332 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



of certain colonies, or rather of certain 

 queens. He did not consider any 

 single race as perfect ; that tlie safety 

 of apiculture did riot depend upon the 

 race, but that the value of any race 

 was only individual. Mr. llilljert 

 appears somehow to have received 

 bad Caucasian queens. lie tells us 

 that Caucasian bees reared in this 

 country, like to stiug ; this lie could 

 admit, a different climate and some 

 circumstances attending their gath- 

 ering, cannot act witli the ranidity of 

 a thunderbolt upon the (lualilies of 

 the bee, and instantaneously trans- 

 form its character. All the pure 

 Caucasian bees that he had reared, 

 were as gentle and tractable as the 

 original ones. Tlie Caucasian queens, 

 on the contrary, crossed with (ierman 

 drones, and lience not i.urely fecunda- 

 ted, produce, without exception, only 

 bees of remarkable wickedness ; here 

 comes in Mr. Ililbert's observation. 



lie further remarked that the Cau- 

 casian bee lias tlius far wintered very 

 well, being Ibrougli all the winter as 

 quiet as any other race; tluit it is 

 singularly suitable for crossing; with 

 the Italian it produces a bee still 

 gentle, and of a very pure color. The 

 most of his Caucasian bees, including 

 the original ones— li (jueeiis still liv- 

 ing—are of the same color as the Ital- 

 ians. The greater part of tlie Cau- 

 casian workers have yet the little 

 yellow crescent of the Cyprian bees. 

 All the bees of Asia INIinor present 

 the same exterior peculiarities. If 

 one considers the geographical dis- 

 semination of the honey-bees it must 

 occur to him, as it did to Mr. Lehzen, 

 that tliis Caucasian bee, the Cyprian 

 and that of Asia Minor, all belong to 

 secondary races, from a cross of our 

 dark bee with the Egyptiati. 



Under all these considerations, 

 therefore, he would say that no final 

 judgment can yet be passed correctly 

 upon the Caucasian bee, it having 

 been with us only these two years, 

 and so few in numbers. Every one 

 knows that the pniduct of a colony 

 mostly depends ujion the way it is 

 treated ; if colonies arf frec|iieiilly dis- 

 turbed, they slop and sting and eat 

 up their supply (if honey ; hence they 

 are called wicked and lazy. Another 

 will tend them carefully, giving them 

 combs, will get a strong colony and 

 produce honey; he will, of course, 

 think very well of tliis race. Let us, 

 therefore, wait a few more years be- 

 fore declaring our judgment upon 

 the Caucasian bee. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1885. Time and place of MeeUna. 



May 29.— BaldimuQd. Ont., Bt NellGs' Corners, Ont. 

 K. c. Campbell, Sec. 



June 5.— Mahnninjr Valley, at'Newton Fulls, O. 



r.. W. Turner, Sec, Newton Kails, O. 



June 19.— WUlatiielte Valley, at La Fayette, Ore*;. 

 K..l,IIailley, Sec. 



July 1.5.— Central nilnnls, at liloiimlnutiin, Uls. 



Wra. U. Lawrence, Sec. 



Dec. 8-in.-MlchlKnn State, at Detrnlt, Mich. 



H. iJ. Cuttlnu. Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



tST' In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meellnKs.— Kl). 



Jojfnl Hum of ISiisy Workers. — Ezra 

 J. Cronkleton, I)uiilap,*o Iowa, on 

 May 1.5, 1.SS.5, writes thus: 



I can report kikhI suci'uks in wintering. 

 I put 10 colonies into tlic cfUar on Nov. 

 17, 1SS4, and took 10 out on April 12,188.5. 

 Tliey were nice, stron;; and clean, and all 

 aie now doing splendidly. The weatlier 

 here lias been cold, windy and bad in 

 every particular until May 10, wlieu it 

 turned warm. PIniii and apple bloom is 

 n|ieniiig some, and the joylullinmof tlie 

 busy workers is heard again amidst the 

 welcome bloom. 



Late Season — Nuclei Colonies. — 13— 



L.G.Purvis, (45—31), Forest City,K) 

 Mo., on May 9, 1885, writes thus : 



The fruit trees are in likioni again, al- 

 tliongh 3 weeks late, but bees are very 

 scarce— about 00 per cent, having been 

 lo.st dnriiij; the past severe winter and 

 spring, and two thirds of those left are 

 uotliing more than iinclei, which will re- 

 quire a g<iod deal of nursing to build them 

 U|) into good oidonies. 1 fared better tlian 

 the niajoi-ity of tliose having bees in this 

 part of the country, as I have 31 left ont of 

 40. 



Report, from W. V. Whitney, Wau- 

 coma,(5 Iowa, on May 14, ls,S5 : 



On Nov. IS, ISS4, I put 98 rather lioht 

 colonies into the cellar, and on April 1, 

 188,5, I took out 83 colonies, 10 of which 1 

 have since lost, or doubled np, so that 1 

 now have 73 colonies in fair condition. 

 The past has been a hard winter on bees, 

 the most of the small apiaries having 

 hibernated for jjood. 



Expecting a (iood Season.— J. (i. 



Norton, Macomb,*o Ills., on May IS, 

 1885, writes thus : 



Bees are "booming" on the fruit-bloom 

 and getting ready to swarm. 1 look for a 

 splendid year for bees in tliis locality. 



Uliile-Headed Drones, etc. — W. J. 



Davis, Youiigsville,x) Pa , on May lit, 

 1885, says : 



My bees are in splendid condition and 

 doins very finely. 1 lost 12 colonies ont 

 of 200. 1 have a lieantiful ijueen of last 

 year that produces "white-headed" 

 drones. I discovered them yesterday and 

 enjoyed a hearty InuHli at their comical 

 appearance. Who among our fraternity 

 has had experience with such oddities ? 



not be long before another crowd will be- 

 on hand, and they will want the same 

 treatment, as well as all subsequent gath- 

 erings. This plan is applicable to swarms 

 which have been hived, and subsequently 

 start to go off. Swarms should always be 

 closely watched, after hiving, on that day, 

 and lor two or three subsecpient days. 

 Have a large sprinkler filled, and a bucket 

 or two of water near at hand, and when 

 the bees begin to come out, ]iour the water 

 directly upon the hive-entrance, and the 

 bees will be thorouKbly wet, and unable 

 to fly, and will cluster upon or under the 

 hive, when they may be put back into tlie 

 same, or what is better, another hive. I 

 have never had a swarm make the second 

 attempt to leave, after being subjected to 

 the hydropathic treatment. 



Prevention of Kolibing l»y Hydro- 

 natliic Treatment.— James T. Norton, 

 Winsted.^Cdiiu.. describes his method 

 of preventing robbing, as follows : 



In addition to the number of sugges- 

 tions for the prevention of robliing in the 

 apiary, given on paj;e 270, I desire to Rive 

 one which is vcrv simple, aiid with me 

 entirely successful in every instance. 

 When robbing lias ooinineiiced, 1 close 

 the entrance to the assaulted hive so 

 n arly that only a sinyle bee can pass 

 through at the same time, and this will, 

 of course, make slow work for the rob- 

 bers, which w ill gather in large iinmliers 

 about tlie entrance. I then take a dish of 

 the coldest water 1 can (ibt'.iiii, and with 

 my hand s|irinkle the bees heavily and 

 rapidly, which will send siieb of them as 

 can liy, to their lionies in a liurry. It will 



Report, from P. J. England, Fancy 

 Prairie,© Ills., on May 13, 1885 : 



My apiary has been reduced from 44 

 colonies to weak nuclei. They were 

 wintered out-doors, and unprotected. It 

 served me right. 



Bees Wintered All Riglit.— W, A. 



Farris, Oil City,so Pa., on May 10, 

 1885, writes thus : 



I put 4 colonies into the cellar on Nov. 

 20, 1S.S4, and they came thrinigh the win- 

 ter all riglit. One died after I put them 

 out, about April 1 ; caused principally by 

 ignorant manipulation. Many colonies 

 have died in this locality considering the 

 number who keep bees, which is not 

 many at most. 



What Killed the Bees J— J. L. Pink- 

 erton, Lebanon,© Mo., on May 18,, 

 1S85, writes as follows : 



I commenced the winter with .52 colo- 

 nies of Italian bees, and all did well until 

 after the warm days about the first of 

 February, when the most of them com- 

 menced "rearing brood. From that time 

 they commenced dying, and now 1 have 

 but 4 colonies left. There was not more 

 than 4 or 5 colonies that had the diarrhea ; 

 all had plenty of honey. In the fall they 

 had free access to a cider mill near at 

 hand, but 1 could not detect any fermen- 

 tation in the honey of the cells of those 

 tliat died. What killed them ? I do not 

 believe that it was the pollen, for they 

 did not have a very great store of it. 

 Others in the vicinity have shared a sim- 

 ilar fate. We lost none that were in 

 double-walled hives. 



Moving Bees a Short Distance. — Dr. 



L. C. Whiting, EastSagiiiaw,©Micb., 

 writes as follows on this subject : 



For moving colonies a short dlstance,^ 

 Mr. Gallup, .some years ago, gave an al- 

 most infallible plan. Shake the bees off 

 the combs and let them cluster in some 

 box for half an hour ; remove the hive to- 

 the desireil locality, and shake the bees in 

 front of it, and niii them in the same as a 

 new swarm. A warm <lay should be 

 taken to avoid chilling the brood. 



Hives Fnll of Bees.— L. L. Triem, 

 La Porte City,©Iowa,oii May 21, 1885, 

 writes as follows : 



We are. having a very cold and back- 

 ward spring. To-day finds us in the midst 

 of plum, dandelion, white willow, and 

 other blooms, all coming together. Cold, 

 cloudy weather has kejit liack the hlocnn 

 of some of these that would have come 

 before in ordinary s]Miiig weather. With 

 all this bad weather I cannot see that the 

 bees liave lost much. All hives with good 

 young queens are now crowded full of 

 bees, and drones are very plentiful. 



