306 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apb. 



make friends with the animal (which did not take 

 kindly to foreig-ners) by giving her salt; but the 

 creature did not seem to know what it was. The 

 Chinese do not give their cattle clear salt, but mix a 

 \'ery little with rice water to give them. There 

 have been found some Indians who, when first giv- 

 en salt things, disliked them, saying it made their 

 mouths smart. Nevertheless, we have high author- 

 ity for holding that "salt is good." 



Shanghai, China, Feb., 1887. .1. E. Walker. 



Friend W., this matter has been brought 

 up muiy times before, and you are, without 

 ((iiesti >u, right in regard to it. Unless bees 

 tiud access to salt in some way, they are 

 quite sure to get it from the sources named. 

 In our apiary we keep a large glass jar full 

 of salt water in the summer time. This is 

 inverted on a grooved board or some other 

 substantial substitute, so the bees have con- 

 venient access to it whenever they want it. 



ABOUT THAT REPORT ON PAGE 184. 



ITALIANS AND HYBRIDS. 



T DTD not intend to convey the idea that Italians 

 ja[ are better honey-gatherers than hybrids. All 

 ^l other circumstances being equal, I believe that 

 '"'*■ the progeny of an Italian queen mated with a 

 black drone will produce as much honey as 

 Italians when there is plenty of honey to be gather- 

 ed; but when honey is scarce, the hybrids are more 

 apt to spend their time buzzing around the honey- 

 house windows, or trying to steal from some weak 

 colony. My hybrids were worked for comb honey, 

 and the Italians for extracted honey, which will ac- 

 count for part of the great difference in the amount 

 of honey gathered. The average would be 23(1 lbs., 

 not 260 lbs. The 30 colonies of hybrids were win- 

 tered in the cellar, while part of the Italians were 

 wintere , in chaff hives. When the houey-harvest 

 commenced, those in chaff hives were two weeks 

 ahead of the others. 



The following are some of the reasons why I pre- 

 fer the Italian bees rather than hybrids: 



1. Stability of features and characteristics. It is 

 a well-known fact, that it is a very difficult matter 

 to fix the characteristics of a hybrid or cross, in 

 either the animal or vegetable kingdom. We might 

 establish an apiary^jOf hybrids of the first cross, 

 having nearly the same markings and characteris- 

 tics;. :but in a few years we should have bees in all 

 the different degrees of purity, between Italians 

 and blacks, and possessing all the different charac- 

 teristics of the two races; while if they had been 

 Jtalians, or any other pure race, they would, at the 

 end of a few years, all have the same markings and 

 characteristics that they had when the apiary was 

 established. 



2. Italians are proof against the bee-ipoth, while 

 some hybrids are not. A few years ago, before 1 

 Italianized my bees, 1 had to fumigate ray sur- 

 plus combs, and the chickens breakfasted on 

 the mutilated brood which the bees threw out dur- 

 ing the night; but all that is changed. I do not 

 think that I saw more than a dozen moth-worms in 

 my apiary last summer. 



'.i. The comb-honey that I bought of parties hav- 

 ing black and hybrid bees was considerably dam- 

 aged by moth-worms. I notice that friend Prance 

 and others, wboaree.\tolling blackaqd hybrid bees, 



are bothered with the moth, while in communities 

 in which there are no bees except Italians, the bee- 

 moth is almost extinct. 



Some of the friends have reported that their 

 black and hybrid bees were more docile tii.ui their 

 Italians. Perhaps those bees which ilieycall Ital- 

 ians are a cro.ss between Italians and Cyprians or 

 Syrians. No one but an expert can tell the differ- 

 ence between Italians and a cross with those races. 

 We did not hear much about the Italians Ijeing so 

 cross until those new races were introduced in this 

 country, except a few complaints wliere hybrids 

 were called Italians. (i. 1). Bl.\ck. 



Brandon, Iowa, March 21, 18s7. 



EMPTYING T SUPERS. 



CAN MILLER'S PLAN BE .SIMPLIFIED? 



fOU say, Ernest, on page 249, " I want to ask if 

 it would not be possible for you to simplify 

 your device for emptying theTsuper. Why 

 not dispense with the hive-cover?" If a 

 change could be made in making a T super 

 that would make each super cost .5 cents less. It 

 would be worth studying over and experimenting 

 about for days. In an apiary of 100 colonies it 

 would be a matter of $15 or so; whereas in the 

 same apiary the saving of 5 cts. on each bearing- 

 board would be a matter of only 10 cents. In other 

 words, where only one or two articles of a kind are 

 made, and to be used over and over again, the 

 question is not so much how cheaply or simply can 

 they be made? as, how can they be made so as to do 

 the most rapid and satisfactory work? If I knew 

 how to get up an arrangement that would cost 

 much more, and yet take out a superful of sections 

 in quicker time. I would cheerfully throw away the 

 old arrangement and make new. It is possible the 

 device might be simplified. I used the hive-cover, 

 partly because I had a lot of deep hive-covers that I 

 had thrown aside, because I could not afford to use 

 such heavy covers. I am not sure, however, that it, 

 or a box similar to it, can be dispensed with. The 

 essential thing is the one side and end; in other 

 words, the one corner of the bo.x, with an arrange- 

 ment to quickly and surely place the bearing-board 

 in its exact position, and then as quickly and surely 

 place the super in exactly the right position over 

 the bearing-board. 



The arrangement you propose is, so far as it goes, 

 just about the same as I use, only I have mine fas- 

 tened to the hive-cover. I would rather have the 

 hive-cover out of the way if it would work just as 

 well; and after you have placed the super properly 

 on your box, I think you can make a little quicker 

 work without the hive-cover. But the necessity for 

 the hive-cover appears when you come to j)lace the 

 super, "being careful," as you sa.\-. " to get it 

 squarely over." The best you can do, I think it will 

 take you at least one minute to put the super in its 

 proper place, and you will then be obliged to stoop 

 and look under each super; whereas, with the hive- 

 cover there is no need of being " careful," but in 

 one geciind of time you can pull the super to its 

 place, and be sure that it is just riglit. The bearing- 

 board would be easier made, as you suggest; liut I 

 am afraid the edge of the board would split off in a 

 little t me; and, moreover, the board would be like- 

 ly to warp. C. C. Miller. 

 Marengo, 111, 



