34 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



that yield their tempting STVcets to the little 

 busy bee, so wonderfully adapted by its Maker 

 for its work ; but they are the most important 

 ones. There is one thing that I think is not 

 generally known— that a bee always gets his 

 food from one kind of flower ; for instance, if 

 a bee is at work on golden rod, he will not 

 alight on wild aster, though it may be close 

 by ; and another who is at work on the asters 

 "Will not leave them for any other flower. 



G. F. P. 



When a natural swarm has issued and becomes 

 settled, sprinkle the cluster with sugar water, 

 before proceeding to hive it. This renders the 

 bees still more placable and manageable than 

 they usually are on such occasions. It is of great 

 service in any case, but is especially useful when 

 the swarm has clustered in some place or spot 

 where it is not readily accessible. If, after 

 sprinkling, the bees can be reached with a small 

 tin dipper, they may be slowly, yet eflectually 

 transferred to a hive or hiving basket, taking a 

 dipperful at a time. When the queen has thus 

 been brought away, the rest of -the swarm will 

 speedily follow. 



[For the American Bee JournaL] 



Purity of Italian Queens. 



Mr. Grimm, on page 228, June number of the 

 Bee Jouknal, doubts that there are Italian 

 queens which produce young queen invari- 

 ably duplicates of themselves. He says : 

 "I cannot conceive why Mr. Kleiue wrote 

 the interesting letter referred to, nor why 

 Mrs. Tupper defines the purity of Italian queens 

 as she does, when both of them should have 

 known that they had no such queens them- 

 selves, and could not procure such even in 

 Italy." It seems strange to me that Mr. 

 Grimm should doubt, in this way, a positive as- 

 sertion of Mr. Kleiue; nor can I conceive what 

 has authorized him to judge of any one's queens 

 except his own. If he has as he says, reared "over 

 six hundred queens" in a short time, from three 

 mothers, in a section of country abounding in 

 black bees, it will not surprise any one who 

 has been engaged in the business that he should 

 produce "queens that vary greatly in color ;" 

 nor is it fair that the queens he reared, under 

 such circumstances, should be taken as speci- 

 mens and compared with those reared by Mr. 

 Kleine, Mr. Langstroth, and others, who have 

 spent tlirice as many years in rearing half that 

 number from the choicest stock, destroying 

 every queen that did not produce good 

 progeny. 



It is quite as unfair to express an opinion of 

 my queens, because he once saw the outside of 

 my hives on a damp autumn day, when not a 

 young bee was in flight, and he did not open a 

 hive or see a queen. lie entirely misinterprets 

 the remark made by me to him at Burlington, 

 which was to this eflect : "That those who 

 purchased queens from some dealers in them 

 were obliged to be satisfied if they obtained a 

 majority of young queens from them like the 

 parent." He does not repeat what I distinctly 



asserted, and what is now, from this season's 

 experience, even more firmly my belief, that if 

 we would have and keep the Italian bee pure, 

 we must rear from no queens that do not repro- 

 duce themselves. You may call their color 

 brown, or yellow, or leather color, or what you 

 please, but, with slight variations of shade from 

 dark to light, an Italian queen purely impreg- 

 ueted will produce young queens like herself. 

 If she does not, however valuable she may be 

 for the purpose of building up a colony, or how 

 energetic that colony may be, she should not 

 be used to to rear other queens from. 



Mr. Grimm's method of multiplying stocks 

 rapidly, and preserving all queens, whatever 

 their marking, even to the number of six hun- 

 dred from three in as many years, may be the 

 most profitable, since no one disputes that for 

 honey-storing purposes, or rapidity of increase, 

 bees not perfectly pure are quite as valuable as 

 the best. We only protest against his compar- 

 ing ciueens reared in this manner with those of 

 others who proceed in quite a diff'erent way. In 

 this matter, I would express my great obliga- 

 tions to Richard Colvin, Esq., of Baltimore. 

 After several disai>ioointments in queens, I sent 

 to him four years ago and received from him two 

 Italian queens, from an importation of his own. 

 They were introduced into good colonies late 

 in the fall, and early the succeeding spring I com- 

 menced rearing from them. Out of forty reared 

 from one of them, every one was like herself 'nx 

 coloring, (call that color what you please.) 

 From the other several were differently marked, 

 not like black bees, but with distinct yellow 

 rings, and, though large and handsome, totally 

 unlike the parent. (I can hardly describe 

 their appearance, but all who rear queens will 

 understand me.) I wrote to Mr. Colvin and 

 " reported progress." He replied immediately, 

 advising me to "rear no more from the latter 

 queen, and to destroy all I had reared, for 

 nothing from such a queen would be pure, ex- 

 cept her drones." He soon replaced her by 

 another, which, like the first, did always dupli- 

 cate herself. 



I have since then purchased eight queens of 

 different importations, and but one of them all 

 has, like Mr. Colvin's, given me invariably well 

 marked queens. Still I have kept his advice in 

 view, and never reared from any one (after 

 testing her) that gave me any poorly marked 

 queens. I have queens in the third generation 

 from all that produced pure, and find that, 

 when they are fertilized by Italian drones, their 

 queen progeny is just the same as were the 

 original ; and that the workers from them not 

 only are uniformly marked, but gentle, not dis- 

 posed to sling, and that they cling with tenaci- 

 ty to a comb when lifted out, so that it is al- 

 most impossible to dislodge them. Some say 

 that this peculiarity is a better test than any 

 markings. In my experience, when they are 

 properly marked, they always possess this pecu- 

 liarity. I have never seen pure Italian bees 

 without it. 



At first, as I expected, a very large pro- 

 portion of my young queens met common 

 drones. These I kept for honey-storing pur- 

 poses exclusively, replacing them as fast as pes- 



