1308 



GLEANINGS IN BEt CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



But the most serious part of this whole matter 

 is that the majority of our every-day practical 

 bee-keepers do not seem to succeed in keeping 

 two queens (to say nothing about several) in any 

 colony for any length of time, at any time of 

 the year, except on certain occasions, and those 

 occasions do not come oftener than once in three 

 or four years. I have read over and over the 

 third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs in Mr. Alex- 

 ander's article on page 1135, in which he set 

 forth the ease and cartainty of this plural system, 

 and asked myself the question, "What is the 

 reason that Doolittle and others do not find the 

 thing a success as Alexander did.''" Asa rule, 

 the first thing the bees in the upper story do is 

 to persecute the queen which we desire they 

 shall consider on the same terms they do the one 

 in the lower hive. I have not only used one ex- 

 cluder, but two and three, these latter being sep- 

 arated from one-half to one inch apart; but nine- 

 teen out of every twenty queens so tried are killed 

 or balled, and persecuted till they are of no value. 

 This plan would be most valuable for making 

 nuclei could it prove in the hands of the rank 

 and file a thing of ease and certainty. At the 

 time "Scientific Queen-rearing " was published 

 I thought it was no trick at all to get queens fer- 

 tilized from upper stories with laying queens in 

 the hives below, as I succeeded to my perfect 

 satisfaction during the basswood flow of 1888; 

 but twenty years of trial since then has proven 

 that I have to record nineteen failures to one of 

 success, taking the score of years together. The 

 many private letters I receive also show that I 

 am not alone in these failures. 



XT/^^T^T^O T'T* r^\ Jt /^ \ "VT A TA A i^rie, a large swarm oi oees was seen coming 



JN U 1 rLO r KUM L>< AJN AJJA from the North. The swarm passed the search- 



By R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



In the Bee-keepers' Re'uie-v ioT October, page 

 304, a writer whose name is not given, but whose 

 letter is well worth reproducing, makes the fol- 

 lowing statement in regaid to shade for hives: 



"Again, it has been said by some one that 

 bees were better with hives right out in the sun. 

 Some of our hives stand in the sun; some have 

 shade part of the time, and some shade all the 

 time. Now as to present results: Some of the 

 hives that are in the shade all the time show the 

 best yields of honey." 



The above is my experience. If it can be ar- 

 ranged, sun in late spring and autumn is all right; 

 but I can get the best results by having the hives 

 shaded during the swarming season. 



In regard to Italian bees, this same writer 

 says: 



" Have you not said a good deal in favor of 

 the ' Superior' stock.'' My apiary here was orig- 

 inally all black, the kind that I don't like — little 

 nervous devils that are so hard to handle. Two 

 years ago I introduced queens from Moore and 

 Laws. This spring the yard would run about 

 half and half. We have had a very good crop 

 of white-clover honey, and we tiered up until 

 near the end of the flow. Now, as we go through 

 the yard we should expect the Italian stocks to 

 show some superiority in amount of honey stored; 

 but they don't. Some of the biggest stacks are 



on the pure black colonies. However, I am kill- 

 ing the black bees off as fast as I can." 



To these remarks editor Hutchinson adds the 

 following, which my experience confirms in the 

 fullest manner when comparing black and Ital- 

 ian bees: 



" I have known for a long time that, in a good 

 honey-flow near home, as is often the case in 

 white clover, no strain or variety of bees can sur- 

 pass the pure blacks; and when the harvest be- 

 gins to wane, when the nectar must be sought 

 for far and wide, then the Italians hang on while 

 the blacks do practically nothing; all things con- 

 sidered, the Italians seem to be the best bees for 

 this country." 



I am rooming here at the National convention 

 at Detroit with Mr. W. D. Wright, one of the 

 New York State Inspectors of Apiaries. Wide 

 experience has taught Mr. Wright that, where 

 disease is at all prevalent, it is better to have 

 Italian bees. I have noticed far more ordinary 

 dead brood in black colonies than in the Italian 

 or Carniolan; in fact, such is rare with Italian 

 or Carniolan bees> 



The attendance of Canadians at the National 

 convention is excellent — probably greater than at 

 any previous convention of the organization, and 

 the attendance of all at the opening session is, I 

 believe, greater than at any in its history, and so 

 said George E. Hilton, the president, in his open- 

 ing remarks. 



# 



CAN A SWARM TRAVEL LONG DISTANCES ? 



I recently met two fishermen who related to 

 me an incident of great apicultural interest. 

 These men stated, and there is abundant evidence 

 to corroborate it, that, while sailing on Lake 

 Erie, a large swarm of bees was seen coming 

 from the North. The swarm passed the search- 

 light some three miles from Erie city, and land- 

 ed at that place, where it was hived and is 

 now located. I was asked where the bees 

 came from, and I unhesitatingly stated, as had 

 others, that they must have started from the Can- 

 adian shore of Lake Erie, traveling right across 

 the lake. Granting that the bees came from the 

 extreme end of Long Point, they would have to 

 travel 46 miles over water. Bees would never 

 leave the United States shore to travel out a dis- 

 tance and then return, as they would have to do 

 in case they came from the United States; and a 

 bee-line or any thing like it from Erie to the 

 searchlight, and then continued, would lead to ^ 

 the Canadian shore. ■ 



I recently related the above to Jas. Armstrong, X 

 Cheapside, and he told me the following incident: 



Some thirty-three years ago a man by the 

 name of E. Harrison, township of WaJpole, 

 county of Haldemand, Ontario, cut a tree on Pea- 

 cock Point, which runs out into Lake Erie, and 

 the tree contained a colony of fine Italian bees. 

 At that time there were no Italian bees in the 

 district that either Mr. Harrison or Mr. Arm- 

 strong knew of, and both gentlemen believed that 

 this swarm had crossed the lake from the United 

 States — a distance of over 50 miles. It is rather 

 singular that two such facts should come under 

 a bee-keeper's notice within a few weeks; and, 

 being so reliable, they are well worth recording 

 in apicultural history, and they pretty well prove 

 that a swarm can travel a long distance. 



