THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



173 



well as any other, and are willing to sup- 

 ply to the trade what it calls for; and 

 that js just what every queeu-breed«. r is 

 willing and able to do. 



Just our position exactly. Queen 

 breeders are rearing queens for money. 

 Although the five-banded bee dealers 

 are lying awake nights to get square 

 with me for the warning note, I soon 

 expect to have them rearing a different 

 class of queens. Sooner or later they 

 will thank me instead of cursing me for 

 what I liave said. 



Those tellows should understand that 

 they can sell just as many or more leath- 

 er colored queens as they can five-band- 

 ed. 'Tis the quality of the queens and 

 not the color that will sell them in the 

 long run. The queen-breeder who can 

 rear the best honey-producing strain 

 will get orders for all the queens he can 

 rear. To substantiate this statement 

 I can mention the facts that my sales of 

 queens reared fiom my famous hundred- 

 dollar queen exceeded those of any deal- 

 er in the country. Why. one man paid 

 me $1 for one of those queens and he 

 says she was cheap at $ioo. See page 

 I 70 this issue. Blood tells every time. 



A young man, a reader of the Api> 

 called here the other day and said 

 among other things that he has quite a 

 large drone-trap and when his bees 

 swarmed he caught the queen and about 

 a quart of bees in it. 



The Perfection self-hiver is merely 

 a large drone and-queen trap; large 

 enough to hold from six to ten Langs - 

 troth standard frames and the largest 

 swarm of bees that issue. I guarantee 

 to pay $5 in any case it fails to self hive 

 the bees. The Perfection self-hiver is 

 the first and last one that has ever hived 

 a full swarm of bees. 



If you do not like all there is in the 

 Api, just sit down and write an article 

 that will please you, and it will please 

 us to have you do so. See the point ? 



I saw a report in some of our bee- 

 paper exchanges that T/ie White Moun- 

 tain Apiarist had sold out to some 

 other bee publication. Brother Elling- 

 wood says he has not sold out; and that 

 the paper will soon reappear in a new 

 form. E. F. Quigley says he had bought 

 the list and the Api got the facts from 

 the American Bee Journal. 



The American Bee Journal has come 

 out in a new form. Brother York is 

 bound to keep up with the march of 

 improvements. 



Reports of big crops of honey that 

 all have been looking for and expecting 

 to see have not come to hand. AH bee- 

 keepers appear to be in the "soup" this 

 year as to honey. So far as the Bay 

 State apiary is concerned, I can say 

 that our bees never did better. The 

 weather was fine all through September, 

 and our hives were never so heavy in the 

 fall as this year. The Funics and their 

 crosses did much better than others in 

 our apiary. The Punic colonies have 

 combs solid with aster honey of a fine 

 quality, and bees by the million. The 

 Funics are ahead. 



As I am a dealer in Punic bees of 

 course the above report will not be cred- 

 ited by some parties. It is, neverthe- 

 less, a correct report all the same. 



I have taken more than the usual 

 pains this fall in preparing my bees 

 for winter. A frame 2 inches wide and 

 the same dimensions of the brood-cham- 

 ber has been placed under each hive. 

 Thus the bottom of the combs are not 

 less than two inches above the bottom 

 board. This gives plenty of room for 

 the dead bees and a free circulation of 

 air during the winter. Each brood-nest 

 over the combs is covered by a wire 

 screen. This keeps the bees in, so 

 they do not get out in winter and die 

 between the inner and outer hives. Over 

 this screen is a mat and then a cushion 

 of hay. From long experience with the 



