* * * * *
=Honey as Food and Medicine= is just the thing to help sell honey, as
it shows the various ways in which honey may be used as a food and as a
medicine. Try 100 copies of it, and see what good "salesmen" they are.
See the third page of this number of the BEE JOURNAL for description
and prices.
[Illustration: QUERIES AND REPLIES]
Color of Queens Regardless of Mating.
=Query 907.=—If you were buying Italian queens, what color
would you expect them to be, regardless of how they are
mated?—Iowa.
Yellow.—E. FRANCE.
Yellow, of course.—JAS. A. STONE.
The color of Italian queens.—EUGENE SECOR.
At least three-banded.—J. M. HAMBAUGH.
Any color from yellow to dark leather color.—M. MAHIN.
That depends upon what breeder you are buying from.—P. H. ELWOOD.
I should not anticipate. A leather-colored queen is satisfactory to
me.—MRS. L. HARRISON.
Italians vary very much in color. It is hard to tell in a sentence,
what color they should be.—EMERSON T. ABBOTT.
The imported are dark, but American skill has bred them "doubtless
pure" to a very bright yellow to the tip.—J. H. LARRABEE.
I should expect them to be somewhere from light yellow to nearly black,
and should prefer a dark leather color.—C. C. MILLER.
I should certainly expect them to show three well-developed yellow
bands, but would prefer the dark, to the very light yellow queens.—C.
H. DIBBERN.
If I "were buying Italian queens," I should _expect_ them to be the
color of Italians. I prefer such as are known as "leather-colored."—A.
B. MASON.
The color is not sure proof, but they should have three distinct yellow
bands. They may be brown, light or dark, and still be Italians.—MRS.
J. N. HEATER.
Anywhere from a light yellow to a full black, and with all sorts of
shades and markings between. Queens may be bred so as to be nearly
uniform in color and markings, and the same brood, with a little
difference in manipulation, will produce queens several shades
darker.—J. A. GREEN.
We do not care for color, if they have the yellow rings, and their
workers are gentle and stay on the combs when we raise them out of the
hive.—DADANT & SON.
Yellow, or a dark brown color. However, in rare instances I have
seen queens as dark as black queens produce fine 3-banded Italian
bees.—MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY.
If I were buying "Italian queens," and knew nothing of their mating,
I would expect the three yellow bands, with the other Italian
characteristics.—H. D. CUTTING.
I would have to depend on the advertisement of the breeder, and expect
what he promised; it might be light or leather-colored, three or five
banded.—S. I. FREEBORN.
Anywhere from nearly black to a nearly yellow abdomen, just in accord
with their being reared from an imported queen, or the mother of
5-banded bees.—G. M. DOOLITTLE.
Italian queens vary from almost coal-black to almost golden yellow, and
in purchasing many I should expect to get almost all shades of color
between those two extremes.—R. L. TAYLOR.
I should expect them to show a yellow abdomen all except the tip. But
it is said on good authority that some of the imported Italian queens
of undoubted purity are quite dark all over.—G. L. TINKER.
Pure Italian queens vary very much in color from bright yellow to dark.
Imported queens generally average darker than homebred. I have had some
nearly as dark as some black queens.—J. P. H. BROWN.
I should prefer a dark strain, and would expect each worker to be
marked with three yellow bands. I have never found the very bright
yellow bees so good as gatherers, though usually very amiable.—A. J.
COOK.
Of at least three bands of golden yellow; with legs and lower part of
the abdomen same color—balance, grayish black. The queen should show
nearly the entire abdomen of orange yellow; though the shade varies
greatly.—WILL M. BARNUM.
I would expect them to have yellow or leather-colored abdomens, except
perhaps some dark color at the tip. _Stripes_ around the abdomen is
a sign of black blood. But sometimes pure Italian stock will show
outcroppings of black blood, and this is often seen in nearly black
queens, but such "outcrops" did do it when I reared queens for sale.
Remember, the Italian is a "thoroughbred," not a pure-blood race.—G.
W. DEMAREE.
I should not care what the color would be. I have found very black
queens give very light-colored workers, and _vice versa_. Nothing can
be told in this direction from the color of the queen; the mating drone
usually governs the color.—J. E. POND.
[Illustration: CONTRIBUTIONS]
Selling Extracted Honey at Retail.
_Written for the American Bee Journal_