THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



63 



It appears that quite a luimber of virsiiu 

 queens were sent through the mails tlie 

 past season to be mated in the yards of 

 the purchasers. Jt would be interesting 

 to know wliat proportion of them became 

 laying queens. I have only heard from 

 half a dozen of them and only one of the 

 number lived to lay eggs. Mr. D A. 

 Jones claims that there is much virtue in 

 introducing virgins "after night." Mr. 

 Alley uses tobacco smoke, and Mr. Pratt 

 recommends little spiritless nuclei. Ac- 

 cording to my observations the latter will, 

 succeed best. If you want to introduce 

 aged virgins the smaller your nuclei the 

 better your success will l)e. But in my 

 opinion until we learn more about intro- 

 ducing virgin queens, the safest way is to 

 use queen cells. — G. IF. JJeinaree, in Bee- 

 keepers' Gxiide. 



Will Brother Demaree please tell the 

 pubic who is meant iy "until we learn 

 more about introducing virgin queens, 

 etc. .'"' 



The writer would like to visit Bro. 

 D., at his apiary, and in a five-niinute 

 lesson tell him all there is about intro- 

 ducing virgins or any other queens 

 successfully. It won't take longer than 

 five minutes to give Brother D. all the 

 points, so simple is the method. 



After thirty years success in introduc- 

 ing virgin qp.eens, 7ve guess z£/^. shan't 

 have to wait until 7£/^ know more about 

 it. What do you think about it, Brother 



i\ll r[ueens, whether fertile or virgins, 

 are introduced by the same method 

 here in the Bay State apiary. We never 

 put cells in nuclei when they are queen- 

 less, if there are any nursery cages at 

 hand with no cells in them. It is much 

 safer and more convenient to" inti-oduce 

 virgin queens than queen cells. No 

 one knows what sort of a queen will 

 come from a cell ;but one can know that 

 a virgin cjueen is large and well devel- 

 oped before she is introduced. Bless 

 your soul. Brother D., there's no more 

 danger of virgin queens being destroyed 

 when introduced to strange bees, than 

 there is of your being harmed when in- 

 troduced to some friend. — Ed.] 



Subscribe for the Apiculturist. 



I don't like to spoil a good thing, 

 but when one claims he is the first one 

 to use a certain method, it is just as 

 well perhaps to set him right. Mr. 

 Massie was not first to make public the 

 following way of wintering bees. 



In the articles by T. K. Massie which 

 have been running in the Beekeepi^.r, it 

 willbe^een that he advances this theory 

 of having the boards glued down, and 

 protecting the hives, sides and tops with 

 cushions made of some non-conducting 

 mateiial. -Friend Massie published this 

 theory in the Bee World long before 

 Messrs. Pierce, Root or Quigley ever gave 

 their ideas to the public. Friend Massie 

 certainly has priority on this theory. He 

 not only advocated it but "practised what 

 he preached," for he had closed end re- 

 versable frames with the winter passage 

 through the top bars, and boards, made 

 by us last winter — Am. Beeh eper. 



Below is what Dr. Tinker said in the 

 Api four years ago : 



Bees require free ventilation in winter. 

 They throw oft" a large amount of moisture 

 in their breath that must have a ready 

 means of exit from the hive or the bees 

 will Ijecome restless, — a never-failing in- 

 dication of something wrong. All undue 

 loss of heat must be prevented and it can 

 be e.isily retained by giving free bottom 

 ventilation and allowing no upward move- 

 ment of air except through wood or other 

 very close porous covering. In my ex- 

 perience the best and most economical 

 covering is solid unpainted wood. Simply 

 place a thin board over the brood-cham- 

 ber so as to leave a bee-space over the 

 frames in time to have it well propolized 

 and I will guarantee it to hold the heat to 

 the comfort of the bees and at the same 

 time give an almost unobstructed exit to 

 all moisture, and that too, directly through 

 the board and the propolis. 



I am prepared to say from ample ex- 

 perience that every kind of upward venti- 

 lation through free openings or loose 

 porous coverings is pernicious and liable to 

 disaster ; for the life of a colony of bees 

 subjected to cold goes out with the loss 

 of heat which is forced strongly upward 

 tlirough free outlets by the pressure of 

 cold air coming in at the entrance. We 

 can now see why bees instinctively stop 

 up all crevices with propolis. 



Mr. Massie must have been knowing 

 to this, as he had been a regular reader 

 of the Api many years before the pub- 

 lication of the Beekeeper Qx Bee World. 



