THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



225 



sents a feeder holding about one 

 pint. One that has a capacity of 

 several quarts costs but a trifle more 

 than the pint feeder. 

 Wenham, Mass. 



NORTH AND SOUTH IN 

 BEE CULTURE. 



By Abbott L. Swinson. 



A GREAT deal has been written pro 

 and con in regard to pollen theories 

 in the diarrhoea troubles among bees. 

 I must confess that the article of G. 

 W. Demaree, in your last issue is 

 pretty near the truth, as near prob- 

 ably ( ?) as any article that has been 

 published in regard to these diarrhoea 

 troubles. That the cause must be 

 "climatic" is pretty well proven by 

 the fact that there is no such thing 

 among the bees in the south as diar- 

 rhoea or foul brood, while our north- 

 ern brethren are more or less troubled 

 with it every season. These are facts 

 that our theorizing beekeepers should 

 not overlook. 



We lose no bees here during win- 

 ter or spring, except from starvation, 

 that is usually brought about by the 

 bees being kept principally in old box 

 and gum hives, and their keepers 

 robbing them in June and July, after 

 the honey flow is over, and taking 

 out too much of their stores, not 

 knowing how much is being left. 

 The black (or German) bees store 

 but very little honey after June lo, 

 in eastern North Carolina, the main 

 honey flow being during the month 

 of May, from black gum, poplar, low- 



bush huckleberry, holly and gallberry. 

 The Italian, Syrians and Cyprians do 

 much better after the main honey 

 flow than do the blacks ; they usually 

 store twice the amount of honey 

 from June lo to October that the 

 blacks do. They stored a good deal 

 of honey this season for me, from 

 cotton and sumac, beginning about 

 July 20 and ending Aug. 15, while 

 the blacks in this section were doing 

 nothing. Bees fly out here nearly 

 every week in winter during the mid- 

 dle of the day. They gather plenty 

 of pollen during February from alder, 

 (not elder). I had queens reared, 

 mated and laying April 8, this last 

 spring. I find southern-bred queens 

 live longer and are more prolific, here 

 wjth me, than are northern-bred 

 queens, which I have bought up 

 north, notwithstanding the com- 

 plaint against " southern queens " by 

 some of the northern beekeepers. 



THE BEST BEES. 



The American Italian (Albinos) are 

 the coming bees (?). I have tried 

 for the past two seasons the crossing 

 of ItaHans, Cyprians and Syrians as 

 suggested by Mr. Demaree, under 

 the above heading, and I have come 

 to the conclusion that the American 

 Italians are the best bees on the 

 x\merican continent — Carniolans not 

 excepted — for purity, gentleness, 

 beauty, prolificness, size and working 

 qualities ; they are certainly the " yel- 

 lowest " and whitest marked bees we 

 have. The young of eight queens 

 that I now have are nearly white, 

 when first hatched out, but after they 

 become exposed to sun and he^ in 

 working, they show four to five yel- 



