GLKANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



expressed or implied in the quotatitm about 

 blacks being the *' persistent and dominant 

 race." If you will read again our editorial 

 on page 175 you will see that this " persis- 

 tency " and " dominance " does not mean 

 (hat these two characteristics comprise all 

 the other desirable qualities in bees. And 

 you will see, also, that we made an excep- 

 tion in the case of the leather-colored Ital- 

 ians. Note our last paragraph, second 

 column. 



The wild blackberry, for example, is 

 " dominant " and " persistent," but these 

 adjectives do not argue that it is the most 

 desirable for the small-fruit grower who is 

 engaged in the business of furnishing black- 

 berries for the market. The cultivated 

 varieties are vastly superior. Again, the 

 scrub cattle of Mexico and the southern 

 portions of the Ignited States are, no 

 doubt, a " persistent " and " dominant " 

 breed of cattle ; but it does not follow that 

 in the matter of milk or beef this breed 

 comes anywhere near the modern Jerseys or 

 Holsteins. The point we tried to make was 

 that black bees, for some localities, will 

 breed up better and faster than some of 

 the so-called yellow and extra-yellow Ital- 

 ians, and in some cases better than the 

 regular leather-colored Italians; but that 

 does not follow that the black bees of 

 Virginia will be the equal of a strong and 



\ igorous strain of Italians, eitiier for hon- 

 ey production or resistance to disease for 

 Virginia or elsewhere. As a matter of fact, 

 lilacks do not resist foul brood like tiie 

 yellow bees. 



Tlie tendency of natui'e is to revei't back 

 to the original; but it does not follow, nor 

 have the facts proven, that a pure strain of 

 Italians where there are no blacks will in 

 time degenerate to black bee^. When we 

 speak of black bees or brown bees it is 

 proper to say that either Carniolans or 

 Caucasians or Banats are their superior in 

 almost every respect. In some cases they 

 may be better than leather-colored Italians; 

 but our experience, covering an extended 

 observation and travel all over the United 

 States, leads us to believe that the ordinary 

 Italians that have not been run for color 

 are superior to any other strain of bees, 

 although an exception should be noted in 

 certain localities. The fact that Italians 

 have the preference on the part of about 90 

 per cent of all the beekeepei's in this coun- 

 try would seem to indicate that even if they 

 are not the " persistent " and " dominant " 

 race of the world they are superior, from 

 the standpoint of dollars and cents, and 

 convenience and ease in handling; yet there 

 are certain localities Avhere we might prefer 

 Carniolans or Caucasians; but these local- 

 ities are very limited. — Ed.] 



AN APIARY OF 250 COLONIES WINTERS SUCCESSFULLY ON ASTER 



BY J. L. BYER 



The first time I remember hearing of bad 

 effects of aster honey was at the Denver 

 convention some years ago, when the Man- 

 ley Brothers, of Sandusky, Mich., stated 

 that in their section the late honey always 

 proved fatal to the bees, and as a result they 

 did not try to winter the bees any more, 

 preferring to take all the honey away and 

 buy more bees next spring. Many of us 

 thought it a wasteful plan, to say the least, 

 and we all had our idea as to how we would 

 do under like circumstances. The most 

 popular plan advocated was to extract all 

 the late honey from the brood-nests and 

 then feed sugar syrup ; but, like some other 

 things advocated, it is easier sometimes to 

 tell Jww to do a thing than to do it. 



Since that time we had almost forgotten 

 what we heai'd about aster honey, as in our 

 locality we never had any of it. But last 

 fall at the yard 100 miles north of Toronto 

 we unexpectedly got a flow of this honey 



in Septembe?-, and then again aster honey 

 became a live topic. There were 250 colo- 

 nies in the yard; and while clover had been 

 a failure, during August we got a flow from 

 thistles, willow-herb, etc.. of about 50 

 pounds per colony. Dui'ing August T sent 

 up 2500 pounds of sugar, thinking that 

 much or more would be needed as among 

 the 250 colonies one hundred Avere in eight- 

 frame L. hives, and. as all know, when run- 

 ning bees in hives as small as that for 

 extracted lioney. as a rule there will be light 

 brood-nests in the fall when supers are tak- 

 en off. Honey was taken off during the 

 first week in Se])tember, and all supers 

 stored in the sheds. About Sept. 10 the 

 weather turned very warm, and the millions 

 of small blue aslei'S growing on the uplands, 

 (hat we had hardly noticed, began to yield 

 honey. For twelve days this hot weather 

 continued, and honey came in quite freely. 

 We saw at once that some of the strongest 



