212 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



found that this was not so. The queen cells be- 

 fore observed, were sealed in due time, and on 

 the sixth day thereafter the two youngest cells 

 were removed. An Italian queen and a large 

 number of Italian drones were hatched, and to 

 my great gratification the young queen subse- 

 quently proved to be purely impregnated. The 

 black swarm with the Italian queen, became 

 changed to a pure Italian colony, by the middle 

 of October. 



That same season, on the 7th of May, I in- 

 serted three queen cells from an Italian colony, in 

 three black colonies respectively, from wliich 

 their queens had been removed tiie day previous. 

 The queens htUclied from thiss cells May 11th, 

 were impregnated, and became fertile in due 

 time. Each of these three colonies swarmed on 

 the 15th of July. Only a few Italian workers 

 had yet commenced out-door labor at this time ; 

 but nearly all the workers in those three swarms, 

 at the time they issued, were Italians. — Young 

 fertile queens introduced into a colony are there- 

 f(#re not always a preventive of swarming. In 

 fact, I have not yet discovered any metliod by 

 which swarming can be prevented, except by 

 weakening the colony. Mr. Quuiby's queen- 

 yard would not be a preventive with me, so long 

 as there was a chance for another swarm in the 

 apiary to come out, as the bees would join such 

 swarm, if they missed their own queen on coming 

 out. Prime swarms, with old queens that could 

 not fly, united in three instances with second 

 swarms and were satisfied with tlie young virgin 

 queens. A. Grimm. 



JeJ'eraon, Wis. 



[Forttie American Bee Joui-nal.] 



The greatest enemy to Bee-keeping. 



A correspondent says I have been reading the 

 Bee Journal, have never kept bees, but am now 

 inclined to try my hand. First and foremost, 

 what diseases have I to contend against V Or 

 "What is the greatest enemy to bees and bee-keep- 

 ing V And he requests an answer through the 

 Journal, but does not give his name or address ; 

 and I am strongly inclined to think that his 

 questions are asked for the purpose of quizzing 

 or puzzling. Nevertheless, I am going to com- 

 ply with his request ; and here is the answer — 

 Ignokance. Just that one word answers the 

 question, and covers the whole ground. Ignor- 

 ant bee-keepers destroy more bees than all other 

 causes combined, according to my experience. 



In my own ignorant experiments during my 

 lifetime, I liave destroyed liundreds of dollars 

 worth of bees; and now, when I look back on 

 some of those foolish experiments, I wonder at 

 my own former ignorance. But I never became 

 discouraged, I always learned something by my 

 failures. I will relate one instance and perhaps 

 more. In my first experiment in wintering bees 

 in the cellar (and I had then an excellent, dry, 

 airy cellar) I set in twelve good stnmg heavy 

 swarms, and left the balance on their summer 

 stands as usual. Understand, that I had no 

 books to guide me in any of my experiments, 

 such as bee-keepers have now-a-days. By the 



first of February ten out of the twelve were 

 all dead— having died with the dysentery, 

 course, as the front of the hive, bottom-board, 

 and combs, all distinctly showed : and I concluded 

 at the time that it was the malignant type, and 

 that physic could not have saved them ; at least 

 that was my opinion, hastily formed from a post 

 mortem examination. But I soon began to doubt 

 the truthfulness of my conclusions, for the other 

 two slocks were in excellent condition. They 

 were all in common chamber hives, all venti- 

 lated alike at the bottom; but upon examination 

 of the two that were in good condition, I (bund 

 that in setting them in the cellar I had accident- 

 ally uncovered the holes into the chamber, and 

 as the doors to the chamber did not fit closely, 

 there was an abundance of upward ventilation. 

 The ten that died had no upward ventilation 

 whatever. Thus we see that ignorance in this 

 case destroyed the ten stocks, worth seventy dol- 

 lars ; but accident saved two. But not exactly 

 satisfied that I had discovered the true cause, the 

 following winter I set in twelve more colonies, to 

 ten of which I gave upward ventilation, and to 

 the other two I gave only ventilation at the bot- 

 tom. In about three weeks after setting them 

 in, I discovered that the two had the dysentery 

 and began to smell badly, with large quantities 

 of dead bees on the bottom-boards and the combs 

 damp and mouldy. I then opened the holes at 

 the top, and they soon came all right iigain. The 

 ten all wintered in excellent condition, and did 

 not consume near the amount of honey that 

 those did cm the summer stands. 



No person at the present day need commence 

 bee-keeping under the same disadvantages that I 

 had to contend against. Now you can have the 

 experience of others to guide you when you be- 

 gin. E. Gallup. 



Orchard, Mitchell Co., Iowa. 



This has been a terrible winter for bees in 

 Berkshire ; or rather the last summer was so 

 unfavorable for the production of honey that the 

 bees could not gather a sufticient qumtity to 

 carry them through the winter. Out ot ID 

 swarms belonging to Peregrine Drew of Pitts- 

 field, one only survives. John Barnard had 21 

 swarms last fall, and "took up" 18, obtaining 

 but 28 pounds of honey, and this he fed to the 

 remaining hives, but only three are still alive. 

 H. D. Burghardt has lost 22 out of 25 hives 

 during the winter. Live bees Avill be high in the 

 spring, and lioney will be higher next summer. 



Structure is always expressive of the habits 

 of the bees, and is as sure a line of separation, 

 or means of combination, as instinct could be 

 were it tangible. Hence the conclusion always 

 follows with a certainty, that such and such a 

 form is identical with such and such habits, and 

 that in the broad and most distinguishing features 

 of its economy, the genus is essentially the same 

 in every climate ; for climate does not act upon 

 these lower forms of animal life, with the modi- 

 fying influence which it exercises upon the mam- 

 malia and man. — iShuckard. 



