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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



91 



stock-raising, and even in the propaga- 

 tion of the dilVorcnt varieties of fruit, in 

 fact many other and similar cases niiglit 

 be cited. Sliould tliis he an e,stabli.shed 

 fad, why should it bo otherwise iu queen 

 raising ? 



It was my intention to have opened this 

 question hxst season, wilii the hope of 

 learning the views of careful and observ- 

 ing queen breeders. It was again brought 

 to my mind by the re-pcrusal of a valua- 

 ble article from the pen of the respected 

 Langstroth, in Vol. 1, Page 93, Amp:iucan 

 Bee Jouknat., (1861), as bearing directly 

 on the question at issue. I will merely 

 cite two instances which came under my 

 observation in the season of 1873. I had 

 A queen in her fourth year ( the largest I 

 have ever seen with one exception ) which 

 was so prolific, and her progency so indus- 

 trious, that although she was a hybrid I 

 concluded to breed from her. Not being 

 satisfied with the drones in my own stocks, 

 I took my nuclei to the apiary of a friend 

 about two miles distant (Mr. J. E. Moore,) 

 he having drones from an imported 

 queen, there I bred a number of queens, 

 crossing with Mr. M's drones, and in ev- 

 ery instance they proved both prolific and 

 easily handled, some of them even excell- 

 ing the queen mother iu point of prolific- 

 ness and the markings of their worker pro- 

 geny. This queen was a descendent of 

 a queen I obtained of Mr. S. B. Par- 

 sons in 1861, (which fact called to mind 

 the penning of this article, Mr. Langstroth 

 having spoken of his Parson's queens) and 

 while herself was quite dark her worker 

 progeny were so well marked that they 

 were pronounced by many bee keepers as 

 pure, and some of her daughters were a 

 beautiful orange color. As she had a cu- 

 rious history I may again refer to her. 



Again, the same season (1873) I bred 

 from a pure Italian queen the marking of 

 whose bees I was much pleased with, 

 ( she being in her third year,) using the 

 .same precaution as to drones I had before 

 observed, and with ni-arly similar results, 

 the progeny of her tiueeus were fully as 

 industrious as these before spoken of, but 

 no more easily handled, neither were her 

 queens any more prolific than were those 

 of the hybrid mother. The same season 

 1 bred from young Italian queens ( in their 

 first year ) as I have in seasons before but 

 I must say not with like satisfactory re- 

 sults. 



The old and familiar adage may here 

 be brouglitto mind " tiiat two swallows 

 never nuike a spring," therefore, the two 

 favorable instances of breeding from old 

 queens ( I am not at all partial to four 

 years but would say at least in the second 

 or third year,) will not establish the truth of 



the theory of breeding only from old 

 queens, but I ask in all candor, is it not 

 enough by comparison of results to raise 

 at least a doubt and open this fiueslion, if 

 so, one object of my writing this article 

 will at least have been attained, another, 

 and the main oliject iu view is to obtain 

 the opinions or rather the experience of 

 practical queen raisers on the subject. 

 Can we not get the views of our Editors, 

 Quinby, Alley, Dadaut, Grimm, or intleed 

 many others whose experience would be 

 of great importance in the premises. 



No one, I presume, will deny the asser- 

 tion that to become a successful bee-keep- 

 er, to any considerable extent, one should 

 be able to raise at least the queens he uses 

 in his own apiary, if for no other reason 

 than to have them just at the time they 

 are wanted. If so, how shall he breed 

 them ? If there is any thing of advantage 

 in the position we have taken it should 

 be known. If it isonly an idea, and a mis- 

 taken one at that, the sooner it is proper- 

 ly met and controverted the better for all 

 concerned. But as I have already en- 

 croached too much upon space which 

 might be more profitably occupied by 

 others, I will close this already too ex- 

 tended communication. " R." 



Beaver, Penn., Feb'y 24, 1875. 



Note. — Since writing the above I have 

 received Mr. Herbert A. Burch's " money 

 in the apiary " in which 1 perceive he as- 

 sumes tlie same posicion I have taken on 

 the queen raising question. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Wintering Bees. 



I noticed in the Journal an inquiry 

 from C. D. Hubbard for Mr. Bidwell's, 

 new method of wintering bees. Now I do 

 not know what method Mr. Bidwell has, 

 but after three years trial of my present 

 method I am full satisfied it is just what 

 I want. I have kept from thirty to forty 

 stands of bees and have not lost a swarm 

 from freezing, iu the manner I am about 

 to mention, and I have talked with others, 

 and all have met with the same result. 

 The beauty of it is, that it is the least 

 trouble of any method I have ever tried, 

 and affords the greatest safety to bees in 

 wintering. It avoids the lugiring up 

 and down cellar and the moulding of 

 the comb. It avoids the packing in straw 

 and like material, in the various methods 

 resorted to, to keep them from freezing, 

 my present method will leave them on 

 their summer stands all winter with per- 

 fect safety. This is done by a peculiar 

 construction of the hives. 



The hive is constructed with double 



