THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



183 



For the Amorican Bee Journal. 



Prospects, etc., in Tennessee. 



I b!\d lioped by this time to be able to 

 report a large yield oF honey, but the in- 

 cessant rains for the last two weeks, and 

 that loo, in the very middle of one of our 

 best honey seasons, have materially dam- 

 aged my prospects in the way of honey. 



"l conimenced in the spring with 66 

 stocks, quite a number of which were 

 very much reduced on account of the cold 

 weather in April, but I fell back on the 

 doubling up plan again, and from the GO 

 I made about 43 strong colonies, saving 

 all my queens. From the poplar bloom 

 and honey dew, I took something more 

 than 3,000 lbs., and from the sourwood up 

 to the time the rains set in, I have taken 

 enough to make up a total of 4,808 lbs., 

 with enough in the liives to make at least 

 5,500 lbs., which I will take as soon as 

 the rains cease. I worked mainly for 

 honey this j-ear, and have had but a 

 small increase in bees, the total number 

 of colonies now, including weak ones, 

 being 107. 



Although the rains have cut short the 

 honey crop, I am happy to inform you 

 that the prospect for a large yield of corn 

 in this State was never better; and as 

 our people have been living on half ra- 

 tions a long time, the thought of plenty 

 and to spare will moi-e than compensate 

 me for my short crop of hone3^ 



I have disposed of about 1,500 lbs. at 

 123^ cents, and now^ have 8 barrels on 

 hand for sale. 



We have two honey crops here. The 

 poplar, which commences May 1st and 

 ends about the 20th. Then the sour- 

 wood, which commences about the 35lh 

 of June and ends about the 20th of July. 

 So you see if the rains should cease at 

 this date I would 3'et get a considerable 

 yield from the last mentioned bloom. 



Hoping that all your bee keeping sub- 

 scribers may be able to report large jdelds 

 of honey, and wishing the old American 

 Bee Journal much success, I remain as 

 ever, Your Friend, 



J. F. Montgomery. 



Lincoln, Tenn., July 14, 1875. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 Something About Queens. 



In my opinion, a pure Italian queen, 

 when impregnated by a pure drone, will 

 produce three banded workers, and under 

 favorable circumstances, will duplicate 

 herself in her queen progeny. If a,nj 

 black blood is infused, the queen progeny 

 ■will vary in color — some will be dark, 

 some light, and some with rings. Some 

 are short lived, living only a few weeks; 

 some a few months ; some one season, and 



some as long as four or five years, not- 

 withstanding all were raised in the same 

 hive, at the same time. The reason is 

 obvious. Men and animals die old and 

 young, so with bees. In regard to the 

 color of queens, some are darker than 

 others, but will duplicate themselves, if 

 purely mated ; some of the dark ones are 

 very prolilio, and just as good as any for 

 honey, and increase of stocks. Parties 

 who receive such queens from breeders 

 should not be hasty in concluding they 

 are cheated, for they may be pure. One 

 thing is certain, a person may be easily 

 deceived with dark ones; for a hybrid 

 may be verj^ much like the dark, pure 

 ones. Impurity does not make the light 

 colored or golden beauties, lighter col- 

 ored. If so, the darker the dark ones, the 

 purer they would be. A queen that has 

 well-defined rings should never be bred 

 from, as her progeny are likely to be im- 

 pure. Take a queen to rear from that is 

 uniform in color, from the throat to the 

 tip of the abdomen, that produces workers 

 with three well detiued yellow bauds, and 

 they will generally produce good queens 

 for shipment to customers, and will gen- 

 erally give satisfaction to them. Never 

 take a young queen to rear from, as she 

 may be but short lived. Always select 

 such as I have described, and two years 

 old, in order to secure a hardy, long-lived 

 race of bees. 



Much has been said and written upon 

 this subject, and the doctors still differ, 

 and will differ, for all time to come, prob- 

 ably. I simply give mj^ experience. In 

 this, as in everything else, I give no theory 

 that I have not practiced and found good, 

 and in the main, I believe I was right. 



There is something else about queens 

 that we all are interested in, (i. e.) intro- 

 ducing them. They can be introduced 

 successfully ninetj'-nine times in a hund- 

 red, if strict attention is paid to certain 

 rules and conditions. My success has 

 been varied. I have lost a good many, 

 and therebj^ paid for my schooling. A 

 young queen, just emerged from the cell, 

 can be given to any stock of bees at any 

 time after taking away their queen, and 

 they will not kill her. I have given them 

 repeatedly to full stocks, and to nuclei, 

 and never had one killed. The bees will 

 not sting or enclose such a queen. 



To introduce a fertile qtieen, depends 

 much upon the time of the j'ear, the con- 

 dition of the stock, etc. For the benefit of 

 the inexperienced, I will here state that 

 in August, probably more queens are de- 

 stroyed than at any other time in the 

 year. Bees are then generally strong in 

 numbers and stores, gathering but little, if 

 any honey, and are so cross, and just in 

 prime fighting order. When in that con- 

 dition, go to them in a careless way, make 

 no quick motions, though yoii find fight 

 in them ; blow in smoke, and look up 



