^IMIERICA^ 



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Publlsbt ^V0elily at IIS Michigan Street. 



l^l.OO a Year— Sample Copy Free, 



CHICAGO, ILL., SEPTEMBER 30, 1897. No. 39. 



37tli Year. 



No. 1. — Establishing a Standard for Queens. 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



QuES. — "Dr. Gallup, you mention about queens not com- 

 ing up to your standard. Please explain through the Ameri- 



a large portion of queen-breeders as well as the lay members 

 of the beekeeping fraternity, and to fully explain will require 

 a series of articles or a continued story. It would require 

 quite a book, but as I am not going into the queen-rearing 

 business, only for my own amusement, I will do the best I can 

 to make it interesting for the readers of the "Old Reliable.'' 



I sold a colony of bees last spring to a boy {Arthur Mc- 

 Fadden), and I guaranteed that he would be satisfied with his 

 purchase. Now, for the result: He has nine good, strong 

 colonies of bees, and one swarm left because they could not 

 wait in the hot sun for him to make a hive, and right here he 

 learned his first lesson, that is, always to have one or more 

 hives ready. He was going to school, and afraid the bees 

 would swarm and get away, so I made an equal division of 



Apiary of Jfr. J. F. Mclntyre, in Ventura County, Californin— Looking Westward. 



can Bee Journal what your standard for a queen is, and 

 oblige. — Subscriber." 



Ans. — Now you have me, and on one of the most impor- 

 tant questions in successfull bee-keeping. It Is a question 

 that is but very imperfectly understood in all its bearings by 



the combs and bees, set the new hive by the side of the old 

 one, left the old queen in the old hive and moved It to the left, 

 moved the new division up near where the old one stood, so as 

 to have about an equal proportion of the working or field 

 bees go into each hive. I do not smoke into the entrance of 



