1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



423 



ITALIAN QUEENS CHANGING TO BLACKS 

 AND H\ BKIDS. 



AN IMPORTANT ITEM TO BE CONSIDERED. 



fjJHERE has been a good deal said about queens 

 laying eggs of one kind, and then changing to 

 those of another kind. Perhaps my expe- 

 rience will help to explain this subject. Last fall, I 

 destroyed all my black and hybrid queens, and unit- 

 ed their bees with other colonies. This was done 

 late, after all egg laying had ceased, so there could 

 not have been any young queens reared after that 

 time. In the spring, when the young bees hatched, 

 I found that a large per cent were hybrid, and some 

 quite black. All the queens left in the hives in the 

 fall had their wings clipped, but these blacks and 

 hybrids were not clipped. Consequently they were 

 new queens, but how came they there? That ques- 

 tion bothered me for a long while, but I have settled 

 it as follows: 



Last year was a very poor year for bees, and a 

 great many left their hives, and swarmed over the 

 country. I remember being in my bee yard when I 

 noticed an increase in the number of flying bees. 

 Afterwards, I found a small swarm— about half a 

 pint— hanging on one corner of a hive. This sum- 

 mer I saw the same thing repeated, except that they 

 settled on a limb, and before I got them put in with 

 one of my lightest colonies, another swarm came 

 and went in with them, without settling. Each of 

 these swarms had a queen, but so few bees that I 

 should not have noticed them, had I not been among 

 the hives. I am satisfied that it was such little 

 swarms with their queens, coming into my hives un- 

 noticed, that changed them from Italians to hybrids. 

 Instead of the queens being changed, they were ex- 

 changed. E. S. Easterday. 



Nokomis, 111., Aug. T, 1880. 



Many thanks, friend E. I think there is 

 no question but that you are right, and if 

 this were borne in mind, it might help to 

 settle a great many of the disputes and dif- 

 ferences about the way imported and tested 

 queens often turn out. A friend has just 

 returned an imported queen that he says he 

 thinks produced good Italians when he first 

 got her, but produces now, some bees abso- 

 lutely black. After a dry spell, or after a 

 dearth of honey, we often see these little 

 swarms of stray bees, and often find the 

 queens too. I have good reason to believe 

 they sometimes rind their way into hives, 

 and not unfrequently displace the reigning 

 queen. 



BEE BOTANY ANB ENTOMOLOGY. 



'U. ROOT: —You will find enclosed four speci- 

 mens of honey bearing flowers. Please give 

 me the common names of them. The one 

 with the round white blossoms is a small shrub 

 which grows in low, wet ground and in ponds. It 

 begins to bloom about the middle of June, and, from 

 the way the bees work on it, it surely yields an 

 abundance of honey. The one with the i heads on 

 one stem beats any thing I ever saw. The stalk 

 from which 1 send you a sample has 350 such stems, 

 and it is the only. stalk I know of; the bees are on it 

 in a perfect swarm from sunrise till sunset. The 

 one with the yellow blossoms is what we call Kale. 

 We have a few stalks in the garden, and the bees 



are very busy on them. The one with the pink 

 flowers grows spontaneously on waste grounds and 

 in fence corners. Please give me the names of these 

 through Gleanings and oblige- Elias Bbrg. 

 Cicero, Ind., July 20, 1880. 



The first is the Button Bush, mentioned 

 last month. The second is Bee Balm or 

 Ilorsemint, also sometimes called Wild Ber- 

 gamot. It is a near relative />f the Monar- 

 da Punctata, which has been advertised for 

 years as a honey plant. The last we were 

 obliged to send to Prof. Beal, and below is 

 his reply : 



The specimen sent is Tcucrium Canadenxc (Ameri- 

 can Germander or Wood Sage), a mint, good for hon- 

 ey as nearly all mints are. W. J. Beal. 



Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich. 



A NEW HONEY PLANT, ASCLEPIUS TDBEROSA. 



The specimens received with the three fol- 

 lowing letters, so far as we could see, were 

 exactly the same plants. 



I found a wild flower the 25th of June, which was 

 a stranger to me. I thought it very pretty, and 

 took it up, and brought it home. I set it in the yard, 

 where it had not been more than 5 minutes before 

 there was a bee on it. I watched him until he was 

 loaded, and it was not long before he returned. The 

 bees work on it all day. It must be a good honey 

 plant. I have been looking for more, but have failed 

 to find any more of them. It is a small yellow blos- 

 som, growing on a small stem about 154 in. long, and 

 in bunches of about 20 in a bunch. It is still in 

 bloom. The main stalk is two feet high, and very 

 stiff and hard, and about the size of my little finger. 



1 send you a small bunch of the flowers. 



Vigo, Ross Co., O., July 12, 1880. John Motes. 



I send you to-day a stalk and blossom of a plant I 

 have not seen mentioned in Gleanings. It grows 

 in a cluster of 12 or 15 stalks, to the height of about 



2 ft., and is crowded with flowers, in shape like the 

 milkweed, but of a bright orange color, and presents 

 a beautiful appearance. I sometimes see 8 or 10 

 bees on a bunch, and almost always several, and I 

 have observed that it is honey they are after, and 

 not pollen. I know of no plant here at the west so 

 uniformly visited by tyie bees, when in bloom, which 

 is of several weeks duration. The root, a long tap 

 root, is perennial, and does not spread like milk- 

 weed. I think botanic physicians use the root as a 

 febrifuge, and call it "white root," but I am not cer- 

 tain. I don't know how the seeds grow, whether in 

 pods on the sides of the stalk, like milkweed, or not. 

 If you have not the plant with you, and wish a root, 

 I will send one or two in the fall. There is no "milk" 

 about the stalk. Stephen Young. 



Memphis, Mo., July 6, 1880. 



Prof. Beal: — To-day I send you specimen of a hon- 

 ey plant found growing wild in this locality, although 

 very scarce. The plant grows about 14 inches high, 

 has large clusters of very dark orange colored blos- 

 soms, which are covered with bees from morning till 

 night, and in all kinds of weather. If it is not a nox- 

 ious weed, it will be a good honey plant here, com- 

 ing into bloom as it does just at the close of the 

 white clover season, and continuing to bloom 6 or 7 

 weeks. J. H. Reed. 



Orleans, Ind., July 26, 1880. 



To all the above Prof. Beal replies as fol- 

 lows : 



