AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



629 



of hunting, and kill considerable of 

 them myself. What has become of Mr. 

 A. C. Aten, of Round Rock, Texas ? I 

 hope he has had a good honey crop. I 

 trust that Mrs. Jennie Atchley has been 

 successful with her queen-rearing, and 

 wish to congratulate her upon her inter- 

 esting department in the Bee Journal. 

 W. S. Douglass. 

 Lexington, Tex., Oct. 12, 1892. 



Those Visiting Colonies Again. 



The same state of affairs as mentioned 

 on page 529, still exists without inter- 

 mission, but the bees appear to be more 

 active in the morning, and less active in 

 the evening. I only opened the honey 

 department on Sept. 20, but now I open 

 the brood-chamber, and find no brood 

 nor eggs in No. 25, and not much honey, 

 and it is largely uncapped, which satis- 

 fies me that No. 25 is being silently 

 robbed by No. 26. 



Further examination proves No. 25 to 

 be queenless, and that is the reason the 

 bee? made no resistance ; but apiarists 

 will say, "Why did no other colonies 

 assist in the long-continued robbery ?" 

 I don't know, but I would like to know, 

 because I never saw or heard of the like 

 before this. Robber bees appear to 

 communicate the welcome news to every 

 colony in the apiary, and all get a share 

 of the honey ; but in this case they are 

 too selfish, and, thief-like, propose to 

 carry it all into their own home. 



Both colonies are working with a vim. 

 They have stamina and "git up and git 

 there, Eli," qualities. 



For the novelty and curiosity of the 

 matter, I intend to keep a close watch of 

 these funny little bees, just to see what 

 will become of them. If they are crazy, 

 I will so state after I become satisfied 

 about it. J. C. Bell. 



Holland, Tex., Sept. 26, 1892. 



Methods of Introducing Queens. 



Mks. Atchley : — I received your re- 

 quest about my method of introducing 

 queens. 



The plan of spraying bees when in- 

 troducing queens is not a new one. I 

 use wintergreen, as it seems not to ex- 

 cite the bees like some other kinds of 

 flavors. Take % teacup of honey, fill 

 with water, add % spoonful of the es- 

 sence, and after thoroughly mixing, and 

 the old queen has been removed, spray 

 all the combs and bees by taking a small 



sip of the mixture in the mouth and 

 blowing it over them. Treat the queen 

 and escort to a dose, and release. 



When honey is scarce, and conditions 

 are not favorable, I cage the queen 48 

 hours before the operation. The colo- 

 nies that received the queens which I 

 got at one time, had been queenless 15 

 days or more. 



I will give you a novel method which 

 I have practiced in some extreme cases, 

 which has not been a failure yet. My 

 two apiaries are seven miles apart. 

 When ready to go from one to the other, 

 and I have a colony that is stubborn 

 about receiving a queen, I give them a 

 good smoking, rap on the hive a few 

 minutes, and smoke the queen in at the 

 entrance. I then close up the hive, 

 load on the wagon quickly, and drive to 

 the other place, keeping them confined 

 until after dark. I had one vicious col- 

 ony of hybrids that destroyed 5 or 6 

 queens given them by other methods, 

 that received the one on this plan all 

 right. Jas. Poindexter. 



Bloomington, Ills., Oct. 5, 1892. 



"The "Winter Problem in 



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Doolittle's Queen-Rearing 



book should be in the library of every 

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 Send us one new subscriber for a year, 

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