THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



5U5 



although we have bee-papers ami 

 works on apiculture from other States, 

 and while the general principles may 

 be the same, we must still look to our 

 own apiarists for methods that apply 

 to our own particular climate. 



The success of our apiarists is due 

 as much to their persistent research 

 as to our favoi'able and natural honey- 

 flows ; still our honey-resource is of 

 great importance, and should claim 

 a large share of our attention. Al- 

 though we, in our State, do not have 

 as long a season as some do, for a 

 rapid (low of honey of the finest 

 quality, we cannot be surpassed by 

 any section of our country. With our 

 raspherry, our clover, our linden and 

 our goUienrod ; and in our newer sec- 

 tions the lireweed— with all of our 

 other honey-plants, we have an 

 abundant llow of honey. 



To be sure we have seasons when 

 our lioney crop is cut off in some sec- 

 tions of the State. It was so the past 

 year, and in a great many cases bees 

 did not gather honey enough to carry 

 them through the winter ; but sugar 

 being fed for winter stores learns us a 

 lesson that we may profit by. There 

 are questions of vital importance to 

 us as apiarists that are yet to be 

 proven, and that are our greatest 

 benefactors who do the most to ad- 

 vance the cause of apiculture. Let 

 us see who they will be. 



Dexter,© Maine. 



ror tbe American Bee Journal. 



Imported vs. Home-Bred ftueens. 



HENRY ALLEY. 



A few of the many thousand bee- 

 keepers of this country have an idea 

 that a queen sent from another coun- 

 try must be superior to those reared 

 at home. I have tested this matter 

 pretty thoroughly during the past 20 

 years, and so far as my experience 

 goes, it is tar from satisfactory, as I 

 have found that imported queens, 

 from any source, are inferior in all 

 respects to those reared in this coun- 

 try by our most careful breeders. 



Why should queens of the same 

 strain reared in Europe be any better 

 than those reared in America V The 

 fact is as I have stated, that they are 

 inferior to those reared here. Why 

 send to Europe and pay $10 for a 

 queen, when a much better one can 

 be had at home for about one-fourth 

 the price V Can any one who has 

 purchased imported queens produce 

 any that will compare with home- 

 bred queens ? Not one person will, 

 in my opinion, respond to these ques- 

 tions in the affirmative. I have 

 ?ueens of several races that are per- 

 ect in points of size, color and mark- 

 ings, and their qualities for honey- 

 gathering and mild dispositions, can- 

 not be excelled. All these points 

 were brought out by careful breeding 

 and .selection. 



I have a strain of the latest im- 

 ported from I'alestine. The queens 

 are dark colored, the workers the 

 same, and their dispositions anything 

 but pleasant. We have bred one 

 generation from them, and there is a 



marked improvement in size, color, 

 and disposition. I also liave several 

 strains of Syrian bees, and there is a 

 great difference in the markings, 

 color and disposition of these latter 

 strains. The (jueens of one strain 

 are large and handsome, the workers 

 resemble the Albinos, and they are 

 fair honey-gatherers, with very mild 

 dispositions. Those from another 

 strain are very smart and active, the 

 queens small and more apt to be 

 striped— in fact, none are yellow, but 

 the light color is almost a saffron. 

 Any of the races in my apiary are 

 easily handled with the bellows 

 smoker. 



Now, one word about the Carnio- 

 lans : Five years ago I imported two 

 fine queens of this race. They were 

 large, very dark, and resembled our 

 black bees. The worker bees, when 

 quite young, are of a grayish color, 

 but when a few weeks old they can- 

 not be distinguished (in most cases 

 except by experts) from black bees. 

 The bees have a mild disposition, are 

 good workers, but their great pro- 

 pensity to swarni will condemn them 

 in every case ; they will not suit the 

 average American bee-keeper. If 

 there is anything that will discourage 

 a bee-keeper and ruin his prospects 

 for a large crop of honey, it is 

 " swarming." The Carniolans are the 

 most unreasonable in this respect 

 of any race 1 have. Many of those 

 who purchase these bees are not 

 aware of this fact, and neither do they 

 understand that the Carniolans are 

 not yellow bees. 



Let me advise tho reader (if he 

 really wants a tine race of bees, and 

 the best queens produced in the 

 world), to purchase home-bred queens 

 in every case. 



Wenham,<^ Mass. 



Paciac Rural Press. 



Comb or Extracted Honey. 



"WM. SrUTH-BASMUSSEN. 



To the common bee-keeper the 

 question resolves itself into whether 

 he shall produce comb or extracted 

 honey, If he is situated near a good 

 city market, or has superior shipping 

 facilities, comb honey, no doubt, pays 

 the best. There is less labor to the 

 bee-keeper in the production of this 

 article, and much of the work can be 

 done during the winter. One man 

 can care for a far greater number of 

 colonies run for comb honey, than 

 where extracted honey is the object. 

 As a rule, comb honey also linds a 

 readier sale, in fact, as a recent writer 

 said, " A good article of comb honey 

 will sell itself." The drawbacks are, 

 that comb honey requires extra care- 

 ful handling, i's difficult to keep in 

 good order, and still more difficult to 

 transport, for which reason a very 

 high rate of freight is demanded. 

 Neither is it as certain a crop as ex- 

 tracted honey. While the producer 

 of the latter article can supply his 

 bees with a set of empty combs, and 

 thus, even in a season of compara- 

 tive scarcity, secure every drop of 

 honey, which the bees do not need for 



their own sustenance, the comb for 

 comb honey must be a fresh produc- 

 tion, either from the natural wax 

 secretion of the bees, or from extra 

 thin comb foundation manufactured 

 for that purpose. When honey is 

 scarce, bees will not build any comb, 

 even when furnished with cornb foun- 

 dation, and the would-be producer of 

 comb honey, therefore, linds himself 

 minus his expected crop, while his 

 neighbor, who works for extracted 

 honey, may at least get something. 

 The production of extracted honey 

 entails more labor, requires more help 

 with the same number of colonies, 

 and calls for greater expense in the 

 way of cans, labels, apparatus, etc. 

 Extracted honey does not sell as 

 readily as comb honey, is not as highly 

 esteemed, brings a far lower price, 

 and the price is often further de- 

 pressed by the objection to its ten- 

 dency to granulate, although this ob- 

 jection will probably wear away, as 

 consumers become more familiar 

 with the principles of this property 

 and learn that granulation is the best 

 test of the purity of extracted honey. 



Honey which has been extracted 

 when fully ripened by the bees, and 

 it should never be extracted earlier 

 (several writers to the contrary, not- 

 withstanding), and hermetically sealed 

 in suitable packages, will keep indefi- 

 nitely, and requires no further care, 

 except to keep the packages out- 

 wardly clean. With ordinary' care 

 it can'be transported any distance ; in 

 the candied state it will bear even the 

 roughest kind of handling ; and the 

 freight charges should not be more 

 than for syrup or molasses. With a 

 good supply of extra combs for the 

 supers, the bee-keeper can often 

 secure two or three times as much ex- 

 tracted honey as he would of comb 

 honey. Extracting has a tendency 

 to reduce swarming, and he who 

 works for extracted honey, and al- 

 ready has as many colonies as he de- 

 sires or can care for, will find this a 

 decided relief. 



Independence,©* Calif, 



For the American Bee JournaL 



My Wintering Experiments. 



WM. MORSE. 



On Oct. ]5, 1 packed in chaff, on the 

 summer stands, 27 colonies of bees. 

 Unpacked them the middle of April 

 and cleaned their hives. Two colo- 

 nies were queenless. The others were 

 in good condition with from 2 to 4 

 frames of brood, and plenty of stores. 

 I sold 6 colonies. The rest all swarmed 

 once, June 11 to 27th. I put the 

 queenless colonies with the others. 



1 also put back all after-swarms. I 

 have now from them 38 good, strong 

 colonies and 10 three-frame nuclei. 



On Nov. 5, 1 put 25 colonies of bees 

 in the cellar. They were confined 141 

 days. April 2, I put them on sum- 

 mer stands. One colony was dead 

 and 2 were queenless. The rest had 



2 or 3 frames partly filled with brood, 

 and showed signs of disease. They 

 dwindled about one-third in a month ; 

 and on May 4. 4 more were queenless. 



