182 



THE AMERICAN A PIC UL TUBUS T. 



turn them to him, but his letter said that 

 his queens pleased everyone, so I took 

 them home, and gave them to six queen- 

 less colonies quite early in August. All 

 were accepted, and had the same care 

 as the rest of the yard, such as being 

 fed for winter, and put into the cellar with 

 the rest. All of the colonies that had 

 these queens wintered a,nd were carried 

 out in the spring in rather poor condi- 

 tion, but better than 1 expected to find 

 them, but they were in just the condition 

 to be very liable to dwindle out before 

 clover time, but there was no dwindling 

 with any of them. Now, Mr. Editor, 

 I will tell you what I like about the five- 

 banded bees. 



ist. They are a large, strong, healthy 

 bee. 



2nd. They are very industrious and 

 can carry a good working gait, when 

 the wind blows so hard all the other 

 species of bees that I have cannot ven- 

 ture out. 



3rd. They enter the sections just as 

 soon as they are ready, and will climb 

 right up and fill all that they can get 

 the honey to do it with. 



4th. They show but little disposition 

 to swarm as only one out of the six that 

 I had, offered to swarm the past season, 

 and what they may do is to be learned 

 later. 



5th. They cap their honey the whit- 

 est of any bee that I own. 



6th. They are as gentle as butterflies. 



7th. They are perfect beauties. Now, 

 Mr. Editor, I have no interest in any 

 particular kind of bees. The bee that 

 pays me best for my labor is the bee 

 for me. My business is producing hon- 

 ey, and not in the sale of bees or queens. 



I will tell you what the five-banded 

 bees did for me the past wet season. 



The first gave me 132 lbs., the next 

 best 99 lbs., the next 66 lbs., and the 

 least gave me 50 lbs. and cast a swarm. 



This was nearly all from clovgr, as 

 basswood was a failure, and all was se- 

 cured from June 20 to Aug. i. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I have been so well 

 pleased with what those six colonies of 

 bees have done for me the past season, 

 that I have bought forty-two this fall and 

 will report next fall to you, whether they 

 are then in possession of the red card, 

 that they sb honestly earned, the past 

 season in my yard. 



Ira Barber. 



De Kalb Junction, N. Y. 



[We have two queens in the Bay State 

 Apiary from the same dealer from whom 

 friend Barber obtained his. In every- 

 thing but gathering honey they are fine 

 queens, but not very gentle. 



We reared several cjueens from those 

 we bought which produce much hand- 

 somer bees, but find no fault with those 

 sent us. 



If you look over the back numbers 

 of Gleanings, you will find that the prod- 

 uct of one Funic queen is a good deal 

 more than the combined returns from 

 al! the six colonies of five-banded bees 

 mentioned above,] 



FROM NEBRASKA. 



'Tis not often one would expect to 

 try a self hiver the last week in Septem- 

 ber. 



This is how it happened. Going out 

 through the yard one afternoon, I found 

 a fair sized swarm of bees clustered on 

 the side of' one of the hives. 



Thinking perhaps they had swarmed 

 out from some hive, I made a hurried 

 search through the yard, but could not 

 find where they came from. Not hav- 

 ing an empty hive to put them in, I got 



