luiic, 1913. 



■" ^^ £ gE^ =<( 



Ara^rican Hee Journal 



bitter, as if 50 percent uuinine. and some 

 pepper were adiieci. June to October." 



I liave had considerable of this lioney my- 

 self some seasons, and am sure it does yield 

 honey. The writer of the article says bees 

 never work on this until Sept. 15th. while 

 tlie above k'ives it from .June to C>ctober. I 

 have found that bees never work on this in 

 my locality when tiiere is anything else to 

 do. so this, perhaps, accounts for the differ- 

 ence. H. L. Russell. 



Whittaker. Tex.. May 20. 



Why I Like the Caucasian Bee 



A number of years a^o. when the United 

 States Government distributed Caucasian 

 queens among apiarists. I wanted one, and 

 made application for it. They sent me one 

 imported, and two home-bred for drone 

 mothers. 



'I'he first season showed them to be very 

 different from the Italians. So, through a 

 friend in Russia. I got two queens from the 

 shores of the Caspian Sea, but they proved 

 to be mixed with too much yellow, and. 



therefore, tfie iiueens bred from tiiem were 

 not desirable; they sported. 



Later I found the pure gray Caucasian 

 bee. which proved to be non-sporting, and 

 true to color. I. therefore, contracted to 

 have my queens bred for me exclusively, 

 and for =; years have received ciueens direct. 



1 have been experimenting with bees since 

 187H !l have more experience than wealth , 

 and have now concluded that the Italian 

 and Caucasian bees are the best. 



The Caucasian bees come across the sea. 

 at times, with not a dead bee in tlic cages, 

 never more than a half dozen; not so with 

 the Italian, although it may be in the line of 

 transportation. I have had Caucasian queens 

 31 days on the voyage with hardly a dead 

 bee.: 



Where I have introdpced an Italian queen 

 early in the season, I find Caucasian bees 

 very late in the summer, showing them to be 

 very long lived. In wintering, the other 

 races do not compare with them; they live 

 under very adverse circumstances if they 

 have plenty of stores. They are extra pro- 

 lific, and build up very fast. They never 

 loaf nor lie out in great bunches as the Ital- 



Several Swarms of Bees Clustered Together. 



I am sending a picture of a swarm of bees. 

 They were a beautiful sight to a bee-keeper, 

 even if he were not desiring swarms. There 

 were 3 {perhaps 4) swarms in the bunch, and 

 they were hived in 2 separate hives, with 59 

 honey-sections placed on each. I should 



think there must have been 3 pecks of bees. 

 Bees in the cellar seem quiet so far. and I 

 am hoping for an early spring, as the winter 

 has been cold and the snowfall light, with 

 the ground frozen but little. 

 Caribou, Maine. Feb. 15. O. B. Griffin. 



ians do, but are busy either in the hive or in 

 the field. They are very gentle, and when I 

 kill a saucy bee it is never a pure Caucas- 

 ian. The color may not appeal to every one, 

 for they look like the common black bee, 

 but, upon close examination, they differ. 

 When first hatched they are beautiful little 

 lumps of gray. 



The queens are very long lived. 1 have 

 some doing service that were imported 3 

 years ago. There is less supersedure, and 

 tlie queens hold out their egg production 

 longer than any bee I have tried. They are 

 are not excessive swarmers. as some claim, 

 but they require larger hives. An ordinary 

 queen will fill two lo-frame Langstroth 

 bodies. Clias. W. Quinn. of Houston Heights, 

 Tex., reports that a breeding-queen bought 

 last year filled two Jumbo bodies with 

 brood. 



As honey-gatherers they can not be ex- 

 celled, if even equaled. They are very fine 

 comb-builders, and never show that watery 

 color in cappings as is quite often the case 

 with the yellow races. 



They have one fault; their excessive gath- 

 ering of propolis, which is used for closing 

 cracks and sealing covers, and if the colony 

 is weak they will diminish the entrance to a 

 small opening, no doubt to repel robbers and 

 keep out the cold. For the city apiarist 

 who has neighbors near, the Caucasian is 

 superior to any other kind. They can be 

 handled by lamp-light, and never leave the 

 comb to cawl and annoy you. They do not 

 stop from field-work while handled in the 

 daytime, as they will " zip. zip " away while 

 you are examining the comb; the queens are 

 a little more shy than the Italian. 



They are excessive bur comb builders if 

 the bee-space is not to their liking. All 

 light must be excluded to get the least bur- 

 combs and propolis. There is no bee equal 

 to them in a fall flow, for the hive is filled 

 with brood at all times except when in their 

 winter quarters, A. D. D. Wood. 



Lansing. Mich., May 10, 



Mk. 



In ATA, 



Japanese Bee 



"Bee-Keepers' Guiile" 



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 Every bee-keeper should have it in his 

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 of the American Eee Journal, 



