bee papers afloat, and the question often 

 comes up which is the best paper. Un- 

 less we read them all, we will not know. 

 Many men take bee papers a whole 

 year, but do not read them. I am sur- 

 prised to see men who, according to 

 their own story, have kept but few 

 Italian bees condemn them. I thought 

 the bee question was settled many years 

 ago; and everybody knows that the 

 Italian is the best." 



The President said it was annoying to 

 see the unqualified assertions made in 

 the bee papers in favor of the superi- 

 ority of Italian bees. There are many 

 points of superiority in the Italian bee, 

 but it was absurd to claim all the superi- 

 ority for them. Italian bees had been 

 bred out, and the stock had not been 

 kept pure. The fact that people intro- 

 duced Italians led them to investigate 

 more closely and take better care. I 

 claim that it is an advantage to a bee- 

 keeper to have both kinds. The ques- 

 tion is, if we have two colonies in the 

 spring, one of each kind, which comes 

 out the strongest? The idea that 

 Italian bees will not rob, is wrong. I 

 have found that the Italians will not 

 only lind honey quicker, but take, comb 

 and all, when the natives are satisfied 

 with the honey. Italians work best on 

 some kinds of blossoms, and natives bet- 

 ter on other kinds, for this reason it is 

 better to keep both kinds. It cannot 

 be doubted that the Italians are not as 

 easily disturbed as the natives, and this 

 is much in their favor. I have known 

 Italian bees to work right along getting 

 white honey when the natives are get- 

 ting dark honey. Any man who, in this 

 advanced age, has not taken enough 

 interest in the matter to keep at least 

 one colony of Italians, is decidedly be- 

 hind the times. The number of drones 

 should be limited. I have paid as high 

 as $20 for one queen, and have thought 

 it profitable. This idea of rearing 

 queens in hot-houses and nurseries has 

 been carried too far. This buying 

 " dollar queens " I do believe is cursing 

 the Italian stock. We want to rear 

 them purely. We can better afford to 

 pay $.5 for a pure queen, reared under 

 proper circumstances, than we can afford 

 to take one of these "dollar queens" 

 for nothing. We should take the queens 

 that have been tested, and breed from 

 them whatever the cost. The fact that 

 the Italian bee fills the cell fuller, and 

 caps it over directly on the honey, leav- 

 ing no air. is a great advantage "for the 

 keeping qualities of the honey. I be- 

 lieve every man should keep both kinds 

 and then test for himself. I have tried 

 them in this way, and the results have 

 been in favor of the Italians in thou- 



sands of instances. It is no wonder that 

 these " dollar queens " run out so soon. 

 It is a pity they did not run out sooner. 

 With the large number of native drones 

 allowed to accumlate in the hive, the 

 wonder is not that there are so many 

 native, but that there are no more. 



An adjournment was had until the 

 evening, when a discussion was entered 

 into on the proper size of a colony of 

 bees on the first of May. After some dis- 

 cussion, the following motion passed : 



The Northeastern Bee-Keepers 1 Asso- 

 ciation in Convention assembled, do 

 hereby adopt as a standard for a colony 

 of bees, on the 1st day of May : They 

 shall occupy at least four spaces. Colo- 

 nies occupying less than four spaces 

 shall be termed and known as nuclei. 



Mr. Edwards. How many spaces 

 must the bees occupy at the beginning 

 of the honey season, to warrant us in 

 expecting box honey ? 



Mr. Betsinger. It takes about four 

 quarts of bees to take care of the things 

 below — the kitchen work. All the bees 

 you get above this number go to make 

 box honey. One way to guess at the 

 number of bees, is to measure them 

 when you shake them into a basket to 

 hive them. 



Mr. Alexander. I have never ob- 

 tained box honey till the hive was some- 

 what crowded with bees, whether it was 

 large or small. 



Breeding Queens. 



Mr. Edwards. What is the relative 

 value of queens, as reared under natu- 

 ral swarming impulses, compared with 

 those reared artificially V By difference 

 I mean longevity and the other good 

 qualities we all want; by artificial, I 

 mean those reared by compelling bees 

 to breed when they would not do so or- 

 dinarily. 



Mr. House. I have used cells, and my 

 experience is that there is not much dif- 

 ference. A queen reared when a swarm 

 is cast off naturally is a size larger ; she 

 has a larger abdomen, but there is no 

 difference otherwise. The cells must be 

 cut from a full colony. I can discover 

 no difference. 



Mr. Alexander. I have had as good 

 queens reared artificially as in the natu- 

 ral way. 



Mr. House. It makes some difference 

 with an artificial queen if reared in the 

 spring. A queen reared in the middle 

 of May, or earlier in the spring, is not 

 as good as one reared later. 1 he best 

 time for rearing queens is from the mid- 

 dle of May to the latter part of June. 

 Queens reared in the fall— August or 

 September — I have had as good success 

 with as those reared at any other time 

 of the year. 



