52 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The " Experience of a Novice in Bee-Kecp- 

 ing," affords me a great many ludierons remi- 

 niscenscs, nud accords so fully Avith my own, in 

 its earlier stages, that I could not improve upon 

 his rehearsal, if I -would, although (No. 5 of his 

 Experience) in speaking of bucliwheat, he 

 might have reminded the " several bee-keepers 

 about here" as well as many of your other 

 readers, who, rot like Dr. Watts, seem to think 

 ' 'the little busy bee" gathers honej'"all the day," 

 but all the year, that, as Mr. Moneypenny 

 would say, "a sixpence saved is a shilling 

 earned." Work on, friend, you are at the 

 "root" of certain achievements worthy of your 

 name. 



It has been suggested to me by an enlightened, 

 practical and scientific apiculturist, that since 

 my first communication to the American Bee 

 Journal, another sure and inhillible test of 

 Italian bees has been discovered — apart from 

 their markings. It is this : 



The workers will alloic themselves to he breathed 

 upon without noticing or resenting it in the least— 

 whereas nothing so exasperates and provokes to 

 fury, black bees, or bees possessing any taint of 

 the black race, as the breath from the human 

 lungs. Says he, "a few days ago, on showing 

 a ll'iend the docility of the Italian bees, I 

 stooped down and breathed full upon them as 

 they were clustered out in front of the hive. 

 Nay, I even brushed them away with my lips 

 w if bout their betraying any symptoms of 

 anger. To show him the difference, 1 then 

 breathed slightly on a hive of black bees near. 

 Of course I had a lot of them promptly in my 

 face. I next tried it on a hybrid stock, first 

 donning a millinet veil. The effect reminded 

 me of a charge of buck-shot. The same result 

 with my quiet hybrids. The same with a colony 

 that I had considered pure until I raised queens 

 from them. A colony where the young Italians 

 were just hatcliing was next tried ; all flew in 

 my face except the Italians, which stood their 

 ground with perfect unconcern." 



I felt a great curiosity to ascertain how my 

 bees would behave under similar treatment, and 

 immediately proceeded to offer the just described 

 insult to twenty-four stocks of Italians, and one 

 stock of blacks which I bought about three 

 ■weeks ago, forthe purpose of locating a super- 

 numerary fertile Italian queen. The result of 

 four different visits, with slight variation in 

 operation, are as follows. 



First visit. Friday, August 9, 6 o'clock, P. M. 

 After breatbing/'MW, and at once loud and long 

 upon each of the twenty-four Italian stocks, the 

 effect was nothing more nor lets than the same 

 volume and amount of breath would have had 

 upon standing water. By prolonged repetitions 

 of breath, the individual cluster of each hive grad- 

 ually became thinner and thinner, till finally I 

 had cleared them all or nearly all from the spot 

 where the cluster was, so much so, tbat in every 

 instance I could see the color of the hive. 



The blacks resented but slightly, at first, but 

 gradually the number of angry bees increased, 

 till I thought it wise to retreat. 



Visit Second. Saturday noon following, j 

 •when not so many bees were as yet clustered out, ! 

 the weather being sultry with indications of rain, i 



and my breath purposely well flavored with a 

 claw of garlic^ the effect upon the Italians wag 

 in every respect the same as on the first visit. But 

 the blacks at once nianiiested by their threat- 

 ening attitudes considerable anger, and a perfect 

 storm of bees suddenly appearing at the en- 

 trance, I left. 



Visit Third. Which took place about fif- 

 teen minutes later ; the Italians still stood their 

 ground bravely, though many w^ondered what 

 was going on out of doors, and felt a little 

 uneasy at my repeated calls. Still not more 

 than two or three of each stock flew at me, and 

 these seemingly without any bad intentions, as 

 several of them becoming entangled in my 

 beard, escaped in perfect amiability. The black 

 ones, during the half hour's interval since my 

 last visit, having considerably increased in 

 number, did not wait at this time till my sweetly 

 scented lips came within kissing distance, but 

 unceremoniously met them half way, singing 

 and buzzing around the drum of my ears, tiJl 

 Avith the Ettric Shepherd, I thought "they 

 were in at the ae hole and out at the ither — 

 back again after makin' a circuit, as if they had 

 repented o'letting you unharmed, dashin' against 

 the face o'you who are wishin' ill to nae living 

 thing." 



In the evening after this catastrophe, I found 

 five young queens torn from their cells, lying 

 dead before the black stock. 



My last effort at arousing the ire of my Italians 

 Avas made on Sunday morning, about 9 o'clock, 

 without the aid of garlic, of course ; but by 

 using a turkey tail feather, I wished to ascer- 

 tain hoAV often I could brush them towards the 

 entrance Avithout exasperating them. Of some 

 stocks I could thus push back the bees as high 

 as nine and ten times, without their endeavo- 

 ring to stick to the feather. None took wing, 

 but quite a number, at this time, were exhibit- 

 ing great displeasure. The blacks were still 

 very angry and I preferred not to worry them 

 again. 



I have stated in a former article that I think 

 my Italian bees are pure, and again I must reit- 

 erate my conviction, or say (though 1 be my- 

 self) my breath during the several above-men- 

 tioned courtships, must have been exceedingly 

 sweet. 



The fact that the common bees behaved so 

 unladylike, should in this instance not be alto- 

 gether attributed to breathing upon them, as it 

 is a well-known fact that bees at the time of 

 rearing their queens are more susceptible to 

 anger than at any other time. It is (piite prob- 

 abie that these oft repeated disturbances took 

 place at the very time when the young ciueens 

 found before the hive Avere on the point of 

 hatching, Avhich seems to be lli3 culminating 

 point oTa black bee's irascibility. 



If this additional test Avcrc univer?ally adop- 

 ted as the standard of purity in Italian bees, 

 and every queen Avhose progeny did not come 

 up to it, Avere unconditionally rejected as an 

 unworthy mother, Avho Avould dare say, Avith 

 any shoAV of plausibility, that these beautiful, use- 

 ful and exceedingly interesting insects, might 

 not, within the present century, be indefiuitely 

 improved. 



