January, 1915. 



American Hee Journal 



conducted apiary which I have ever 

 seen anywhere, all things considered. 

 The apiary of Mr. Mahon, mentioned 

 in our July number, is perhaps ahead 

 of it in a few particulars, but there is 

 no comparison possible between the 

 two, owing to the magnitude of this 

 installation. In 1913, Mr. Penna reared 

 5226 queens, of which 5141 were 

 shipped away as follows: In April 97, 

 in May 929, in June 965, in July 1011, in 

 August 1143, in September 996. These 

 were all distributed on the European 

 continent. His losses in the mails of 

 Europe are less than one half of one 

 percent, while 50 percent of the queens 

 sent by him to America at different 

 times have arrived dead. He ascribes 

 the loss to their being smothered in 

 the mail sacks while crossing the 

 ocean. For that reason he has discour- 

 aged orders from America. So our 

 readers will understand that I am not 

 trying to give him free advertising. 

 But I hope that some method may soon 

 be devised by which queens may be 

 sent regularly across the seas without 

 loss. Otherwise the old method of 

 shipping large lots by express may 

 have to be continued. 



After having returned home from 

 Europe, we correspondedconsiderably 

 with Mr. Penna, and arranged with 

 him to make experiments on shipping 

 queens from there to us. But only a 

 few queens had been mailed when the 



proper temperature and hygrometric 

 conditions, during the transferring of 

 the larvae, for he has noticed that a too 

 dry atmosphere tends to dry up the 

 larval food, which becomes hard and 

 unfit for the tender grubs. So he has 

 both thermometer and hygrometer in 

 the room, and the shortage of moisture 

 or of temperature is made up by 

 sprinkling the walls and the floor with 

 warm or cold water, as the case may 

 require until the proper conditions 

 prevail. But let me quote Mr. Penna's 

 own words : . . ■, 



"I formed my 620 nuclei in April, 

 taking bees for this purpose from an 

 apiary which is situated I'A kilometers 

 distant. The queens have been reared 

 by 48 colonies. It is a strict rule with 

 us that no colony must have more than 

 16 cells to care for at a time, and that 

 no colony is to start new queen-cells 

 until the preceding lot has been com- 

 pleted and taken out. In this way, by 

 not overloading the bees and by feed- 

 ing everyday, I obtain the best results. 

 Transferring larvre and royal jelly is 

 advantageously done in damp warm 

 air, temperature 25 degrees C. (101 de- 

 grees F.), and hygrometer 70 degrees. 

 Crossing is another capital point in 

 queen-rearing. For this purpose we 

 confine with drone-traps the drones of 

 the colonies that furnish the queen 

 larvae, while rearing drones from the 

 colonies which are nursing the queen- 

 cells and allowing them to fly freely. 

 For honey production I have seven 

 apiaries, but the honey crop has been 

 unfavorable this year." 



Mr Penna is a linguist, speaking and 

 writing both French and English. This 

 has enabled him to become acquainted 

 with the best queen-rearing methods. 

 He employs several men, one of whom 

 has become so proficient in the trans- 

 ferring of larvs that he does not even 

 damage the cells from which they are 



taken when transferring them to cell- 

 cups. Several of the kodak pictures 

 which we reproduce herewith were 

 taken by Count Visconti. The others 

 have since been kindly sent to us by 

 Mr. Penna. 



The conditions of queen-rearing in 

 this apiary are unique. This is the 

 center of Italy, with no opportunity for 

 mismatings. The selection of breeders 

 is carried on in the most practical way, 

 and in addition to all this our friend is 

 a man of wealth, who does this work 

 as a pastime. We are not astonished 

 that he should be unable to fill all the 

 orders which he receives. He stated 

 that he had to refuse about 600 during 

 the season. However, there are others 

 following his example, and in our next 

 article we will show Mr. Piana doing 

 similar work. 



We saw for the first time a curiosity 

 of which we had already heard, a hive 

 closed with padlock and key. Not that 

 any of those nuclei were closed in that 

 way, but it appears that when honey- 

 producing colonies are kept in spots 

 easily accessible to petty thieves, it is 

 often thought best to protect them in 

 this manner. This appears to us more 

 of a prejudice than a necessity, for dis- 

 honesty is not any more apparent in 

 Italy than in our own country. How- 

 ever, there is perhaps more stealing of 

 trifles there than with us. Our thieves 

 do business on a larger scale and pre- 

 fer ready money to honey. 



Towards evening our host brought 

 out his touring car and we speeded 

 towards the city. Bologna has a style 

 all its own. From a height nearby we 

 saw it beneath our feet, churches, 

 monuments, towers, etc. We rode 

 back and forth among its wonders. 



But we could not remain. That same 

 evening, accompanied by our three 

 friends, we went towards Faenza. This 

 will be the subject of the next letter. 



Mr. Penna's Expert Apiarist. 



European war began and the delay in 

 the mails compelled him to desist. 

 These experiments will be renewed as 

 soon as the war ends. 



Mr. Penna agrees with Doolittle in 

 stating that "after very long journeys, 

 queens often lose their qualities as 

 layers though they may remain valua- 

 ble as breeding queens." 



Mr Penna rears his queens by the 

 Doolittle method, with improvements 

 of his own. He is very thorough, has 

 plenty of bees to fall back upon, and 

 whenever a nucleus for some reason 

 fails twice in succession in producing 

 a fertile queen, it is broken up and a 

 fresh lot of bees and combs used in it. 

 So he has no worthless nuclei. He has 

 two bee-houses on these grounds. In 

 one of them he keeps 50 choice colo- 

 nies for queen-rearing from the arti- 

 ficial cell-cups. The laboratory for 

 making cell-cups and transferring 

 larva; and royal jelly also contains a 

 bee-house with 9 or 10 of his very best 

 colonies to supply the royal larv:e. 

 This laboratory is maintained at the 



Contributed 



Articles^ 



Super Economy 



BY VV. E. BOWE. 



A GENTLEMAN several years my 

 senior once said to me, "My boy, 

 always take a thing when it is 

 given to you and say thanks, then if 

 you don't want it throw it away." The 

 above applies in the case I am about to 

 describe, only I didn't throw anything 

 away. , 



Having gotten the bee craze several 

 years ago, I was led into using the 

 35Sx5xl>4 inch sections, a box which 

 I think will never become popular in 

 this part of the country. Of course 1 

 bought fences and supplies to match, 

 and have used them for several seasons. 

 Lately I was offered a quantity of 

 ■iUx-iU^'A plain sections for nothing 

 if I could use them. I hardly knew 

 what to do, as I was certain my fences 

 would not fit, neither had I any section 

 holders. ,. , 



Rather than buy an outfit for my 



supers, I hit upon a scheme which as 

 far as I can see is going to fill the bill. 

 I sawed out 35 pieces 13-]6xl>ixlB 

 inches, and 105 pieces scant fsxl 13- 

 16x4 "4 inches, enough for five supers. 

 By placing one of the 18-inch strips on 

 the bottom tins of a super, and one of 

 my old 3is inch fences either side, 1 

 set in the four sections with a fsx4.4 

 piece between each. This nicely filled 

 the bill for length, leaving a slight 

 projection of the ends of each fence 

 above all. Between these projections 

 and on top of the section I laid one of 

 the H-inch strips which I formerly 

 used in the old super for a bottom slat. 

 This slat fills the super to the top, and 

 will serve to keep the section cleaner, I 

 believe. Of course, each piece must 

 rest firm to avoid all possibility of the 

 bees plastering them solid with propo- 

 lis The 13 16x18 inch slat being on 

 the bottom raises the sections up so 

 tliat they catch the ends of the cleats 

 on the fences. The 1 13-16 inch pieces 

 just reach from fence to fence and pre- 



