THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



41 



queens are not all from one breeder ; 

 during the past season, I had im- 

 portations from three different deal- 

 ers. 



I will admit that the imported queens 

 have not what we Americans would 

 perhaps call yellow bands ; their bands 

 are for the most part a leather color ; 

 but I have never yet tested an import- 

 ed queen whose workers did not all 

 show three bands. 



I have looked into this matter a lit- 

 tle and, aided by a powerful glass, have 

 examined the worst colonies of hybrids 

 I could find, and I have never yet 

 found a bee showing yellow on any one 

 scale that did not show yellow on all 

 three. 



Some of these do not show very much, 

 but my glass makes the scale on each 

 bee as much as an inch wide, and while 

 they might appear to the naked eye to 

 have no yellow on them yet with the 

 glass it is plainly visible. 



Now I don't claim that there is no 

 such thing in existence as one-banded 

 bees. But what I do say is, that Uiave 

 never seen a bee zuith only one yeliow 

 band. 



I have found that the queens from Italy 

 produce bees very uniform in markings. 

 There is too nmch jumping at conclu- 

 sions concerning the markings of bees, 

 honey-gathering qualities of races, etc., 

 by persons who have not given them 

 sufficient attention, or worse still who 

 have never seen, much less tested 

 them. 



I might mention some instances es- 

 pecially, that came to mv notice recent- 

 ly, of some of these wild statements 

 written for perhaps so much per col- 

 umn, but it might draw me into an ar- 

 gument which would be neither [)leas- 

 ant nor profitable. W. C. Frazier. 



Atlantic, Iowa. 



LETTER FROM OHIO. 



I read the January number of the 

 Apiculturist you sent me, and it will 

 bear comparison with the best bee-pa- 



pers. Your request to beekeepers to 

 write will no doubt bring articles of worth 

 from those who have before contributed 

 much to make the bee journal valuable ; 

 but there is another cla>s from which we 

 have a right to expect something ; it is 

 those who have enjoyed so much from 

 the costly experiments and useful hints 

 of otiiers without the slightest offering 

 in return. 



Almost every beekeeper, though he 

 may not be extensively engaged, has 

 something in use, or has had experi- 

 ence, a knowledge of which would ben- 

 efit others. 



I do not infer that the editor alone 

 can not give to his readers a good newsy 

 paper : he can; he can supply every is^ 

 sue with good reading. 



But to make a more progressive pa- 

 per, and to bring us to a better knowl- 

 edge of the management of beekeep- 

 ing, we need a variety that the editor 

 can not supply and it must come from 

 the reports of success and foilure in the 

 different localities. I visited one of my 

 neighbors last June who twelve years ago 

 purchased thirteen stands of Italian 

 bees, an extractor and other fixtures at 

 a cost of seventy dollars. He told me 

 he had sold three colonies, had used all 

 the surplus honey at home, and had 

 frequently taken some from the brood 

 combs. He now has nine stands left. 

 They are located in the orchard some 

 distance from the house to keep them 

 from disturbing the dog. The hives 

 were set on the ground and have set- 

 tled the depth of the bottom-board in 

 the dirt. The orchard grass had grown 

 above the hives so that the bees going 

 out had to climb it to the top before 

 they could fly, and when coming in 

 would drop straight down and worry 

 through the thick under grass to find 

 the entrance. 



In answer to the question, "Are you 

 ever troubled with robbers?" he said 

 "no ; the few strangers that succeed in 

 entering never find their way out again." 



Everything in the apiary is in a cor- 

 responding condition, while his garden 



