118 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



while I was examining: them. The other colony, 

 Italian, have 3 frames of brood in all stages, with 

 lots of young bees crawling- out, and plenty pf bees 

 that look as if they had been out two or three weeks. 

 The temperature in my cellai- has not reached over 

 45°, and has been down as low as the freezing-point 

 for only a day or so. The outside doors had no pro- 

 tection, and one could look right outdoors through 

 the crack around the casing, and the temperature 

 outside was 20° below zero; but the most of the 

 time the temperature will average 44°. The bees in 

 the cellars are very quiet — not a sound can be 

 heard. No bees are dropping upon the cellar bot- 

 tom, and very few under the hives. Their bodies 

 are but slightly distended, and their excrement is 

 in a dry and healthy state. Some say that rearing 

 brood in the cellar causes uneasiness and dysentery, 

 and spring dwindling; but if this be so, others must 

 have different bees from mine. I have never as yet 

 had a case of spring dwindling, nor any dysentery. 

 My bees rear brood nearly all winter; never get un- 

 easy, and always come out strong in spring. My 

 experience is, that, to have bees winter successfully 

 without loss, and come out strong in spring, with- 

 out spring dwindling, they must be wintered in such 

 a shape that they will rear brood from the last of 

 December. Where bees can do this, and do it right, 

 my friends, you have the secret of successful win- 

 tering. Such is my experience and opinion. 



Frank Boomhower. 

 Gallupville, Scho. Co., N. Y., Feb. 11, 1883. 



If you will excuse the liberty, friend B., I 

 would suggest that your success has been at 

 least partially accidental. You know there 

 are many localities in which spring dwin- 

 dling seems unknown, and there are many 

 who, after having boasted for years they 

 had never seen any thing of the kind, have 

 afterward had the conceit (this is the word 

 tJipy used in telling about it) taken out of 

 them, by most grievous l()sses. I shouldn't 

 be surprised if even George Grimm should 

 meet with heavy losses some time ; but his 

 excellent cellars and management may be 

 proof against it. If you continue to winter 

 with open cracks through that cellar-door, I 

 shall be surprised if you do not meet with 

 losses. I believe it is well known, that bees 

 sometimes rear brood all winter; but it is 

 equally well known, that they at other times 

 do not start brood until they are set out of 

 doors, in March or April ; and, if I am cor- 

 rect, these latter are not as apt to " spring 

 dwindle." 



EXTRA-PURE QUEENS. 



DOOLITTLE ANSWERS QUESTIONS. 



eN page 579, Dec. Gleanings, friend Hutchin- 

 son asks questions, and says, " Now, friend 

 ■ Doolittle, about those extra-pure queens. I 

 have read the references that you gave in regard to 

 the matter, but not one of them mentions a queen 

 whose daughters did not produce one or two band- 

 ed bees, or hybrids. The daughter of each won- 

 derful queen produced no black bees, but nothing is 

 said as to whether they produced hybrids. Like 

 friend Hoot, I have seen queens whose daughters 

 produced no black bees, but I have yet to see the 

 queen whose daughters produce no one or two 

 banded bees, if they had mated with a black drone." 



Now I wish to speak of this last sentence first, for 

 the reason that friend Root and others used to tell 

 us that, if a pure Italian queen mated with a black 

 drone, a part of such queen's progeny would be 

 black, and a part Italian. This was the doctrine 

 preached by nearly every queen-breeder ten years 

 ago, and I believed it was true till that '■'■wonderful" 

 queen came from H. A. King, then of Nevada, Ohio. 

 She was introduced into a colony the latter part of 

 July, 1870, when there was not another Italian bee 

 within 25 miles of here. From this queen there was 

 not reared a single drone that season, so of course 

 all the 40 queens reared must have mated with black 

 drones, as a consequence. Not one of these 40 

 queens ever produced a black bee, and thus I was 

 forced to give up the black-bee theory in regard to 

 hybrids. It seems to me that friend H. has made 

 quite a concession on friend Root's part by making 

 him say that he (Root) has had queens mating black 

 drones that never produced a black bee. As this 

 discussion has drawn out others, to show that plen- 

 ty of such queens do exist, we have gained one 

 point at least, by proving that our queen-breeders 

 of ten years ago were mistaken in their assertions. 



Next, friend H. asks, " Now come right out fair 

 and square, friend D., and tell us if you have a 

 queen whose daughters produce no one or two 

 banded bees, even if they have mated with black 

 drones; and also how you can tell what drones they 

 have mated with." 



Again I answer the last question first, by pointing 

 you to the above 40 queens. 



Now to the first question: I claim that there is no 

 such thing as a one or two banded bee, and I expect 

 that this discussion will draw out enough on that 

 part of the question to again prove me correct, and 

 that all this talk of one and two banded bees of the 

 past was a mistake, as well as the black-bee part 

 has been. If you will turn to page 371, A. B. J. for 

 1881, you will find friend Demaree says, "that the 

 meanest hybrids will show the third band in 

 splotches." Again, on page 395, .1. jB. J., I say, "I 

 have yet to see the bee that shows yellow on any 

 band that does not show it on all three; so it will be 

 seen, as none of these 40 queens produced a black 

 bee, they certainly must have produced all three- 

 banded bees, which they certainly did." Now, ladies 

 and gentlemen, get your hybrid bees, and place 

 them on a window, as A. I. Root tells you how to do 

 in his ABC, when testing bees for purity, and see 

 if you don't agree that, if a bee shows yellow on any 

 of the bands, she will show it on all three, in about 

 the same proportion as the best yellow bee shows 

 hers; that is, if little yellow is on the first segment 

 next the thorax, still less will be on the second, and 

 still less on the third; yet there will be yellow on all 

 three if any is found on the first. Don't be hasty, 

 and write till you have taken your ABC and ap- 

 plied the test as there given. Now, if you bear me 

 out in my experiments, it will be seen that there is 

 no such thing as a pure Italian bee, for those 40 

 queens referred to above produced what would be 

 called by all parties, pure Italians; yet every one of 

 them was necessarily fertilized by a black drone. 



Now having demolished this citadel of purity, let 

 us cease this wrangle of words about the same, and 

 breed bees for honey rather than purity. If bees 

 showing the three distinct golden bands are the bees 

 producing the best results in honey, let us breed in 

 that direction; if those bees showing but slight 

 traces of yellow on the three bands (or dark Italians, 



