320 



sufficiently for market. We aim at ob- 

 taining all comb honey in this apiary. 



The sections were nearly all figured 

 white spruce, and the cases finished 

 nicely, and, though they helped to swell 

 the expense fund, I know they had 

 much to do in bringing me the $1,070 

 income. Conner, Burnett & Co., of 

 Chicago, sold the larger part of this crop. 



My home apiary, of about the same 

 size, I have no accurate account of, but 

 I know it did not yield me as great profit 

 in money, and among the reasons are, 

 that the location is not as good ; also 

 that I did considerable queen rearing 

 here, besides giving much time toother 

 supplies and entertaining visitors. 



If you will excuse these personal de- 

 tails," which will be of little value to 

 many of our older producers, on grounds 

 given above, I will next month give you 

 an account of my experiments with 

 comb foundation of different kinds, in- 

 cluding a new variety, which, from my 

 present experience, I am very favora- 

 bly impressed with. 



Dowagiac, Mich., June 14, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Queens Duplicating Themselves. 



A. F. MOON. 



It appears, from reading the June 

 number of the Journal, that Mr. Pike 

 wants me to bind myself to pay all ex- 

 penses of the committee in making the 

 test, which is a light and quick job, 

 when they once get in possession of the 

 queen. Did any one ever hear of such 

 a thing ? It is generally supposed that 

 when a man has superior stock that he 

 spares no time to place the same before 

 the public, either with specimens of his 

 stock or by advertising. I offered to 

 pay all the expense in testing this mat- 

 ter, besides offering to pay $25.00 for 

 each of the 12 queens, they to be exact 

 duplicates of the mother queen bred 

 from. But this does not seem to be sat- 

 isfactory, and my old friend thinks lam 

 laboring under mental derangement ; 

 also that my answers to his questions 

 are "rather obscure." No doubt the 

 readers of the Journal are watching 

 to see where the " obscurity comes in," 

 and in time will better understand it. 



To cut the matter short, I will not 

 be particular, if the " princess" herself 

 is all right, and the daughters are dupli- 

 cates of the mother, if one-half of the 12 

 are purely mated; I will make a great 

 bargain to get them at $300, as nearly all 

 of them are at present engaged. I will 

 take them, and bind the bargain with 

 good security, acknowledged by the 

 Mayor of the city, in whose hands the 



security will be placed, that upon receipt 

 of the affidavit of the committee that 

 the queen has proven true and in color 

 will fill the bill, that the $300 shall be 

 paid over to Mr. Pike. But I must ex- 

 act of Mr. Pike that he binds himself 

 in a similar manner to the amount of 

 $75, in case his queen does not prove 

 what he expected, and that he pays the 

 expenses of the committee in case that 

 the daughters are not exact duplicates 

 of the mother queen. This, Mr. Pike 

 (as an honest man) cannot refuse, as my 

 time and credit are worth something — 

 besides he is sure of not having it to pay. 

 If the proposition suits let me know 

 by letter, and the necessary papers and 

 security will be sent to the committee. 

 I expect the same of Mr. Pike, and 

 unless he complies, he need not say any- 

 thing more about his fine "princesses." 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Queen Fertilizing Cage. 



MARTIN HAAS. 



The accompanying engravings give 

 two views of my queen fertilizing cage. 



Pig. 1 is the cage, 8 feet long and 3 

 feet in diameter. It is made of cloth 

 and wood, and has a large glass in each 

 end. B B are 2 posts driven into the 

 ground, on which the cage revolves. 



Pig. 2 is a side view of the cage. D is 

 a piece of black cloth 3 feet wide and 9 



FlG.l. Fig. 2. 



! ^F = ™" 



feet long, held in place by the stakes 

 E E ; the cloth darkens the lower glass ; 

 the drones and queen will fly to the 

 light glass above, and by turning the 

 crank F, fig. 1, half round, they will fly 

 the length of the cage again. Thus the 

 queen can be kept flying with the 

 drones till the desired result is attained. 

 Give this a fair trial, and I think that 

 by a little practice and improvement, 

 it can be made to work successfully. 



