94 



THF BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



have also learned that there is just as great 

 a difference in the native black race, and I 

 have had as good results from single colonies 

 of blacks as from Italians, indeed the great- 

 est yield of comb honey from a single col- 

 ony in one season (265 lbs.) was made by a 

 colony of low hybrids, and the greatest yield 

 from a whole yard (147 lbs. spring count) 

 was made entirely by blacks and low grade 

 hybrids. This last season (1894) I ran an 

 out-yard of twenty colonies spring count, 

 twelve miles from the home yard. These 

 bees were pure blacks. They increased by 

 natural swarming to forty-three colonies and 

 gave the largest yield of surplus honey re- 

 ported in this section last season (100 lbs. 

 per colony spring count. ) A j ard of 100 col- 

 onies of finest bred Italians that I ever 

 owned, twelve miles from here, gave no sur- 

 plus. 



From these experiences I have learned 

 that there is less difference between Italians 

 and blacks than some would have us believe 

 and that real success in producing honey 

 lies mostly in other things than kind of bees ; 

 the two main factors being tirst, nectar in 

 the flowers, and second, alive, intelligent, en- 

 terprising bee-keeper who is willing to get 

 up at three o'clock in the morning and work 

 until eight in the evening. 



Now friends after all this good showing 

 for blacks, I am sti)l very emphatically in 

 favor of the nice, gentle, beautiful Italians, 

 for several reasons. One is that they are 

 much better behaved when hives are opened 

 and brood combs handled. The habit that 

 blacks have of wildly rushing out of the hive 

 when opened is to me most provoking, and 

 the nice Italians help me to control my tem- 

 per and make it easy to be good. Besides 

 this, each fall when I commence to examine 

 tlTe bees and prepare them for winter and I 

 find many little, weak, light colonies, four 

 times in five they are black bees ; and the 

 same is true in the spring. Most of the lit- 

 tle pauper colonies that nearly every bee- 

 keeper fools away his time With by trying to 

 feed and build up are blacks, and I want as 

 few such swarms to waste my time with as 

 possible ; yet I expect to always keep some 

 black bees in my yard. 



I have in times past been in the habit of 

 buying some colonies of blacks of neighbor- 

 ing bee-keepers, and I expect to continue 

 this practice. The reason for this will be 

 explained when I tell you the best way to cul- 

 tivate bees and keep the stock improving, or 



at least from degenerating, for I am not cer- 

 tain we can improve and change the nature 

 and character of bees as can be done with 

 horses, cattle, sheep, poultry and such. I 

 know that those that offer what they are 

 pleased to call improved strains of bees quote 

 the improvement that has been made in the 

 animals, but to my mind the cases are not 

 similar. In domesticated animals there are 

 various directions in which alteration is not 

 only desirable but possible. For instance, 

 there was a motive to change the lean wild 

 cattle in the direction of larger size and bet- 

 ter proportion for beef. Nearly all kinds of 

 animals in a natural state have to hustle for 

 their living. They have to exercise a great 

 deal to get enough feed to sustain life and 

 this tended to keep them thin in flesh but 

 with great vitality and endurance. Now to 

 change them in the direction of more flesh 

 it was only necessary to give better feed and 

 less exercise. Of course careful breeding 

 was resorted to as a means of fixing this 

 changed condition and making it permanent, 

 but all this came at the cost of loss of phys- 

 ical energy and endurance, the very thing 

 required in bees. 



The same thing is true of other animals 

 than cattle. As a '"hustler" the Poland 

 China or Berkshire hog is a poor stick, as 

 compared with his wild progenitor, and a 

 gentleman of great experience with horses 

 told me that in a race for life a wild Indian 

 pony would kill the best thorough-bred in a 

 fifty mile race and then would be good for 

 the same race nextday. Now bees are want- 

 ed for a single purpose, roaming the fields 

 and carrying heavy loads of nectar. There 

 is no object in cultivating them in the direc- 

 tion of beef, cheese, sausage, tallow or wool, 

 in which direction and for which purpose 

 domestic animals have been improved, but, 

 as before stated, at the loss of the very qual- 

 ities needed in bees. Nearly all animals 

 and living things seem endowed by nature 

 with only the powers and qualities needed to 

 search for and appropriate the food required 

 to sustain life and breed its kind, and for 

 this end nature has endowed each with a per- 

 fection to which man can add nothing. The 

 lion as a hunter is at his best only when wild 

 in the forests of Africa. The eagle reaches 

 his highest development only in the free air 

 and sunshine, and no one expects that any 

 care in domestic breeding can increase its 

 powers. Wolves in a wild state are more 

 than a match, as hunters and fighters, for 



