THE A3IERICAN APICULTURIST. 



153 



A FIXE GOLDEN CARNIOLAN QUEEN. 



Mr Alley : One year ago I got from 

 you one golden Carnolian queen. She 

 has proved to be a fine one. The colony 

 worked industriously when there was 

 anything to do and put up more honey 

 than any of my hybrids. I called the at- 

 tention of my beekeeping friends to 

 this fact, they came and looked my bees, 

 over and acknowledged that this colony 

 had done extra well. 



W. H.ASHBURNE. 



Ossian, Indiana. 



BEST QUEEN OUT OF SIXTY. 



Mr. Alley : — I had a queen of you 

 two years ago. She was as good or 

 better than any I had in my apiary of 

 sixty colonies. I want two dozen more. 



Otto, N. Y. A. Gamp. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS, ETC. 



Mr. H. Alley: — 1 received the test- 

 ed selected Italian queen all right and 

 she is now at liberty. I never keep a 

 queen caged more than sixty minutes, 

 and often less than thirty. This plan I 

 discovered five years ago while experi- 

 menting, and have never lost one queen 

 through introduction, although having 

 introduced very many. I hke the 

 queen very much as I did others 

 bought of you a few years ago. I shall 

 also want more next season. 



Bees have not done very well here 

 this season though all are in good shape 

 for winter. I now have 46 colonies. 



Maconid, III. J. G. Norton. 



MIGHTY POOR SEASON. 



H. Alley: Enclosed find yscts. to 

 renew my sub. to the Apl Mighty poor 

 season up this way, and had it not been 

 for Bay State hives and "Api wisdom" 

 wouldn't have got a pound of honey. 

 As it is have a fair crop and a local 

 market all to myself. 



Yours, 



■5"^. Pomfret, Vt. Rush Vaughan. 



A GOOD REPORT OF THE PUXICd. 



H. Alley: 



I send you a report of the Punic 

 Bee. I tinil tliemtlie <i;reatest honey liath- 

 erers I have in my yard. It is surprising;; to 

 see thera worlj. I can liandle them as well 

 as any bees, I think tiiat t,hey are the 

 cominn' bee; at any rate, [ will hive more 

 of them next season if I can get them; 

 tliey are just bhick enougli to do the 

 vvorlc. 



Wt&t Cornwall, Vt. Joseph R. Joxes. 



SELECTED. 



COMMUXISTIC INSECTS. 



Never among human mankind can 

 we find so absolute and complete an 

 absorption of the individual by the so- 

 cial group as in the cities of ants and 

 bees, where individual property has nev- 

 er, it seems, been imagined. In these 

 republics what one citizen has for him- 

 self belongs to the other. Does a hun- 

 gry bee meet one laden witii booty 

 returning to a city, she liglitly taps her 

 on the head with her antennas, and in- 

 stantly the latter hastens in a sisterly 

 way to disgorge part of the nutriment 

 provisionally stored in her own stomach. 



Ants proceed in the same way as 

 bees, but in addition the ant thus sus- 

 tained is very careful to show her grat- 

 itude. "The ant who feels the need 

 of food," says Huber, "begins by tap- 

 ping her two antennae, with a very rap- 

 id movement, upon the antennas of the 

 ant from whom S'C ex[)ects succor. Im- 

 mediately they may be seen approach- 

 ing one another with open mouth and 

 extended tongue, for the communica- 

 tion of the liquid which one passes to 

 the other. During this operation the 

 ant who receives nourishment does not 

 cease to caress the friend who is feed- 

 ing her, continuing to move her anten- 

 nae with singular activity." 



The collective system of property 

 must have la:;ted among ants and bees 

 for many thousands of years ; for, apart 

 from cases of demoralization, such as 

 may, for example, be produced among 

 bees by giving them a taste for drunk- 



