1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



227 



[For the American Bee Juurual.] 



The Past Season. 



The year which has just passed into eternity, 

 is c)ne which will he lonij remembered hy bee- 

 keepers, especially when placed in contrast with 

 the precedini,' one, and we should be <jrateful to 

 the Great Giver that He so ordained it. Had 

 1870 been as disastrous as 1869, the probability 

 is that apiculture in North America would have 

 received a blow from which it would not have 

 recovered for a lon<;- scries of years. 



As you do not appear to have a correspondent 

 in this locality, I will presume to inflict upon 

 your numerous readers some of ' ' my experience" 

 durin<f the jiast year. In the flrst place I 

 succeeded in wintering' my five stocks out of 

 doors in the "Thomas Hive" splendidly. They 

 required no feeding, although many persons in 

 this "Niagara peninsula lost all their bees by 

 starvation. The fact of mine being Italinns, and 

 having plenty of upward ventilation, will, I 

 think, account for my success. Well, about the 

 first of March, I commenced stimulating (Gallup 

 fashion', and kept it up until the 25th of April, 

 when I concluded to devote two stocks to the 

 collection of honey, and the remaining three to 

 the increase of colonies. I prevented the honey 

 stocks from t warming at all. Hm? I gave 

 plenty of room by removing the surplus honey 

 every few days, and removed ai,l queen cells. 

 I increased the other three to eighteen by arti- 

 ficial swarming. From one of tlie honey stocks 

 I (ibstrartcd i AVebster) two hundred and twenty- 

 two (222) pounds of honey, of which one hundred 

 and fi)rty-two (142) pounds are down to the 

 credit of Maj. Von Hruschka (is that right?)* 

 the remaining eighty (80) pounds being stored 

 in large boxes. From the other stock one hun- 

 dred and seventy-six ,176) pounds, making a 

 total of three hundred and ninety-eight (o98) 

 pounds from the two— all of which I sold at the 

 uniform price of twenty-five cents per pound. I 

 find the extracted honey sells much more readily 

 than that in the comb. I put it up in glass quart 

 jars, and label them as per Novice. 



My artificial swarms are all strong, and well 

 supplied with ln)ney, even after taking from 

 them as much as the family required from time 

 to time. 



In order to prevent in-and-in breeding, I 

 purchavsed Italian queens from different parties. 

 The one purchased from a western man was a 

 sad affair to me. She cost me nearly nine dol- 

 lars, including postage (I expect she will cost 

 still more,) and was superseded (nice word) very 

 shortly alter being introduced. Not oidy ipieens 

 but workers reared from her eggs proved her to 

 be impure, either in herself or in her fertiliaation 

 (another nice word; — the workers being one- 

 banded, and their royal sisters very dark. 



This communication is becoming lengthy, but 

 I must encroach on your patience a sliort time 

 longer (that's Irish) in order to give "lumor to 

 whom honor is due." I next ordered a queen 

 from H. Alley, Esq., of Wenham, (Mass.) I re- 

 ceived the queen from him early in June. She 



Terlectly so. — Ed. 



was a beauty, and her progeny are magnificent. 

 I raised queens from her, and each was a dupli- 

 cate of her mother. Being perfectly satisfied 

 with Mr. Alley, I purchased five more in Sep- 

 tember, and am equally well pleased with thcnn. 

 The only fault to be found is they are somewhat 

 slow in reaching purchasers. I would suggest 

 to Mr. Alley to accept fewer orders and charge 

 more. Finally (19thly) commend me to Alley's 

 two dollar and a half queens every time. 



O. FiTZ WiLKINS. 



St. Cufharines, Ontario, Jan. 12, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Natural, Prolific, Hardy Queens. 



THIUD REPLY. 



Self-contradictions of Mr. John M. Price. 



The artificial queens are good. "My experi- 

 ence is to increase /?"flw one to ten .... Last year 

 the ten swarms averaged thirty pounds each . . . . 

 To make my artificial swarms, two old stocks 

 furnished brood enough to make one new one 

 every week since the first of June." — J. M. P., 

 in Amer. Bee Journal, September, 186'^. 



"I commenced with ten stocks, one being 

 queenless, in April. I had at one time fifty 

 swarms; all had fertile queens .... Every sioarm 

 rained its own queen, with three or four excei>- 

 tions .... I made new swarms as long as I had 

 combs to furnish them with . . . . I slatted t'> 

 iH'ike ten from one .... Here is the result : an 

 increase from nine to twenty-eight, with abun- 

 dant stores to winter, and an increase of one 

 hundred and sixty combs, each one foot square, 

 an increase of 16^ frames for each old stock .... 

 I have not the least doubt that if I had let tho.se 

 hives that furnished the bees for my new swarms, 

 furnish the brood, and let the others furnish the 

 bees, the report would have been a great deal 

 better .... It will be seen from the above, that 

 the result is satisfactory.''^ — J. M. P., in A. B. J., 

 January, 1869. 



The artificially raised queens are not good. 

 " Having tried and failed to secure either prolific 

 or long-lived queens by the means mentioned by 

 the authors."— J. M. P., in A. B. J., July, 1870. 



"My experience in raising queens for the last 

 floe years, is, that I can raise twenty natural queens 

 that will be equal to their mothers, to one arti- 

 ficial queen from the same mother, that will live 

 until slie is two months old, and be one-fourth to 

 one-half as prolific as her mother." — J. M. P., 

 in A. B. J., January, 1871. 



He has experimented with his method several 

 years. See above. "My experince in raising 

 queens for the last five years," &c . . . . " Hav- 

 ing devised or invented, proved and tested, a 

 means of getting natural queens started," &c. — 

 A. B. J., July, 1870. 



•On the 13th of March, 1870, Mr. J. M. Price 

 wanted to know a good way to get queen cells 

 started. Up to June, 1870. he had not yet tested 

 his method. ' Having studied a plan and means 

 of securing queen cells by a more natural way 

 than those recommendeil usually, lam determined 

 to put it in practice .... If I don't succeed iu 



