[For the American Bee Journal.]
Queen-Breeding for Improvement of Race.
Mr. Editor:—In the September number of your excellent Journal, page 58, Mr. Alley accuses the writer of “pitching into him.” But I find he can still hold up his head and “pitch” back, as well as raise cheap queens; so he is not badly wounded. But, to be serious, I most sincerely regret that any sentence in my article, in the August number, was so worded that it was thought to be personal. It has been a favorite project with me to see the honey bee improved to its highest possible extent. And even Mr. Alley concedes the principle for which I contend. For, says he, “I pay the highest prices for my breeding queens, and now have queens of my own raising that I would not sell for fifty dollars.” This is a higher price than I proposed for such queens, five or six times over. He says he will take my whole lot at my figures, if I have such queens as I describe. I would not like to spare them, Mr. Alley, for I value them as highly as you do your best queens!
I do not doubt that every man who gets a queen from Mr. Alley, or from any other man who sends the genuine breed, gets the worth of his money; but what I did mean to say, was, that if a man wishes to get the highest grade of Italians, let him get one that has been raised from the best selected stock, under the eye of an experienced apiarian, and thoroughly tested before she is used as a breeder. Then the buyer will know what he is getting, and would find his purchase cheap at twenty dollars—rather than one that was untested and raised at haphazard, at two dollars and a half.
I repeat—Let the Queen-Raising Brotherhood unite to state these facts fairly and squarely before the world; and let men who believe in sharp practice keep such things out of sight.
I, too, if ever I go into the business again, will sell queens at $2.50, sending them out as soon as they begin to lay eggs, to any number ordered, guaranteeing that all the workers shall show three yellow bands, when filled with honey. But, if tested and guaranteed as breeders, I would ask ten dollars each. If I was going to commence Italianizing an apiary, I would send to some responsible man, such as Langstroth, Colvin, Quinby, Gallup, Mrs. Tupper, or Mr. Alley; and in the room of sending $2.50, I would say, “fix your own price, but send me the best queen you can select!” for I would rather have such a one than four of average untested queens. And putting the seller upon his honor, I think I should get the best, where all were good.
Others may differ from me in opinion, yet I have given the public my views honestly.
Mr. George C. Silsby has my thanks for his courteous criticism of my article. Mr. J. E. Pond likewise, though he misapprehends my intention to attack any one but sharpers, who sell for pure Italians what no one, qualified to judge, would call even a good hybrid. I know nothing of Mr. Alley only through his advertisement, and of course knew nothing of the quality of his bees. But while I know nothing of him, I do know men who sent to where it was most convenient and cheapest, and straightway they became queen-breeders, and supplied the country round, in turn, with genuine queens. It would take an expert often, to detect a particle of Italian breed in many such colonies that I know of.
In such cases, often, the queen-breeder himself did not know that he was selling a spurious article. I may have been foolish, but I did send to Italy for stock that cost me twenty dollars each, when I could have procured stock from Mr. Langstroth for five dollars each. The same year I procured a queen from Mr. Colvin for fifteen dollars, tested, in preference; and the very next year I sent fifteen dollars to Mr. Langstroth, for a tested and superior queen, when he would have sold me an untested one for half the money. I think still that the money was well invested.