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IN AMER^C^ 



40th YEAR, 



CHICAGO, ILL, OCTOBER 18, 1900, 



No, 42. 



^ Editorial Comments, ^i^ ^ 



Comparison of Races of Bees, or at least three of 

 them, is given in the American Bee-Keeper by F. Greiner, 

 and he ranges them as follows : 



In the order of general preference among bee-keepers, 

 Italians stand at the head, Carniolans second, blacks last. 



In the order of beauty r Italians, Carniolans, blacks. 



As to gentleness : Carniolans, Italians, blacks. 



As to prolificness : Carniolans, Italians, blacks. 



By properly manipulating the brood-nest one can get 

 an Italian queen to lay as many eggs as a Carniolan ; but 

 left to themselves the Italians crowd the brood-nest with 

 honey, preventing the queen from doing her best at laying. 



Carniolans are most given to swarming, Italians least. 



As to whiteness in capping honey, the order is : Car- 

 niolans, blacks, Italians. Italians are worse than the others 

 in gathering propolis and in storing pollen. In conclusion 

 Mr. Greiner says : 



The special features which make the Italian bee a 

 favorite with the bee-keepers generally are : 1, their beauty; 

 2, their manner of clinging to the combs while being han- 

 dled, making it easy to find queens: 3, their gentleness ; 4, 

 their greater vim and determination to keep their combs 

 free from wax-moths, and protecting their hives better 

 generally. Along all these lines they do excel the other 

 races by a long way. 



How riany Acres Will Support loo Colonies? is a 



question sure to be askt sooner or later by every bee-keeper 

 who desires to engage in bee-keeping to any considerable 

 extent. Just as surely as he asks the question is he likely 

 to be disappointed in getting an answer. Those of longest 

 experience hardly dare to venture more than the broadest 

 kind of a guess. When a positive answer is given, it is 

 likely to be found nothing more than a guess, and some- 

 times a very wild one. In the Canadian Bee Journal the 

 unqualified statement is made that " 100 acres will main- 

 tain 150 colonies." Not many would name so high a num- 

 ber of colonies for that amount of territory. 



Speaking of the distance bees go in quest of stores, G. 

 M. Doolittle says : " I claim they go from 3 to 6 miles from 

 choice." Taking the average of that as 4'4 miles, we would 

 understand that any apiary on any given spot, if it con- 

 tained enough bees, would gather all the nectar within 4 'i 

 miles. A circle having 4;2 miles as its radius contains 

 40,715 acres. If 100 acres will maintain ISO colonies, then 

 40,715 acres will maintain 61,072. It would be a pretty large 

 apiary that would contain 61,072 colonies ! 



For the sake of making some little approximation 

 toward an answer, it may not be amiss to do some figuring. 

 While not all might agree with Mr. Doolittle as to bees 

 foraging as far as 3 to 6 miles from choice, probably not 

 many would say that I'b miles was the limit of profitable 



foraging. But for the moment suppose we set it at that. 

 Neither would many say that the average locality would 

 support more than 100 colonies in the most profitable man- 

 mer. If we put 100 colonies in an apiary, and they work no 

 farther than lyi miles from home, it will take a little more 

 than 45 acres to support each colony. 



If we put 100 colonies in one spot, and allow 100 acres 

 to each colony, that will make not quite 2'i miles as the 

 distance they will travel in quest of stores. While some 

 might want the distance put less than 2'4 miles, there 

 would be just as many who would say that 100 was too large 

 a number for one apiary, so it is quite likely that if an at- 

 tempt was made to average opinions, the result would not 

 be far from saying that in the average location it takes 

 about 100 acres to support each colony of bees. 



Seasonable Reading. — There is a good deal in what S. 

 P. Culley says in the Progressive Bee-Keeper, when he says: 



" Speaking of seasonable articles, the most seasonable 

 time to write is just too late to be seasonable to r-ead. One 

 can write best while all details are fresh in mind. Keep 

 your Progressives, file them away, and refer to them for 

 seasonable information. Seasonable writing is as impor- 

 tant as seasonable reading." 



Only that last sentence is probably a slip, and should 

 read, " Seasonable reading is as important as seasonable 

 writing." 



Bisulphide of Carbon is much spoken of nowadays in 

 place of sulphur for destroying wax-worms, with the spe- 

 cial advantage that it kills eggs as well as worms. It ap- 

 pears there are two kinds, the pure and the crude, the crude 

 being perhaps the better of the two for bee-keepers. It also 

 appears that the fumes being heavier than air, the bisul' 

 phide should be placed above rather than below the combs 

 to be fumigated. The following extract from Farm Stu- 

 dent's Review, copied in Gleanings in Bee-Culture, is of 

 interest : 



This compound, when pure, forms a colorless mobile 

 liquid having a peculiar odor, and, when taken internally, 

 is a violent poison. As usually obtained it contains im- 

 purities in the form of other compounds of sulphur, which 

 give it a strong and extremely offensive odor, and when in- 

 haled soon causes death. For the purpose of destroying 

 gophers the crude bisulphide is better and much cheaper 

 than the pure article. Care should be taken in using it as 

 it is both inflammable and explosive. Its efficacy depends 

 on the fact that its vapor is heavier than air, and, when in- 

 troduced into burrows, it flows like water into all the re- 

 cesses. This fact should be borne in mind in using it in 

 sloping ground, as, unless the poison is introduced at the 

 highest opening of the burrow, a certain part of the hole 

 will remain free from it where the animal may take refuge. 



Does Climate Affect the Color of Honey?— It has 



been said that honey from any one honey-plant is darker in 

 the South than in the North. C. A. Hatch, in the Progres- 

 sive Bee-Keeper, says this is a mistake. In proof of the 

 view that the hot climate makes the honey dark is the fact 

 that alfalfa honey of Arizona is darker than that of Col- 



