and muddy, you would infer that somebody 

 or soniethinjj; was above stirring it up." — 

 Wliile reading " Our Homes " of August, 

 we concluded that if there were such a 

 being as Satan, that he certainly had been 

 stirring you up, for in "Our Homes" you 

 were very roily and muddy, but with so 

 much roil and mud as you there wanted to 

 expell, you now certainly must be clear and 

 spotless. D. D. Palmek. 



New Boston, 111. 



[Dr. Derr's plan strikes us as very feasible. 

 Will those having had experience in ship- 

 ping comb-Mbney give their opinion of it 

 through the Bee Jouknal, ? To give away 

 the platform and ship the irons back by 

 freight would pay, even if the railroad com- 

 panies would not ship them back free.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Killer. 



After a most promising, early summer, I 

 found again, this year, tiiat my bees, 

 altliough in the best of order and colonies 

 strong, although they had plenty of pasture, 

 all of a sudden almost stopped working, and 

 evidently became less in numbers. 1 at 

 once became suspicious of the bee-killers : 

 asilus Missouriensls, asilus sericeus, 

 erax bdsUirdi, wiiich I also found in innu- 

 merable numbers among the flowers, buck- 

 wheat, &c. It was, I think, 3 years ago 

 when last they were here. My statements 

 were then somewhat doubted. This year I 

 have settled the point. This pest is now 

 nearly gone again. After they have slaugh- 

 tered the bees, and almost the day they 

 began to disappear, my bees commenced to 

 fly again, and my trial hive, on the scale, 

 began to increase in weight ; while, as long 

 as the bee-killers lasted, it decreased. 



This year they came about a month later 

 than they did three years ago, probably 

 bred by the beat of July. 1 am afraid that 

 my h<mey crop will fall short, one-half. 

 They w^ere so numerous this year that kill- 

 ing was useless. You might as well kill 

 the butterflies on a clover field. 



Chas. Sonne. 



Sigel, 111., Aug. 16, 1878. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



How shall we know when Italian- 

 bees are pure? 



REV. M. MAUIN, D. D. 



I have been an amateur bee-culturist for 

 the lasts years, and during all that time, 1 

 have had Italian bees. I have given them a 

 great deal of attention and study. I have 

 carefully observed bees of that race where- 

 ever 1 have seen them, and my own colo- 

 nies have been studied so closely that I 

 could, in some cases, tell, when I would see 

 a bee away from the hives, to which hive it 

 belonged. It has been my desire to have 

 pure bees, and I have sacrificed a great 



many queens, and some pretty good ones 

 to my ideas of purity. 



But iiow can we tell when our bees are 

 pure ? I am pursuaded that this is a much 

 more difficult matter than most persons 

 imagine. 1 am very sure that in some cases 

 the ottspring of pure Italian queens, mated 

 with black drones, are so nearly like pure 

 Italian bees, that even the most practiced 

 eyes are liable to be deceived. And if a 

 half-blood queen mates with an Italian 

 drone, her offspring will be. in most cases, 

 as light-colored and beautiful as any full- 

 blood Italians, and I am not sure but more 

 so. Those who have observed the progeny 

 of a black queen, impregnated by an Italian 

 drone, have noticed that while a majority 

 of the bees were entirely black, a few of 

 them had 3 golden bands of lighter color 

 than the average pure Italians ; and my 

 observation leads me to think that the 

 lightest colored bees have a dash of black 

 blood in them, but I think that impure bees 

 are only light colored when the impurity is 

 in the mother, and not in the father. 



Some of those who have written on this 

 sui)ject have recommended selecting those 

 stocks, to breed from, that have well- 

 marked drones. I do not think it safe to 

 follow this advice. The most beautiful 

 drones I ever saw were the progeny of a 

 queen whose mother was black, and whose 

 father was an Italian. She, herself, judging 

 by the appearance of her offspring, had 

 mated with a half-bred drone. The drones 

 were more uniform, and far more distinctly 

 marked than the workers. There was not 

 one to be seen among them that had not 3 

 broad, golden bands. They were such 

 beauties as would have captivated our 

 fancy bee-raisers, who seek to improve the 

 color of their bees by special attention to 

 the drone side of the house. And yet, they 

 were not more than half Italian ; so it will 

 not do to rely upon the color of drones as a 

 mark of purity. 



If we can raise bees that are in all 

 respects like the bees in Italy, we may rely 

 upon their being approximately pure. But, 

 what kind of bees inhabit that sunny clime ? 

 Are they all of one race, and of one type ? 

 I have never had an imported queen until 

 this summer, though I have long desired to 

 have one. I procured one, if she did not 

 get changed by some accident for a home- 

 bred one, imported by C. W. & A. H. K. 

 Blood. I expected the bees to be darker 

 than my home-bred ones, but I expected 

 them to be uniform in color. In tlie latter 

 I was disappointed. They range from a 

 color as light as the average home-bred 

 Italians, to a shade not much lighter than 

 our brown bees of this country. Many of 

 them do not show the third band when not 

 moderately fall of honey, but when filled 

 they all show 3 bands. Are they pure 

 Italians? If the queen came from Italy, 

 yes. If a mistake has been made, and she 

 is a home-bred queen, no. The bees, as to 

 their appearance, are not like any mixed 

 ones I have ever seen. They are easily 

 controlled, but not as quiet when handled 

 as Italians generally are. The queen is 

 very prolific, and as honey gatherers and 

 comb builders, especially the latter, they 

 very noticeably excel my old stock. And 



