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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



church ; has been Superintendent of the 

 Sunday-school for upwards of four years, 

 and is now Village Treasurer and Rep- 

 resentative from Newaygo county, and 

 special commissioner on legislation in 

 the interests of bee-keeping. Mr. Hil- 

 ton occupies a high position in the es- 

 teem of his neighbors and friends, and 

 was elected to the Legislature by a ma- 

 jority of 428. 



Of Mr. Hilton's record as a Represen- 

 tative in the State Legislature, the 

 Newaygo (Mich.) Republican had this 

 to say at the close of the last session of 

 the State assembly : 



The Legislature adjourned sine die 

 May 29th, and is conceded to have been 

 a better and abler body than any that 

 has assembled in Lansing for several 

 years. Hon. Geo. E. Hilton, the Repre- 

 sentative from this county, has taken no 

 small part in the business of the House, 

 and he has inade a record of which the 

 county may well feel proud. The Good 

 Roads Law, of which he was the author, 

 will stand the test, and certainly become 

 popular with the people as they become 

 familiar with its provisions. Mr. Hilton 

 never dodged a vote, but met every is- 

 sue manfully, and if all could not agree 

 with his opinions as shown by his votes, 

 none could fail to respect him for his 

 manly, straightforward course. For a 

 new member, entirely without Legisla- 

 tive experience, Mr. Hilton has made an 

 enviable record. 



The foregoing is a deserved tribute to 

 our friend. True merit always should 

 win, and eventually does, in almost every 

 instance. We are proud of our leading 

 bee-keepers, not only for their efforts in 

 behalf of the industry in whose interest 

 they and we are engaged, but for their 

 sterling worth of moral character and 

 nobility of manhood and womanhood. 

 We delight to honor them in every way 

 possible, and point with pride to them 

 as examples worthy of the utmost en- 

 deavor to emulate. 



A Binder for holding a year's num- 

 bers of the Bek Journal we mail for 

 only 50 cents ; or clubbed with the 

 Journal for $1.40. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 requii's replies from the 25 or more apiarists 

 who help to make " Queries and Replies " so 

 interesting on another page. In the main, it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed. 



Was the Q,ueen a Drone-Layer ? 



As I was walking through my apiary 

 I noticed a ball of bees, and on examin- 

 ing them I found a queen among them. 

 I supposed she came out on her wedding 

 flight, and was lost, so I put her into the 

 hive just as she was, as the bees were 

 very uneasy. I found only drone-brood 

 in the combs. I supposed she was only 

 a drone-layer. Please let me know 

 whether I am right or wrong. 



Joseph Weber. 



Marysburg, Minn. 



Answer. — It's a little dangerous to 

 make a guess about anything done by 

 bees on insufficient data. In the pres- 

 ent case a balled queen is in front of a 

 hive containing only drone-brood. She 

 might be from any hive in the apiary, 

 but being in front of a hive bears some- 

 what in the direction of her belonging 

 to that hive. A drone-laying queen is 

 not often balled, but bees are freaky 

 little beasts, and sometimes ball their 

 own queen with no apparent reason for 

 it. It is just possible that the queen 

 became a drone-layer from extreme age, 

 and was driven out on the hatching of a 

 new queen. 



Introducing liaying and VirginQueens 



I have 40 colonies of bees, a great 

 many of them being blacks and hybrids, 

 and have reared about 12 nice Italian 

 queens. Please tell me the best and 

 safest way to introduce both a laying 

 queen and also a virgin queen. I have 

 them in nucleus hives. Is it safe to 

 double them and introduce at the same 

 time? T. N. Pettigrew. 



Fincastle, Va. 



Answer. — If all that has been written 

 about the introduction of queens should 

 be got together, it would make a large 

 book. You would do well to get one of 

 the standard books and read up. As 

 your nucleus hives probably have the 

 same size of frames as your other hives, 

 you may introduce and double up at the 



