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Uce-K«-cpine' in %Vii.>>liiii;;lon.— 



Mr. .John Boerstler, Vashon, AVasU , writes 

 as follows iu relation to Wasbingtou as a 

 bee-couiitry : 



Vasiion, Wash., Jau 25, 1890. 

 The enclosed is taken from the weekly 

 Piiyt-IiitcUigcwci' of Seattle, Wash., and 

 shows what Mr. A. C. Allen thinks about 

 bees in Washington. His location is not 

 over 60 miles from where I am living, and 

 I think that I shall .soon know more about 

 the bee-pasturage. I do not want to make 

 any guess-work about it when I report, for 

 this is a new country, and not settled as 

 thickly as in some other parts of Washing- 

 ton, but I think that we stand a good 

 chance for a bee-country, as the winters 

 are mild, and the seasons long. I had too 

 many swarms to get much honey last year, 

 but my 5 colonies yielded .$15 in honey, 

 bees and swarms. I'have lost 3 of them by 

 being queenless, and 2 from not having 

 honey enough to winter on. I think the 

 others are all right, on the summer stands, 

 protected with -1-inch cushions. 



John Boek.stleu. 



Here is a part of the article referred to 

 by Mr. Boerstler. and published in the Post 

 IntcUhjenccr: 



The honey resources in the country are 

 good. Early in the spring the flowers 

 begin to bloom. The chick-weed and other 

 small plants begin to bloom in February 

 and March. The wild plum and a great 

 many other plants also bloom in succession 

 until about the Hrst of April. The soft 

 maple blossom, which is a good flower for 

 yielding both nectar and honey, blooms 

 early. Nest is the vine maple, which the 

 pioneer so much dreads to clear from oft" 

 his homestead. In my opinion it is the 

 greatest honey-yielder of any flower of its 

 size under the sun when everything is 

 favorable. 



I have seen the nectar hanging in drops 

 from the beauti-ful little cluster of flowers, 

 and taken my knife-blade and gathered 

 drops sufficient to get a good taste of vine- 

 maple honey. During a warm, dry spring 

 there are tons of vine-maple hones' that go 

 to waste because there are not bees enough 

 to gather it all. Next comes the white 

 clover, which blossoms all summer, but has 

 greatest amount of honey during the month 

 of June. In the latter part of the .summer 

 the hardback, fire-weed, golden-rod, asters, 

 and many smaller plants, both wild and 

 cultivated, bloom until frost. I sow buck- 

 wheat for my bees, and I find the silver- 

 hull the poorest grain yielder, but the best 

 honey-plant of any that I have tried. 1 am 

 at present cultivating several other plants 

 for the purpose of ascertaining their honey 

 productiveness. The bee-balm and catnip 

 is very good. 



Last year the Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture sent me a package of the Chapman 

 honey-plant seed, which I planted, and it 

 bloomed the first of July, this year, and 

 continued to bloom for about four weeks. 

 The honey oozes out of the bloom, and 1 

 have seen five bees on one ball at the same 

 time. This plant is of the thistle family, 

 and is called the " ball thistle " in Europe. 

 It is a perennial plant, and has a seed very 

 much like a grain of rye. I am sure it will 

 pay very much to cultivate it for the honey 

 alone. 



Though we may have to cultivate more 

 plants, I am confident it will pay to keep 

 bees in this country. Bees are one of the 

 essentials in fruit-growing. Every well- 

 infonned horticulturist knows that if the 

 weather is so the bees cannot work on the 

 flowers to fertilize them, the crop is a 

 partial, if not a total, failure. 



A. C. Allen. 



Distiiigiiisliiii;; ■>iirc Italian I{cc§ 

 and llyitriclN. 



Written liyr the AmeritMn Bee Journal 



Query 702.— 1. What constitutes :i piin^ 

 Italian bee ? or how can one be (iistiriftiiislied 

 by its marking? ;.>. How can a hybrid lie ilist in- 

 guishod?— X. Y. Z. 



See Prof. Cook's article on the different 

 races, on page 39.— H. 1). Cutting. 



1. See my essay read at the Michigan 

 State Bee-Keepers' Convention on page 39. 

 2. The workers do not all show the three 

 bands. — A. J. Cook. 



1. The bees in the hive should (ill have 

 three yellow bands. 2. At least some of 

 the bees will have less than three yellow 

 bands. — C. C. Millek. 



1. One that has three well-marked yellow 

 bands. 2. If you refer to queens, they 

 must in addition, produce all well-marked 

 workers and drones.— C. H. Dibbehn. 



1 . The Italian bee is a thoroughbred— not 

 a pure race. The yellow bands, on the 

 abdomen of all the workers, is the test 

 given. 2. By a part of the bees being yel- 

 low, and a part black.— G. M. Doolittle. 



1. One that has only pure Italian "blood," 

 and has three yellow liands. All bees with 

 three yellow bands are not pure Italians. 

 2. All hybrids cannot be distinguished 

 from pure ones. A hybrid may be black, 

 or have one, two or three yellow bands. — 

 A. B. Mason. 



1. Three distinct golden bands, adhering 

 tenaciously to the combs, and "bouncing" 

 the moth-worm with neatness and dispatch. 

 2. By its darker color, dimness of the 

 bands, and, usually, by its lack of amia- 

 bility. —Mrs. L. Hahrison. 



The three yellow bands on all of the 

 workers are reliable, as a rule. If many are 

 seen with only one or two bands, they luay 

 be hybrids, and show an ugly temper. Pure 

 Italian bees, if rightly handled, are not 

 vicious. — G. L. Tinker. 



1. One whose ancestors on both sides 

 have been bred from pure stock. The 

 markings are three or four distinct yellow 

 bands. 2. As many hybrids will have 

 three yellow bands, it is only by inspecting 

 the parent colony that we can detect them. 

 — J. M. Hambaugu. 



1. One that comes fi'om Italy, or one 

 bred from pure Italians. I doubt if they 

 can always be distinguished by their mark- 

 ings. Popularly, they are supposed to 

 show three yellow liands. S. I do not be- 

 lieve that they can be always. I cannot 

 alwaj's tell a "grade" from a pure-bred 

 short-horn. — Eugene Secoh. 



I have had colonies undoubtedly crosses 

 between the Italian and the black races, 

 which the best of judges would have un- 

 hesitatingly pronounced fine pure Italians, 

 but such crosses can generally be distin- 

 guished by their color. I think it impossible 

 to distinguish pure Italians with certainty. 

 — R. L. Taylor. 



1. A pure Italian bee is one that has no 

 impure " blood." One can be distinguished 

 by " faith " and plenty of yellow bands. 2. 

 A hybrid can be recognized by a " lack of 

 faith" and alack of the yellow bands, pro- 

 vided there is a gi-eat destitution of color. 

 Of course, you cannot tell whether the 

 Italian is mixed with Carniolan, German or 

 what all. — James Heiukin. 



Pure Italian workers are distinguished by 

 having the three segments of the abdomen 



next to the thorax, of a color from a dark 

 leather to a bi'iglit yeUow. Tliese three 

 yellow rings are very conspicuous when the 

 abdomen is distended. They are less promi 

 neut in very young and in very old bees. 

 Hybrids only show one or two of the rings 

 when the abdomen is distended.— J. P. H. 

 Brow.n. 



1. Bees that are very quiet when hand- 

 led; that hold tenaciously to their combs; 

 that fight robbers and bee-moth to the 

 death; that thrive when common bees 

 perish, and carry uniformly three yellow 

 bands, are called pure Italian bees. 2. 

 Hybrids are not like the above, although 

 they may show from one to four bands of 

 yellow in the .same colony.— J. M. SuucK. 



1. A pure Italian worker-bee is the 

 progeny of a queen whose whole worker 

 progeny will show three distinct yellow 

 bands on the abdomen, when they are filled 

 with nectar. 2. A hybrid may, or may 

 not, have three distinct bands, and w^e can 

 only decide on purity by e-xamining all the 

 bees of a colony. If a queen produces a 

 colony, a part of which shows two bands, a 

 part one band, and a part three bands, 

 such bees are all hybrids (so-called), al- 

 though some may show three bands. — J. E. 

 Pond. 



1. Of course, a pure Italian bee is one 

 that has no mixture of alien "blood." It 

 is not possible to tell, in all cases, whether 

 Italian bees are absolutely pure or not. A 

 colony that is uniform in color and mark- 

 ings, all the workers having not less than 

 three yellow bands, is probably pure. But 

 all pure Italians are not uniformly marked. 

 3. If the marking and color are ii-regular, 

 the bees are probably not pure. " Hybrid " 

 is an unscientific and incorrect term. There 

 are no " hybrid " bees, any more than there 

 are " hybrid " horses, cattle and sheep.— M. 

 Mahin. 



1. A pure Italian bee is a bee that has 

 been purely bred from stock imported from 

 Italy. The stock must be such as were 

 evolved there by nature, uncontaminated 

 by any of the modern crosses. After their 

 importation to this country, where they are 

 likely to mix with the common black race, 

 we say that a pure Italian bee when young 

 and iu good health, must show three yellow 

 bands around her abdomen. But it there 

 is a mi.xture of "blood" from the Cyprian 

 or Syrian races, we are left "at sea." 2. 

 A hybrid colony is known by their mixed 

 color. Some of the bees will look like Ital- 

 ians; others like hybrid bees, and with 

 intermediate markings. — G. W. Demaree. 



Iloucy as an "Eye-Water."— 



Among the various excellent uses of honey 

 is that of a remedy for sore eyes, or eyes 

 that may be affected in any disagreeable 

 way. The following paragraph, from the 

 Breeders' Oazettc, evidently given in reply 

 to a question about sore eyes in a horse, 

 may be suggestive to our readers, many of 

 whom are interested in horses: 



I would suggest that a few drops of pure 

 honey be dropped into the horse's eyes 

 dail.v, or twice daily. It can do no harm, 

 and I have known some remarkable cures 

 by using honey alone. Let one person hold 

 the horse's head, and turn it a little to one 

 side, while another opens one lid and drops 

 in a few drops of honey. It may effect a 

 cure. I think it worthy of a triai with any 

 eye in horse or ox that is sore from any 

 cause. If the honey is too thick to run 

 freely, it can be warmed a little, which will 

 thin it so that it will flow freely, but care 

 should be taken not to heat it to more than 

 blood heat. New honey will not require 

 heating. 



