TH® MMBKICJEN BE® J&tjmnR.I^. 



633 



highest type of that race. I consider 

 it my privilege — nay, my duty — to test 

 such bees carefully, and compare re- 

 sults with such other bees as I may 

 have in my possession. This I have 

 done, and while, with the exception of 

 one colony, my experience has been 

 confined to a first cross resulting from 

 pure-bred Carniolan nueens mating 

 with Italian drones, I shall claim that 

 such a cross should not increase the 

 swarming tendencj', neither should it 

 make any perceptible ditlerence in the 

 hone3'-gathering ability as compared 

 with the pure stock. 



I could not, under anj- circumstances, 

 have expected as poor results iu honey- 

 gathering qualities, had I bred the 

 same number of queens from the most 

 ordinary black queen iu the country, 

 and had them mated with Italian 

 stock, as I have obtained from the 25 

 mismated Carniolans in my apiary this 

 season. 



These colonies were in an average 

 condition as compai'ed with my Ital- 

 ian colonies in the spring. Since May 

 15, the season has been all that could 

 have been desired for brood-reai'ing, 

 and iu spite of all that has been said 

 about the wonderful prolificness of 

 Carniolan queens, I have three or four 

 score of Italian queens that have 

 equaled the best of these Carniolan 

 queens for prolificness. 



Although two of the Carniolan colo- 

 nies have not swarmed, I have over 

 100 per cent, of prime or first swarms 

 from the 25 Carniolan queen, and 

 some of them have had their heads 

 pinched so long that there are but very 

 few of the Carniolan-hjbrids to be 

 seen in the hive at present. Mis- 

 mated Italian queens have given less 

 than 50 per cent, of swarms, and pure 

 Italians have given but 40 per cent. ■ 



These Carniolan-hybrids are the first 

 bees I ever owned that would follow 

 me into the honey-house and try to 

 sting me after the door was shut. They 

 have attacked my neighbor while 

 plowing in the field in front of my 

 house. This field has been cultivated, 

 seeded and harvested for the past six 

 years without any trouble from the 

 bees. But these hybrids have driven 

 the plowman from the field, and he is 

 compelled to wait for a " cold day" to 

 finish his plowing. These hybrids can 

 be handled very nicely during very 

 warm weather, but as the weather 

 becomes cool, such as we had through 

 August, they are almost unmanage- 

 able. As it is impossible for the mass 

 of bee-keepers to keep any race of bees 

 without having a large per cent, of 

 mismated queens, this matter becomes 

 of serious import. 



A gi-eat deal of nonsensical twaddle 

 is being indulged in by a number of 

 apicultural writers on various subjects, 



but I know of no subject in wl'.ich this 

 twaddle has shown itself so plainlj- as 

 in the eft'ort to boom Carniolans on 

 account of their " early rising." No 

 better evidence i-ould be given of in- 

 stability and a lack of true worth. 

 Fidgety bees jici'er " get there" when 

 the real hai-vest comes. Very few 

 flowers j'ield nectar in cool weather, 

 and especially if it is cloud}-. Bees 

 that are hustling around in the "wet 

 and cold " are either very short of 

 stores, or else intent on plundering 

 other colonies of their honest toil, and 

 I have never found such colonies to be 

 valuable as honey-gatherers. 



I have consulted three volumes of 

 Okanings and two volumes of the 

 American Bee Journal for reports 

 concerning Carniolan bees, and I fail 

 to find any figures to show that any 

 one has ever compared results of these 

 bees with the results obtained from 

 Italian or black bees in the isame 

 apiary. Such comparisons are neces- 

 sarj- to arrive at the true worth of the 

 Carniolans, and for any considerable 

 number of the bee-keepers of this 

 country to go to the expense of time 

 and money, together with the un- 

 pleasantness attending the introduc- 

 tion of Carniolan blood into their api- 

 aries that I have, is more than I pro- 

 pose to stand without entering a 

 severe protest. 



I wish to saj' to the inexperienced 

 bee-keeper, that if he has bees that he 

 knows will gather honey when there 

 is honey to be gathered, the best thing 

 he can do is to take good care of his 

 bees. If he wants bees that are gen- 

 tle — bees that he maj' know are pure. 

 both by their appearance and actions — 

 just send to any reliable breeder of 

 Italian bees for a few tested queens ; 

 and, take my word for it, j'ou will not 

 be disappointed. 



Liverpool. Ills. 



SEASON OF 1890 



Almost a Failure — Fall Crop IVot 

 Pruinising, etc. 



Written for the American Dee Journal 



BY W^ J. CDLLINAN. 



Last 3'ear the prospects were poor in 

 the beginning, but the season proved 

 to be a very good one in this locality ; 

 this year the prospects were good in 

 the beginning, but failed to materialize, 

 and the season turned out to be the 

 poorest in many years. Our bees came 

 through the winter almost without 

 loss, and on April 1 the}' were as pop- 

 ulous as colonies usually are in the 

 middle of May. At that date, the 

 fruit-trees would shortl}- be coming 

 into bloom, the ground was carpeted 

 with white clover (our main source 



for summer supplies), and, taken alto- 

 gether, the prospects were never bet- 

 ter for a good honey season. 



But. alas ! how vain ofttimes are our 

 predictions ! The fruit-trees bloomed, 

 but owing to cool and windy weather 

 they yielded but little nectar, and con 

 sequently April proved a poor month 

 for the Ijees ; then came May — the 

 month of flowers — and we hoped that 

 things would change, but again we 

 were doomed to disappointment, for 

 May proved to be cooler and windier 

 than April, and ere the month had 

 far advanced, notwithstanding white 

 clover was blooming in profusion 

 eveiywhere, we were compelled to 

 feed our bees in order to prevent 

 actual starvation ; and this state of 

 things continued until the very last of 

 the month, when it turned warmer, 

 and clover began yielding a little 

 nectar. 



Then came rosy June — the month of 

 all the months for bees ; the Sun shown 

 forth in all his splendor, the winds at 

 last had ceased their tireless, restless 

 roaming, the earth, where unmolested 

 by plow or hoe, was one vast sea of 

 pearly bloom — and it is needless to 

 add. that at last the bees were happy — 

 not less, their keepers. 



But having actually gone back in 

 point of numbers during May. they 

 were in poor condition to take advan- 

 tage of the honey-flow when it came ; 

 so June was half gone before they got 

 started in the supers, and now we 

 soliloquized that the clover would last 

 four weeks longer, and we might still 

 obtain a fair crop of honey ; but, again 

 we prophesied iu vain, for on June 22, 

 a hot wave, unprecedented in this lati- 

 tude in twenty years, came down upon 

 us ; it lasted eight solid days, at the 

 end of which the clover was fairlj- 

 ■ cooked." and the figures were made 

 for the bees ; they were small — one- 

 fifth of a crop — none did better, but 

 many worse, some obtaining no sur- 

 plus at all. So ended the summer sea- 

 son of IStlO. 



The prospects for a fall crop are not 

 flattering, and I am forced to retract a 

 little from what I wrote on page 615, 

 by saying that the Spanish-needle is 

 not so plentiful in the -bottoms" as 

 at first supposed ; and owing to the 

 prevalence of northerlj- winds and cool 

 nights, both of which are unfavorable 

 to the secretion of nectar, the outlook 

 is not bright. 



UNITING COLONIES OF BEES. 



Owing to colonies dwindling badly 

 during April and May, we wei'e 

 obliged to double up quite a number 

 at the beginning of the honey-flow. 

 Our colonies stand in pairs, and where 

 two weak ones stood together, they 

 were both placed together in a new 



