238 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



September 



not only in capping the whitest honey, 

 but for wintering. I like the first 

 cross from imported Italians aud the 

 black bee ; I call them black Italians. 

 I think it is a well known fact among 

 our northern bee keepers that they 

 are more hardy, and will live and 

 work better than the yellow Italians 

 in our climate. I am growing in the 

 opinion that the blacker the bees the 

 better they are for me. This is not 

 booming the yellow bees very much, 

 but the time is coming when we will 

 keep bees for the money there is in 

 them instead of beauty. I love to look 

 at yellow bees and to show a solid 

 yellow Queen to visitors, and to keep 

 them in my Queen rearing Apiary to 

 supply any calls I may have for this 

 kind. I would not feel so particular 

 about the yellow bees if I could win- 

 ter them as successfully as I can the 

 black or hybrids. When I have suc- 

 ceeded in bringing through a strong 

 colony they are prolific as the blacks, 

 and I have .somntimes thought more 

 so, but they are hard to winter. 



HEART SICKNESS. 



How many of my bee keeping 

 brothers and sisters know what that 

 means? For one, I know. I will tell 

 you some of the symptoms ; The first 

 time in the spring on a warm day, 

 with a south wind blowing and the 

 bees flying some, you will venture to 

 raise carefully the corners of the 

 Chaff Cushions and peek in to see if 

 your pets are alive. Perhaps the first 

 swarm is alive and in good condition ; 

 the next may be gone ; the next very 

 weak, and so on through the apiary. 

 In this case we feel a little sick, but 

 later on one by one they may go, the 

 beautiful yellow bees ; now this one 

 and that one — some of them valuable 



breeding queens. Leaning against a 

 hive you feel perhaps sick. But 

 persevere year after year, take cour- 

 age, go to work, clean up the combs 

 and hives, carry the combs into the 

 cellar to prevent robbing ; always 

 feed bountifully those that have not 

 plenty of stores, using granulated 

 sugar syrup and feeding early in the 

 fall — feeding as early as September. 

 We caunnot well give up bee keeping 

 even if our bees do die, for we have 

 our hives and combs with honey, and 

 we look around and buy more bees 

 — pay a high price and get the very 

 best — thinking that the next winter 

 we will try cellar wintering. The 

 above has been my experience. In 

 those days I was using a Langstroth 

 Frame altogether, and would transfer 

 from any other I bought, thinking it 

 to be the only frame that should be 

 used. Sad was my expei'ience for 

 years. Finally I found an apiary of 

 black bees, as black as the ace of 

 spades, several miles away. Having 

 the bee fever still, and because I could 

 buy them very cheap, I purchased 

 them. They were on deep frames, 

 and in a style of hive I now prefer. 

 I worked this apiary for honey and 

 the money 1 could get out of it regard- 

 less of the color of the bees. They 

 were hustlers, and were perfect in 

 every way. In those hives my bees 

 would go through the winter and the 

 late cold springs, as we often have 

 them, splendidly, losing only a small 

 percentage. Then I thought I must 

 introduce some of my fine Italians, 

 aud then I got a strain of bees with 

 which I am very much pleased. They 

 are hardy and handsome. I have 

 proved the value of the deep frame in 

 wintering, also the yellow bees. The 



