THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



191 



NOTES FROM THE BAY 

 STATE APIARY. 



OUR BREEDING QUEENS. 



Mat 1st we selected the queen 

 mother from which we intended to 

 rear queens the present season, and 

 transferred her to a small hive hav- 

 ing five-frame, 5x5 inches square. 

 This queen was selected because 

 her colony had wintered the best 

 out of the fifty-nine placed in the 

 cellar. This particular hive was 

 full of bees, the combs nice and 

 bright, and the bees were the first 

 to caiTy in pollen ; in fact, it was 

 the most active colony in the yard. 

 The bees are large and beautifully 

 marked, and the queen one of the 

 best we could select for breeding 

 purposes. About the 20th of May, 

 the hive from which the queen was 

 taken was opened to see if all was 

 going on well. We then saw that 

 a good choice had been made in 

 selecting such a queen for a 

 "breeder." Although the weather 

 had been unfavorable for bees dur- 

 ing the month of May previous to 

 the 20th, this hive was nearly solid 

 full of new honey, and to-day there 

 is not a hive in the apiary so heavy 

 in stores. 



In selecting a queen to breed 

 from, we have always made it a 

 point to select the largest, most 

 prolific, and one whose bees were 

 fine honey-gatherers, provided the 

 worker progeny of such a queen 

 are purely marked. 



In this particular queen we have 

 combined every good and desir- 

 able quality. Up to date not less 

 than seven hundred daughters have 

 been reared from hor, and a finer 

 lot of queens have never been 

 shipped from any apiary, as our 

 customers testify. I value such a 

 queen at no less than $100. 



On Thursday, July 1 , just before 

 dark, I went to the hive containing 

 my ^100 queen to get some eggs 



for cell-building. When the hive 

 was opened not a bee could be seen, 

 all had decamped. The day the 

 bees left I was away from home, 

 but when I returned, my wife said 

 a swarm of bees was seen going 

 across the garden and orchard, 

 but before she could get around 

 the trees they had disappeared 

 from sight. I next heard that a 

 man had chased them about a mile 

 towards a large swamp thickly 

 covered with trees. Of course I 

 did not expect to see them again, 

 although I offered the man who 

 chased the absconding bees $10, 

 if he would find them, which he 

 tried to do, but without success. 

 On Sunday, July 4, a neighbor 

 across the road said he saw some 

 bees trying to light on a grape-vine 

 in front of his door, but did not 

 know where they had gone. Our 

 "better half " who is always on 

 hand on such occasions, began a 

 search for them, and soon reported 

 " here they are, " and sure enough, 

 there they were only a few rods 

 from my house. As soon as I saw 

 the bees I said, " here is my $100 

 dollar queen," and so it proved to 

 be. That is what I call " good 

 luck." 



The bees had merely been on a 

 lark, and lyhen they had had all 

 the vacation they desired, they re- 

 turned. You can bet that partic- 

 ular queen will not get another 

 vacation this year. Although I 

 have plenty of fine queens in my 

 apiary, I have none equal to this 

 one for a " breeder," and had she 

 not returned, my queen-rearing 

 business would have received a 

 serious set-back. 



WAX EXTRACTORS. 



RENDERING WAX FROM OLD COMBS. 



There are a dozen or more dif- 

 ferent style wax extractors in use. 



