AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



723 



6 to 12 days old, when ready to mate? 

 It has always appeared to me to be a 

 stupid practice when one finds a colony 

 queenless, or one he desires to divide, to 

 send for a fertile queen when a virgin 

 would do just as well, for we have on one 

 hand a waiting, queenless colony and 

 drones, and on the other a queen in a 

 nuclei, with perhaps less chance to mate 

 her. 



For three years I have been selling 

 virgin queens in England, safe delivery 

 and introduction guaranteed, and I 

 must say G. M. Doolittle and A. I. Root 

 have been rather slow not to have known 

 of this fact, particularly as it was pub- 

 lished in the Canadian Bee Journal, with 

 all the instructions for introducing the 

 queens, which G. M. Doolittle could not 

 have read with any attention, or he 

 would not have asked Brother Jones to 

 "tell us in detail just how he does it." 

 See Gleanings for July 15, page 585. 



The way I do it is as follows: If the 

 party is a new hand, and does not know 

 my system, I send him, three days in 

 advance of queens,' notice that they 

 will be sent in three days, and instruc- 

 tions how to introduce them. Up to this 

 year I sent two days' notice, and queens 

 four days and upwards old, but finding 

 four days old too young, and two days' 

 notice too little for most, I now give 

 three days' notice, and send queens six 

 days old. When my system is under- 

 stood, parties can liave them on receipt 

 of their orders. 



No queen is now started off until she 

 is six days old, which was the age of 

 those I sent you, Mr. Editor, and after 

 traveling from here to you, and safely 

 introduced in accordance with my 

 printed instructions, shall Messrs, Doo- 

 little and Root, or any one else, say that 

 such queens cannot be safely sent a 

 distance, and introduced to other bees? 



My experience this year indicates that 

 my instructions are about infallible. 

 Certainly I have not for three years had 

 a verified report of failure. When there 

 has been a failure, a queen, eggs, or 

 brood, has been found, and when 

 removed a virgin was subsequently intro- 

 duced safely. People have failed and 

 then have written to me asking what to 

 do, after saying what they had done. 

 Some have been indignant when I told 

 them to "remove the other queen from 

 the bees first." This year, with more 

 perfect instructions, pointing out where 

 failures may occur, I have only had one 

 case of reported failure — two queens 

 sent to one party, both of which were 

 lost. Other queens were subsequently 

 found in the hive. 



Mr. Doolittle says, in Gleanings, as 

 quoted above, "bees will often kill a 

 virgin if only combs having no brood are 

 placed in the hive within forty-eight 

 hours after the bees have liberated her." 

 Surely he cannot have tested the matter 

 much, or he would never have made this 

 statement. 



To be successful in sending virgins a 

 distance, they should be six days old, 

 certainly not less than four days, and 

 they must be packed and sent exactly as 

 fertile queens, with a number of worker- 

 bees to keep them company. There is 

 no limit of age above this, only it should 

 be remembered that if a queen does not 

 mate before she is twenty days old, the 

 chances are that she will be a drone- 

 breeder, hence, it is the proper thing 

 when selling these queens to guarantee 

 the mating. Then, if they are too old to 

 mate, the loss falls on the seller. 



I consider that there are great possi- 

 bilities in supplying virgin queens 

 properly bred, as breeders can give their 

 attention to rearing them, and make it 

 not worth a bee-keeper's while to rear 

 his own, particularly when well-bred 

 virgin queens sentoutcan be guaranteed 

 to produce bees that will not suffer from 

 Winter diarrhea. 



I see by the Canadian Bee Journal for 

 August 1, page 606, Mr. Jones replies 

 to Mr. Doolittle's article in Gleanings, 

 saying that the queens were introduced 

 at dusk, but he does not give me the 

 credit of first pointing out that the secret 

 of success in introducing virgin queens 

 lay in giving them when it was dark, but 

 credits it to one of his foremen or pupils. 

 Certainly it was not mentioned by Mr. 

 Jones or any one else until after my 

 "Instructions for introducing virgin 

 queens" had been printed in his journal. 



Sheffield, England. 



Nortli American Bee-Keeiiers' Association. 



Programme of the Convention to be 

 held in Agricultural Hall, Albany, N.Y., 

 Dec. 8 to 11. December 8 will be an 

 informal meeting. 



FIRST DAY. 



Wednesday, Dec. 9, 9 a.m. Presi- 

 dent's Address.— P. H. Elwood, Stark- 

 ville, N. Y. 



Appointment of committees, and 

 routine business. 



10:30 a.m. Some of the Newer Races 

 of Bees— Frank Benton, Washington, D. 

 C. Discussion. Question-box. 



2 p.m. The Prevention of Swarming. 

 — W. F. Clarke, Guelph, Ontario, Can- 



