THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



143 



How Young ftueens are Lost in Q,aeen 



Searing. 



" Mother, dear mother, come homo." 



Mrs. Jennie Atchley, that veteran queen 

 breeder of the "Sunny Southland," writes 

 as follows to the C. B. J. 



"I have discovered that queens do not 

 often get lost on the mating trip; but, upon 

 their return, are apt to enter the wrong hive 

 and get killed. As we keep several hun- 

 dred nuclei together, or in adjacent yards, we 

 have had scores of queens return to the 

 wrong hives, which, being queenless most 

 of the time, they were accepted. But she 

 always destroys the cell that is in the nucleus. 

 I noticed that where there are only one or 

 two hives apart by themselves the queens do 

 not get lost. Even the drones in the drone 

 hive will scatter all over the yard, and queens 

 act pretty nearly the same way. Who ever 

 found a queenless bee-tree? I do not believe 

 that one queen in a hundred gets lost or is 

 captured by birds; they simply return to the 

 wrong hive. and get killed. If I had time I 

 could tell you a long story of what I have 

 learned of queen mating." 



I agree entirely with Mrs. Atchley. I have 

 often noticed that when a nucleus stood oflf 

 by itself, or was in some peculiar hive, there 

 was no loss of young queens. Don't set your 

 nuclei in regular, prim rows. Scatter them 

 about, the more promiscuously the better. 

 If they can be situated in a grove, or 

 among buildings, so that the queens can 

 have something as a landmark, so much 

 the better. 



Bee Journa's and the Supply Business. 



" For the gift blindeth the wise, and pervert«th 

 the words of the righteous." 



It would seem that some apicaltural editor 

 had been bragging that he didn't deal in 

 supplies, if we are to judge from the follow- 

 ing which appears in the Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper for March. 



"It seems that some of our editors are try- 

 to make capital out of the fact that they are 

 not in the supply business. If they are so 

 narrow and contracted that they cannot 

 give good honest advice for fear it would 

 hurt their business, it is well for them that 

 they are not. If we look back over the field 

 of bee journalism we will see that the edi- 

 tors and founders of our best journals, were 

 dealers, and the same editors are to-day 

 giving us the best journals we have devoted 

 to bee culture." 



It seems scarcely possible that the fore- 

 going was aimed at the Review, as that 

 journal has done very little crowing over its 

 lack of a supply trade. In fact, its editor has 

 come so near being in the supply business 

 that he couldn't consistently say very much. 



When the Review was started, its editor 

 was in the queen trade and he has not 

 yet dropped it. When he gave up the 

 production of honey as a business, he adver- 

 tised the fixtures on hand. Several times it 

 has become necessary to take goods in pay- 

 ment for advertising, and then it became 

 equally necessary to advertise and sell them. 

 From actual exp»;rience I have learned 

 that it is very dilficult for the editor and 

 proprietor of a bee journal to never offer 

 anything for sale except his journal: and 

 perhaps there is not so much praiseworthy 

 in keeping bee journalism entirely free from 

 trade as some of us have imagined. Yes, I 

 know that the most of us poor mortals are 

 more or less given to bias and prejudice in 

 favor of our own wares, and I would not for 

 a moment ignore this point, but, on the 

 other hand, the dealer is more in touch 

 with the consumer, he knows what practical 

 men are buying and using, and this expe- 

 rience has its influence upon his journal. If 

 he uses his journal, or rather JHi.suses it, to 

 boom his goods at the expense of truth, or 

 at the expense of space that ought to have 

 been used in giving good, valuable reading 

 matter, there will be a reflex action — it will 

 become a boomerojif/. 



Class journals are a little peculiar in this 

 respect. The men who have had experience 

 in some lines of business are the ones in 

 position to make valuable journals pertain- 

 ing to these kinds of business. A nursery- 

 man can make an excellent horticultural 

 journal. An advertising agent can get up 

 the best journal devoted to advertisins.'; yet 

 he deals in advertising; while the other man 

 sells fruit trees. 



Another point, in making a financial suc- 

 cess of a journal, a dealer or manufacturer 

 can sell his journal at a very low price be- 

 cause it advertises his goods. 



While I have no desire to engage in the 

 supply business, preferring simply the 

 Review and a small apiary, with peace, 

 quietness, happiness and contentment, in 

 place of a large business with its hurly 

 burly, even if accompanied with greater 

 financial success, yet I have had no 

 quarrel, and shall have none, with the man 

 who prefers the latter; as I fully believe 

 that the brightest journal, the one filled 

 with the freshest and most practical ideas, 

 the one with "a touch of Nature" upon its 

 pages, can be made amid the hum of bees 

 and buzz saws. 



