1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



743 



sible? and can the impurity of the queen 

 be judged by the amount of black shown? 

 For my part I should think the more black 

 the less Italian. M. L. Morrison. 



New Orleans, La., Aug. 19. 



[It is possibly true that our A B C of Bee 

 Culture does not fully cover this point; but 

 in one of our circulars we have for years 

 published this paragraph: 



ITALIAN QUEKNS ; WHAT IS THE TEST OF PURITY ? 



Sometimes when we send out a tested queen, cus- 

 tomers complain, just as soon as she arrives, that she 

 is a hybrid ; and this opinion is based wholly upon her 

 markings, irrespective of the markings o'f the bees 

 that accompany her. It is a well-known fact, that 

 pure Italian queens— those whose progeny are gentle 

 three-banded bees, vary in color all the way from jet 

 black to a bright orange color. The fact that the 

 queen is black herself is no evidence at all that she is 

 a hj'brid. One of the blackest queens we ever had — 

 daughter of an imported— produced as finely marked 

 and gentle Italians as we have ever seen. As a gener- 

 al rule, though, Italian queens are striped with yellow 

 and black. Our select tested queens (and they cost 

 more) have the abdomen almost all yellow except at 

 its very tip. Our tested queens, as a general rule, are 

 striped with black and yellow on the abdomen ; and 

 our imported queens are the same. I<et it be under- 

 stood that the value of a queen does not depend upon 

 her color. Some of the best breeding queens for busi- 

 ness are dark-colored ; and most honey-producers pre- 

 fer what are called the leather-colored Italians. 



You will see by the foregoing that your 

 breeder has probably been furnishing you 

 just such class of queens as he advertises 

 for pure stock. The markings of pure 

 queens and drones will vary decidedly; but 

 the average Italian queen will be striped, 

 yellow and black. Sometimes queens are 

 all yellow except the tip, and sometimes 

 they are all black. As stated, we have 

 known such queens to produce pure, nicelv' 

 marked Italian bees. As the ABC appears 

 to be a little silent on this ver}' important 

 point I will try to get a paragraph in to 

 clear up the matter. — Ed.] 



THE PARENT COLONY AND ITS PLACE IN 

 THE ABC OF BEE CULTURE. 



I am the proud possessor of one colon}' of 

 Italian bees, the A B C of Bee Culture, and 

 Langstroth's book on bees. I take great 

 pleasure in watching my ' ' pets ' ' and study- 

 ing their habits. They are now working 

 on the flowers of the iron- weed and sunflow- 

 ers, entirely ignoring the goldenrod, which 

 is very plentiful in the vicinity of my resi- 

 dence. 



I have read your ABC and Langstroth 

 carefully, and both of you fail to make 

 clear what takes place in the old hive after 

 it has cast a swarm. I quote from ABC 

 under the heading, Swarrning: "When a 

 colony gets excessively strong, the inmates 

 of the hive, by a sort of preconcerted, mu- 

 tual agreement, divide themselves oft" into 

 two parties, one party remaining in the old 

 hive, and the other starting out to seek their 

 fortunes elsewhere." Now, my point is 

 this: Both you and Langstroth follow the 

 fortunes of the new swarm and new hive, 

 even to the minutest detail and fact as to 

 how they conduct themselves in their new 

 abode. On the other hand, you treat the 

 old hive as many of the old Western farm- 



ers did the old log cabins after they had 

 swarmed out of them to better abodes — ei- 

 ther forget them entirely, or use them as a 

 general dumping-place for old junk. Here 

 and there throughout your book I glean by 

 inference, more than any thing else, what 

 takes place in the old hive after the swarm 

 has left it; but there are no positive facts 

 given beyond what I have quoted. Why 

 not follow the fortunes of the "stay at 

 homes " as explicitly as you have those of 

 the swarming half of the old colon}'? I un- 

 derstand that you propose to bring out a 

 new edition of the ABC. Why not devote 

 a paragraph to the old hive? 



Dickson D. Alley. 

 Yonkers, N. Y., Aug. 21. 



[I think you are doubtless correct that 

 the ABC does not specifically describe the 

 conditions of a colony that has cast a swarm ; 

 but if you will read up careftillj' "After- 

 swarming," ana also "Swarming," 3'ou 

 will get a fair idea of what the parent col- 

 ony may be. In both stibjects, directions 

 are given what to do with the parent colo- 

 ny and how to treat it. The parent colony 

 may be described as follows: It is an ag- 

 gregation of bees which, up to swarming 

 time, was very strong in brood and num- 

 bers. After the swarm is cast it is bereft 

 of most of the bees and of the old queen, 

 both of which will seek a new home. The 

 bees that remain will be mainly young bees. 

 There will be brood in all stages, some cap- 

 ped cells, from which, if 3'oung queen> 

 have not already hatched, they will hatcli 

 in a day or two Unless this parent colony 

 is properly taken care of it is liable to send 

 oft' after-swarms, to the extent of three or 

 four, each with a virgin queen that goes oft' 

 on her wedding - trip. It may, in fact, 

 swarm itself out of existence. It is a prac- 

 tice, in some cases, to remove the parent 

 colon}' to a new location after it has cast a 

 swarm and hive the swarm in a new hive 

 containing frames of foundation on the old 

 stand. — Ed.] 



PECULIAR CONDITIONS IN NEW JERSEY. 



Is the experience of M. W. Shepherd, 

 Hollister, Fla., as given in Gleanings for 

 Aug. 1, really so remarkable? Any up-to- 

 date bee-keeper may look for at least one 

 such experience, and may consider himself 

 lucky if he does not have several. Bees 

 holding oft" swarming until the new queen 

 hatches is no new experience, at least with 

 me. Normally it is an indication that the 

 bees are "tired of mother" and want anew 

 one; but it seems they hate to kill her (or 

 something else), and hold the young queens 

 two or three days in the cells. At the last 

 minute the colony swarms, and the young 

 queens push the caps off quick enough to 

 join the "gang." I am not sure but the 

 best way to handle such colonies is. when 

 that condition is discovered, to kill the old 

 queen, and, after the first young one hatches, 

 remove all the other cells. Colonies treated 

 in this way seem entirely satisfied, and are 



