704 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



sealed honey, dry, warm, equable tem- 

 perature, etc. — disease or starvation to 

 a greater or less extent will be induced. 

 Great suffering and mortality will occur 

 in the colony during the period of con- 

 finement, and often — as has happened in 

 this part of Michigan the past Winter — 

 only a handful of poor, sickly things 

 survive. If they can weather the 

 months of April and May, they will 

 probably build up to be an average 

 colony by Fall, but will afford no surplus 

 honey, and are a source of no profit to 

 the owner. 



If bee-keepers could only realize the 

 amount of unnecessary suffering they 

 often occasion their little toilers, on 

 account of their neglect of the funda- 

 mental principles of wintering, instead 

 of turning up their noses, and exclaim- 

 ing, " You dirty, ugly things," as they 

 lift the cover on putting them out of the 

 cellar, they would feel thoroughly 

 ashamed of themselves, because they 

 had been so stupidly mean in neglecting 

 their best friends. 



To be assured of the cleanly instincts 

 of the honey-bee, we need but watch 

 with what eagerness and energy they 

 prosecute the work of house-cleaning as 

 soon as circumstances and the weather 

 permit them. Wives and housemaids 

 with duster and broom, never created 

 such stir and confusion as these little 

 house-cleaners display in their ambition 

 to make things sweet and neat in the 

 home. 



On they come, pell-mell ! jostling and 

 intercepting, and overturning one 

 another a thousand times, and all with 

 the good humor and grace of girls at 

 play. One has assumed the duty of 

 undertaker, and without ceremonial 

 display, or affected grief, is bearing a 

 departed sister to the brood-cemetery of 

 the outer world. Another is tussling 

 with a refractory straw-end which had 

 penetrated the quilt, and been an eye- 

 sore for months ; while a third is loaded 

 with a lump of propolis from the inner 

 Iloor board. 



It is refreshing to see such zest put 

 into what most hous(!-keepers regard as 

 an irksome task. If Solomon had been 

 as familiar with tlit; habits of the houey- 

 bee as those of the; ant, Ihj would doubt- 

 less have made the former rather than 

 tli(! latter his mod(!l forgcnieral imitation. 



TIh', cleanly instinct of the bee is seen 

 in all departments of its work, both in- 

 side and outside the hive. One thing has 

 especially interested me, viz : the care 

 displayed in preparing the ceils into 

 which the queen is to deposit her eggs. 

 No painter or decorater ever did his 



work of renovation with half such in- 

 genuity and perseverance. Not only is 

 all the loose debris removed, even to 

 almost microscopic completeness, but 

 the cell is scraped and excavated 

 throughout, and afterwards polished 

 (not varnished !) until it shines like a 

 mirror. Nature supplies this instinct, 

 which, in a crowded condition of life, 

 such as a colony of bees, is even more 

 imperative than cleanliness, and. atten- 

 tion to hygiene among the human 

 species. 



The same attention to the law of 

 cleanliness is shown in the manner in 

 which the nectar is deposited and sealed 

 in the comb. What is more cleanly, 

 beautiful, and appetizing sight than a 

 comb of white clover honey newly 

 sealed and properly secured '? 



Soiled comb-honey is largely due to 

 carelessness on the part of the producer. 

 With the knowledge we now possess, 

 and the appliances at hand for securing 

 a pure article, there is no reason why 

 the rate of consumption of pure honey 

 should not increase 100 percent, during 

 the next five years. If bee-keepers do 

 their duty, it will. 



Imlay City, Mich. 



ne Dualities of tie Black Bees. 



A. D. ELLINGWOOD. 



Having had my say about the black 

 bees, I had intended to keep quiet, but 

 I feel called upon to clear up one or two 

 points. The following questions have 

 been asked in the American Bee Jouk- 



NAL : 



" Is Mr. Ellingwood sincere in his de- 

 fense of the black bee, or is he doing it 

 to be odd ?" " Has he ever kept Italian 

 bees ?" 



I think no one who knew my actual 

 experience with black bees would doubt 

 my sincerity in defending them. I firmly 

 believe every word I have said about 

 them. 



In answer to the second question, I 

 would say that I have had Italian bees 

 every year but oiu! that 1 have had the 

 blacks. I have had 40 colonies of Ital- 

 ians at one time, and have bought 

 Italian queens of well-known queen- 

 brec^ders. I do not say that these queens 

 were worthless ; many of them have 

 been valuable, but none have excelled 

 my black queens. 



I do not condemn Italian bees — far 

 from it. I consider them an exceedingly 

 valuable race of bees ; but I do say, and 



