American ^Beg Journal j 



November, 191 1. 

 ^^^^^ ") 



pose. Wm. McEvoy is asked in the 

 Canadian Bee Journal whether there 

 are more kinds than one of Italians, 

 and which kind is best to resist disease, 

 and answers that there is one kind of 

 Italians with varying shades of color, 

 and to the specific question, " Which 

 is the better kind to use for Italianiz- 

 ing against black brood ?" answers, 

 " Where Italians have been bred from 

 the colonies that have given the largest 

 yields of honey in an apiary, I would 

 accept these in preference to any other 

 for every purpose." 



Mr, McEvoy's answer is good. No 

 breed of bees is immune to foul brood, 

 but some will resist better than others ; 

 and the colony that is most vigorous in 

 gathering stores will use the same 

 vigor in resisting disease. We can 

 not measui* directly the disease-resist- 

 ing strength of each colony, but we can 

 measure the storing strength, and be 

 guided thereby. 



But it may be asked, " Why does Mr. 

 McEvoy put the word ' Italian ' at all in 

 his answer? Will not the bees which 

 store the most honey be the best to re- 

 sist disease, whether they have any yel- 

 low bands or not ?" Very likely. All 

 Italians are not of equal vigor. All 

 blacks are not of equal vigor. Pit the 

 best colony of blacks that can be found 

 against the poorest colony of Italians 

 that can be found, and the blacks will 

 no doubt store more than the Italians; 

 and equally they will do better at resist- 

 ing disease. Italians resist disease not 

 because they are yellow, but because 

 they are Tifforous. The first cross be- 

 tween blacks and Italians are as good 

 storers generally as the pure stock — 

 sometimes better; and by the same 

 token they may be as good or better at 

 resisting disease. Even so, there is a 

 reason for preferring the pure stock 

 because of the relation it has to the 

 future. The cross between the two 

 bloods is not as stable as the pure 

 blood. Continue breeding from the 

 cross, and there is likely to be deteri- 

 oration, while if you persist with the 

 pure blood there will be more stability, 

 less likelihood of variation, and so it 

 will be an easier thing to perpetuate 

 any good qualities found. 



So, whether one be striving for bees 

 that will best resist disease, or for bees 

 that will store the most honey, it is 

 well to stick as closely as possible to 

 bees of pure blood. This is not saying 

 that there might not be obtained some- 

 thing superior by crossing, but it will 

 not be gained in a day, and the most 

 ready way to reach the goal is through 

 pure blood. 



Slow Feeding lor Brood-Kearing: 



Gleanings in Bee Culture reports ex- 

 periments with regard to feeding bees 

 for the purpose of getting them to rear 

 brood at a time when they are getting 

 no stores from the field. This is a 

 matter of interest to those who have 

 no fall flow, and yet wish to build up 

 colonies that are too weak for winter. 

 Indeed, in places where the honey-flow 

 closed very early, it may be desirable 

 to feed even strong colonies, as other- 

 wise there would be nothing but very 

 old bees to enter the winter. Editor 

 Root says : 



"Half a pint of syrup daily will start 

 troori. 'coring at almost any time of the year 



when the bees can fly; but. unfortunately, 

 bees tvill take the half-pint out of the ordi- 

 nary feeder in about an hour's time. So 

 much food coming: in <?// at ot/ce. then stop- 

 ping short off. causes general excitement, 

 making more or less of an uproar in the api- 

 ary. This unduly wears out the wings of 

 the bees, makes them cross, and is liable to 

 cause robbing, for the bees in the air will 

 hunt high and low to find where this supply 

 of food came from. This is a needless waste 

 of energy and bee-life," 



So he has fallen upon the plan of 

 soldering up all but one or two of the 

 holes of a pepper-box feeder, so that it 

 will take the whole of the 2-1 hours for 

 the colony to take the half-pint of feed, 

 and he thinks that produces more brood 

 for the same amount of sugar than 

 would be produced if the bees could 

 take it in an hour's time. 



One can but wonder why a thinner 

 syrup would not serve better. There 

 may be some reason against it, but on 

 the face of it it looks as if 3 parts water 

 to one of sugar would be better than 

 the half-and-half syrup used. That 

 would be more like the nectar of flow- 

 ers in consistency, and so would ap- 

 pear more natural. Cutting the bees 

 down to one hole allows only a few 

 bees at a time to get at the feed. With 

 3 times as much water there would.be 

 3 times as many holes, and 3 times as 

 many bees would get at the feed. Is 

 there any objection to the thinner feed ? 



Nature'.s Order in the Bee-Hive 



The beginner who opens a hive early 

 in the spring, and finds several combs 

 well filled with honey, and the remain- 

 der partly filled with brood and filled 

 out with honey, is likely to think that 

 there is little chance for the colony to 

 build up, seeing that there is so little 

 room in the combs for brood. But 

 gradually the amount of honey melts 

 away, while with even step the amount 

 of brood increases. The dependence 

 is on the stores already laid up in the 

 hives, for there is little to be gathered 

 outside, and if pasturage were abun- 

 dant the force of gatherers is too small 

 to take advantage of it. Even the sea- 

 soned veteran is likely to be surprised 

 at the enormous amount of stores con- 

 sumed in brood-rearing in the early 

 part of the season, and there is little 

 occasion for worry lest there shall be 

 too little room for the queen to lay be- 

 cause of too much honey in the hive. 



After a time a very different state of 

 afTairs is presented when the hive is 

 opened, say about the beginning of the 

 main honey harvest. One can easily 

 imagine a beginner saying: "Well, 

 it's time something were done here. 

 Brood in every one of the 8 frames in 

 the hive; 6 of them about full, and the 

 outside 2 with brood wherever the cells 

 are not filled with pollen, and not a half 

 pound of hon^ in the whole hive. If 

 the honey in the hive disappeared so 

 fast when there was only half as much 

 brood, it must be disappearing a good 

 deal faster now, and starvation is 

 about certain unless I interfere." Gen- 

 erally speaking, however, there is no 

 cause for alarm. It is true that honey 

 is used much faster with the greater 

 amount of brood, but it is also true 

 that now there is more to be had in the 

 field, and a much larger force to gather 

 it. True, if a few days of bad weather 

 should occur, preventing the foragers 



from going afield, the result might be 

 somewhat disastrous, and it is not the 

 very best thing to let a colony get 

 down to its last half pound of honey; 

 but in a single good day the present 

 large force of field-bees can provide 

 against several days of bad weather. 



Then another thought will suggest 

 itself to the beginner, and he will say: 

 " It certainly doesn't look as if 8 frames 

 were enough to provide stores for win- 

 ter. Brood takes up so much of the 

 room that if every cell in the hive un- 

 occupied with brood were to be 

 crammed with honey there wouldn't be 

 enough honey in the hive to carry the 

 colony to the middle of winter." But 

 further experience will teach him that 

 with 8 frames there will generally be 

 abundant stores for winter, even though 

 there might be still greater safety in a 

 10-frame hive. 



Now let the beginner open the hive 

 again late in the season. He exclaims: 

 "This hive is so crowded with honey 

 that the queen is crowded out, and 

 there is hardly any brood in the hive' 

 Is it not necessary to extract a comb 

 or two so as to give room for the queen 

 to lay ?" But if he follows out the sug- 

 gestion, emptying one or more frames, 

 he does not find that it makes any per- 

 ceptible difference in the laying of the 

 queen. The fact is that the bees have 

 been wisely carrying out the plans of 

 Dame Nature, and gradually the brood- 

 nest has shrunk, the store of honey fol- 

 lowing up the receding brood, and fill- 

 ing the vacant cells. 



Thus it is that the changes occur 

 throughout the season, the brood- 

 chamber at one time overflowed with 

 brood, and at another time seeming 

 nothing but a store-house for honey; 

 all in its due season. 



Deportment of a Virgin Queen 



Adolf Mueller, after 20 years' experi- 

 ence, gives in Prakt. Wegweiser some 

 items of interest regarding young 

 queens. After a virgin has patrolled 

 the hive for .5 days, and has become 

 sole monarch, she takes her first flight. 

 On this first day of flight she comes to 

 the entrance, looks about for some 

 tfme, flies backward like every other 

 young bee marking the entrance, then 

 takes a wider flight, and in the course 

 of 6 minutes returns to the hive. That's 

 enough for the first day, and if it is 

 windy or clouds over she hurries home 

 in less time. 



The next day, weather being favor- 

 able, she generally takes 2 or 3 flights 

 somewhere between 12 and 4 o'clock. 

 Neither of these flights exceeds 5 min- 

 utes, and during the time of each flight 

 the colony flies stronger than usual. 



On the succeeding day she seems to 

 be driven out by the workers, who 

 tickle her with their antennae, and even 

 bite her with their jaws. 



After any absence of 1.5 to 25 min- 

 utes she returns to the hive, and the 

 bees which had shown a great state of 

 excitement immediately subside. In 

 about 24 hours the queen begins to lay. 

 Sometimes, however, daily flights may 

 occur 5 days in succession before fer- 

 tilization occurs. Bad weather may 

 delay fertilization, and in one case fer- 

 tilization did not occur until the young 

 queen was 27 days old, and she began 

 to lay the next day. 



