AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



271 



Bees and Buttef flies. 



Butterflies aie merry things. 

 Gaily painted are their wings; 

 And they never carry stings. 

 Bees are grave and busj' tilings, 

 Gold their jackets, brown their wings. 

 And they always carry stings. 

 Yet— isn't it extremely funny ? 

 Bees, not buttefflies, get honey. 



Topics of Interest. 



HniliiiEiery in the Queen Trade, 



C. J. ROBINSON. 



Ever since the introduction of Italian 

 bees into this country, in September, 

 1859, the breeding and sale of queens, 

 that took rise in 1861, has been a lively 

 and competitive business. Mr. J. P. 

 Mahan, of Philadelphia, was the first 

 who succeeded in rearing queens for sale, 

 which he bred from his imported Italian 

 bees ; and he was the first to advertise 

 them. The same season the Rev. L. L. 

 Langstroth, Richard Colvin, and three 

 or four others advertised queens for sale. 



Every one of the breeders I have 

 alluded to were strictly reliable men, who 

 would scorn to be guilty of any species of 

 fraud or deception. I received queens 

 from Mr. Langstroth and from the first 

 that Mr. Mahan sent out. It was a 

 great satisfaction to feel sure that the 

 queens received from those breeders 

 were just such as the breeders repre- 

 sented. 



Now, " how changed the gold.'" I will 

 not claim that all of the breeders of 

 queens are not honorable, but some of 

 those who have ordered qneens from noted 

 breeders have received inferior speci- 

 mens, and of a different breed from the 

 one ordered. One of the many cases of 

 this kind, is that of a gentleman of San- 

 dusky, Ohio. In 1887 he ordered a 

 Holy Land (jueen of a noted breeder, 

 who advertised extensively, and when 

 progeny of the queen he received on that 

 order hatched, they were identified as 

 Italians by competent experts. Mr. 



certifies that he mailed a few of 



the daughters of that queen to the 

 breeder who sold him the queen for a 

 Holy Land bee, and asked for an expla- 

 nation. The only response he received 

 fro^ the breeder was: "Queens and 

 bees received ; thev are nice bees," 



Bee-keepers who order queens may , 

 well distrust those breeders who puff the ' 

 queens they offer for sale. 



There is confusion among bee-keepers 

 as to the identity of the differently named 

 bees, and their comparative merits. 



The most recent humbug is the puffing 

 of yelloiv Carniolans. Whoever consid- 

 ers for a moment the term "yellow Car- 

 niolan bees," will realize that they are a 

 counterfeit. Do readers fail to note the 

 fact that two different races or types of 

 bees cannot be natives of one country ? 

 If the native, or typical, bees of Carniola 

 are not yellow, what is to be said of 

 those who have invented the name, and 

 advertise and puff the yellow Carniolan, 

 which can only be a hybrid bee — a cross 

 between yellow bees and the Carniolan 

 bees ? 



Now, let us see what the record 

 proves : Mr. E. L. Pratt has boomed 

 "yellow Carniolan bees." He has long 

 claimed to be a practical expert in bee 

 matters, and well posted — a teacher in 

 all matters pertaining to bees. Let us 

 review his statements concerning the 

 identity of the Carniolan bees. On page 

 78of the Bee-Keepers' Advance for May, 

 1890, Mr. Pratt recorded the following : 

 "Bro. Mason, we think you make a mis- 

 take when you say that pure Carniolans 

 show yellow bands. Pure Carniolan bees 

 should slioiv no- yelloiv bands,'' and he 

 emphasized the last sentence by italics. 

 Also, on page 585, of the American Bee 

 Journal, for 1890, Mr. Pratt penned a 

 sentence, which reads as follows : 

 "'Purity' should be the watch- word, 

 and I claim that the pure Carniolan 

 should show no yellow." Mr. Pratt 

 wrote what is here quoted prior to the 

 invention of his yellow Carniolans, and 

 he is responsible for the discordant state- 

 ments, which form a discrepancy not 

 possible to be reconciled by careful con- 

 sideration. 



I have no interest in the queen trade 

 more than to caution purchasers. I 

 repeat, that there are no real "yellow 

 Carniolan bees'" — no such bee can be 

 shown, for none ever existed. From 

 whence were the so-called yellow Car- 

 niolan bees obtained ? 



I am aware, too, that some purchasers 

 also attempt to practice fraud on 

 breeders and importers. I know of one 

 who ordered imported Carniolan queens 

 of a German importer, and attempted to 

 cheat him out of a queen. I have before 

 me the letter of the party who ordered 

 the queen of the importer. He says: "I 

 lost the queen because I had nowhere to 

 put her, and was not ready; you must 

 send me another'" — demanding another 



