1 



Published Moiillily. 



fTEKMS: Si. 00 PER ANNUM, IN AgVANCK 

 'Scopes for Si. 00; 3 for S2.T5- 5 for S4.0fl; 1 

 or more, 75 cts. each. S'"?'" Nuinber 10 cts 



' Additions to clubK may be made at clu 

 rates. Above are all to be sent to onbJ-om- 



A. X. ROOT, 



Publisher and Proprietor,\ . ^ r.^ c> \^^^^^t^^^PoZ^^ 



inedina, o. ) EstahUsJied m i^^^^^^i^Essthan%cts^e^ 



by leaving the bees queculess a day or two before 

 offering them a stranger. 



NOTES FROM THE BANNER APIABY. 



No. 25. 



HOW OFTEN I GET LAYING QUEENS FROM MY NUCLEI. 



f»0, friend Hayhurst, I don't get a laying queen 

 from each nucleus or.ce in ten days. Several 

 — ** times T have taken bying queens from nuclei 

 from which laying queens had been taken only ciV/M 

 days previous; but even in the height of the honey 

 season T do not get, upon an average, more than one 

 queen from each nucleus once in two weeks, while 

 early in the spring, or late in the fall, I do not do as 

 well as that. Yes, some of my queens go off upon 

 their wedding trips, and never return. 



INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



Friend Doolittle has not had very good success in- 

 troducing virgin queens, while the editor of one of 

 our bee papers seems to almost doubt that it can be 

 accomplished. Now, xohcn honey is coming >n plrMi- 

 fully 1 3:>re/er to give a nucleus a young queen atthe 

 same time that the old queen is removed, rather 

 than wait a day or two and then give it a young 

 queen, or even a queen-cell. At such times the bees 

 seem to pay no more attention to a young queen 

 than they do to a newly hatched worker, and Uhave 

 no trouble in introducing virgin queens, oven when 

 they are two or three days old. When honey is 

 plenty, the bees seem to be fairly " crazy " to gather 

 if they have no time to spend quarreling with vir- 

 gin queens. But when there is a dearth of honey 

 they have more time to brood over t heir troubles, and 

 then, as friend Hayhurst says, 1 am more successful 



QUEENS WHOSE DAUGHTERS ACL PRODUCE THREE- 

 BANDED BEES. 



Now, friend Doolittle, abo^t those extra-pur« 

 queens. I have read the references that you gave 

 ?n regard to the matter, but not one of them men- 

 tions a queen whose daughters did not produce one 

 or t wobanded bees, or hybrids. The daughter of each 

 wonderful queen pr.xlaccd no black bees, but nothing 

 is said as to whether they produced hybrids. Like 

 friend Root, I have seen queens wh<,80 daughters 

 produced no black bees, but T have yet to see the 

 queen whose daughters produced "« ^^^'^^ /J ^^^ 

 Sanded bees, if -hey had mated with a W^'f drone 

 Now come right out fair and square, tnend D., and 

 tell us if you have aqueen whose daughters produce 

 no one or two banded bees, even if they have mated 

 with black drones; and, also, how you can tell 

 which kind of drones they have mated with. When 

 you rear queens from this extraor^linary queen do 

 you send them out as tested queens, without first 

 iesting them? And if you do not, it would look as 

 IhouKh you did not have perfect faith ia the capa- 

 bilities of your queen. If you really have such a 

 wonderful queen, and are wilting to sell her. I think 

 I can find a man who will pay $100.00 for her; because 

 he could send out her daughters as tested queens, 

 just as soon as they commenced laying. 



I don't know, friend D.,but you will think me 

 very inquisitive; but in your report for the present 

 year you say that you commenced the season with 

 30 colonics; increased them to 80, and reared and 

 sent out 83 tested queens; while in the Aug. Glean- 



