376 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the brood chambers. I think I may 

 recover some of them this summer in 

 the bee-trees. At this time tlie water 

 is nearly out of our lield, and we are 

 busy phinting cotton and corn, but I 

 fear too late to do much good. It is a 

 ffloomy sight, to see our beautiful 

 fields of cane and cotton left in such 

 a horrible condition — fencing and 

 houses taken ofl by the miglity power 

 Of the water. 

 New Iberia, La., May 25, 1882. 



For the American Bee Journal 



Dollar (Jiieeus— The Place they Occupy. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



After all that I have written upon 

 the subject of dollar queens, I fear 

 that I am not exactly understood. 

 Mr. Ileddon says: "Yes, but my 

 circular tells you that they are reared 

 by another party, tlie gentleman who 

 bought my Glenwood apiary one year 

 ago ; one who thinks, like Mr. Hutch- 

 inson, that he has the genius to rear 

 them as good as they can be reared, 

 and find a profit on them at one dol- 

 lar." Now I have never intended to 

 convey the idea that all of the dollar 

 queens sent out by myself or by other 

 breeders, are " as good as can be 

 reared ;" although I do think that 

 many of them are as good as any 

 queens that have been reared. The 

 only point that I have tried to make, 

 and tlie one to which 1 have clung so 

 persistently, is that " dollar" queens 

 are the equals of the so-calied " test- 

 ed " queens. When the Uee Jouu- 

 NAt says that " the best is the cheap- 

 est," I agree with it in the main, and 

 1 presume that it will also agree with 

 me, that "■ circumstances alter cases." 

 If we can believe our leading queen- 

 breeders, the only difference belweeu 

 dollar and tested queens is tliat the 

 latter are known to be purely mated, 

 while, with the care given to the mat- 

 ter by all reliable breeders, the chan- 

 ces for dollar queens to be impurely 

 mated are very small. Mr. Geo. W. 

 House, in the Exchange for April, 

 says, and I agree with him, " that a 

 properly tested queen (one that we 

 would be willing to breed from), can- 

 not be much short of two years old. 

 We want to see the qualities of her 

 daughters and grand daugliters, be- 

 fore running her for queen-rearing, 

 and for such a queen would expect to 

 pay a good price." Prof. Cook says : 

 " In testing, Mr. Hutchinson only 

 waits to see if the requisite number of 

 bands are present, i would have him 

 wait to see it the requisite number of 

 eggs, bees, and pounds of honey were 

 forthcoming," and I agree with him. 

 Choice queens, reared from the best 

 stock, and selected with great care 

 from a lot of queens that liave been 

 kept and thoroughly tested a year or 

 two, cannot be sold for $1.00 each, nor 

 for $2.00, or even $3.00 each, and the 

 breeder receive pay for his time and 

 trouble ; and I don't know as any one 

 thinks, e.xpects, or has asserted that 

 they can, 1 know that I do not and 

 shall not. The breeder who wishes 

 choice queens to breed from, must 

 buy a lot of dollar queens, or a lot of 



the so-called tested queens, test them 

 in regard to their best business quali- 

 ties, select the best to breed from, and 

 then select again from their progeny, 

 and so on ; or else he must buy choice 

 queens of some reliable breeder, pay- 

 ing him tor the trouble and time of 

 testing them. The breeder of dollar 

 queens, or of the so-called tested 

 queens, can stock his own and his 

 neighbors' apiaries with choice stock, 

 he can rear his queens and drones in 

 the best po-ssible manner from the 

 best stock that can be olutained, and 

 then he must send out, as dollar 

 queens, all queens that show no im- 

 perfections during the ten or twelve 

 days that they remain in his yard, 

 and, as tested queens, all queens that 

 show no imperfections and prove to 

 be purely milted. Some of the queens 

 that he sends out will probably be as 

 good queens as it is possible for him 

 to rear, while it is quite likely that 

 others will not be very valuable ; the 

 breeder does not know which queens 

 will turn out prizes or which will 

 prove blanks, that is something for 

 his customers to find out. There is, 

 however, no deception about the mat- 

 ter, as it is understood that the only 

 guarantee in regard to dollar queen's 

 is that they are reared in a proper 

 manner from good stock, and are lay- 

 ing queens. Tested queens are the 

 same except that they are known to be 

 purely mated. 



If a bee-keeper secures an excellent 

 breeding queen, paying a handsome 

 price for her, and then rears queens 

 from her, they are, virtually, dollar 

 queens ; they must be tested before it 

 is known what they are. Now, then, 

 what difference does it make whether 

 a bee-keeper rears his untested queens 

 or buys them V 



When one has a large apiary as has 

 Mr. Heddon, where queens can be 

 kept doing duty in full colonies while 

 they are being tested, the rearing and 

 selling of tested (jueens for §2.00 or 

 $3.00 each would probably be more 

 profitable than the rearing and sell- 

 ing for SI. 00 of queens that had just 

 commenced laying; but where one's 

 apiary, with the exception of a tew 

 colonies for building queen cells, is 

 divided up into nuclei, the case is dif- 

 ferent ; as, after working two or three 

 days, tlie queen has the combs ot her 

 nucleus filled with eggs, and then can 

 do nothing but "loaf" until the first 

 batch of eggs hatches out into young 

 bees. 



Rogersville, Mich. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Light versus Dark Itnllaus. 



AAKON BENEDICT. 



I am uware that it is much easier 

 for the careless breeder to rear dark 

 than light-colored Italians, hence 

 they are ready to praise the kind of 

 bees they liave, and if queen-breeders, 

 they can send out all the hybrid 

 queens they can rear, if dark. Now, 

 1 believe if these advocates of dark 

 Italians had queens that were light 

 yellow, and produced all light yellow 

 bees, they would sing a different tune. 



and their queens would give better 

 satisfaction to imrchaseis. They 

 would find that the yellow bees would 

 gather quite as much honey as dark 

 ones. It is the instinct of all honey 

 bees to gather honey, if it is to be 

 found. 



I believe, and know, that bees can 

 be bred as to size, color and docility ; 

 the larger the bee, the more docile. 

 This holds good with the common 

 black bees. Some are large, of a gray 

 color; then there is a small, short, 

 verjf black bee, which is very vin- 

 dictive, and goes for horses, dogs, cats 

 and chickens in a way that makes 

 things lively. A cross between those 

 sniall bees and Italians produces a 

 bee that smoke, if once aroused, will 

 not subdue, and whoever handles 

 them will be obliged to have on 

 double protection, and then if they do 

 not find a way inside to a tender spot 

 it will be a wonder. A cross between 

 the larger gray bee makes a tolerable 

 decent hybrid. I believe it should be 

 the motto of every queen-breeder to 

 breed from the very lightest queens 

 that produce very light workers ; use 

 drones only from such queens, and 

 improve as fast as possible ; having in 

 view, first, the lightest colored bees ; 

 second, large ; third, docility. By 

 careful breeding to these three points, 

 I believe we might soon have a fixed 

 type, or " the coming bee." 



Bennington, O. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Clamps for Wintering. 



E. D. MALLORY. 



We had 6 colonies in Langstroth 

 hives, which, after some deliberation, 

 we carried into the cellar. I say de- 

 liberation, because it was never my 

 opinion that was the best method of 

 wintering, although recommended as 

 such by so many of our best bee-keep- 

 ers, and it was through their expe- 

 rience and judgment that I was led to 

 adopt the plan, as we had only been 

 keeping bees about 7 years at that 

 time, and, consequently, knew but 

 little about winter management prac- 

 tically. About the same time that 

 we removed the above hives to the 

 cellar, we purchased 3 colonies of 

 hybrids in old box hives, one of which 

 was quite strong, another very weak, 

 and the third fair ; with these we re- 

 solved to try clamps. We placed 

 them on their bottom-boards about 4 

 inches from the ground, and banked 

 earth arouncbthem about one-fourth 

 the way up the hives ; at the entrance 

 we placed conductors about 20 inches 

 long, so that the bees could have free 

 egress whenever they chose to go out; 

 this done, we drove stakes into the 

 ground and put boards behind them 

 to hold the straw and chaff, with 

 which we packed them to the depth of 

 from a foot to a foot-and-a-half, put- 

 ting a cover over all to keep out the 

 wet. Here we left them to find the 

 result later on. In the latter part of 

 February we made an examination of 

 our colonies, commencing with the 

 box hives, which we found in fine 

 condition— dry, evident signs of 



