THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



183 



light foundation. If the worlc is 

 proi)eily and carefully done on this 

 mill, the foundation will run 10 square 

 feet per lb., and the base will be very 

 thin and even, not leaving one part of 

 the septum thicker than the other two 

 parts, as you will observe in most 

 other foundation, and at the same 

 time tlie wall will be very thin and 

 sharp, so that if honey came with a 

 rush you will not get a chunlt of wax 

 in tlie center of each comb, as the 

 base is as thin as the bees would have 

 made it. 



In spealiing of brood-comb founda- 

 tion I will be very brief, as nearly all 

 bee-keepers are convinced of the 

 necessity of it in order to get straiglit 

 combs and to exclude drone comb, to 

 say nothing of the great saving of 

 time and honey that the bees would 

 use in making their own comb. If 

 foundation has a high wall, of the 

 proper shape and weight, so that with 

 a rather light base the foundation will 

 run about 5 feet per lb., there will be 

 no trouble from sagging. In my 

 opinion, if this fact had been known 

 3 years ago, wired foundation would 

 not have been used to any extent, as 

 the wires made it much more expen- 

 sive, besides being constantly in the 

 way of taking out queen cells, etc. 

 Wliat first raised the complaint of 

 foundation sagging in the brood cham- 

 ber was the fact that it was made 

 about 6 or 6^ feetper lb., and the wax 

 was about all in the base, but the 

 high-walled mill now obviates that 

 difficulty, if proper care is taken in 

 fastening the foundation in the 

 frames. 



Wyoming, N. Y. 



For tlie American Bee Journal 



The Temperature of Cellars. 



JACOB SPENCE. 



I have been watching the Bee Jour- 

 nal to see more particularly brought 

 up the question (and answer to the 

 question) whether indoor even tem- 

 perature is really desirable or not* It 

 seems to me more reasonable to be- 

 lieve, as the normal condition of bees 

 wintering in hollow trees would be 

 alternating sunshine and frost, that 

 in bee-house or cellar they should, too, 

 have such variations of temperature 

 as would give them a chance to move 

 and again compel them to cluster? 



I value much to have a competent 

 bee-keeper's opinion or judgment — 

 at same time greatly prefer good reason 

 given or well conducted experiment 

 in support of consistent theory. I 

 would vastly like also that we could 

 have a well sifted and selected list of 

 just liow many things are undisputed 

 in regard to wintering, if any V Or if 

 not undisputed, at least generally ac- 

 cepted as essentials, toward bringing 

 the creatures through with life. This 

 looks to me where the dead-lock yet 

 comes in. But surely the combined 

 wisdom and experience now available, 

 ought to be competent to clear away 

 the mist yet around the dominion of 

 wintering. 



Toronto, Canada. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Untested or " Dollar" Queens. 



■W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



Mr. Editor : You say that scores 

 of prudent breeders would, in some 

 particulars, exceed the expenses as 

 given in Rev. A. Salisbury's balance- 

 sheet ; if not too much trouble, give 

 the details, showing in what particu- 

 lars a prudent breeder could be more 

 extravagant V 



You speak of breeders making a 

 specialty of tested queens, and avail- 

 ing themselves of the "untested" 

 feature to work off worthless trash in 

 filling orders for tested queens, pro- 

 vided, that the "worthless trash" pro- 

 duced bees with the requisite number 

 of " stripes." I believe that some of 

 our apiarists are waking up to the 

 fact that the worst fault of a queen is 

 not always that she produces tiybrids. 



You say : " We have long been con- 

 vinced that • waranted ' or ' untested ' 

 queens were not only worthless, but 

 an actual damage to the bee-keeping 

 interest. In reply to this let me ask a 

 question : Suppose that, about July 

 1st. any of our most reliable breeders 

 had 100 queens that had just com- 

 menced to lay. (I know of only one 

 breeder who rears his " dollar " queens 

 differently from his tested queens, 

 and that is Mr. Doolittle. He very ex- 

 plicitly states the fact in his circular, 

 and I honor him for it.) If from such 

 reliable breeder I should order 30 

 "dollar" or untested queens, and 30 

 of these young queens should be sent 

 me ; in ten days more 1 sliould order 

 30 " tested " queens, and, of the 40 re- 

 maining queens, 30 had been found to 

 be purely mated, and they should be 

 sent to me ; now, Mr. Editor, which 

 lot of queens do you think would be 

 the best. I could destroy the mis- 

 mated queens, or, if I chose to keep 

 them, would they not produce as good 

 honey gatherers as the purely mated 

 queen V But, you say tlie breeder can 

 send out, as dollar queens, the ten 

 liybrid queens that he lias left. 

 Granted ; but the breeder who would 

 do this would also send out superannu- 

 ated and worthless queens, when fill- 

 ing orders for tested queens, if he had 

 any such queens that produced three 

 banded bees. 



You say: " That it (the cheap queen 

 traffic) does open a wide door for 

 fraud no one can deny." A queen 

 whose progeny shows the three yellow 

 bands is sold as a tested queen, does 

 not this also open a wide door for 

 fraud V Suppose that the Ohio dealer 

 had ordered 100 tested queens, and 

 suppose further, that he had stipulated 

 that they should be young queens and 

 bred from an imported motlier, if that 

 western apiarist and queen breeder 

 had seen tit to do so, could he not 

 have filled the order with old or 

 " culled " queens V In regard to these 

 " sharp " breeders, who never miss an 

 opportunity to send out old and worth- 

 less queens, isn't it a trifle strange 

 that their names are never given to 

 the public along with their boasts and 

 " chuckles " over their dishonorable 

 practices V In my opinion an honest 



man is honest at all times, and under 

 all circumstances, wliile a breeder 

 tiiat would cheat the purchaser of a 

 " dollar " queen, would not hesitate to 

 defraud a customer that ordered a 

 tested queen. 



Again you say : " But we do not 

 believe, among them all, there is one 

 who is reckless enough to expect to 

 buy a single queen for$l or 100 queens 

 for $65 which would be Ht to rear 

 even untested queens from." Please 

 turn to page 169 of the Bee-Keeper's 

 Exchange for 1881, and you will find 

 tliat il. P. Sayles writes as follows : 

 " As an illustration of American un- 

 tested queens, I will say I received 5 

 strong nuclei from Dr. Brown, of 

 Georgia, price S3 each. All the queens 

 were superior in appearance. Of the 

 untested queens above mentioned, one 

 proved to be impurely mated. From 

 two I reared a few queens which 

 proved beauties in all respects, and 

 but for the fact that their mothers 

 cost but $1 each, they would delight 

 the eyes and fill tlie hives of our 

 customers next season. As it is, they 

 must remain and do service at home. 

 Such experiences as the above, pro- 

 duce the call for the American bee. 

 From my experiments, I sliould 

 certainly prefer the dollar American 

 from one of our reliable breeders, for 

 breeding or any other purpose, to the 

 untested imported queen." 



I have purchased quite a number of 

 both tested and untested queens, and 

 I have found fully as large a propor- 

 tion of good queens among the un- 

 tested as among the tested, and I pre- 

 sume that other purchasers have had 

 tlie same experience. Untested queens 

 are shipped as soon as they commence 

 laying, before the breeder knows any- 

 thing in regard to their qualities, 

 wtiile tested queens are kept at least 

 three weeks, and, if tlie breeder 

 chooses to do so, he can keep, for his 

 own use, the very best among them, 

 leaving the second class queens to be 

 shipped as " tested " queens. 



I cordially agree with you, Mr. 

 Newman, vi-hen you say : " What 

 bee-keepers want is better stock, 

 more lioney, longer lived bees, and 

 certain profits ;" but I firmly believe 

 that these results will never be ob- 

 tained by testing queens in regard to 

 " stripes ;" and I am glad to see such 

 men as Ileddon, Alley, and Doolittle 

 take the position that they have. If 

 ever I felt like saying "amen," it was 

 wlien I read the following, in Mr. 

 Alley's article: "Queens should be 

 reared and tested for business, and 

 not for purity. In ordering queens 

 the purchaser should say : ' Please 

 send ine a (jueen that you know to be 

 very prolific, active, and vigorous; 

 let her be pure Italian if possible, but' 

 send me a good one or none, as I 

 want to obtain honev.' " 



Mr. Alley says that he has more 

 orders for queens than he can pos- 

 sibly fill, and yet he finds the rearing 

 of dollar queens unprofitable. It 

 would liardly seem proper for a young 

 bee-keeper, like myself, to give ad- 

 vice to an old hand like Mr. Alley, 

 but I presume that I may be allowed to 

 suggest tliat he follow the course 

 adopted a year or two ago, by Mr. 



