1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



747 



easier on the operator, and not likely to dis- 

 turb the bees. 



By the way, we have a good joke on our 

 correspondent. A short time ago we wrote 

 him, asking for a photograph, saying we 

 should like to show his picture in Glean- 

 ings. He wrote back, saying that he was a 

 modest man, and would prefer not to have 

 his picture in the journal. But he had for- 

 gotten the fact that we had already secured 

 a number of good pictures of him, in one of 

 which he is seen to be hugging one of his 

 twelve-frame hives. He might be caught 

 in a worse position. 



Joking aside, a man always looks more 

 natural when he is engaged in some useful 

 work, or assumes a familiar pose; so we be- 

 lieve after all we have shown up our six-foot 

 friend much more true to life than would 

 be seen in an ordinary i^ortrait photograph. 



Mr. Holtermann has come to be one of the 

 most extensive and successful bee-keepers 

 in the United States or Canada. We would 

 not dare to tell the enormous crops of honey 

 he has secured. He is emphatically a bee- 

 man who not only practices what he 

 preaches, but who, in the common jjarlance 

 of the day, "gets there." We anticipate that 

 hereafter our readers will pay more particu- 

 lar heed to some of his tricks of the trade, 

 and hence we place this one before the pub- 

 lic; for it should be clearly understood that 

 he is a man who makes a study of how to 

 make short cuts. 



While we believe that bee-keepers as a 

 class are intelligent and progressive, there 

 are many who depend too much on their 

 hands — that is, simply brute force, and not 

 enough on the gray matter in the upper re- 

 gion of their anatomy. Our Canadian cor- 

 respondent works with his head and hands. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RACES. 



Before coming to Medina our Mr. Bain 

 had considerable experience with some of 

 the difTerent races of bees, including Carni- 

 olans, Banats, Cyprians, Caucasians, Holy 

 Lands, etc. Contrary to the opinion of 

 many, he regards the Carniolans very high- 

 ly. He says that they protect their hives 

 just as well as the Italians, and, what is of 

 interest especially to the comb-honey pro- 

 ducer, they cap their honey snowy white. 

 The common belief in regard to Carniolans 

 is that they swarm excessively, and most 

 bee-keepers feel that the swarming prob- 

 lem is enough of a proposition when Ital- 

 ians are kept, and that, if it were any 

 worse, comb-honey production would be 

 well nigh impossible. Mr. Bain points out, 

 however, that Carniolans can not be han- 

 dled like Italians. They require a larger 

 hive on account of the prolificness of the 

 queens, the twelve-frame not being too 

 large. If these bees are put into eight- 

 frame hives and managed according to 

 methods laid down for Italians, excessive 

 swarming is the result every time. 



One serious fault of the Carniolans that 

 has to do especially with the queen-breeder 



and also with the honey-producer is this: 

 There is less difference in the color of a Car- 

 niolan queen and the workers than that of 

 the Italian queen and workers; and this 

 fact, together with the tendency of Carnio- 

 lan bees to remain still on the combs (very 

 often a queen remaining under other bees) , 

 makes it a hard proposition to find her. 

 Carniolans are not nervous-acting bees, and 

 yet they seem to protect their hives as vig- 

 orovisly as the best Italians. This very 

 fact, however, makes the finding of the 

 queen more difficult, for the queen herself 

 is likely to remain hidden, scarcely moving 

 at all when a comb is taken out. 



Banats have many of the good qualities 

 of the Carniolans, and they cap the honey 

 especially white. However, they more 

 nearly resemble the black bees in appear- 

 ance, and it would be difficult to keep the 

 blacks and Banats separate 



2^Ir. Bain finds hardly one redeeming fea- 

 ture among the Caucasians, although they 

 do cap honey white. In spite of the claims 

 made as to the gentleness of these bees, 

 they are nervous in their actions, and a 

 good many of the colonies of this race are 

 very difficult to handle on account of their 

 tendency to sting on the slightest provoca- 

 tion. These bees are excessive propolizers, 

 and no better honey-gatherers than average 

 Italians. One point that we do not remem- 

 ber having seen mentioned is this: It is 

 much more difficult to introduce a new 

 queen to a colony of Caucasians than to It- 

 alians, for instance. They will start cells in 

 spite of all that can be done, and about the 

 only way is to remove all brood or else wait 

 until the brood is so far along that cell-start- 

 ing is out of the question. 



With Cyprian bees, Mr. Bain's experience 

 has been similar to that of practically all 

 bee-keepers who have tried these bees. 

 They have lots of vim and energy, but they 

 use it in a bad way, for they are more vi- 

 cious by far than any other bees that he has 

 ever had any thing to do with. The bold- 

 est and most hardened veteran in the bee- 

 keeping ranks is usually glad to get rid of 

 such bees as soon as possible, for this one 

 feature counteracts all the good character- 

 istics that they might have. It is possible 

 that the bees coming from southern Italy 

 contain a little of the Cyprian blood, for 

 they are generally very cross or much hard- 

 er to handle than the leather-colored bees 

 coming from further north. Cyprians are 

 well marked, the bands or stripes being 

 very distinct. 



Golden Italians are, as a rule, more irri- 

 table than the leather-colored, but they cap 

 their honey whiter. If careful methods of 

 breeding were followed it would seem as 

 though golden Italians might be reared es- 

 pecially for comb -honey production, per- 

 haps, that would be hardy and also gentle. 

 We believe that many breeders of golden 

 bees pay more attention to color than to 

 any thing else; but perhaps these breeders 

 can not be blamed, since there is quite a 

 demand for the golden color. 



