136 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



to sa}' on the question. To tell the truth [ am a bit disappointed 

 with the "concerns" after seeing- what a lot of trouble he has to 

 make them work successfully. Had an itlea that all that was neces- 

 sary was to go the night before and put on -U) or .30 as the case 

 might be, and in the morning- j)ile all the supers on a barrow and 

 trot them into the honev house. Has anyone else had better luck 

 than yir. tletaz in the use of these bee-escape l)oards. I wonder. 

 Any information on that line will be thankfully received, 

 Alt. fov. ( )nt.. Can. 



Shall We Buy or Rear Our Queens? 



J. A. CRANE. 



•rfj^ EAR EDITOR: Among the many subjects which engage 

 JZI/ the attention of up-to-date beekeepers, none is more per- 

 sistent, nor perliaps more vital than the question of queens; 

 whether to raise, or 1)U}' what are needed. 



When I l^egan bee keeping, and began tc^ read !)ee papers and 

 especially the glowing ads. of queen breeders, I thought that my 

 poor black bees, which gave me one year 141 pounds per colony, 

 were of necessity about the poorest bees in America, and I. of course, 

 looked forward to the time when I should have all Italians, and 

 such light yields be a thing- of the past. Alas, 1 ha\c the yellow 

 bees all right, and I think I ha\e some of the best >^trains, but never 

 quite reached the average that I did with the old blacks, but have 

 often had individual colonies do much better than any colony of 

 blacks that I ever owned. 



But this is neither here nor there. The point is, Iktw shall we 

 get queens for our own use. Some extensive bee-keepers say that 

 they must buy as they have no time to raise their own. That is 

 all right. I always concede that every man knows his own busi- 

 ness better than 1 do. but in the long run how much better ofT is 

 he by buying largel}". than if he left the matter entirely with the 

 bees themselves, since at least one writer says that he always ex- 

 pects that at least ten per cent of his purchased queens will prove 

 worthless? How many more than that would he worthless if the 

 matter was left entirely to the bees? 



RAISING QUEEN CEI^IiS BY THE FECK. 



Several vears ago someone spoke of the ease with which queen 

 cells could be raised by the peck or hundred, at almost any time oi 

 year when bees were Hying. I have paid a lot of good dollars for 

 queens raised by the peck and ha\e come to the conclusion that they 

 do not work well in mv ward. I must adniit that I ha\e once in a 



