278 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



modern "apiators," Keys had au intense 

 curiosity to procure a complete view of 

 an intercourse between a queen and a 

 drone, but alas! he died without the 

 siglit. By confining a queen and a drone 

 under a glass tumbler, he had "several 

 times been witness to those amorous pre- 

 ludes recorded by Reaumur." The queen 

 would " caress the drone, frequentl}- re- 

 peating such wanton gestures as would 

 stimulate a torpedo, or any other male 

 but a drone !" He repeatedly witnessed 

 "a royal duel," under a tumbler glass be- 

 tween two queens taken from different 

 hives, which alwa5"s "terminated in the 

 death of both." Describing a bee-dress, 

 he says among other things, "an apron 

 before will be useful to prevent these 

 prying insects from tickling the belly." 

 He adds, "Women should not meddle 

 with bees, without this bee dress; nor 

 then, without the addition of a man's 

 coat, and I had almost said, breeches 

 also." 



It will be highly unfair to conclude 

 from the above extracts that the book as 

 a whole is comical and laughable. On 

 the contrary, it is wonderfully stored 

 with good, sound, practical advice about 

 bee-keeping, and some parts of it show 

 that we have not made such prodigious 

 advances in the art, as we are sometimes 

 prone to flatter ourselves. But this article 

 is already quite long enough, and we 

 must reserve a further notice of this old 

 bee-book for a future number or num- 

 bers. W. F. C. 



Our Premiums for Clubs. 



New Zealand Clover and Bumble- Bees 



The following is an item that has been 

 "going the rounds" among the newspapers 

 of this country: 



An interesting experiment has been made 

 in tlie sliipment of two nests of bumble- 

 bees from Plymoutli, England, for Canter- 

 bury, New Zealand. The princii)al object 

 aimed at in the introduction of these insects 

 into the antipodes is the fertilization of the 

 connnon clover, the i)()ll('n of which the 

 common bee is generally unable to collect, 

 while the bumble-bee, having a longer pro- 

 boscis, and being much stronger, is able to 

 reach snfiiciently deep into the llower to 

 I'OlIect the fertilizing dust. 



Incidentally bees do fertilize ])lants, by 

 scattering the pollen that adheres to tlieir 

 legs from the flowers they work on. But 

 what can "two nests of bumble-bees" do for 

 the salvation of the clover of so extensive a 

 country as New Zealand? Surely it nuist 

 be in a direful condition if it is dependent 

 upon "two nests of bumble-bees" for its 

 prosperity ! 



Head our list for Clubbing papers. 



A. G, Hill has sent us one of his Gas Pipe 

 Extractors to be presented to the person 

 sending in the largest club of new subscrib- 

 ers to The Amekicax Bee Journal be- 

 fore January 31, 1877. The Extractor is 

 light and extremely simple. We will pay 

 the express charges, so that it shall be 

 "without charge" to the recipient. 



D. A. Pike will present one of his beauti- 

 ful Albino Queens— whose progeny will be 

 one-half Italians and one-half Albinos— to 

 the getter up of the second largest club of 

 subscribers. The Albino will be sent, post- 

 paid. May 1, 1877. 



We will add the following: 



For the third largest list, we will send a 

 tested Italian queen in May, 1877. 



For the foiiHh largest list, we will send 

 500 young tulip trees (4 to 8 inches high) in 

 April or May. 1877. 



For the fifth largest list, we will give a 

 copy of The AmeriCx^>' Bee Jolrnal for 

 1877, post-paid. 



For the sixt]i largest list we will send, 

 post-paid, a copy of Vol. I. of The Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, bound. 



See our club rates on page 296 of this is- 

 sue. Names and money can be sent in as 

 received, mentioning that you wish to com- 

 pete for the prizes, and we will open an ac- 

 count accordingly. Work should be com- 

 menced at once. 



Bee-Keeping in Utah. 



The editor of the Utah Porno legist gives 

 his experience in practical bee-keeping in 

 the following language: 



Seven years ago we obtained a hive of 

 bees, and from this colony have produced 

 over four hundred colonies. 



Last year we had no swarms, and this 

 year but one, from 150 hives. At the 

 swarming time we looked for queen cells 

 and found none for these two years, though 

 the hives were full and in good condition, 

 so we concluded that they had been so 

 widely i)ropagated by division that their 

 instinct for swai'niing had disappeared, and 

 no (jueon cells are formed in spring as 

 usual. 



Our bees did s])lendidly all the early part 

 of the season and filled iip very handsome- 

 ly, but Avhen the dry weather came, few 

 blossoms were left, and they produced little 

 nectar, the bees fell upon broken and injur- 

 ed I'rriit. and laid \\\i hut very little honey. 

 We must ])lant our bees in a live acre lot of 

 mignonette, and then we shall not look in 

 vain for plenty of sweets all the season. 



•Out of 40,000,000 pe()i)le in this coun- 

 try, about 70.000 are bee-keepers and these 

 send to market about 15,000,000 pounds of 

 honey and wax yearly, representing in 

 value .'S!:;.t)7(;,76:? for the former, and $189,388 

 for the latter. 



