 he can afford to waste in such useless 

 experiments, it is well enough to en- 

 joy sucli a pastime, but we see no real 

 practical advantages to come from 

 such experiments. It is to be lioped 

 that Prof. McLean will not waste much 

 valuable time in trying to tind some 

 way to have queens mated in coutine- 

 ment but will turn his attention to 

 something that will beuetit the bee- 

 keeper. 



Notes and Queries.— AVell, Bro. 

 Root has come in and joined tliose 

 other bee journals who have adopted 

 the improvement method of the Ai'i- 

 CULTUKiST. Mr. Locke has said that 

 the API was the tlrst in the field 



with a " Note and Query " department. 

 No one has disproved this statement. 

 It is a big thing, don't you think so, 

 Bro. Editors? 



'• Gleanings " is doing the thing well, 

 but it has too many replies in yes and 

 no style. Yes and no do not, as a gen- 

 eral thing, explain questions on bt-e 

 cultu re to the satisfaction of all. When 

 you say yes or no, give your reasons 

 for not doing or for doing such things. 



Can't some of the other bee journals 

 follow the Api in otlier respects be- 

 sides the "Note and Query" depart- 

 ment? Bro. Jones permitted some 

 one to use several columns of his pa- 

 per for abusing a brother editor in Can- 

 ada. We don't claim that it is any 

 business of tlie manager of the Api, 

 but we will say that when we cannot 

 find anything but personal matter to 

 fill our journal, the Api will not be 

 issued till something of more impor- 

 tance comes in. If anything can dis- 

 grace a publication of any kind, it is 

 articles reflecting on some person. 



Bro. Jones, you know, does not feel 

 kindly towards the "Canadian Honey 

 Producers." Let your motto be "Live 

 and let live," Bro. Jones. 



Fine Bees. — We have one colony 

 of the most beautiful bees that can be 

 found. The combs at this date (Sept. 

 5) are solid with brood and the liive is 

 very full of bees. The queen is one year 

 old, very large, handsome, and one of 

 the best breeding queens that ever 

 graced the Bay State apiary. This 

 queen brought a colony, containing not 

 over three pints of bees through the 

 winter of 1886-7, and on the summer 

 stand. We have taken nearly 100,000 

 bees from her colony since June 1, 

 and also have reared 300 queens from 

 lier beside. If perfection can be 

 claimed for a queen it can for this 

 one. To-day the weather is beau- 

 tiful and the bees are gathering honey 

 from golden-rod. I took a notion to 

 remove one of the middle combs from 

 the hive, and did so. Not one bee took 

 wing nor seemed to be disturbed in the 

 least. We have introduced twenty 

 young queens from the queen in ques- 

 tion, and they seemed to have inherited 

 the qualities and characteristics of 

 their mother. 



Wliere this particular queen came 

 from, we know not. In August, 188(5, 

 about three quarts of bees were found 

 clustered upon the ground in my gar- 

 den. They were hived. Wiiile the bees 

 were running into the hive we noticed 



