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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 27 



^\t ^ 



GBORGB 'W. YORK, ■ Editor. 



P0BLI8BT WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W, YORK & COMPANY, 

 IIS Alicliig-an St., - CHICAGO, ILL. 



fl.OO a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 tBntered at the Poat-Offlce at ChlcaRO as Second-Class Mall-Matter. 



YDiniYII, CHICAGO, ILL., MAY 27, m No. 21. 



Editorial Con)n)ct)i^^ 



The Supply Dealers will have our sympathy dur- 

 ing the next six or eight weeks. They will be abused for 

 many delays in shipping goods that they can't help. A great 

 number of bee-keepers wait until the very last minute before 

 ordering, and then of course they want their goods shipt 

 almost by telegraph. And if they don't come on time, the 

 poor supply dealer will catch it. 



Why can't more bee-iceepers learn that they run a big 

 chance of having their orders delayed when left so late ? No 

 supply dealer, if he is at all busy during May aud June, can 

 fill all orders the same day they are received. 



So, reader, if you a^e among the late-in-ordering ones, 



don't blame the overworkt dealer, if your goods are not shipt 



to you by return train, for he maybe doing his very best to 



accommodate all, and in so doing pass many a restless night. 



^-»-»^ 



Special to Our Newer Subscribers.— It 



seems that about once a month it is necessary to say some- 

 thing for the benefit of new subscribers about asking ques- 

 tions which they expect to be answered in the Bee Journal. 



Now, let it be clearly understood that every subscriber to 

 this journal has a perfect right to ask questions about bees — 

 in fact, we want them to feel free to do so. But, we also de- 

 sire them to remember that it is quite impossible for us to 

 keep answering the very simple questions every week, that 

 would not be askt if the person owned and read a good bee- 

 book. For instance, just recently several askt whether it 

 was the old or a new queen that leaves with the swarm. Also, 

 as to the length of a queen's life. Now, all such questions 

 and similarly simple ones, are fully answered In any one of 

 the standard beebooks, and no one should begin to keep bees 

 without first having read about the rudiments of the business, 

 and also subscribing for a good bee-paper. 



Again, such questions as these are often sent in : Please 

 give me the best method of managing nuclei, giving instruc- 

 tions how to proceed from the time the nucleus is received 

 until it is built up to a strong colonv. Also, give me the best 

 plan for rearing pure Italian queens, and the best plan for 

 Introducing them Into colonies of black bees. What time of 

 the year should it be done ? etc. 



If ever we get real "tired," It Is when we receive such 

 questions as the above. It reminds us of the question that 

 a farmer askt Dr. Miller, at the meeting of the Farmers' 

 Institutes at Springfield, III., last February, viz.: "Doctor, 

 please explain your system of bee-keeping?" Now, of course, 

 that was easy enough — If the Doctor were given two or three 



weeks' time to do it in. You might as well ask a farmer to 

 tell in ten minutes all about his system of farming and grow- 

 ing all kinds of crops ! 



Then take that question about the best plan of rearing 

 queens. It required a whole book of over 150 pages for G. 

 M. Doolittle to tell how he rears queens. And yet a beginner 

 in bee-keeping thinks of course we ought to print such a book 

 and several others each week, and send it all for less than two 

 cents — the price of a single copy of the Bee Journal ! Why, 

 we could better afford to give every new subscriber two or 

 three of the best books, and end it there — and also go out of 

 business in a short time — all for the fun of helping out new 

 bee-keepers who won't spend a few cents for a book that will 

 tell them all about the first principles of bee-keeping, as well 

 as a few of the plans for doing some of the more particular 

 work, such as queen-rearing, Italianizing, etc. 



Some one may ask : " Well, what are you publishing the 

 Bee Journal for, if not to tell us all about bee-keeping ?" We 

 answer that, take it the year through, we probably do touch 

 upon nearly every phase of bee-culture, besides giving the 

 latest Improvements, and many short cuts in making bee- 

 work a success, but we are not here to repeat week after 

 week all that has appeared in the Bee Journal in detail dur- 

 ing the past 36 years of its existence, much of which has been 

 put in handy and permanent form in the books devoted to bee- 

 keeping. 



We have not written the foregoing in order to lead up to 

 a book offer, but in sheer self-defense, and in order that our 

 new readers may relieve themselves of the trouble of asking 

 simple questions about bees, we will say that to any one whose 

 subscription is paid to Jan. 1, 1898, or beyond, we will mail 

 them a copy of Prof. Cook's "Bee-Keepers' Guide" for only 

 75 cents. This is a cloth-bound book of over 450 pages, that 

 retails for $1.25, but until July 1st we will send it for just 

 75 cents to those paid-in-advance subscribers we have men- 

 tioned. Be sure to get this book, and then study it thorourjhly, 

 in connection with the Bee Journal, and thus inform yourself 



on the bee-question. 



■*-—»■ 



The Laying of a fjueen.— A colony of bees was 

 watcht from January to December, 1S91. On Jan. 1 there 

 appeared to be about 10,000 bees in the hive, at the end of 

 the season about 20,000. For the whole time there were 

 about 890 eggs laid per day, or for the season of the honey- 

 flow (March 3 to Aug. 3) the number of eggs per day aver- 

 aged 1,760. The highest daily average was (March 18 to 

 April 10) 2,600. The colony did not swarm, and over 300,- 

 000 bees were hatcht and past away. The colony produced 

 180 pounds of honey.— Ga»'f7. Chron., 21, No. '>2ryi, p. 41. 



Queen-Bees Stay in the Mails.— On page 280 

 we referred to a report that had gotten out that queen-bees 

 would possibly be excluded from the mails iu this country; 

 and that the matter had been taken up by the New Union, 

 which exists for the express purpose of looking after the in- 

 terests of beekeepers. General Manager Secor immediately 

 sent the following to headquarters : 



FouEST City, Iowa, May 1(\ 1897. 

 To THE Postmaster General, Washington, D. C. 



Dc(ir Sir: — It has been reported that the postal authori- 

 ties contemplate issuing an order excluding queen-bees from 

 the mails. I shall be glad to know whether or not there is 

 any foundation for this rumor, and, if so, the reason for so 

 doing. If not true, it will not be necessary for me to enter 

 Into any argument to prove that the liberal rules heretofore, 

 and now (I hope) iu force, have been of incalculable benefit, 

 not only to a very large number of bee-keepers, but also in- 

 directly to agriculture and horticulture, and that a revocation 

 of them would work a real injury to the producers of honey 

 and the other Industries named. 



If any demand is made by any class of people, or by post- 

 masters, for their exclusion from the malls, I would like to be 



