THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



175 



fidence. I had four colonies in 1867, placed in 

 the season before. They gave me four new 

 swarms and live hundred pounds of surplus 

 honey. They were the only ones in use. This, 

 with honey at twenty-five cents per pound, and 

 swaims at five dollars, is an average of fifty 

 dollar.-, each— enough to pay forty-six dollars 

 for the four hives, twenty dollars for the four 

 swarms, ten dollars for the right to use, and a 

 balance of one hundred and twenty-four dollars 

 in net profits. I here estimate the honey at 

 twenty five cents per pound. It was so white 

 and nice, I sold most of it for forty cents per 

 pound. 



My claim is the combination of the central 

 apartment, the movable partition, and the side 

 surplus honey boxes. 



Jasper IIazen. 



Albany, N. Y. 



[For the' American Bee Journal.] 



Prolific Queens. 



I read with much interest, in the December 

 number, Mr. Gallup's ariicle on " Prolific and 

 Long-lived Queens.'' It is a subject which de- 

 mands our earnest, careful attention. 



I raise queens for my own use, by keeping 

 all Italian stocks strong in the spring, by mode- 

 rate feeding, to secure early drones; and as 

 soon as queen cells are formed in my imported 

 stock, I swarm it. As fast as cells are ready, 

 blacks or others are swarmed, and cells intro- 

 duced to the old stocks. The queens all seem 

 very prolific, though not all pure. 



When raising queens for market, I invariably 

 start them in full stocks. When the cells are 

 sealed, I remove them to a hive of the regular 

 size, but contracted inside by a division board, 

 so as to contain but two or three frames, which 

 are taken from another hive with plenty of bees. 

 I sometimes make one hive answer for the nu- 

 clei, by having entrances at opposite ends and 

 painted different colors. 



My (pieens raised during the past season 

 were all very large. I now raise none out of the 

 swarming season, although this method is more 

 expensive than the old one I used to practice, 

 of raising them in small boxes, and from May 

 to October. The queens are so much more 

 prolific, that it will pay the extra expense. 



It seems to me that if more care were taken 

 by some of our leading breeders, to follow na- 

 ture closer than they now do, in the raising of 

 queens, the reputation of the Italians would be 

 far ahead of what it now is. Purity is all very 

 well, but fertility ought to be the first considera- 

 tion. 



Geokge 0. Goodwin. 



Danville, P. Q., Canada. 



[For the American Bee Journal. ] 



Caution to Beekeepers, in Procuring 

 Italian Queers to Breed from. 



It seems that bees themselves cannot collect | 

 with impunity honey from noxious flowers, for ! 

 they arc occasionally subject to a disease re- 

 sembling vertigo, from which they d. ' not re- 

 cover, and which is attributed to the poisonous 

 nature of the flowers they have been recently 

 visiting. — Suuckakt. 



Beekeepers who wish to get pure stock to 

 breed from, to Italianize their apiaries, cannot 

 be too particular as to the responsibility of the 

 parties whom they patronize tor this. We have 

 been imposed on more than a little in this re- 

 spect, having purchased some dozen or more 

 queens, from different breeders, out of which Ave 

 could probably select three or four pure enough 

 to breed from. The evil is not so much in the 

 loss of the outlay, as in the mixed and pervert- 

 ed stock of bees it introduces in our apiaries. 

 True the capacity of these for storing honey is 

 perhaps equal to that of the full bloods ; yet 

 when we obtain them at the cost of the genuine, 

 we are naturally led to expect a realization of 

 the full benefit of expected superiority, not only 

 in point of industry, but in every other desira- 

 ble quality. That the Italians, when pure, ex- 

 cel the others, blacks and hybrids, in beauty of 

 color and peacefulness of character, there can 

 be no doubt. That we must have these points 

 of difference, so peculiarly characteristic of the 

 progeny of some queens Ave haA r e obtained, pres- 

 ent in those queen mothers which Ave propa- 

 gate from, if Ave would preserve the species dis- 

 tinct and uncontaminated, is equally true. 

 Therefore every beekeeper who contemplates 

 procuring the Italian variety of bee, for the 

 sake of the benefit of their superiority over our 

 common kind, ought, in justice to the breed, 

 and in deference to his own interest and that ot 

 his neighbors, procure them pure, because in 

 this state ouly will they yield him their full 

 value. We have had a feAV queens in our apia- 

 ry from certain breeders, which, for purity of 

 stock, challenge comparison anyAvhere this side 

 of the Atlantic. Among these there is a queen 

 from the apiary of Adam Grimm, which we ob- 

 tained some time last summer, at a trifle more 

 than the advertised price, and which Ave regard 

 as a most valuable acquisition. Meantime, as 

 avc have a goodly number of colonies to Italian- 

 ize next season, mostly the result of purchases 

 last fall, Ave intend, if Providence permits, to 

 increase our list of queen breeders next season, 

 by accessions from the apiaries of other respons- 

 ible parties. We believe in the utility of a 

 multiplicity of breeders, as an antidote to the 

 injurious consequences of "in-and-in 1 ' breeding. 

 John L. McLean. 



Richmond, Onio. 



There is a kind of green honey furnished in 

 Western India, the produce of a bee indigenous 

 to Madagascar, which is remarkable. It is of a 

 thick syrupy consistency, and has a peculiar 

 aroma. It is much esteemed on the peninsula 

 of India, Avherc it bears a high price. Whether 

 its greenness of colon's derived from the flowers 

 which this species frequents, or is incidental to 

 the nature of the bee, has not been ascertained. 

 — Shuckard. 



Bees are very Lnd of garden and wild mus- 

 tard. 



