THE ^MKRICKN: WBW JOURNffl^. 



713 



ing been impure. This rule holds good 

 with fowls, as has been stated. 



With tlie manials it may be claimed 

 by some that impurity is caused by 

 carrjMng the young in the uterus, and 

 thus the blood of the mother becomes 

 contaminated with the blood of the 

 sire ; but with the fowl such cannot he 

 the case, and the impurity, as with a 

 queen-bee, must be caused by absorp- 

 tion of the male sperm. This, of course, 

 is reasoning by analogy, but the pre- 

 sumption is that such reasoning is coi-- 

 rect. I therefore leave it for the 

 readers to decide, if a pure Italian 

 queen mates with a black drone, will 

 her drones after such mating be pure ? 



I have known queens whose progeny 

 would be uniformly marked with the 

 three bands. These bees would be 

 quiet, easily handled, little given to 

 stinging, good niu'ses, e.xcellent honej- 

 gatherers, would cling quietly to their 

 combs while being manipulated, and 

 in every respect were model bees. 



I have known a second queen reared 

 from this first queen, aiid although slie 

 undoubtedly' mated with a pure Italian 

 drone, her bees would be luievenly 

 marked, given to stinging, and when 

 the hive was opened, would be rest- 

 less, crawling here and there in the 

 utmost confusion. It might be said 

 that there was a mistake here, and 

 that this queen mated with a black 

 drone, but I do not think this falling 

 off is always to be accounted for in 

 this way. The queen away in the long 

 ago was contaminated, and tliis con- 

 tamination shows out occasionally. Of 

 course, when a pure queen mates with 

 a black drone, the resulting bees are 

 hybrids, and the}- may also be con- 

 taminated in the above manner. 



It will thus be seen that every bee- 

 keeper who wishes to have pure Italian 

 bees must be vigilant and careful. 

 When he has a queen that produces 

 pure bees, and he rears queens from 

 her, he should .see to it that, when she 

 flies out on her wedding tour, no 

 drones are allowed to II3' whose 

 mothers ai-e not pure, and whose 

 progeny in every instance shows the 

 marking of pure Italian bees. 



It appears from this that those who 

 rear (pieens should pay careful atten- 

 tion to havino; pure drones ; and l)y 

 seeing rigidh'to it that none but pure 

 drones are allowed to mate with these 

 queens, he can build up impure queens 

 into a state of purity little inferior to 

 tho.se which come from sunny Italy. 



I do not tolerate impure queens or 

 drones in mj' apiary, and he who loves 

 bee-cnlture, must breed upwards and 

 not downwai'ds. If this course is pur- 

 sued, he will be amply repaid in many 

 ways. It is also good to occasionally 

 purchase a queen from a distant 



breeder with which to cross the blood, 



and to stop in-breeding. 



Carefully note the progeny of every 

 queen, and tolerate those onlj' which 

 are pure, and which .show in every bee 

 the three distinct yellow bands. Keep 

 your bees pure, and you will not only 

 be rewarded with large crops of honej-, 

 but you will derive a greater pleasure 

 from a calling which is not only hon- 

 orable and lucrative, but elevating and 

 ennobling. 



WINTERING BEES. 



Bc!«t Ag:c for Bee§ to Go into 

 Winter <luarter§. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY J. E. POND. 



As is well known, I always winter 

 my bees on the summer stands, and 

 for j'ears I have met with practically 

 no loss. This I conclude depends more 

 upon prepartion than any other cause, 

 and after repeated experiments I have 

 come to the conclusion that extra-late 

 breeding makes no real difference in 

 results. 



For years I had the idea that late- 

 bred bees must winter better than 

 those that were older, but the theory, 

 plausible though it be, is not borue out 

 by the facts : that is to say, I get no 

 better results in wintering from caus- 

 ing the late-breeding, than I do from 

 allowing strong colonies to manage 

 the matter as they please. 



Of course there are exceptional 

 cases. If a colony is weak in late 

 summer, from any cause, such as a 

 poor queen, or the queen being crowd- 

 ed out by an extra honey-yield, as may 

 happen at times where the gi-eatest 

 care is used, then I may be obliged to 

 strengthen up ni}- colonies for winter, 

 Ijy forcing the queen to the latest pos- 

 sible point of time; but. under ordi- 

 naiw conditions, I tind that bees bred 

 as ordinarily done, with no special at- 

 tempt to force the matter, go through 

 the winter fully as well, and come out 

 in the spring fully as strong, as with 

 forced breeding ; and such being the 

 case, I am of the further opinion that 

 too much interference in that direc- 

 tion, at the hands of inexperienced 

 persons, under the instructions as 

 given at the present time, will prove 

 hazardous, and do more harm than 

 good. 



I do not think that in the hands of 

 experienced men, late breeding will 

 do any harm, but I fear that tho.se 

 who attempt the matter without kni.w-^ 

 ing just how it should be done, will 

 fail in the work. 



Late breeding artificially, is rather 

 against the natural law, and any va- ' 



riation from that law, must be made 

 on certain lines, else faihu'e must or- 

 dinarily result ; for this reason, I ad- 

 vise those only who have large experi- 

 ence, to attempt the matter on a large 

 scale. Those who have no large ex- 

 perience, should go slow, and gain 

 that experience b)- working on a col- 

 ony or two only, until they fullj' un- 

 derstand the matter. 

 North Attleboro, Mass. 



FALL WORK. 



Some Hint»i al>ont Xeeessary 

 Seasonable Work. 



Written for tlic Prairie Farmer 



BV MRS. L. HAKRISON. 



Whatever work has to be done with 

 bees should be done before they enter 

 the quiescent state. The}' should have 

 stores enough to last till flowers bloom, 

 as spring is a poor time to disturb them. 

 Feeding during early spring excites 

 them to an unusual activity, and they 

 fly out, get chilled, and never return. 

 Many a colony, that swarms out in 

 early spring, might be traced to some 

 disturbing cause. I had a nucleus 

 pass a verj' mild winter on its summer 

 stand. I was so pleased about it, that 

 I began to coddle it, and put frames 

 of honey back of the division-board. 

 It soon began to carry the honey into 

 the brood-nest, became very lively, 

 and in a few days swarmed out, and 

 was destroyed while trying to enter a 

 hive containing a large colony. 



" Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 

 the saddest are these, ' It might have 

 been !' " Had I let them alone, thej' 

 might have built up into a good-sized 

 colony by the tiiue flowers bloomed. 

 Bee-keepers have arrived at the con- 

 clusion that the best time to do spring 

 work in the apiary, is to do it in the 

 fall ; or rather, anticipate and do all 

 that is necessary, and not disturb them 

 in the least until warm weather has 

 come to sta}'. 



Frost Not Ifet Injurloas. 



There have been .several frosts, the 

 fir.st occurring in this locality Sept. 27, 

 but not suflicient to. injure grapes or 

 kill tonuito-vines in our garden up to 

 date, Oct. 2. The golden-rods and 

 asters appear to be but little injured, 

 and, as the days are quite warm, may 

 continue to yield a little honey. 



Death of the Drones. 



Bees conclude that the season is 

 over, and that thej- cannot aflbrd such 

 luxuries as gentlemen of leisure 

 Father Langstroth kindly gave him a 

 dav in court, and ably defended him 

 a»'-;iinst his accusers, but his eloquence 



