THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



drone, and I finally was obliged to 

 procure a queen from Mr. Allejr to 

 take her place. Of course the 

 colony Avas reduced in numbers, 

 and as the queen referred to was 

 introduced very late, the colony 

 went into winter quarters with 

 almost entirely old bees. Every 

 colony came safely through the 

 winter, and none of them had used 

 more than from twelve to fifteen 

 pounds of stores. They all bred 

 vtp rapidly, and drones were flying 

 from each hive by the latter part of 

 April. Now, viewed in the light 

 of friend Alley's article, one might 

 suppose that my queens were bred 

 especially for wintering ; such could 

 not have been the case, for they 

 wei'e all purchased by me indiscrim- 

 inately, from various queen breed- 

 ers. One was imported, supposed 

 to be two years old ; one was a dol- 

 lar queen from A. I. Root ; two 

 were selected daughters of imported 

 mothers, from A. I. Root ; two 

 were from friend Alley, and the 

 hybrid was bred in m}- own yard 

 from a black colony. Now these 

 queens could not have been bred 

 with especial reference to their 

 wintering qualities (and let me 

 say right here, that all of the 

 Italian stocks are very light-col- 

 ored), as they were bred for sale, 

 and as queen breeders usually 

 breed them. I trust that more 

 regard than has yet been paid to 

 the subject will be given to the 

 matter of applying business tests 

 to queens by breeders, and also 

 that more attention will be given 

 to hardiness as a test, and not so 

 much stress be laid upon the matter 



of color and rings. Not that I 

 wish to decry rings ; three of them 

 are absolutely required as a test of 

 Italian purity, and no other test of 

 that purity can be considered abso- 

 lute ; but I fear that many in the 

 endeavor to pander to the taste of 

 those who want handsome bees, 

 have drawn their breeding stock 

 down too fine, by in-and-in-breed- 

 ing, in the endeavor to produce 

 the satisfactory color. To come 

 back to the matter of friend Alley's 

 article, my own opinion is that 

 more depends upon the manner in 

 which we prepare our bees for 

 winter, than upon any particular 

 and peculiar quality of hardiness 

 that one strain possesses more than 

 another. I have never yet lost a 

 colony wintered on standard L. 

 frames, either in single or double 

 walled hives, and I have always 

 wintered my bees on their summer 

 stands. M}' invariable rule is to 

 supersede all queens that have 

 passed into their third year. I al- 

 Avays force queens to breed as late 

 as possible, so that the majority of 

 the bees I winter are young. I 

 crowd my bees with division boards, 

 upon the least number of frames 

 they can cover, and consider seven 

 frames sufficient for the largest 

 colony I ever saw. I want the 

 cluster in cold weather to reach, if 

 possible, from the top of the frame 

 to the bottom board ; I always give 

 an air space of from i to f of an 

 inch above the frames. I prepare 

 my bees for winter, by doing as 

 above, then cover the frames Avith 

 a porous mat ; loosely woven 

 duck I prefer, although common 



