54 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



tween a year and a half and two years of age. I 

 know of only a single queen that I tried to keep 

 that arrived at the age of three years. She was 

 a great drone-layer, and in a very short time 

 the colony was reduced to a mere nucleus. Since 

 that time (1886) I have never left the queens 

 more than two years, but have followed the 

 bees' example and changed them at the end of 

 three seasons; that is, 18 months, if I do not find 

 the bees have done so already. 



T. F. Bingham may be right about inven- 

 tions; but where will the matter (^id ? Every 

 one changes a feature of a hive, smoker, ex- 

 tractor, etc., and calls it his own. When in Al- 

 geria, some months ago. the inventor of a grape- 

 squeezer was attacked by a similar but previous 

 inventor. The Algerine. in self defense, said 

 we should have to go back to Archimedes to 

 settle the screw question. Unfoi'tunately, that 

 gentleman died 2000 years ago. 



Ph. J. Bai.densi'krgek. 



Nice, France, Dec, 1893. 



Continued. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN" BEE-KEEPERS' AS- 

 SOCIATION. 



A BRIEF REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS, BY 

 ERNEST. 



The train being behind time, we were not 

 able to attend the evening session of the first 

 day. As it was. we arrived in time to see the 

 convention adjourn, and to have a friendly ex- 

 change of hand-shaking with the bee-keepers. 

 The attendance was not large; but, as we 

 stated in our last issue, it was made up of some 

 of the very best representatives of the various 

 departments of the industry. The evening had 

 been profitably spent in discussing the question 

 of grading honey. Dr. Miller having laeen put 

 on for a paper on giading. oflered the one he 

 wrote for Gleanings on page 454. The sub- 

 ject was then fresh to him. and he had care- 

 fully considered all the points. This article 

 was read: and the result was. that the system 

 of grading which he proposed was simplified 

 somewhat. We failed to get a copy of the 

 grading that was adopted at the Washington 

 convention, but will endeavor to give it in our 

 next. 

 morning session, second day.— self-hivers. 



The first thing on the program was a paper 

 by your humble servant, on self-hivers. As we 

 have already covered pretty much the same 

 ground, at the time we were experimenting, on 

 pp. 318, ■5:.M. .%8, .593. we will not reproduce the pa- 

 per here. It will be sufficient to state that our 

 preference was for the Pratt automatic hiver. 

 It had been a perfect success. The only thing 

 we feared was that it might be too expensive. 

 Mr. Frank Benton, who, it will be remembered, 

 has traveled over Europe, Africa, and the East, 

 felt that we should not consider the expense. 

 providing it accomplished the result sought. 

 For instance, if the hiver costs .50 cents, and it 

 saved a swarm worth f5.00, it paid for itself 

 several times over. Considerable discussion fol- 

 lowed, showing that, if the hiver should prove 

 to be a success, its universal adoption would 

 follow in spite of the expense. We held the 

 ground, however, that it rniglit be cheaper to 

 hire a man to take care of the swarms, and do 

 other work in an out-apiary, than to depend 

 solely on self-hivers at .50 cents per colony. 



We next listened to an exceedingly interest- 

 ing and valuable address from Frank Benton, 

 on the subject of 



varieties of bees and their character- 

 istics. 



Although long, it was the most entertaining 



talk that we believe we ever listened to at any 

 convention. Mr. Benton began his address by 

 giving a description of the general characteris- 

 tics of black bees: but as these bees are so well 

 known, we will not reproduce his remarks here. 

 Next he took up the Italians. These were 

 introduced into the United States in 1860 by Mr. 

 S. P. Parsons, acting for the Department of Ag- 

 riculture, as the government records showed. 

 It was generally stated in the text-books, that 

 Italian beeswere firsiintroduced into the United 

 States by Wagner and Mahan; but this was a 

 mistake. They did import the bees, but not 

 until after Mr. Parsons had done so. Then 

 turning to the general characteristics and 

 markings of the Italians. Mr. Benton gave a 

 very fair description, which I also omit. Ital- 

 ians were, he said, to be found in their greatest 

 purity in the regions round about the cities of 

 Modena, Parma, and Venice. Perhaps it may 

 be interesting to note right here, that the Ital- 

 ians which we have been importing to this 

 country for many years have been coming 

 from the vicinity of Bologna, which is right in 

 the midst of the region above mentioned by Mr. 

 Benton. 



CARNIOI.AN BEESi. 



Of these Mr. Benton had the most to say. 

 They were black in color, somewhat of a steel 

 gray, but quite different from the black bees. 

 As to size, they were a little larger than the 

 Italians: were excellent honey - gatherers, 

 sealed their honey white, good wax- producers, 

 and collect little or no propolis. They were 

 very prolific, but not so much so as the Eastern 

 races, and the gentlest bees in the world; in 

 fact, no other bees could be compared with 

 them. During the whole four years that he 

 worked with them in their native country, he 

 wore no veil, and yet handled hundreds of colo- 

 nies. Carniolans could be readily shaken from 

 the combs, and this feature made it possible to 

 find the queens very readily by shaking all the 

 bees out of the shallow brood-chambers such as 

 were used and had been used for a century or 

 more in Carniola.* In fact, it is the way the 

 natives us-ually find the queens. Carniolans 

 could be shaken from their combs, and not fly 

 up and resent it as Italians would sometimes do. 

 They were not lacking in courage, but the loss 

 of a queen affected them greatly. At first Mr. 

 Benton thought they were rather given to rob- 

 bing: but later he found they were no worse 

 than other bees. On account of their capping 

 honey so white, and their gentleness, Mr. Ben- 

 ton felt that the Carniolans were the best bees 

 for comb honey. 



Referring to their demerits, he acknowledged 

 that they were rather inclined to swarm: but 

 this trait had been encouraged in them for cen- 

 turies. The native bee-keepers in Carniola 

 practice a method where excessive swarming 

 seems desirable. The swarming mania is sim- 

 ply a trait that has been bred into them; and 

 Mr. Benton thought that the same trait could 

 be bred out, or at least held in subjection, here 

 in America. It would be foolish for Americans 

 to reject them solely on this grou-?d: and while 

 the Carniolans have many valuable traits, he 

 did not think that they would replace the Ital- 

 ians. 



DALMATIAN BEES. 



These bees were found on the east coast of the 

 Adriatic Sea. Their bodies are rather slender, 

 and are shiny biue-black in color, with lightish 



*This is interesting in that it proves the possibility 

 of finding- queens in this way in connection with 

 shallow broocl-chambers. We do not know whether 

 Mr. Heddon claims the priority in this point or not; 

 at all events, it is rather old— older than any of our 

 bee-keepers of the present generation.— Ed. 



