170 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The Apiarian Exhibit at the 



"World's Fair, and also the Rules govern- 

 ing the same, were mentioned on page 

 793 of the Bee Journal for June 16, 

 1892. In reply to a question which we 

 asked Mr. Buchanan, he wrote thus : 



I beg to say that the formal notice 

 sent out by the Director-General, and 

 which you printed, has application to all 

 individual exhibitors, and states the 

 method to be adopted by this Depart- 

 ment regarding the honey exhibit. 



We expect the State Commissions from 

 the different States to furnish these 

 cases, and the individual producers of 

 honey, through their State associations, 

 or through the State Commissions, to 

 make the exhibit. We have sent a letter 

 to the Executive Commissioner of each 

 one of the honey-producing States, ask- 

 ing him to state definitely the length of 

 case that will be desired by his Board to 

 accommodate the exhibits of honey from 

 his State. This arrangement, of course, 

 does not contemplate in any way the 

 exhibit of appliances and implements. 

 These will be exhibited by the manu- 

 facturers, and this Department will 

 treat each application individually. 

 Very Respectfully Yours, 



W. I. Buchanan, 

 Chief, Department of Agriculture. 



Sealed Covers and Absorbents 

 still occupy considerable attention in 

 bee-periodicals. Bees must be kept dry. 

 In a warm, dry cellar, with the hives 

 raised from the bottom boards, it mat- 

 ters little, so far as the bees are con- 

 cerned, whether the covers are sealed or 

 not. Out-of-doors the covers must be 

 protected if they are left sealed, then 

 they will be warm, and there will be no 

 condensation of moisture over the bees ; 

 it will take place at the sides and cor- 

 ners of the hive, or near the entrance. 

 If the cover is removed, and the bees 

 covered with some porous packing, the 

 moisture will pass up through the pack- 

 ing and condense above it. Packing 

 should never be used with the intent 

 that it should absorb and retain the 

 moisture. There must be abundant 

 ventilation above the packing to allow 

 the excess of moisture to pass off. — Bee- 

 Keepers' 1 Review. 



Several Eggs in a Cell, Etc. 



— Mr. A. P. Raught, of Volo, Ills., on 

 July 18, 1892, wrote thus about his 

 experience with queens : 



Please answer these questions in the 

 Bee Journal : 



1. I have a young Italian queen that 

 lays sometimes two and three eggs in a 

 cell. Has any one had the same experi- 

 ence ? If so, what is the result ? 



2. Also, I gave to a queenless colony 

 a frame of brood with eggs and larvae on 

 July 7, and on July 15 they had a queen 

 hatched. What would be the result of 

 such a queen ? Would she be good for 

 anything ? A. P. Raught. 



The foregoing questions we referred 

 to Mr. G. M. Doolittle, who has kindly 

 replied as follows : 



1. If the colony is small, this shows 

 that the queen is a good, prolific one, or 

 she lays more eggs than the bees can 

 care for. If the colony is strong, and 

 the queen lays those in only a few cells, 

 she will probably prove a drone-layer, or 

 else worthless. 



2. Eight-day queens are of not fre- 

 quent occurrence, and rarely become 

 fertile. They are prolific for a few 

 months, and die of old age before a year 

 is past. The older the larva when fed 

 for a queen, the shorter the life of such 

 queen. — G. M. Doolittle. 



The Marion County Agricul- 

 tural Fair will be held at Knoxville, 

 Iowa, on Sept. 20 to 23, 1892. We 

 have received the Premium List, which 

 is a very neat 80-page pamphlet. In 

 it we find the following under "Bees, 

 Bee-Products, and Bee-Keeping Imple- 

 ments," with Mr. J. W. Bittenbender, 

 of Knoxville, as Superintendent : 



Italian queen with her bees 



in observatory hive $1.50 $1.00 



Comb honey, best display 



of not less than 20 lbs.. 1.50 1.00 

 Extracted honey, best dis- 



play,not less than 20 lbs. 1.50 1.00 



Beeswax, 10 pounds 1.00 .50 



Display of honey plants. . . 1.00 



Butterflies to the number of 150,- 

 000 will be shown in the Pennsylvania 

 exhibit at the World's Fair. The col- 

 lection is said to be the most complete 

 and finest in the world. 



