10 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Oct., 



should send them on if possible. Well, on the 

 last day of September the queens arrived. It 

 had been very cold for a week, and the poor 

 thintjs were about chilled to death. I did the 

 best I could for them ; but by the second morning 

 they were dead, I informed Mr. Alley of the 

 result, and he said at once that he would send 

 me others this summer. He has done so, and I 

 do not think there are any finer queens in this 

 State. They are just regular beauties. 



It was no fault of Mr. Alley that the weather 

 was so cold, and the price at which he sells his 

 queens is so low, that a man must be very con- 

 scientious in his dealings, who would do as Mr. 

 Alley has done with me. — And, by the way 

 several of your correspondents are afraid of 

 being ruined by Mr. "Alley's cheap labor." 

 Let me tell them that I have an Italian queen 

 for which I paid eight dollars, and I would not 

 give one of the two Mr. Alley sent me, for four 

 like her. 



This is the way I introduced my queens. I 

 took three frames of brood out of a populous 

 colony ; put them into an empty hive, with the 

 Italian queen caged ; filled up the hive with other 

 frames (empty) ; removed the old colony and put 

 the Italian in its place, and in forty-eight hours 

 released the queen. I find the plan a good one, 

 and do not care whether it is according to the 

 books or not. 



With this, find two dollars, which place to my 

 credit, and believe me a constant reader. 



John S. McKiernan. 

 Smith'' s Mills, Pa., Aug. 19, 1«71. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Amateur No. 3. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A Merited Tribute. 



Mr. Editor: — I wish to state a few candid 

 facts, although it may savor of having an*axe to 

 grind, but I assure you I have none. From pure 

 motives, I wish to state for the benefit of my 

 fellow beekeepers over our broad land, I must 

 say that I have been receiving Italian queens 

 from a good many of our leading breeders, 

 almost ever since they have first been imported 

 into this country; but none of them compare 

 with the two which I received from Mr. Adam 

 Grimm, of Jefferson, Wisconsin. The queens 

 themselves are beautiful, and their worker pro- 

 geny exceed any I ever saw — every worker being 

 bright and plainly showing the three yellow 

 bands. 



Mr. Grimm ought to know the pure stock, as 

 he has been himself to the home of the Italian 

 bee in Italy, where they are found in their purity. 

 Besides, I venture to say that he has more bees 

 on hand than any man on this continent, and all 

 of them are the pure Italian stock. 

 Elmira, N. J. H. M. M. 



It would almost seem as if the Italian bees 

 were common, or at least well known, in Eng- 

 land nearly three hundred years ago, for "rare 

 Ben" Jonson, who flourished in Queen Eliza- 

 beth's days, says— 



" The yellow bees the ah- with murmurs fill." 



Dear Journal : — I was so low-spirited when 

 I received the August number of the Journal, 

 that I could not write a line. My bees did not 

 gather much honey from the white clover, and 

 since that tinie they have done nothing. Even 

 now (Sept. 2), they have not more than two and 

 a half pounds of honey to the hive ; and still 

 the weather is so dry that I am afraid they will 

 not make a support for the winter. Yet I live 

 in hopes, and notwithstanding all opposition, I 

 still have the same love for the little pets, and 

 will watch them cai'efully. 



I have just introduced a queen which I re- 

 ceived from Italy, and she is doing well. I 

 would here say that a great deal more care is 

 required in introducing queens brought from a 

 distance than those reared in your own ajsiary. 

 There seems to be something about them when 

 received from the shipping box that the bees do 

 not like ; wherefore I always close them in a 

 cage securely, and place them between two 

 frames of honey, near the center of the hive, 

 and let them remain there three or four days 

 without interruption. Then smoke the bees, so 

 that they will fill themselves ///J^ of honey, and 

 smear the queen with honey, when 'she will be 

 received all right. Care must be taken to destroy 

 all queen cells, if any are started. I have never 

 lost a queen, when managed in this way ; 

 whereas I lost several by putting them in a wire 

 cage stopped with wax, leaving the bees to 

 remove it tliemselves. Although I have never 

 lost a queen from my own apiary by introducing 

 in this latter way ; yet I would say to those 

 receiving queens from a distance, be more 

 careful in introducing them. 



I have been reading with interest the discus- 

 sion going on in various quarters about the 

 famous Dzierzon theory on the purity of drones 

 from mothers impregnated by black drones. I 

 think this question involves a great interest of 

 bee-keepers, and should be carefully sifted. As 

 to myself, I have long believed it false, and do 

 not hesitate to tell my brethren of it. I have 

 had some considerable experience in this matter, 

 and base my opinion on my own experiments, 

 and not on what I read. 



]f I could be as successful in artificial fertiliza- 

 tion as some, I have not a doubt that I could 

 prove beyond question that a queen raised from 

 a pure mother, but mated with a black drone, 

 would not produce pure drones. My neighbors 

 who keep none but black bees have on several 

 occasions had queens fertilized by Italian drones 

 and the marks could be traced through the 

 drones as well as the workex's. I hope further 

 and more satisfactory experiments will be made 

 on this subject. 



In this question, the question of the Italian 

 bee, as a distinct variety, may play a con- 

 spicuous part, and will have to be settled first. 

 On this I am quiet for the present, at least. I 

 am satisfied with the superiority of the Italian 

 as it is, whether a distinct variety or not. I 

 believe a cross with the black bees does not 



