690 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



but essential parts of any well-constructed hive, 

 and that in the case of moving they ought to be 

 fastened thereto. As my fingers and ankles ceas- 

 ed throbbing I felt less vindictive toward the 

 manufacturer, but more determined to know more 

 about hive construction. 



Day after day I studied the catalog, and carefully 

 read through the caption "Hives" in the ABC 

 book, and often with the catalog in hand I would 

 put this question to the Sphinx: " What are you, 

 anyhow — a Hoffman, a Langstroth, a story-and- 

 a-half, or a Danzen baker.-'" and, sphinxlike, it 

 answered nothing. 



What I did notknow was bothering me a whole 

 lot. At last I got some relief. One night I was 

 called to the telephone. "Say, Todd, is it true 

 you have a hive of bees, and that the little 

 wretches have about laid you out.?" 



" Yes, and no; but whtre do you come in ? " 



"Oh! I kept bees when a boy, and I am just 

 dying to get my hands on a hive. I know all 

 about skeps, but ha\e had no experience with 

 frames." 



Result, we combined our forces and investi- 

 gated the inside arrangements one afternoon in 

 the midst of a cold northwest wind. My friend 

 thought he saw the queen, a miserable little runt 

 he called it, but there were a few drones out and 

 lots of drone-cells. I took his word for it in 

 every thing. We assumed the hive was a Dan- 

 zenbaker, after a study of the catalog; but I re- 

 frain from saying how olten I measured the out- 

 side dimensions of that hive. My mind now got 

 some repose, and 1 thought my bee troubles were 

 all over, and so turned my attention to my cold- 

 frames. Soon, however, I noticed each evening 

 an awfully big heap of dead bees in front of the 

 hive. I would lay a piece of paper on the ground, 

 and the next night I would find a hundred or two 

 of dead bees on it. Then drones were flying 

 freely, and 1 began to suspect that something was 

 wrong. 



Back to the books again. Gentle reader, did 

 you ever hear of " Buchan's Domestic Medicine ".'' 

 It was a household work in Scotland fifty years ago, 

 and many nervous people put in nearly every 

 spare minute studying the symptoms of every dis- 

 ease so as to locate their own. One man 1 knew 

 was said to be convinced that he had most of the 

 symptoms of every disease mentioned in Buchan, 

 including those of a condition that can not possibly 

 occur to a member of the male sex, and I often 

 thought of him as I burned the midnight electric 

 light over such parts of the A B C as are devoted 

 to diseases. Not finding the exact symptoms 1 

 proceeded to read the whole book, and at last struck 

 "Bee Paralysis." This was the nearest 1 could 

 get; but it did not properly cover the ground. 

 One thing I was sure of — lots of my bees did 

 stagger around on the alighting-board as if drunk 

 or paralyzed, and were hustled off by their cruel- 

 hearted sisters. They were black and greasy in 

 appearance, as described in the book, but their 

 abdomens were not swollen. And the drones 

 got more numerous, making the welkin cheerful 

 with their hum. Another examination of the 

 iuMd;' of the hive showed fewer bees and more 

 drone-celli:. Verdict, hive no good; cause un- 

 known. 



Medford, Oregon. 



To ht lontinued. 



CAUCASIANS THAT 

 ITALIANS. 



EXCELLED 



They Capped the Honey Whiter, Enter- 

 ed the Supers more Readily, and were 

 Easily Distinguished from Blacks. 



BY C. W. PRICE. 



[The following article by Mr. Price, in praise of the Cauca- 

 sians, may draw out some protests from some of our subscribers 

 who have tried these bees, and who report they aie no gentler 

 and no better in any respect than Italians. After some of these 

 protests had come in we held back one article praising these 

 bees, and the writer of it felt that we were not fair in that we al- 

 lowed an article to go in condemning the bees, and yet refused 

 to publish his in praise of them, as he had found them to be emi- 

 nently satisfactory. We are now publishing both articles, and 

 will endeavor to publish any unfavorable ones as well as any 

 that may come in praise of them. — Ed.] 



I notice that the different writers are divided 

 as to the value and importance of Caucasian bees. 

 This being the case, I think they should be 

 thoroughly discussed, and all of the good or bad 

 points fully brought out. 



When these bees were first brought to my at- 

 tention I was at once seized with a desire to try 

 them. Situated as I am in town with neighbors 

 on each side, and with only a small tract of 

 ground, I thought that, if I could get a strain 

 combining prolificness with gentleness and good 

 honey-gathering qualities, I could well afford to 

 make a change. I had commenced with black 

 bees, then I changed to Italians with some hy- 

 brids mixed in with them. I like the blacks ful- 

 ly as well as the Italians. They stored more 

 honey for me, and capped it nicer than the Ital- 

 ians, and would enter the supers when Italians 

 would not. The last year I had the Italians the 

 two strongest colonies refused to go into the su- 

 pers, and, try as I would, they would not and 

 could not be induced to go above. They would 

 cram the brood-frames with honey, and then 

 swarm. The hybrids did better for me than the 

 Italians. They entered the supers as readily as 

 the blacks, and capped the honey nice and white. 

 Then the Italians are apt to change their minds 

 about being gentle, and surprise you when you 

 are unprepared. I found that they could be 

 cross on short notice. 



Early in the season of 1906 I procured several 

 tested Caucasian queens from different places. 

 Two of these queens vsere select breeding queens, 

 and all of them were fine ones. During that sea- 

 son I raised and introduced Caucasian queens 

 into all my hives. In the fall of that year I 

 received an imported Caucasian queen from the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington, in- 

 troduced her, and she proved to be a good queen. 



The year 1907 is generally considered to have 

 been a very poor one for the production of hon- 

 ey. This is the report brought to me from over 

 this county, and all bee-keepers whom I have 

 seen report the season as a poor one. Regardless 

 of this fact, and the still further fact that I had 

 but little time in which to look after my bees, 

 the Caucasians gave me more honey than was 

 obtained by my neighbors or by any one in the 

 county so far as I am able to learn. I had more 

 honey per colony than any one near me, and 

 there are a number of bee-keepers here. My 

 Caucasians beat them all. They built up very 

 rapidly in the early summer — so fast, in fact, that 

 I was surprised to find them so strong with bees 



