Aug. 1, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



487 



denied by the other side, and the controversy is still kept 

 up to this day. 



In the earlier days of the introduction and dissemina- 

 tion of the Italians, great stress was laid upon the claim 

 that these new foreigners were able to get honey from 

 flowers that the black bee could not, especially from the 

 bloom of red clover, which, in the immense fields of it in 

 this country •' was wasting its sweetness on the desert air," 

 that would all be saved by the Italians. There is no reli- 

 able authority that a large crop of surplus honey from the 

 June or first bloom of red clover was ever gathered, and it 

 is now generally admitted that too much was claimed by 

 our ardent queen-breeders along this line. The Italians 

 have been known to work on the second bloom or seed crop 

 of red clover, but generally the black bees, in the same 

 vicinity, work on it at the same time, and the largest yield 

 from this source that I know of on record, was gathered by 

 black bees where there were no Italians at that time. The 

 fact is that neither race works at all times upon this sec- 

 ond crop of red clover, and, when the bees do work on it, 

 very little is secured in the surplus boxes. The efl^ort now 

 being made by certain prominent Italian queen-breeders 

 and importers to obtain by selection and breeding a strain 

 of Italians with longer tongues than ordinary, so that they 

 may be able to get honey from red clover, is tantamount to 

 an admission that the present race or strain is not able to 

 get it — not, at least, in any appreciable or paying quanti- 

 ties. 



Another claim of superiority of the Italians was, that 

 they were much more prolific than the blacks, and would 

 increase more rapidly, and swarm more frequently. Now, 

 there is a great desire to find some way to prevent this 

 rapid multiplication of colonies, and that claim is no par- 

 ticular recommendation. 



It has been found necessary to keep continually trying 

 to improve the Italian bee, or to keep them up to the best 

 standard of their kind : First, by constant new import- 

 ation from Italy ; then again, by careful selections of 

 queens for breeders of large size and full development, 

 and whose colonies have proven the most prolific, or the 

 best honey-gatherers; and, third, by frequent crosses of 

 different strains from the best breeders in different parts of 

 the country, so as to have a constant infusion of new 

 blood. All of these means are advocated and practiced at 

 the present time by the best queen-breeders, in order to 

 keep the Italian bee at its best, and prove its superiority to 

 other races. 



If all this is necessary to keep the Italian bee from 

 retrograding and to show its superiority, it is not to be 

 wondered at that the discarded and neglected black bee 

 stands a very poor show when compared to its much- 

 coddled rival. I think it safe to say that no attempt has 

 been made in this country to improve the black bee, after 

 the manner the Italians have been improved, viz.: by for- 

 eign importations and crosses, and by queen-breeders 

 selecting from the hardiest and best honey-producing colo- 

 nies. No, none of these things have been done for the 

 black bee, and there are some who believe that, even in 

 their neglected condition they will store more comb honey 

 than the Italians, when both are given the same attention 

 and management ; and that they possess some valuable 

 traits of superiority over the Italian. I will not saj' that 

 in several respects the Italian is not superior to the black, 

 but I will say that the black has never been coddled, and 

 given an equal chance in all respects to do her best, as has 

 her more fortunate sister. 



(To be continued.) 



(Questions and Answers. 



Why Not Help a Little— both your neighbor bee-keep- 

 ers and the old American Bee Journal — by sending to us the 

 names and addresses of such as you may know do not now 

 get this journal ? We will be glad to send them sample 

 copies, so that they may become acquainted with the paper, 

 and subscribe for it, thus putting themselves in the line of 

 success with bees. Perhaps you can get them to subscribe, 

 send in their dollars, and secure for your trouble some of 

 the premiums we are constantly offering as rewards for 

 such effort. 



Our Wood Binder (or Holder) is made to take all the 

 copies of the American Bee Journal for a year. It is sent 

 by mail for 20 cents. p\ill directions accompany. The Bee 

 Journals can be inserted as soon as they are received, and 

 thus preserved for future reference. Upon receipt of SI. 00 

 for your Bee Journal subscription a full year tn advance, 

 we will mail you a Wood Binder free — if you will menticKi it. 



iJWTfTfTfTrTfT'fTr^r 



DR. C. O. MIl.l^Eie. A/areng-o, HI. 



[The Qnestions may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Editor.1 



Uniting Colonies in the Pall. 



I have more colonies of bees than I care to winter, and 

 there is no verj- ready sale for them here. What is the best 

 way to dispose of the bees and secure the honey ? When is 

 the proper time in the season for doing it ? 



New Brunswick. 



Answer. — Perhaps as good a way as any is to unite 

 colonies. Consider to some extent the position of colonies 

 in uniting, other things being equal uniting two colonies 

 standing close together. A day or two before uniting kill 

 the poorer queen of the two, and unite on the stand of the 

 living queen. As the season is now fairly along, the unit- 

 ing may be done at once, unless you are likely to have a 

 good fall crop, in which case unite about the beginning of 

 the fall flow. ^ 



Bees that Fought and Killed Each Other. 



Yesterday (July 7) one of my colonies cast a swarm. I 

 was at church at the time (it being Sunday), and one of the 

 boys hived it, and left the hive where they clustered. When 

 I came home, an hour or so later, I put the hive on the 

 stand where I wanted it to stay. A little while afterwards 

 I noticed quite a few bees flying where the swarm had clus- 

 tered. I took an empty hive and comb and set it where the 

 bees were flying, and in a short time I had them all on that 

 comb — a quart or so of bees. I shook them off in front of 

 the entrance of the swarm, and all went in nicely. Shortly 

 after this they comtnenced killing each other until there 

 were about a quart of dead bees in front of the hive. I gave 

 them a good smoking, and they seemed to quiet down. At 

 this writing all' seems to be peaceable. What caused this 

 fighting and killing each other ? S. Dakot.^. 



Answer. — I don't know. It is possible that the quart 

 or so of bees were a small second swarm, and having a vir- 

 gin queen were not kindly received. Of course, all would 

 be peaceable under that presumption after all the bees of 

 the second swarm were killed. 



Diseased Bees. 



1. I put about 20 colonies of bees into winter quarters 

 last fall, and all but one were apparently in a healthy con- 

 dition, and about half of these died during the winter and 

 spring. A large percent of the bees died in this section, 

 some losing every bee. 



My bees did not seetn to build up in the spring, and 

 about the first of June every colony had more or less dead 

 brood. I supposed at first that the brood had died from 

 lack of nurse-bees, as the bees that were in the hives were 

 very old. for the reason that the fall frosts were about two 

 weeks early, and no flow from goldenrod, so brood-rearing 

 had stopped at least three weeks earlier than usual. 



At first, scattering dead larva- would be seen among 

 the brood, which were a sort of yellowish white, and very 

 soft, but from the worst colonies no offensive odor was 

 present, and no ropy appearance when a toothpick was 

 withdrawn from a dead larva, as described in foul brood. 

 Some of the colonies are so bad that there is hardly a hatch- 

 ing bee. when all the frames are filled with brood and eggs. 

 About the first of May I bought five colonies of black 

 bees for the purpose of rearing some of my best queens 

 from colonies having only a handful of bees, and to these I 

 introduced the queens, uniting the few bees with a frame 

 or two the}' were on. 



From one to a dozen of these dead larv.t were in the 

 frames thus introduced. At tliat time I did not think this 

 was any disease, but supposed the brood had died from 

 starvation, as there were long-continued spells of cold, 

 rainy weather in April and May. To-day, I find, in looking 



