THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



775 



hatched. Wlien I find these circum- 

 ataiices existing I remove the cage and 

 close the liive without fear ot the 

 ■queen being disturbed. 



I have used the above plan fornear- 

 ly 3 years, and have not lost a single 

 queen. If I wish to exchange queens 

 in the yard, which are not v.dued very 

 highly ; or wish to give a queen from 

 a nucleus to a queenless colony, I sim- 

 ply take the frame having the queen 

 on, with all the adhering bees and put 

 it in the center of the queenless colony. 

 In this way 1 save much valuable 

 time, both to me and the bees, and do 

 not lose 1 queen in i!0. ]5ut when a 

 queen has come from a distance, or in 

 case of a valuable queen, 1 know of no 

 better way than the plan lirst given. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



The Statistical Report for Maine. 



J. A. MOKTON, M. D. 



Dear Editor— I owe to the bee- 

 keepers an apology for the imperfect 

 and incomplete report of bees and 

 honey for Maine, as given to the Na- 

 tional Society. I did not have the 

 blanks, or any definite instructions 

 what to do ; and I vvaited so long that 

 I liad scarcely any time to even do 

 wiiat I did. I may in a future com- 

 munication give you some idea of the 

 industry of the remaining 7 counties 

 of the State. All or nearly all I gave 

 was obtained by 2 days hard work at 

 our State fair, and I was sick while 

 there and just able to scribble off 

 what I could before 5 a. m., Monday. 

 Oct. 2d, and mail it at that liour, ac- 

 tually not having time to read it over 

 after writing. So when you gave the 

 slight notice in your next issue and 

 punched us on the " old fogy 30 per 

 cent, loss in wintering," I felt ashamed 

 but when in a recent number you gave 

 the full report, table and all, I felt 

 better, but sorry 1 had not obtained 

 the report for the whole 16 counties, 

 and given a little more time and care 

 to my report. I also thank you for its 

 insertion,— and pledge my word, if I 

 can have the necessary blanks and in- 

 structions, to do all I can for a full 

 and correct report of every town in 

 Maine, either in assisting our Vice 

 President or on a sub-committee under 

 your supervision. Cannot a postal 

 card be ruled and printed with head- 

 ings so as to give all needed informa- 

 tion from bee men to the committee, 

 also full instructions on aslipof paper 

 printed and the card with slip of in- 

 structions mailed in unsealed envelope 

 either from vice president or some 

 other person appointed for the pur- 

 pose, to at least one bee-man in each 

 town, and he could collect the statis- 

 tics, lilliiig the blank cards and for- 

 ward without any additional postageV 

 This plan, if practicable, it seems to 

 me, would involve the least expense 

 to tlie society and none to each bee- 

 man returning the postal cards. If 

 one card is not enough use two, one 

 in the spring and one in the fall. IIow 

 does the idea strike you V These cards 

 could have either your name and ad- 

 dress or that of vice president or sub- 



committee of each State or county all 

 printed ready to mail. Then if re- 

 turned to the" latter they could all be 

 condensed on one card or on blanks 

 and returned to headquarters. It 

 seems to me this plan would be less 

 expensive and more direct than that of 

 Mr. Terrell. 



I think more and more of the Jour- 

 nal every week it comes. I shall be 

 willing to pay something towards aid- 

 ing in some plan to attain the desired 

 end, in bee statistics. 



J. A. Morton. 



Bethel, Maine, Nov. 22, 1SS2. 



[Yes ; if we can find at least one 

 bee-man in every county who could 

 and would get the desired information 

 and send it to tlie State vice-president, 

 and he to the committee, it would be 

 a cheap plan. But, we fear, the if 

 ruins the proposition. We shall see, 

 however, and the future will deter- 

 mine. Dr. Miller is, we are informed, 

 the chairman of the committee, and 

 when the committee are called to- 

 gether and have a deliberation on the 

 subject, the several plans suggested 

 will have due consideration. 



Since the above was in type, the fol- 

 lowing, from the Secretary of the 

 State Association, has come to hand. 

 Maine is setting an example to all the 

 Vice Presidents of the National Soci- 

 ety and Secretaries of State Associa- 

 tions, which we hope will be followed 

 by those officers in every State in 

 America : 



Wishing to make out as full a report 

 as possible of the number of colonies 

 of bees owned, and honey, wax, etc., 

 taken for the past year in the State of 

 Maine ; bee-keepers will confer a favor 

 on the bee-keeping fraternity by till- 

 ing out the following and sending the 

 same to William Hoyt, Secretary of 

 the Maine Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 Biplev, Me. 



1. Name. 



2. P. O. Address. 



3. Number of colonies owned Octo- 

 ber 1, 1881. 



4. Number of colonies owned May 

 1,1882. '•^•9 



5. Number of colonies owned Octo- 

 ber 1, 1882. 



6. Number of colonies showing yel- 

 low bands. 



7. Number of colonies of blacks. 



8. Number of colonies sold during 

 the year. 



9. Number of colonies bought dur- 

 ing the year. 



10. Number of queens sold. 



11. Number of queens bought. 



12. Number of pounds of honey 

 taken. 



13. Number of pounds of wax 

 taken. 



14. Kind of hive used or preferred. 



15. How and where wintered. 



We hope that the matter of obtain- 

 ing correct statistics will receive that 

 attention due to such an important 

 subject. — Ed.] 



From the Apiculturlst. 



The Cheap Queen Traffic. 



G. W. DJi.MAREE. 



I have taken no part heretofore in 

 the discussion of the subject pertain- 

 >ing to the traffic in "cheap queens," 

 because I have regarded much that 

 has been said on the subject as a spe- 

 cies of cheap advertisements. 1 have 

 wondered at the patience of the pro- 

 prietors whose columns liave been 

 tilled with arguments, pro and foii, as 

 to whether or not it pays to rear 

 queens at a certain price. It is not a 

 matter of general interest to bee- 

 keepers, as to whether or not queens 

 can be reared for SI at a proHt. That 

 is a matter which concerns the breeder 

 alone. There is A phase of the cheap 

 queen business, hovv'ever, which does 

 concern every intelligent bee-keeper, 

 and that is as to whether or not the 

 slipshod methods so commonly prac- 

 tised in queen-rearing and queen-bar- 

 tering has been conducive to the best 

 interests of bee-culture. 



Although many have disposed of the 

 subject in short order, by either con- 

 demning or approving of it, to my 

 mind the subject is not so easily dis- 

 posed of. 



If we are willing to admit that bee- 

 culture is yet in a " crude state." and 

 are content for it to remain so for 

 years to come, why, then, the tons of 

 honey obtained and put upon tlie mar- 

 ket of late years would indicate that 

 the "cheap traffic in queens" has 

 done wonders for bee-cultnre. 



But there is another view of the 

 subject. Many of us believe that if 

 the breeders of queens had, all this 

 time, been pursuing a more scientific 

 course in selecting and breeding, with 

 one eye to the very best stock that can 

 be obtained, and iiad been less selfish 

 and greedy, and more determined to 

 send out hone but the best queens, 

 bee-culture would be far in advance of 

 what it is to-day. 



Most persons seem to be unable to 

 perceive that there is quite a differ- 

 ence between the shoddy " dollar 

 queen " business, and the legitimate 

 business of rearing and selling either 

 tested or untested queens to suit cus- 

 tomers. 



" Dollar queen" is a shoddy phrase, 

 borrowed from the trashy dollar store 

 business. It means about this : " I 

 have many hundreds of articles to sell, 

 they are worth from little or nothing 

 up to one or two dollars, but these ar- 

 ticles which are worth one or two 

 dollars, are in comparison to those 

 that are worth little or nothing, about 

 as one is to a hundred. My customers 

 must take them all, you can have any 

 of them for a dollar, you may get a 

 bargain." 



\'ou will see that the shoddy dollar 

 c|ueen business requires of you to buy 

 with your eyes shut, and take any- 

 thing "that is " horn alive." The wise 

 man suggested that no man was weak 

 enough to expect to capture a bird by 

 laying the " snare in its sight," but it 

 would appear that intelligent bipeds 

 can be taken in in that way. 



The generality of mankind have a 

 weakness for "cheap goods," and 



