550 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



sity. I aim to keep them all full of 

 bees, but the last two seasons have been 

 so poor that I now have several empty 

 hives. 



I have been a reader of the American 

 Bee Journal since 1871, and have 

 read much that I can endorse, and much 

 that I cannot. I cannot endorse all that 

 is said in favor of the Italian bees. I 

 have had them -for 23 years. I bought 

 my first queen of a queen-breeder, war- 

 ranted pure, and paid $5 for her. I in- 

 troduced her to the blacks in September 

 all right; when June 1 came, the next 

 Spring, I had as many black bees as 

 yellow ones. 



The next August I got 15 queens at 

 $2.50 each, all pure, and have had Ital- 

 ians ever since. I often see it stated 

 that they will work on red clover when 

 black bees will not. Now I will give 

 my reasons for not believing that. 



A number of years ago, when I had 

 Italianized my whole yard, I think that 

 I had a fair chance to test them. The 

 latter part of Summer, about 100 rods 

 south of my yard, was a field of June 

 clover in its second bloom. There was 

 no bees west, nor east, for a long dis- 

 tance (unless by chance a swarm in the 

 woods), and no woods nearer than half 

 a mile. 



South of the clover field, about 150 

 rods, were 7 colonies of pure Italians. 

 There was but one colony of black bees 

 between the yard of 7 colonies and my 

 yard. I went to the field myself to see 

 the Italians work on red clover, expect- 

 ing to see them with their long tongues 

 taking out the honey almost by spoon- 

 fuls ; but what was my astonishment to 

 find 19 out of every 20 bees on that 

 clover field black bees, by actual count, 

 no guess-work about it ! Was that not 

 a "stumper?" How could anyone ex- 

 pect me to believe in the superior work- 

 ing qualities of the Italians after that, 

 or rather, as their advocates claim they 

 have. 



I have had some ups and downs in the 

 many years that I have kept bees, when 

 the diarrhea raged so badly all over the 

 country ; I lost heavily, some Winters 

 nearly all, but I would buy again in the 

 Spring. I have paid as high as $65 for 

 Italian queens in a single season, but 

 have never found them to be as good for 

 comb-honey as the blacks ; their combs 

 are so dark that I have had to crate the 

 first quality of honey in with the second 

 grade, on account of its dark appear- 

 ance. 



As to their looking out for themselves 

 for Winter stores, I find that I have to 

 feed them as often as I do the blacks. 



For comb-honey in sections, I consider 

 one colony of blacks equal to two of 

 Italians; still, they are not without some 

 good qualities. I can find their queen 

 in less time than it takes to find a black 

 one ; they adhere to their combs better, 

 and do not run about so much. 



I also think that, as a general thing, 

 Italian bees are better-natured than the 

 blacks; still, there are exceptions to 

 them. The crossest colony of bees that 

 I ever saw were Italians ; you might go 

 into the yard and point your finger at 

 them, and then go, and take the conse- 

 quences, which would not be very 

 pleasant. 



My experience with the Italians has 

 been somewhat different from others 

 that have kept them. I have often read 

 and heard it said, that the dark or 

 leather-colored were the best for comb- 

 honey in sections. In the Fall of 1889, 

 I bought a few queens to supply some 

 queenless colonies ; they were what are 

 called " cheap" queens — too dark to put 

 upon the market ; but they produced the 

 lightest colored bees that I ever had in 

 my yard, and were the best honey gath- 

 erers. They came the nearest to the 

 blacks of any that I ever had. If I have 

 any queenless colonies next Fall, I shall 

 call on the same breeder to supply me. 



I do not wish to write, or say anything 

 that will get up any unpleasant con- 

 troversy, but I shall always vote for the 

 black bees, until I find something better. 



Ridge, N. Y. 



Remoyliig Pollen from Cointe. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



In many sections pollen is stored so 

 largely by the bees that the combs be- 

 come nearly solid with it. Where more 

 is stored than is wanted in brood-rearing 

 a good way to remove it is to take two 

 quarts of boiling water and one pound 

 of honey, shake this up together, put in 

 a sprinkling pot and sprinkle both sides 

 of the combs. Now put them in an old 

 hive in a warm room, leaving them there 

 until fermentation takes place, which 

 will throw most of the pollen out. 

 Sprinkle and rinse with warm water, 

 shake the water off and hang them in 

 tlie hives at night, one in each strong 

 colony, when they will be all clean and 

 bright the nexfr morning. — Rural Home. 



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