THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



January 



standard works on bee-culture, or 

 periodicals devoted to their care ? 

 Not much ! he kept it in his pocket. 

 The winter following was a severe 

 one, and the following summer a 

 huge pile of hives, their only tenants 

 being moths, was all there was left of 

 a once valuable apiary when intelli- 

 gently and carefully managed. He 

 consoled himself that he had not lost 

 anything. 



Since the advent of poor seasons, 

 the increase of colonies has not been 

 equal to winter losses. Last spring 

 in this locality, fruit bloom was most- 

 ly destroyed by the March freeze ; 

 after a careful investigation of the 

 prospect of honey in the futui-e, we 

 came to the conclusion that it would 

 not pay to feed. There was no white 

 clover to speak of, and the basswood 

 usually yields only a day or so. The 

 colonies made a living from wild- 

 cherry, locust, dandylion and other 

 flowers, and from forty colonies, ten 

 swarms issued. They were in fine 

 condition for the fall flow, and when 

 the surplus honey was removed it av- 

 eraged 12^ lbs. to a colony, mostly 

 comb ol' fair quality. As there had 

 been no outlay in money and very lit- 

 tle labor expended, we concluded that 

 they paid very well. The conibs not 

 in use had been stored the previous 

 summer in the cellar, with the win- 

 dows piotectcd with wire gauze. Af- 

 ter the combs' had been carefully 

 looked over three times and all grubs 

 of the moth removed, no more ap- 

 peared, as nut one had been allowed 

 to mature. This summer they )'e- 

 mained in the cellar arid ic quired no 

 care, for no moth could enter to de- 

 posit her eggs in them. 



THK OUTLOOK. 



The wise man says what has been. 



will be again, and from present pros- 

 pect there will be next season a crop 

 of white clover. The pastures were 

 never better during September. By 

 reason of long continued warm, slow 

 rains, white clover has returned. 

 Peoria, III. 



Italianizing, Etc. 



BY CHAS. H. THIES. 



In reply to F. J. C.'s queries on page 

 180, Dec. No., I will try and give my 

 views : 



1st. What is the best way to Ital- 

 ianize an apiary of 50 colonies ? This 

 depends a good deal upon conditions, 

 some of which are your experience, 

 your surroundings, what kind of bees 

 you and your neighbors have. If you 

 have black or hybrid bees in your 

 surrounding country it will be useless 

 for you to try to rear your Italian 

 queens, as all will surely be hybrids, 

 but if the bees in your territory are 

 already largely Italians you may suc- 

 ceed in having a goodly number of 

 purely mated queens. Then, after 

 testing them, those that are found to 

 be mismated may be i-eplaced with 

 more young queens whicii will also 

 need to be tested, but this is slow 

 work and will require a whole season 

 or more, therefore if you want to 

 Italianize and do it quick it would be 

 best to get unte.-ted queens fi'om some 

 good bleeder whose surroundings are 

 of such a nature that 99 in 100 of un- 

 tested queens will prove to be purely 

 mated. 1 am Mij)posiiig that you have 

 read enougli b.-e literature to be thor- 

 oughly po.-ted in rearing good quet ns. 

 ir 1 am wiuug in this then this letter 

 may be of litile benitit to you and 

 you should a.-k which is the best 

 method of leaiiiig good queens. Of 



