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ALBINOS. 



Claim of 



Albinoism 

 to Bees. 



as Applied 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY C. J. ROBINSON. 



A claim is set forth in the Bee-Kec])- 

 crs^ Advance tliat Albinoism does not 

 exist in the Ajjis family. The claim is 

 an absnrdity, and not susceptible of 

 proof. It is unwise for mortals to 

 arrogate competencj' to write a code 

 of Nature's laws. The claimant wrote : 

 " Can the term ' Albino ' be applied to 

 the honey-bee ? My own answer to 

 the question is no." 



He wrote further : "I have never 

 yet seen any (bees) that were worthy 

 the name " — Albino. He fancies th.at 

 because he has not seen Albino bees, 

 there are none worthy the name. He 

 fancies, too, that he is inspired to 

 teach people the possible and impossi- 

 bilities of Nature's laws as "applied " 

 to breeding, for he wrote : " If it 

 were possible to produce a r.ace of 

 Albino bees, sucli bees would be of 

 little value, owing to the fact that they 

 must continually grow weaker and 

 weaker, and finally play out entirely." 

 He failed to mention the period of 

 their " weak and weaker" existence, 

 before they "must" become extinct. 



Evidently the claimant knows noth- 

 ing about the so-called Albino bees, 

 but aimed to prejudice the public 

 against the Albino strain of bees. He 

 asserted that, "In fact Albinoism, 

 wherever found, has always been con- 

 sidered an evidence of weakness." This 

 was designed to "kill" breeders of 

 Albino queens, though the assertion is 

 a bounce instead of having any founda- 

 tion " in fact." 



Albinosim is the opposite of Melan- 

 ism, and Albinos are generally larger 

 than the normal size of the species, 

 while Melanos are smaller. 



I refer readers to Alden's Manifold 

 Cyclopoedia — the latest and best au- 

 thority : "The opinion that Albinos 

 are distinguished from other men by 

 weakness of body or mind, is com- 

 pletely refuted by facts ;" and thus the 

 said assertion is completely refuted. 



The term " Albino" takes its deriva- 

 tion from the Latin Albus, white. The 

 term is legitimately applied in all 

 cases of preturnatural white or whitish 

 appearance, which whiteness is caused 

 by a non-development of coloring- 

 matter in the skin, and its appendages, 

 rendering the creature white or 

 whitish. 



Both Melanism and Albinoism ai'e 

 common to insects, as well as to plants 

 and animals. White cockroaches and 

 crickets have been seen about hives, 



that were Albinos. White rats, mice 

 and rabbits are kept as pets, and have 

 been bred until the peculiarity — 

 Albinoism — is reproduced in every in- 

 stance ; and why not bees, the same as 

 other insects ? We have Albinos 

 among cows, black-birds, squirrels, 

 raccoons, and other animals, as well 

 as the human — more common among 

 negroes. 



When the whitish Italian bees were 

 first discovered, they were supposed to 

 be a "sport;" but it is not known 

 whether or not the singular phenome- 

 non of colorings was a new diversion 

 from the common t3'pe, or a reversion 

 toward the original type. In type, the 

 Italian bee is a composite — not at all 

 uniform in colorings, nor natural 

 habits — a true mongrel. 



Instead of the Albino type being a 

 sport in breeding, the evidences go to 

 prove that they are more nearly than 

 common Italians, thoroughbred types 

 of the original Apis Mellijica familj'. 



The Cyprian bees are undoubtedly 

 the nearest akin to the original family 

 of Apis Mellijica than any other type, 

 their nativity being in Lower EygiJt. 

 The notion advanced by whimsical 

 writers claiming that beautiful bees 

 are not vigorous, not the equal of 

 darker bees for business, is sheer non- 

 sense, completely refuted by well- 

 known facts. 



Mr. A. D. Pike was the first who 

 called attention to the Albino type of 

 bees, which appeared in his apiary, 

 and attracted his attention in 1874. 

 He wrote about his discovery to the 

 lamented A. F. Moon, editor of the 

 Bee-World, who seemed to suppose the 

 phenomenon an accidental freak of 

 nature. 



In answer to Mr. Moon's editorial 

 comments. Gen. D. L. Adair, of Hawes- 

 ville, Ky., being a scientist, wrote an 

 article explaining the case, since which 

 the Pike white-type have been known 

 as Albino bees. 



The Albino bees are like the Italian, 

 in all respects except color. I have 

 bred Italians ever since I obtained a 

 queen (which was one of the first 

 Italian queens bred in America), but I 

 never reared any of the white, or 

 whitish bees, until I obtained queens 

 of the Pike type. With me, the white, 

 beautiful Albino bees have given as 

 good satisfaction in point of profit, as 

 any of the new or old type of bees. I 

 have found Albinos the most docile of 

 any bees, equally as good gatherers of 

 honey, prolific and hardy. 



The Pike Albinos are a strain of 

 Italians, disposed to store their honey 

 away from their brood-nest — a most 

 estimable trait. The founder and able 

 editor of the Amekican Bee Journal 

 fancied that beauty and intrinsic 



worth cannot be united in one animate 

 form, and he applies it to "ladies" as 

 well as bees. Women will never 

 decorate his grave, except he repents 

 and confesses that he sinned- against 

 beauty. 



Richford, N. Y. 



SWARMINa. 



A Be: 



;inner''s Experience Avitli 

 Keeping Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY D. A. MONTAGUE. 



In the first place, I had not thought 

 of getting more than one colony of 

 bees, but on approaching a bee-man. 

 of the old style, he proposed to trade 

 his whole api.iry (of II empty hives 

 and about 40 honey-boxes) for a |20 

 gasoline stove, and deliver the whole 

 business ; so accepting the pi-oposition, 

 here I am with 17 colonies now, and 

 no practical knowledge of the business 

 except what little I have gained this 

 season ; and I find the Bee Journal a 

 great help. 



The bees themselves have given me 

 a few lessons that will be useful to me 

 in the future. 



Of course my bees had it all their 

 own way, as they were all in box- 

 hives, or, what was worse, the Thomas 

 hive. The first swarm issued on June 

 12 — one about 11 a.m., which went 

 back without clustei-ing ; then about 2 

 p.m., there were three or four that 

 issued at once, but they got mixed up, 

 and so bewildered, that they all came 

 back and settled pi-omiscuously over 

 the hives, and under the stand. This 

 was a new feature to me, and I was at 

 a loss to know what to do, and I 

 thought that I would experiment a 

 little. Having a very large hive ready, 

 I proceeded to brush off into a box, 

 nearly half a bushel of bees, and 

 dumped them down in front of this 

 large hive, and they marched in, and 

 made themselves at home ; then, as 

 they seemed so well suited^ I served 

 some more in the same way, but they 

 went back and came out the next day. 

 Afterwards, the bees were more rea- 

 sonable, and swarms issued one at a 

 time. I had ordered a few Langstroth 

 hives, but before they arrived, the 

 rush was over, and I got only two 

 swarms into them, and they were late 

 — July 1 and July 11. The hives have 

 7 frames, and 2 wide frames for sec- 

 tions in the body. *Are 7 frames suf- 

 ficient to winter a colony ? 



I transferred one of the old colonies 

 into a Langstroth hive, on Aug. 3, and 

 they are doing well. I gave them full 

 sheets of foundation, but no comb. 



The old colonies stored no surplus 

 honey, to speak of, and the new ones 



