186 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
zinc partition so as to inclose a comb or two on 
each end of the hive, from which the queen may 
issue to meet the drones, and, after returning, 
be kept laying here till she is wanted for use, 
thereby aiding the queen below with brood all 
the time she is being held before she is wanted 
for use ! The possibilities which are before U3 
along the line which this perforated metal may 
bring us, have only begun to dawn upon us. 
Queens can be reared and fertilized by the 
thousands in any apiary, and yet no colony 
be kept queenless for a single moment, nor any 
nuclei made, but all work in the apiary be 
going on just the same as if no queens were 
being reared. The advent of the perforated 
metal is likely to mark an epoch in our history, 
fully equal to that of the honey-extractor, mov- 
able-comb hive, or any thing of the kind. 
Borodino, N.Y. G. M. Doolittle. 
Friend I)., I shall have to own up, and beg 
pardon. It is true, I have not, or had not until 
this morning, June 26, looked at your book more 
than to turn over the pages a little and look at 
the pictures. The reason is. that I am already 
overworked on reading things that 1 must read ; 
but I now find that it would have been far better 
had I neglected some other things, and given 
your book the careful attention it deserves. 
When Ernest made his review notice, he read 
the first six chapters : but I now see that he did 
not get to the most important matter in the 
book at all. I want to say to our readers, that 
friend Doolittle’s book is as interesting, at least 
to me, as any thing I have every read in 
regard to bees, hardly excepting father 
Langstroth’s book when I first got hold of it. 
One reason is, that it is right along on a line 
where I worked for months, several years ago. 
I experimented by placing wire cloth between 
the upper and lower stories. Perforated zinc 
was not then known — at lea<t I had not at my 
command any thing to permit the worker-bees 
to go above an>l hold back the drones and queen ; 
therefore my experiments amounted to but 
little more than having queens raised in nuclei 
above, in strong colonies. These nuclei were 
either shut off entirely by wire cloth, or else 
these drones and queen had free access to the 
upper story. By having upper entrances, I 
succeeded in getting queen-cells built and queens 
fertilized to some extent ; but it did not pay, 
and I was eoniinually annoyed by being obliged 
to disturb the nucleus every time I wished to get 
into the lower story of the parent colony. This 
latter point, if I understand, is still an objection 
to Doolittle's method. I do not know whether 
friend Fooshee had read friend Doolittle’s book 
when he wrote or not ; but it is true, that the 
whole plan is given in very full details in chapter 
7 of Doolittle’s book. In chapter 13 we are told 
how to get queens fertilized in the same hive 
where there is a laying queen. These two 
chapters are certainly worth the price of the 
book to any bee-keeper. In fact, it seems to 
me that every man, woman or child at all inter- 
ested in bees, ought to read friend Doolittle's 
book. The accounts of his discoveries read like 
a book of fiction. In fact, it sounds to me in 
some parts like the Arabian Nights ; and yet it 
is absolutely true, every word of it. You can 
verify it yourself with your own bees. I know it, 
because I have experimented all along in the 
same line. Those who are unfamiliar with this 
intricate, complicated, and wonderful matter of 
securing queens from an egg that would, in the 
usual course of events, have produced a worker- 
bee, will become familiar with the matter by- 
reading friend Doolittle’s story. The whole of 
it seems to have been written in friend Doo- 
little’s happiest vein. I should judge that he 
had given the book great cure and pains ; and I 
believe that is the way he usually does every- 
thing. One reason why I did not give the book 
more attention, I supposed it was a good deal a 
summing-up of what had already given in the 
journals. But a great part of the book contains 
information that lias never been in print before, 
that 1 know of. Of course, it will be more 
interesting to those who raise queens largely 
than to those whose business is mostly honey- 
raising, and who, for the most part, let the 
queens raise themselves. It seems to me, how- 
ever, that we can all of us smile a little when we 
read the book, to think how often its author 
talks about “ nature" and nature's methods. 
Why, the plan he gives is the most unnatural, 
and there is more tinkering with nature, than in 
anything that has ever before been written, and 
yet his methods are in perfect harmony with the 
natural instincts of the bees. — Gleanings in Bee 
Culture. 
©Jtvacts. 
BEEKEEPING IN UTAH. 
FURTHER FACTS IN* REGARD TO THE TERRI- 
TORY AS A HONEY COUNTRY. 
Beekeeping in Utah, as far as I have been able 
to judge, differs but little from beekeeping else- 
where. The hives and fixtures are about the 
same, while the pasturage seems to be more sure 
than in most places. We almost always get some 
surplus, and it is generally through extracting too 
close that we have to feed. Of course the crop 
varies with the season. If we have a dry season, 
and sweet clover is not so abundant, we have a 
light crop. 
The hives used are of various patterns and 
dimensions. The Kidder predominates among 
the farmers and those not considered to be practi- 
cal beekeepers ; while among good beekeepers 
the Simplicity, Heddon, and what we call here 
the “ Short Langstroth,” or a frame that fits 
crosswise of a ten-frame Simplicity, is used. 
The bees are a cross between the black and 
Italian, with a predominance of about two-thirds 
in favour of the latter, although we have had 
importations of other races at different times. 
Our best honey gatherers are generally those that 
are considered a trifle cross. 
