AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



637 



These bees took fresh courage, and 

 to-day it would do you good to see them 

 rolling in honey, gathered from aster 

 bloom. A little help at the right time, 

 and these bees would not have left their 

 home. But do not let your bees come to 

 nothing after they have become dis- 

 couraged and left their home in despair. 

 Just fill up the combs with nice, thick 

 sugar syrup, and put them back in their 

 home, and see how glad they will be, 

 and how good you will feel that you 

 have helped your little pets out of 

 trouble. 



THOSE FIVE-BANDED BEES. 



I am so glad that Mrs. Jennie Atchley 

 has explained the matter in regard to 

 the five-banded bees. I had bought a 

 fine queen, and she was to produce five- 

 banded bees. Well, she did do that very 

 thing — some beauties, I tell you ; but 

 she also produced some bees with four 

 bands, and a few with only three yellow 

 bands ; so I was beginning to feel a little 

 disappointed, and reading what others 

 had to say about this same matter, I be- 

 gan to wonder if there was not some- 

 thing wrong about those five-banded 

 queen-bee breeders. Mrs. Atchley has 

 cleared the matter all up in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, and I am now per- 

 fectly satisfied as regards the five- 

 banded bees. 



That is the way, my friends ; give us 

 the truth, and nothing but the truth. A 

 simple advertisement with the silver 

 lining of pure truth, a satisfied custo- 

 mer, a clear conscience, will be worth a 

 thousand times more to us than any ad- 

 vertisement shrouded in gold, shining 

 out something that is not truth, or not 

 the whole truth, dissatisfied customers, 

 and with a conscience telling us that we 

 are not doing unto others as we would 

 like them to do unto us. 



THE BEE JOURNAL'S NEW DRESS. 



When the " Old Reliable" came to my 

 desk last Friday evening, I hardly knew 

 it. Just look at it ! What " get up and 

 get "is there! What taste and talent 

 combined ! Thank you, Bro. York, for 

 the new design and "get up." It gives 

 the whole thing new life. I would like 

 to give you one good, hearty hand- 

 shaking. 



Woodside. N. C, Oct. 10, 1892. 



[Thank you, Bro. Fisher, for your 

 hearty words of approval, and admira- 

 tion for our new front-page design. 

 Nearly every letter brings us new com- 

 pliments upon the improved appearance 



of the old American Bee Journal. 

 Now, if all who are able, will help to 

 keep its pages illustrated with new and 

 original ideas each week, we may all 

 take much pride both in the appearance 

 and in the contents of the "only weekly 

 bee-paper in America," the "old re- 

 liable " American Bee Journal. — Ed ] 



Differing Opinions, mating of 

 Queens, Ete. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 PROF. C. L. STRICKLAND. 



For us bee-keepers to differ in opin- 

 ions is not strange, for our ways are 

 different, also the ways of the same bees 

 are different in different States and 

 locations. A course in the apiary pur- 

 sued by Mr. A. in Maine, would very 

 likely fail in this State (Kansas), there- 

 fore, bee-keepers of different locations 

 must at last establish ways of their own 

 invention to manage their bees, to cor- 

 respond with the honey-flowers and 

 other resources, as they may appear. 



DRONES AND QUEENS MATING. 



Although drones are of vast impor- 

 tance, it does not all depend upon them 

 for improvement. The queen mates but 

 once, and by close observation it can be 

 seen that the organ of the drone is so 

 wonderfully constructed that partial es- 

 capement of the organ cannot take 

 place, but rather, the escapement is in 

 full, and the insect dies instantly. When 

 this is the case, the royal receptacle re- 

 ceives the whole, and by main force the 

 queen tears herself away from her dead 

 paramour, and returns home with some 

 part of the mating still visible, which, 

 in the course of a few hours, is absorbed. 



This one transaction serves for a life- 

 time, so if the queen mismates, her 

 progeny are hybrids. For example, take 

 a pure Italian queen, mate her to a 

 black drone, and some of her bees will 

 be two-banded, some one-banded, and 

 some none. Take the same pure queen 

 mated to a pure drone of the same 

 strain, and her bees will be three- 

 banded. Take a pure Carniolan queen, 

 mate her with a pure Italian drone, and 

 her bees .will be some two-banded, some 

 one, some none (that is, yellow). 



If the drones, to which yellow queens 

 mate, have not any blood of yellow 

 strains in them, the tendencies are to 



