AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



759 



mated with pure drones. I want no drones 

 from unfertilized queens. Some will say 

 that the impregnation has no effect on the 

 drone-egg, but I don't care for that, I will 

 take mine fertilized, every time. It is the 

 nature of the young queens to mate in 

 early '' girlhood," or not at all. 

 Clayton, Ills. Thos. S. Wallace. 



New Comb Built Out of Old. 



Do bees utilize old comb to build new out 

 of ? I think I have proof positive that they 

 do. I transferred a colony the other day 

 for a neighbor, from a very old hive to a 

 new frame hive. As the combs were very 

 old and black, I did not use them, but put 

 the bees on full drawn combs from my own 

 apiary. As there were a few small patches 

 of brood I wished to save, I cut it out and 

 laid it on some sticks in the super for them 

 to take cai'e of, which they are doing very 

 nicely. I examined them three days later, 

 when I found a piece of comb suspended 

 from the hive-cover as large as my hand. 

 Directly over the patches of brood, lying in 

 the bottom of the super, and the new comb 

 and the brood-comb was exactly of the 

 same color, very dark. 



RuFus Williams. 



Crescent, Okla. Ter., May 15, 1893. 



Bees Wintered All Right. 



My 17 colonies came through the winter 

 all right, and are in prime condition, 

 although the season so far has been exces- 

 sively wet and cool, but, notwithstanding 

 all this, my colonies are strong in numbers, 

 and are storing honey very rapidly from 

 black locust bloom and red willow. White 

 clover is beginning to bloom, but owing to 

 the recent overflow of the Ohio river, the 

 most of the clovey crop has been destroyed. 

 I had 2 swarms issue on May 10th. These 

 being my first this year, makes the swarm- 

 ing season some 30 days later this year 

 than last. I now have 19 colonies of bees of 

 the Italian strain, which has given me 

 great satisfaction in their care and man- 

 agement, and a fair return in good honey 

 for the amount of labor performed. 



I began bee-keeping some six years ago, 

 and I am under more obligations to the 

 American Bee Journal for the practical 

 information regarding bee-culture than to 

 all other sources combined. I am looking- 

 for a good honey-flow here this year, there- 

 fore I am ready for it. 



B. F. Boultinghouse. 



Rockport, Ind., May 15, 1893. 



Can Bees Puncture Fruit ? 



In the convention of the Indiana bee- 

 keepers, according to the published report, 

 several members of the convention said 

 they kn.ew that bees could not puncture 

 grapes, and this resolution was adopted : 



Besolvt'd, That it is the sense of the In- 

 diana bee-keepers that it is an impossibility 

 for bees to puncture grapes or injure them. 



Either the Indiana bee-keepers have 

 studied bees wrongly, or the bees in In- 

 diana are a weak and shiftless race. I fast- 

 ened a surplus comb into a section with 

 hard-wood tooth-picks. A grating sound 

 led me to examine, to find out what was 

 going on in that hive. The bees had car- 

 ried away bit by bit nearly all of one pick, 

 and part of the other, and it was diminish- 

 ing fast. If bees can bite off hard wood, 

 they may enter ripe fruit. 



Bees do not, however, puncture fruit, be- 

 cause no fruit has any attraction for bees — 

 no more attraction than a stone or a piece 

 of wood — when it is sound ; but when the 

 fruit begins to leak, from various causes, 

 then the bees are drawn to it, tear away 

 the skin, and carry off the contents. But 

 bees can puncture fruit, that is, it is a 

 physical possibility, as they can puncture 

 and tear away or bite off hard wood. 



Geo. A. Stockwell. 



Providence, R. I. 



Report from Eastern Kentucky. 



The winter in Eastern Kentucky is said 

 to have been the coldest for 60 years. All 

 the apiarists winter their bees on the sum- 

 mer stands, the consequence last winter 

 was, that nearly all the bees froze to death. 

 When the temperature got down to zero, I 

 covered my hives with hay. Six colonies 

 pulled through with a few bees. The last 

 of February and the first of March we had 

 three weeks of warm weather, and I gave 

 my bees free access to all the honey they 

 wanted from other hives where the bees 

 had died, and they commenced rearing 

 brood. Though we have a late spring, my 

 hives are full of bees, and they have com- 

 menced whitening their combs. Our best 

 honey season is just commencing now — the 

 poplar and white clover. Most of the bee- 

 men are discouraged, and say they are 

 going to quit the business. That will give 

 a better field for me. 



I wish much success to the old American 

 Bee Journal. I am well pleased with the 

 pictures of our brother and sister bee-keep- 

 ers, and biographical sketches. I am glad 

 to know that they are Christians ; that 

 makes us believe one must control himself 

 before he can control his bees. 



(Rev.) Miller Pairchild. 



Sip, Ky., May 12, 1893. 



Perhaps Not Fertilized in the Hive. 



I would like to say a few words on Dr. 

 Tufts' article on page 340, in regard to the 

 laying queen that I found in an upper story. 

 I asked Mr. Doolittle about it, and he re- 

 plied thus : 



' • Unbeknown to you, or otherswise, there 

 was a crack or hole in or about one of those 

 upper stories large enough for the queen to 

 go out and return to meet the drone, and 

 she was fertilized without doubt on the 

 wing, as all queens are." 



I was nettled by Mr. Doolittle's answer, 

 for the reason that he thought that I tol- 

 erated holes in my hives, and also his ap- 



