24 



THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



A GOOD LOCATION FOR BEES. 



AN INTKKESTING I.EITEK KROM A VIRGINIAN 

 BEEKKKPER. 



I am not much of a writer, but I love 

 bees and honey and in behalf of them I 

 shall try to write a short article, and after 

 being boiled down sufificiently hope there 

 is enough left to pul)lish. In my vicin- 

 ity bees have done fairly well, if 1 may 

 be allowed to judge fiom my own and 

 those of my nearest neiglibors. Mine 

 gave me a surplus of forty pounds in 

 one-pound boxes per colony and one 

 swarm each. Several colonies swarmed 

 the second time, but I put them back 

 in the parent colony. I believe that 

 bees will pay here if worked for honey 

 alone. I have never known a season 

 that if bees were properly managed, 

 they did not pay a good per cent on capi- 

 tal invested. What we need here is some 

 one to boom the business, and by this 

 I mean having that kind of grit that will 

 make things go. In a humble way I am 

 trying to encourage the introduction of 

 improved strains of bees. The farmer 

 is looking to the improving of his catde 

 and his hogs, and must the beekeeper 

 stand still and be content with the com- 

 mon black bee ? I say no, let us look 

 to our interest and procure the best 

 strains of bees and encourage anything 

 that tends to raising apiculture to a high- 

 er standard. To-day, Dec. 25, my col- 

 onies are carrying in pollen from alders, 

 and bees working nicely. How does 

 that sound to you beekeepers of the 

 old Bay State ? 



Lynchburg, Va. L. R. Webb. 



INTRODUCINGQUEENS. 

 I am very much obliged to you, Mr. 

 Alley, for the sample copies of the Api. 

 I learned from one copy how to intro- 

 duce queens successfully with tobacco 

 smoke. The information is worth a 

 good deal to me. Each year I rear a few 

 queens to sell to my neighbors and in- 

 troduce them myself. Since I received 



that sample copy of the Kv\, my method 

 for introducing queens has been this : 

 I dequeen a colony, close the entrance 

 to hive and blow in among the combs 

 and bees a few puffs of tobacco smoke. 

 The queen is liberated and allowed to 

 run in at the entrance. As she does so 

 I blow smoke on her. When she has run 

 in the liive more smoke is blown in. As 

 soon as the bees begin to drop to the 

 bottom-board, I cease smoking them. 



I would caution all who use this 

 method to do it in the evening, or cover 

 the hive to protect the colony from rob- 

 bers. I have not lost one queen by the 

 above method. I make no preparation 

 whatever, except to put a queen, tobac- 

 co and smoker in my pocket. All the 

 queens from other parties, whether fer- 

 tile or virgins, are introduced in the 

 same way. 



You may have made a great mistake 

 in introducing the Punic and golden 

 Carniolan bees, as T. W. Cowan and 

 some of your American friends ( ?) would 

 have us believe. There is one thing 

 sure, there is more good practical sense, 

 facts and pointers in one square inch of 

 the Api than some of those old fogies 

 and croakers can give us in a life time. 

 I for one will stand by the man that 

 gives us such good practical advice and 

 helpful metliods of such great value. 

 William ELLiorr. 



Plainview, Minn. 



QUliEX BREEDERS. 



A GOSSIPY LETTEU ABOUT BEES, ETC. 



A correspondent of the Ainerican Bee 

 Journal, complains bitterly of "queen 

 breeders." He clubs them altogether 

 and says, "there is something radically 

 wrong with the breeders of this coun- 

 try." 



He has purchased "warranted and 

 tested c]ueens and out of the lot but one 

 was prolific." 



There is a great deal of innocence 

 exhibited along this line of queen ex- 

 cellency. There are certain things that 



