1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



89 



In conclucyng my tedious communication, I 

 will say that I am satisfied with this year's 

 profits, but expect to do better in another. 



T. H. B. Woody. 



Pleasant Valley, Mo., Sept. 11, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Tte Test of Purity Again. 



I am much pleased with a part of G. M. 

 Doolittle's article on purity of Italian queens. 

 I have experience to corroborate his. More than 

 two years ago I put a few of the facts to the 

 beekeeping world, through the American Bee 

 Journal, but I presume they were not then con- 

 sidered worthy of attention. I had a most 

 beautiful Italian queen (which was superseded 

 only a month since) that produced all extra nice 

 thi'ee-banded workers of deep color. Yet half 

 of her droues were bluish-black, and many of 

 her queens as black as a crow. And what was 

 not less strange is, that her worker grand- 

 children mostly became glossy black in their olji 

 age. I think Mr. D. has suggested the proper 

 test at last. Why not be governed in breeding 

 bees by the same rules as in other stock ? That 

 is, breed on and on in the same line till the six- 

 teenth or twentieth generation, and till "like 

 produces like." The fact is, workers are simply 

 imperfect bees, and their qualities— be they 

 better or worse — cannot be taken as a test. 

 Now, gentlemen bee-breeders, let us have a 

 pedigree. Tell us, and prove to us, how far 

 back your queen bees have produced their like. 



Nor does it matter whether the Italian bee "is 

 itself a hybrid" or not. The best of our im- 

 proved cattle, hogs, and other stock, were 

 oi'iginally crossed. If it is a, fact that the Italian 

 bee is superior, we want the breed "established ;" 

 and this can be done only by breeding forward 

 long enough or tracing back far enough. The 

 unimportant matter that bees originally came 

 from Italy, or that they are ..of the "latest 

 importation" is not enough for a good stock 

 man. 



But I am not satisfied that Mr. D. has settled 

 the matter of queens mating with two drones. 

 A friend of mine whose word is current with me 

 in everything else, and who does a good deal of 

 experimenting with bees, assures me he has 

 repeatedly had a queen mate with two drones on 

 two difterent days, and that "it" killed both 

 drones. If other female animals " mate" with a 

 plurality of males, why may not queen bees 

 also? The authors and writers are not the 

 only ones who are at work on the bee question. 

 After three years' experience, I am still of the 

 opinion that much of the great difference between 

 black bees, Italians, and hybrids, is imaginary. 

 For the sake of truth, science, and common 

 sense, let us have less exaggei-ation. 



J. W. Greene. 

 Chilltcothe, Mo., July 18, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Two Queens- in a Hive— Another Singular Occur- 

 rence. 



From Christmas to Candlemas, a careful bee- 

 master should consider any worker bee in a 

 healthy hive worth a three-pence. — Hgeffler. 



Mr. Editor: — I am really only a beginner in 

 bee-culture, though I have had some bees for 

 sixteen years, and purchased a Langstroth book 

 and hive from Mr. Otis, at the St. Louis Fair in 

 1860, and have taken five volumes of your Jour- 

 nal. Still, in all this time, I paid very little at- 

 tention to my bees until the fall of 18G9, when I 

 got some Italian queens about the first of Octo- 

 ber. In the year 1870 the bees did not do well 

 in this neighborhood, so that I might say I com- 

 menced last spring. I was absent from home on 

 the 3d and 4th of June', and when I came back 

 my son said that seven swarms of bees had issued 

 while I was away, and that one of them was the 

 largest he had ever seen. They had all been 

 hived in box hives, as I had but few section hives, 

 and my son did not know how to manage them. 

 On the Gth of June the big swarm came out 

 again and settled on a bunch of lilac bushes, 

 right at the ground, and I had quite a job get- 

 ting them off. But I succeeded at last, put them 

 in one of Adair's section hives, and they went to 

 work with a will. On the fourth day after, I 

 put on two honey boxes of nine sections each, 

 and some of the bees went to work in each of 

 them the same night. In less than two weeks 

 they had the brood chamber about full, and three 

 combs and some small pieces in each box ; when 

 the honey failed from the prevalent drouth, and 

 they did little more than live, up to July 25th, 

 when I concluded to take the queen and put her 

 in a box hive that had become queenless. I was 

 expecting to receive some Italian queens in a 

 few days, and intended to give one to this hive. 

 I carried the chamber to the cellar, hunted out 

 the queen, cut off one wing, caged her, stuck 

 her down through the top of the box hive, and 

 left her there twenty-four hours, when I pulled 

 out the stopper to let her pass out of the cage 

 whenever she pleased. ^ 



I did not get the Italian queens until the .5th 

 of August, making eleven days ; so I expected to 

 find plenty of sealed queen-cells in the hive from 

 which the queen was removed. I cari-ied it to 

 the cellar (as honey was still scarce, and robbers 

 very plenty), and commenced at the front to look 

 for the cells, clearing the combs of bees as I did 

 so. I found one cell near the center of the third 

 section, which had evidently been torn open. 

 That was all I found till I came to the center of 

 the chamber, when I took off" the back, and there 

 was a queen right on the face of the first comb. 

 I caught and crushed her, supposing she was a 

 young one just hatched — as eleven and five made 

 the sixteen days, if the bees had taken a larva 

 five days old to raise one. But, to my surprise, 

 when I came to brush the bees off the comb, I 

 found the cells contained young larvae and plenty 

 of eggs not yet hatched. Not another queen 

 cell could be found in the chamber, so that I con- 

 cluded the old queen had played the same game 

 as did Mr. Argo's runaway. Next evening I 

 thought I would drive the bees out of the old 

 box hive and see if there was any queen there ; 



