1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



585 



the box with chaff snugly packed around and above 

 the hives, with a good cover to exclude storms, and 

 with sufficient supply of honey, and leave them just 

 where they have been duringthe summer. All came 

 out in splendid trim in spring. Tbey need not be 

 taken out until they need more room in the passage 

 at working time; in this latitude, say about the 

 middle or last of May. Care should be taken not to 

 take the box from them too soon; but if they show 

 signs of being too warm in the spring from lack of 

 ventilation, they will hang out on the outside of the 

 box; and then I would remove the chaff from over 

 them, as there will be plenty of young bees at that 

 time, and they need a warm nursery during the cool 

 nights in the fore part of May. We till the upper 

 story, or top of hive, above thecloth with chaff; also 

 in place of mat to hold the animal heat of the bees, 

 and also to absorb all moisture that may arise from 

 them. 



Below I give you a diagram of box, with tubo in- 

 serted. The box should be raised a little at the back 

 side to carry off water, if supplied with a board roof 

 or cover. D. 



Independence, Iowa, Sept. 10, 1S80. 



Very good, friend 1). Your plan is not 

 exactly new, but it may be new to our 

 younger readers. Your manner of lixing the 

 entrance is good, and may be easier than 

 bridging over the usual entrance. My ex- 

 perience has been, that we had better leave 

 the chaff packing around them the year 

 round ; and on this account, the chaff hive 

 would be least trouble, in the end. Your 

 dry-goods-box plan will answer excellently, 

 for it has been very extensively used for sev- 

 eral seasons past. I»e sure that it is done 

 right, and that the bees have a clear passage- 

 way out and in. 



WHEN THE HONE¥-BEE FIRST CAME 

 TO AMERICA. 



^7\ ft-lt- ROOT:— Inclosed I send you evidence that 

 l|*/."|! I think must remove all doubts as to whether 

 the honey-bee of this part of the country is 

 of a fcrous, or native, race. 1 should have sent this 

 statement before, but it was not convenient to ob- 

 tain Mr. Murphy's statement in confirmation of it, 

 and I did not want it to rest on my statement alone. 

 Before the waters of this section of country found 

 an outlet, the highest bluffs must have been sub- 

 merged. As it subsided, a layer of rock formed on 

 the tops of some of the bluffs that now border the 

 bottom lands of the Missouri and Nemaha Rivers, 

 composed principally of the shells of fresh-water in- 

 sects. Suddenly sinking to lower levels, the waves, 

 beating against the sides of the bluffs, formed one 

 shelf after another, so well defined that they can be 

 traced by the eye from bluff to bluff, half a mile or 

 more away. Three layers of rock were formed, with 

 intervening- layers of earth 25 or 30 feet thick. The 

 lower one is but a few feet above the surface of the 

 bottom land, or Hats of the rivers; the second, some 

 30 feet higher. On the. up-stream side of a bluff, that 

 formerly sloped gradually down to the waters of 

 the Missouri, a horizontal layer of rock of the mid- 

 dle course, 11 or 12 inches thick, formed,— composed, 

 to a great extent, of fresh-water shells; on the up- 

 per surface of the rock were several inches of shale, 

 and above this, two or more feet of earth. The for- 



mation of the bluff was such that the water striking 

 against it would form an eddy. Here we procured 

 the rock, imbedded in which Mr. Murphy and I found 

 the petrified honey-bee, of which he writes. 



The shale scaled off, leaving the whole upper part 

 of the bee bare. The position of the bee and its sur- 

 roundings would indicate, either that it had fallen 

 into the water at this point, or that it had drifted 

 here with the current from above, and been caught 

 in the eddy, and held by it until the water, becoming 

 thick and turbid, had deposited sediment around it, 

 and held it in the same position in which it was when 

 first drowned. Its head was a little depressed, and 

 its wings a little opened upon the back; two legs on 

 each side were clearly to be seen. Each segment 

 of the abdomen, the thorax, the upper part of the 

 head and eyes, and the outlines of the wings, were 

 as clearly denned as in the living honey-bee. 



MB. MUltl'llY's STATEMENT. 



In the interest of science, I hereby state, that, in the tall of 

 1879, while cutting stone at Mr. WUtse's, we found imbedded in 

 the rock a petrified honey-bee in perfect condition, resembing, 



in all respects, the native honey-bee ot this section of Country. 



James Mur PHY. 



To suppose that the sub-variety of this race, mark- 

 ed with yellow (of which 1 wrote in a former com- 

 munication) received their markings from an ad- 

 mixture of Italian blood, is to suppose an impossi- 

 bility. They were procured in the spring of 1861, in 

 an old box hive that had not swarmed the year pre- 

 vious,— a time when frame hives and Italian bees 

 were not known in this part of the country, -in time 

 of civil war, and so soon after the first successful im- 

 portation of the Italian bee, that the idea is prepos- 

 terous. 



As to when the Italian bee was first successfully 

 imported, see Patent-Office Report for 1861, p. 321. 



I inclose Mr. H. A. King's views on this subject, as 



expressed in the October number of the Bee Journal 



in 1873, in reply to questions from me in regard to 



this same race: 



There are no ''native bees," in the sense of existence here 

 prior to the advent of civilization. The Indian calls the bee 

 "the white man's Itv, " because the white man brought the 

 bees to this Country, and they have not preceded the advance of 

 civilization westward. It has been only a few years since been 

 were first taken to California. For a year or more they were 

 sold for about $100 per stock, and main of the venders made so 

 nianvstoeksfrr.ni one, that purchasers of ten lost all their stocks. 

 The black bee is called the German bee in Europe, in contradis- 

 tinction to the Italian bee. A number of apiarians in this coun- 

 try, especially in the South, claim that there is a -lavish bee 

 constituting a different race from the Italians. We Have often 

 noticed that old bees, and bees bred in old, dark-colored combs, 

 appear much darker than young bees bred in new. light-colored 

 combs. The old bees looked dark because tbey bad worn Off the 

 light-COlored down, which is easily rubbed otf when wet. We 

 should be glad to hear from sonic of our Southern apiarians 

 about the gray bee. 



And here is what Mr. K. Metcalfe says of the na- 

 tive bee of New Mexico:— 



There is a wild bee here that is striped very much like the Ital- 

 ian. It is a brown bee with while stripes around its abdomen: 

 stripes show more plainly on underside. Thick body and head 

 like a housefly. They are very quick in their movements. 1 

 have killed many of them, and find their honey sack quite as 

 large as that of our bee. 'flic Mexicans say tbey always build in 

 the rocks, l have never found bu1 on.- den of them. I was 

 making a long march across the mountains, « ithout water, and 

 did not stop to examine them. Our horses and mules stirred 

 themup by starting some loose rocks down the hill, that rolled 

 over their den. They swarmed out in great numbers. The 

 Mexicans whom we bad with us wanted to stop ami smoke them 

 and get the honey. 1 am sorry we did not. 



Other evidence might be produced, but I consider 

 the case fully established. Jekome Wiltse. 



Rulo, Neb. 



But where is that petrified bee now, friend 

 W.V You surely did not throw it away, did 

 you? It would be an excellent specimen for 

 our geologists, and entomologists too. I 

 confess this subject is deep water for me, 

 and I wish some of those in whose line it 

 strikes would give us more light. 



