May 12, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



343 



hive, when I take out the comb I conclude has the first 

 brood in it on the side next to me, and if the queen is not on 

 that comb, then I immediately take out the one on tlie 

 further side of the hive, which I have concluded is the last 

 one having brood in it in that direction. And in nine times 

 out of ten I find the queen on one of these two combs, if I 

 do not miss in my calculations as to how far the brood ox- 

 tends. That is, providing the combs have not been meddled 

 with as to changing their places during the preceding 10 

 days. If an empty comb has been placed in the brood-nest 

 a day or two previous, the queen will be quite likely to be 

 found on this comb ; but in such a case the brood-nest 

 would not be in a normal condition. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Some Pointers— Blacks and Italians, Etc. 



BY ALLHN LATHAM. 



ON page 839 (1903), Question 10 of " Ohio's " is an unsolic- 

 ited testimonial in favor of " blacks." The neighbor's 

 bees are blacks and do not swarm, while Ohio's bees 

 are Italians and do swarm. This is not an isolated instance. 

 When Italian-blind bee-keepers are able to see the good 

 qualities which blacks prossess credit will be given where 

 credit is due. 



Why is it that blacks have a reputation for idleness, 

 crossness, and general unprofitableness ? It seems scarcely 

 likely that it is a baseless reputation for the reason that it 

 is so general. It is hardly logical to a.scribe it to an instinc- 

 tive feeling that a black race must per se be inferior. I do 

 not assert that I know the cause, but will offer a suggestion 

 as to a possible cause. 



Before the Italians were introduced, and for some years 

 later, it was the custom to "take up bees " in the fall. I 

 never have seen this practiced, but have gathered from vari- 

 ous sources that it was a general rule to " take up " the 

 heaviest colonies. If this is true, it must follow that the 

 lighter colonies were left to perpetuate the race. It is rea- 

 sonable to suppose that the lighter colonies had queens in- 

 ferior to the queens of the colonies " taken up." This cus- 

 tom prevailed for many years and must perforce have tended 

 to deteriorate the race. 



There may have been more thoughtful farmers who 

 practiced taking up their lighter colonies, and those which 

 seemed least fitted for survival, but it is likely that the 

 majority let their desire for immediate gain overrule their 

 judgment, and took up the very colonies which in the end 

 would have paid them better by being left to live. 



I know not how the Italian bee was treated previous to 

 the last 50 years, but since that time it has surely been 

 given a much fairer opportunity to show its value than has 

 the black. 



I hope before it is too late — before the black bee is hope- 

 lessly mongrelized by the Italian — that means will be taken 

 to keep the race intact and pure. There are qualities of 

 great worth in the black bee which it would take many 

 generations to breed into the Italian. 



Allow me to name a few of these qualities : Black bees 

 enter sections readily. They cap combs white. They leave 

 fewer light-weight sections. They husband their stores in 

 time of scarcity. They are less prone to swarm. 



Those who denounce the black bees have probably had 

 poor and deteriorated strains ; while I have never yet had 

 Italians which would do as well as they are advertised to do. 



MOVABLE-COMB HIVE. 



That the regular movable-comb hive is not fitted for 

 general use by farmers is a fact which is easy to demon- 

 strate. But that they must go back to the old box-hive does 

 not follow. The hive for farmers is a cheap double-walled 

 hive, with movable but closed-end frames. This hive is a 

 good winterer, and when necessity arises allows the removal 

 of the combs. I am now making such a hive for my own 

 use, and may later write an article describing the same. 

 Only the bee-keeper who makes bee-keeping his business 

 can use a hive which needs such care as the regular Lantj- 

 stroth calls for. 



DRrV'EN SWARMS THAT RDN AWAY. 



Driven swarms sometimes run away, when not properly 

 driven. I have not yet lost a swarm by my method of driv- 

 ing, and so venture to offer it here. Three sticks about six 

 feet long are tied together at one end, then spread apart and 

 set up as a tripod. There is then tied to the top a branch 

 suitable for a swarm to cluster on. The colony to be dri en 



is set aside and the tripod placed over the old stand. The 

 bees are then shaken out by the old stand, old and young. 

 After an hour or so the bees will all be clustered like a 

 natural swarm upon the branch and should be left thus for 

 about half a day. They may then be hived anywhere and 

 will stay as well as a natural swarm, and will work nearly 

 if not quite as well. The old hive is placed either back upon 

 its old stand or elsewhere, and a queen with half a pound of 

 bees run into it. This method takes a little more time than 

 the others do, but it is better than to have swarms abscond. 

 [See No. 4 in the picture on the front page.] 



CLIPPING THE QUEENS. 



Thinking that I might be mistaken about clipping the 

 queens, I essayed once more. I clipped all my queens. If I 

 ever do it again it will be when the memory of the results 

 are very, very dim. To lose one's best queens by swarms 

 issuing and queens going into the other hives or being lost 

 in the grass is too much for my blood. Let those clip their 

 queens who wish to do so, but let all who have not had ex- 

 perience do it gingerly. 



THE BATH FOR INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



"Drowning a queen" to introduce her, like all other 

 methods, will not work every time. It is however a simple 

 and easy method, and safe for the introduction of all but 

 our most valuable queens. For such queen a safer method 

 should be adopted, and one which is not so suggestive of 

 possible harm to the queen. That the bee is cold-blooded is 

 not a sure guarantee that a bath of that nature will be fol- 

 lowed by no deleterious effects. 



SCOUTS PRECEDING THE SWARM. 



Do bees send out scouts before the swarm issues ? Yes, 

 they do. I saw it done last summer. I dusted the bees 

 which were about the old-hive (empty) with flour, and saw 

 these floury bees enter a colony which did not swarm for 

 nearly a week. 



THE TOPLESS BEE-TENT. 



I have made further use of the topless bee-tent the past 

 season, and find it a sure thing. It is so easily made that 

 every bee-keeper should have one. Buy a piece of mosquito- 

 bar eight yards long by two wide. It will cost SO cents. 

 Select four straight sticks, or bean-poles, and sharpen one 

 end. Set the four poles up about the hive and suspend the 

 unrolled netting like a curtain all about the poles. It is 

 quickly set up and quickly taken down, and works perfectly . 



STRONGER CASES FOR CANNED HONEY. 



While we are urging the use of new cans for honey, let 

 the matter of stronger cases be brought up. I recently had 

 a lot of honey come, and out of ten cases only one war, in- 

 tact. That one had the middle section in it. The others 

 were without this partition, and were nailed very insecurely. 

 It is exasperating to get a lot of honey broken and leaking. 

 The railroads will continue to employ cheap help, and the 

 cases will continue to get rough handling. The only remedy 

 is stronger cases. 



GROUND CORK FOR WINTER-PACKING. 



Ground cork is good for winter packing, but must be 

 used with greater care than sawdust or shavings. If there 

 is the least crack or hole the cork will continue to sprinkle 

 through down into the hive or over the entrance, making 

 itself a general nuisance. See that the winter-case fits the 

 hive closely. 



USING HONEY TO PUT UP FRUIT. 



In putting up fruit with honey, go slowly. Honey takes 

 in water and will rob the fruit of its water, with the result 

 that the can of fruit and honey becomes a mixture of taste- 

 less fruit and watery honey. 



MELTING HONEY IN THE COMB. 



If honey in the comb is melted up for the purpose of 

 separating the honey from the wax, or for liquefying partly 

 candied comb honey, avoid stirring the mass. Hot honey 

 and melted wax appear to unite partly, with the result that 

 a spongy mixture of wax and honey will rise to the top of 

 the honey when cold instead of a cake of wax. 

 RENDERING WAX UN THE STOVE. 



This is the season when many bee-keepers get together 

 all the broken and odd bits of comb and extract the wax. A 

 dish of water and hot wax on the stove is a source of immi- 

 nent danger. At one time I pot back to the stove just in 

 season to see a column of fire as large as a barrel mounting 



