632 



THE rn'mmmiGMM mmm jpwKifsiu. 



-'■^^^'■^'■' 



Treasurer, and reception of members 

 for the ensuing year, the convention 

 proceeded to the election of officers, 

 which resulted as follows : 



President. Eugene Secor, of Foi'est 

 City ; Vice-President, C. D. Levering, 

 of Atlantic ; Secretary. Thos. Chantry. 

 of Case}' ; and Treasurer. Wm. Kim- 

 ball, of De Witt. ■ 



President-elect Secor reminded the 

 bee-keepers that the International 

 American Bee-Association had honor- 

 ed the State by appointing their next 

 meeting at Keokuk, on Oct. 29, 30 

 and 31. 1890. and urged all bee-keep- 

 ers who could to attend. On his mo- 

 tion it was decided to affiliate with the 

 International Association, and steps 

 were taken to represent the State So- 

 ciety by delegates. 



From nearly all parts of the State 

 came the same complaint — no honey, 

 or only a meager crop. Notwithstand- 

 ing this fact, the show of honey was 

 good at the Fair. The principal ex- 

 hibitors in this Department were J. W. 

 Bittenbender, of Knoxville. William 

 Kimball, of De Witt. Jos. Nysewander. 

 of Des Moines, and Levering Bros., of 

 Atlantic. The discouragements of a 

 bad season did not dampen the ardor 

 of these enthusiastic gentlemen. Their 

 tasty displays added to the interest of 

 the Fair. 



It is proposed to have a rousing 

 meeting next year. If the bee-keepers 

 of the State will unite their eftbrts. and 

 bring their united strength to bear 

 upon the Directors of the Agricultural 

 Society, we shall not always be sand- 

 wiched between the cabbages and 

 pumpkins. What we need, is a build- 

 , ing set apart for the honey exhibit and 

 apiarian supplies. 



The convention adjourned until the 

 afternoon of Sept. 4. for the discussion 

 of such questions as should be deposit- 

 ed in the question-box ; but as the 

 writer was obliged to leave for home, 

 he was unable to report proceedings. 



I invite all Iowa bee-keepers to visit 

 Keokuk on the dates above named. I 

 am sure you will enjoy it. 



Forest City. Iowa. 



CARNIOLANS. 



An Experience tvith this Race 

 of Bees. 



Written Sor the American Bee Journal 



BY S. A. SHUCK. 



Had I not stated plainlj', on page 

 488, that all of my Carniolan queens 

 had mated with Italian stock, and that 

 the select-tested Carniolan queen was 

 superseded late in the fall of 1889, 

 there might have been some excuse for 

 the attempted fine hair-splitting by 

 Mr. C. L. Fisher, on page 538. 



Mr. C. J. Robinson's criticism on 

 page 566, deserves considerable atten- 

 tion, more on account of its verj' 

 peculiarly suspicious nature, than from 

 any real merit as a criticism. 



Mr. Robinson does not appear to 

 have taken into consideration the fact 

 that I may have kept bees — yes, on 

 modern principles — for the past 15 

 years, and that during that time I 

 could have learned the habits and dis- 

 position, together with the desii'able 

 and undesirable points of black bees, 

 without necessarily having them in my 

 apiarj- at the present time, or even 

 having kept them for eight or ten* 

 j'cars. 



The extreme suspicion witli which 

 he points at " such as he (Mr. Sliuck) 

 calls pure Italians," is enough to cause 

 most careful readers to surmise that 

 Mr. Robinson has, at least in his boy- 

 hood days, been troubled by seeing 

 "spooks" or " ghosts." He does not 

 know — oh, no (!) — that by persistently 

 breeding from pure stock, and always 

 replacing mismated stock with pure- 

 bred stock, any practical apiarist can 

 keep from 80 to 95 per cent, of his 

 apiary pure ! He is so suspicious, that 

 if we judge him by such rules as are 

 laid down by expert phrenologists, we 

 shall have to say that he is over- 

 balanced in this direction. 



But in spite of all this, I feel in- 

 clined to be lenient towards Mr. Rob- 

 inson, since his cause (Carniolans) is 

 so entangled with uncertainties. Al- 

 lowing all the rules that are given 

 through the different apicultural pub- 

 lications, as to what constitutes pxire 

 Carniolan bees, Mr. Robinson could 

 not declare any colony to be positively 

 pure if it had passed the first genera- 

 tion from the imported stock. As 

 proof of this statement, Mr. A. I Root 

 says, on page 168 of Oleanings for 

 1890, " Unless we import a queen for 

 every hive in the apiary, we can have 

 no assurance that our bees are pure." 



On pages 507 and 508 of the same 

 bee-paper for 1890, the editor gives 

 an account of his experience with 

 these bees, and although they were 

 verjMrritable, he saj's " t\\&y resemble 

 very much the Carniolans we had on a 

 former occasion, which were im- 

 ported." 



In the same periodical for 1890, on 

 page 498, the same writer, in speaking 

 of a colonj- of these bees that are very 

 gentle, good workers, and not dis- 

 posed to swarm, says: "I shall be 

 very glad to believe that the six or 

 seven colonies of these bees we have 

 tested heretofore, have not been a true 

 type of this race." If it requires the 

 testing of six or seven colonies, and a 

 part of these imported, to get one that 

 is typical (?) of the race, it cannot 

 be wondered at that Mr. Robinson 



could see that ' ' his (Mr. .Shuck's) ac- 

 count shows it more than probable he 

 did not in fact 'purchase' a queen 

 that was a straight lineal decendant of 

 the Carniolan race of bees." Surely, 

 if there was money in this "game," 

 Mr. Robinson has six or seven chances 

 to my one, of holding the winning 

 card. 



Immediately upon the appearance of 

 my article on page 488, I received a 

 letter from one of Nevv York State's 

 most prominent honey-producers and 

 queen-breeders. The letter reads 

 thus : 



"DeakSir: — I have read your article 

 on page 488 of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, and wish to say that my experience 

 with Carniolaus has been very much the 

 same as yours, except I have only tested a 

 few colonies. I haVe had several imported 

 Carniolan queens (Benton's best grade), 

 during the past five or six years, and they 

 are behind the Italians every time exbept 

 in swarming." 



While there have been quite a num- 

 ber of flattering reports concerning 

 these bees, reports in general point 

 positively to the fact that the Carnio- 

 lans have not anything like fixed char- 

 acteristics. The imported stock is not 

 at all gentle, and there are no marks 

 by which they can be distinguished 

 from a slight mixture of Italian and 

 black bees. 



On page 93 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 1889, Dr. Morrison, in 

 describing these bees, says : "They 

 are of a dark gray color — not orange 

 like.'''' Mr. A. I. Root says that they 

 are steel blue ; others say crow black, 

 while we find in the advertising col- 

 umns of the Bee-Keepers' Beview, "Yel- 

 low-banded Carniolans ;" and this, too, 

 from one of the most prominent queen- 

 breeders in the country. Then comes 

 Mr. E. L. Pratt, in a recent issue of 

 the American Bee Journal, and says, 

 "' Purity ' should be the watch-word, 

 and I claim that the pure Carniolans 

 should show no yellow." • 



The " impurity " dodge concerning 

 these bees, has been played ever since 

 they were brought prominently before 

 the public, and the time has come for 

 the demise of this injustice. 



If queens bred in Carniola, and ex- 

 ported to this country, produce black, 

 blue and j-ellovv bees, queens feared 

 from this imported stock, will produce 

 bees of like colors. If a majority of 

 this imported stock proves to be only 

 fair to medium honey-gatherers, sub- 

 sequent generations from this imported 

 stock will do the same ; and if 90 per 

 cent, of this imported stock proves to 

 be excessive swarmers, their posterity 

 will do the same ; and any attempt to 

 cover up these facts through the dis- 

 guise of "impurity" is, to say the 

 least of it, a fraud. 



If I purchase a select-tested queen 

 of anj' race of bees, I expect to get the 



