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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



baiting the bees in the woods with honey 

 and following them up to their trees, 

 which are then robbed in a manner 

 similar to that described above. 



Punic Bees, ae Qiieeii Trade, Etc, 



E. L. PJRATT. 



A queen breeder stands as a target for 

 more unjust criticism than a honey pro- 

 ducer, or a manufacturer or dealer in 

 bee supplies. He is obliged to answer 

 for the inexperienced, and to shoulder 

 the sins of an army of growling, dissatis- 

 fied persons, because of their limited 

 knowledge of the bee business. 



Here, for instance, is a man who has 

 received his first queen in good condi- 

 tion, and has been successful in intro- 

 ducing her. He follows directions to the 

 letter, and waits patiently until he sees 

 the beautiful progeny of his lovely 

 queen. He writes to the breeder and 

 tells him of his success and pleasure. 



Now, if this same man had by chance 

 received his queen dead, had lost her in 

 introducing, or had the queen been 

 injured in the mails, or when being 

 packed for shipment, or had any one of 

 a hundred other ills befallen her, what a 

 growler this same man would have been. 

 In fact, his tone would be just the 

 opposite of that in the first case. 



It should be thoroughly understood 

 what a long journey it is from an egg to 

 a laying queen in a customer's hive some 

 500 or 600 miles away. When a 

 breeder is rearing queens by the thou- 

 sand and shipping in all directions, can 

 he be blamed if a few of the queens are 

 not up to the standard when received ? 



I believe that customers are entitled 

 to full value for their money. If they 

 send money for a queen of certain 

 requirements, the breeder is in duty 

 bound to furnish therewith the desired 

 bee. It is his duty, not only to mail 

 such a queen, but to see to it that she is 

 safely introduced, and that she gives 

 entire satisfaction. 



On the other hand, it is the purchaser's 

 duty to have patience, and if the queen 

 does not happen to be first-class, to 

 make his complaint to the breeder, and 

 in a gentlemanly and business-like man- 

 ner. If the breeder's directions are not 

 followed, the introduction is at the 

 customer's risk. If the queen is lost by 

 flying away, due to careless opening of 

 the cage, it should be the customer's 

 loss. Most queen breeders guarantee 

 safe arrival of queen, safe introduction. 



purity, and satisfaction. They expect 

 customers to allow them to replace all 

 queens that by accident, or from other 

 causes prove inferior, and thus show to 

 the customer a fair sample of their stock. 

 It is to the advantage of the breeder 

 to send only fine queens to all, and thus 

 secure customers for future orders, 

 besides making new ones by the adver- 

 tising through visitors to the customer's 

 apiary. If this is "humbuggery," then 

 I am indeed "in it." 



THE PUNIC BEE. 



The Canadian Bee Journal contains a 

 communication advising its readers not 

 to take any stock in the Punic bees. 

 The editor's advice is to let some other, 

 fellow try them first. 



The Punic bees are to stand in 

 America entirely upon their own merits. 

 Let us see whether they stand or fall ! 



Editor Newman thinks that one out of 

 four virgins is a poor result, but he does 

 not seem to realize that one out of four 

 from England is equal to a very much 

 larger percentage of safely introduced 

 virgin queens but a few days old from 

 points not more than 24 to 48 hours 

 distant by mail. Eighty-five per cent is 

 good enough, and that is about the way 

 fresh virgins will pan out all through 

 the warm months when there are plenty 

 of drones flying. 



I have been asked several times about 

 the swarming of the Punics. All other 

 races cease feeding their queen, egg 

 laying stops entirely, and the bees do 

 nothing for from three to ten days, 

 according to the race and the condition 

 of the weather. Punic queens lay eggs 

 up to the hour the swarm issues, and 

 the bees work just as hard during the 

 entire excitement. 



The first swarm is usually very small, 

 and the queen, being heavy with eggs, 

 falls to the ground when the swarm 

 issues. If the bee-keeper is near, she 

 can be picked up and caged, like a 

 clipped queen. This condition of the 

 queen causes the bees to cluster low and 

 settle quickly. 



When hived they at once go to work 

 in earnest. The after-swarms are larger 

 than the prime swarm, and are liable to 

 contain several queens. 



Punics never swarm without leaving 

 queen-cells. They will not swarm from 

 empty combs, and a spell of bad weather 

 will very often cause them to give up the 

 notion entirely. 



With proper management, at the 

 proper time, Punic bees will give less 

 trouble at swarming time than Italians. 



Beverly, Mass. 



