822 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 2A, 



years in succession they would cease to have owners, and if 

 they existed at all, it would be in a wild state. 



That there is a vast difference in the profits of different 

 colonies in the same apiary, I think no bee-keeper of experi- 

 ence and observation will deny. One colony, or a majority of 

 the colouie!', of an apiary may yield satisfactory returns while 

 others just as favorably situated and in equally as good con- 

 dition in the spring will give no profit. The only legitimate 

 conclusion that I can arrive at is that there is a great differ- 

 ence in the bees even of the same variety. (Viz.: Italians, 

 German, Carniolan, etc.) Neither is it surprising that such 

 should be the case. We find the same condition of things 

 among other domestic animals. There are cows kept which 

 are an absolute bill of expense to their owners. 



Most dairymen realize that there are cows in their dairy 

 that are not for sale, while others are. 



I will not lengthen this article by particularizing, but 

 simply say that the same degree of merit and demerit obtains 

 among horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry, and an effort 

 is being constantly made to propagate the good qualities and 

 eliminate the bad. 



That is just what we should do with the honey-bee, but 

 we should start with the hest. 



The 3-banded Italians I take as the best domesticated 

 honey-bee yet brought to public notice, and I understand such 

 to be the verdict of the world's best apiarists to-day. By way 

 of practical experience I will say that I kept black bees for 

 about 20 years, and would have given up bee-keeping in dis- 

 gust had not new hope dawned on the pursuit by the intro- 

 duction of the Italian bee. When the seasons were jiistriyht 

 results were satisfactory, but it took about three years of 

 favorable conditions (rainfall, etc.,) to produce one good honey- 

 year, and the blacks couldn't stand grief. The wax-moth was 

 troublesome with the blacks. They were much disposed to 

 rob. Like some people, they must do a big business or noth- 

 ing. And then in the spring they were prone to desert their 

 hives, leaving brood, honey, and all the conditions one would 

 think favorable to contentment, viz.: clean combs, clean hive, 

 and sometimes 10 to 12 pounds of honey, and after flying like 

 a natural swarm would try to force an entrance into some 

 other hive already occupied, and if they succeeded in gaining 

 an entrance they were sure to be killed to the last bee. 



In July, 1866, I procured two Italian queens which were 

 safely introduced, and the work of Italianizing an apiary of 

 60 colonies of blacks begun, which was accomplished in 1867, 

 and the apiary increased to 120 colonies. 



I found the Italians proof against the wax-moth. They 

 would never desert their hives in early spring, and whenever 

 a small amount of honey was obtainable, they would secure 

 that, and gain in stores, while the blacks would require feed- 

 ing. 



But when the black blood was eliminated, I found that 

 the Italians were not all alike profitable. I supposed that the 

 queen that would lay the most eggs must be the best. That I 

 know was a mistake. Some queens producing one-half the 

 number of eggs that the others did, gave much better results 

 in surplus honey. The solons of bee-culture told us to intro- 

 duce new and fresh blood to avoid the evil effects of in-and-in 

 breeding. For 15 or 20 years I secured by purchase and ex- 

 change queens from the North, South, East and West, but 

 cross as I might, the same fact presented Itself, that some 

 colonies were not worth keeping, and some queens were worth 

 their " weight in gold." I said, " Why cannot all be as good 

 as the best?" We can rear queens from only the best colonies, 

 but we cannot be sure of the young queens being fertilized by 

 drones from colonies we might desire. 



When the Italian bees brought .$1.5 per colony, every 

 colony was saved, the bees having a commercial value. But 

 for several years past the bees themselves had no value in the 

 fall of the year, from the fact that bees in the spring were 



worth no more per colony than the hives, comb and honey in 

 the fall. 



So it has been my practice for a number of years to reduce 

 my stock by killing the colonies that did not come up to my 

 ideal of what a colony ought to be. 



But some men will say : " What is your standard of ex- 

 cellence ?" First, I would prune out every colony that shows 

 any signs of black blood. 2nd, I would kill all the vicious 

 bees ; I would no more keep a vicious colony of bees than I 

 would a vicious cow or horse. Any of them would endanger 

 a human life. 3rd, another class of colonies are those that 

 fail to give satisfactory results, though in appearance and 

 temper they may be faultless. Such colonies also must vanish. 

 This great difference in productiveness is probably more ob- 

 servable in large apiaries. I cannot account for the great 

 difference in colonies only in this way : 1st, the shorter pro- 

 boscis of the workers of some colonies whereby they are un- 

 able to reach the nectar of certain flowers which are obtain- 

 able by others. 2nd, shorter, or weakness of wing ; or, 3rd, 

 greater vitality and longevity of queen and workers. I in- 

 cline to the opinion that in this the secret lies. 



We do know that it is not the most prolific queens that 

 have the strongest colonies in the early spring, or give the 

 most substantial results for the season. These facts being 

 known, it remains for bee-keepers to solve the reason why. If 

 we cannot account for the fact of one colony collecting two 

 or three times as much as another in the same yard, we can 

 take the short cut and abolish the less productive ones, and 

 thus secure the "survival of the fittest." 



This has been my practice for several years, and results 

 show the correctness of the theory. When the maximum 

 number of colonies desired by the bee-keeper is not yet 

 reached, the same results may be obtained by killing unde- 

 sirable queens and supplying the colonies with better ones. 

 Abundant " new blood" is secured by bringing home colonies 

 from two out-apiaries. If this plan followed persistently for 

 a term of years will not develop " Apis Americana," what will ? 

 — American BeeKeeper. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C C. AIILLER. MJUStEJUGO, ILL, 



IQuestlons may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct. 1 



Proper Weight of Colonics for Wintering. 



How much should an S-frame colony weigh in order to 

 have enough honey for winter ? They can get no honey here 

 from September to the middle of April. The empty hives 

 weigh 20 pounds each. T. L., Elgin, Iowa. 



Answer. — The proper weight depends somewhat on cir- 

 cumstances. If the hives are new and the frames occupied 

 this year for the lirst time, less weight need be counted, and 

 if the bees are to be wintered in the cellar the weight need 

 not be so heavy as for wintering out-doors. For cellar-winter- 

 ing, five or ten pounds less will do. Less may do, but if the 

 bees have more honey than they need it will not be wasted. 



Questions on management and Transferring. 



1. A man has about 200 colonies of bees in box-hives, 

 and some few in movable-frame hives. They are in all sorts 

 of conditions from good to bad (I mean the bees, not the 

 hives). All of these hives have been so arranged that a regu- 



