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AMERICAN BKK JOURNAL.. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing- immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 require replies from the "JO or more apiarists 

 who help to make "Queries and Keplies" go 

 interesting!: on another page. In the main.it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed. 



Should be Called "Mother-Bee." 



If the bee In the hive usually called 

 " queen " is not a sovereign, why not 

 call her by the proper name — "mother- 

 bee," or " the egg-layer?" From what 

 I can learn from the books, journals, 

 etc., she has no more to do with the gov- 

 ernment of the colony than has the 

 humblest worker. Why is she called a 

 queen, anyway '? Geokge F. Evans. 



Martinsburg, W. Va. 



Answer. — You are quite right in your 

 views. Friend Evans, and if some one 

 had pressed them one or two hundred 

 years ago, it might have had some effect in 

 changing the name. But after a certain 

 length of time, a word settles down into 

 a certain use, not because of its appro- 

 priateness, but just because that's the 

 custom. The "mother-bee" is uni- 

 versally called " queen," and no matter 

 how wrong was the original notion that 

 gave the name, "queen " it will probably 

 continue to be. 



Hybrids or Italians — Introducing^. 



I mail you a sample of my bees. 



1. Are they black hybrid or dark Ital- 

 ian bees ? Are they large or small for 

 their kind ? 



2. Is it too late to introduce a new 

 queen ? Walter R. Wood. 



Bellevue, Del., Sept. 14, 1893. 



Answers. — 1. The bees on arrival 

 were in such condition that it would be 

 hard to say much about them with any 

 degree of positiveness. The cage con- 

 tained six or eight of them, dead and 

 badly smeared. A worker doesn't look 

 the same when dead as living, and the 

 change in appearance is still more 

 marked when it is daubed with moist 

 candy. Neither is it an easy thing to 

 decide much about a colony of bees by 

 seeing a few of its workers, especially 

 after they have been out of the hive 

 some time, even if they are all living. 

 To be sure, if they are all black they 

 would hardly be mistaken for full-blood 

 Italians, but from a colony of half- 



bloods might be sent specimens with 

 three yellow bands, and no one could tell 

 from their appearance whether the col- 

 ony was full-blood or half-blood. 



2. If you have little experience with 

 bees, you will probably find it more diffi- 

 cult to introduce a queen now than ear- 

 lier, unless it be that you are having a 

 good fall flow. Read up well on the 

 general principles laid down in the bee- 

 books, and you will be on safer grouud 

 with regard to introducing. 



Bees Throwing Out the Brood. 



What is the matter with my bees ? I 

 have 90 colonies, and they are throw- 

 ing out brood, and have been for two 

 weeks at every hive. There are hun- 

 dreds every morning, the greater part 

 matured, and many of them alive. They 

 look small and shriveled. There are no 

 moth-worms in the hives, they have 

 plenty of stores, and are moderately 

 strong in old bees. 



There were hundreds of acres of white 

 clover in reach of my bees, though I nor 

 any one else in this part of the country 

 got a section of honey. This is eight 

 years I have been in the business here, 

 starting with 76 colonies, and I have 

 had but one crop in that time. They 

 have starved me out. J. E. Walker. 



Clarksville, Mo., Aug. 16, 1893. 



Answer. — If you had not said there 

 were stores in plenty, we should think 

 the case one of approaching starvation ; 

 but as it is, we must confess we can give 

 no answer. Can any of our readers ? 



Robber Flies from Kentucky. 



I have sent three insects that I would 

 term " bee devourers." A neighbor of 

 mine has killed over 200 of them, and 

 nearly all of them had a bee in its claws. 

 They sit on a weed or some prominent 

 object, and catch the workers as they 

 return loaded with honey, paying no at- 

 tention to a bee going out, or those on 

 the alighting-board. Please tell what it 

 is, through the Bee Journal. I have 

 seen them every summer since I can 

 remember anything, and I never knew 

 them to catch bees before, and I have 

 seen no account of any such an insect in 

 my bee-books, as being enemies to bees. 



The honey crop in the blue-grass dis- 

 trict is very short this year. Only those 

 who have Italian bees have taken any 

 surplus honey, so far as I have heard. 

 My bees swarmed to over 100 per cent., 



