134 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



miles around, to procure the required number. 

 For my part, I cannot see any objection to this, 

 so long as it is not shown that the bees raised 

 by Prof. Moua are superior to those of ignorant 

 peasants, and I must say that I could not see 

 the slightest difference. I will concede, how- 

 ever, that the ignorant class of people may be 

 incapable of raising bees that will not sting. 

 But, so far as my recollection serves, I have 

 not encountered any man who claimed that he 

 had bees that woukl not sting, except Professor 

 Varro. Nor would such bees suit me if I could 

 get them. How long would it be before mis- 

 chievous boys would destroy the stocks and 

 steal the honey? In common with the Baron 

 of Berlcpsch, I would sooner submit to a dozen 

 stings a day, than be deprived of this formida- 

 ble weapon of defence. 



Every experienced bee keeper knows that 

 bees vary greatly in their behavior at different 

 times. My pure Italian bees, and some of my 

 hybrids, are nearly as gentle as and behave like 

 Prof. Varro' s, during the time that white clover 

 is in bloom; but their deportment is very dif- 

 ferent at various other periods. 



As to the charge of Mrs. Tupper that my 

 apiary must be greatly bastardized on account 

 of its rapid increase, will not Dr. S. Sanford, of 

 Lima, Ohio, bo kind enough to report what he 

 found in my apiaries when he visited me? 



And now, Mr. Editor, if you do not find this 

 epistle too long, p'ease insert it in the Journal, 

 as I have no doulit that many readers take an 

 interest in the discussion. A. Grimm. 



Jefferson, Wis., Dec. 11, 1867. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Profits of Bee-Keeping. 



Mr. Editor: — Seeing a statement by Mr. 

 Baldridge in the Journal for November in re- 

 gard to the profits of an apiary owned by Mr. 

 Silas Way, has prompted me to give you and 

 the readers of the Journal a statement of the 

 products of one owned by myself and son. We 

 had at the commencement of last winter one 

 hundred and thirty-six stocks, very lightly 

 stored with honey, as the season had been the 

 most unfavorable for honej' I have known dur- 

 ing the twenty -eight years I have owned bees. 

 Our bees came out in the spring alive, except 

 two slocks, and both of those starved. But one 

 large Italian left about fifteen pounds of honey 

 which they could not get at, because there were 

 no winter passages through the combs. After 

 they were set out in the spring, Ave lost some 

 stocks by starvation and brood rot, (foul brood) 

 so that when the honey season opened we had 

 about one hundred and fifteen healthy colonies. 

 Three-fourths of these had to be fed previous 

 to that time. We fed them on cheap sugar. 

 Swarming commenced on the 14th of June and 

 ended on the 14th of August; the Italians tak- 

 ing the lead at least two weeks and closing later 

 by three weeks than the natives. A number of 

 our young Italian stocks swarmed in August 

 after filling eight boxes; and the one that came 

 off on the 14th of August gathered honey enough 

 to winter. Wc now have two hundred and 



four stocks, besides one that we have sold — • 

 making ninety young stocks all in good condi- 

 tion. Many of our natives did not swarm at 

 all, but I believe the Italians all swarmed. 



Honey in glass caps sold G,155 pounds 



Strained honey sold 350 " 



Strained honey on hand 250 " 



Box honey on hand 380 " 



Honey sold in family or given 

 away 100 " 



7 OOrt U 



The above statement is not far from correct, 

 I think, as we have kept the account. 



Our bees are mostly Italian, and are as pure 

 as can be found anywhere; bred by Mr. W. W. 

 Gary, of Golerain, (Mass)., who possesses supe- 

 rior advantages for rearing pure Italian queens, 

 and is a man perfectly reliable in all respects. 



I think we have greatly increased the value 

 of our bees by the introduction of the Italians. 

 It seems to give new life and energy to all their 

 movements, however slight the mixture with 

 the natives. 



I have given the amount of honey our bees 

 have stored, and now I will give the product of 

 a single stock of hybrids which I had in a large 

 box hive. It cast a swarm on the 20th of June. 

 This I put into a hive on which I use four glass 

 boxes, and from which we took fourteen full 

 boxes of seven pounds each. The mother stock 

 cast a second swarm from which we took four 

 boxes, making together eighteen boxes or one 

 hundred and twenty-six pounds of honey. I 

 then transferred the old stock, and should think 

 it would weigh an hundred pounds. There 

 being no young brood to hatch, I think the con- 

 tents, apart from the hive, would weigh seventy- 

 five pounds, which added to the surplus abov^- 

 mentioned, would make tw^o hundred and one 

 pounds, besides three swarms in good condition 

 to winter. 



We had other Italian bees that did equally 

 well. One cast a swarm and filled fourteen 

 boxes, and the cast filled five boxes, besides 

 some only partially filled, and cast a swarm. 

 Another Italian swarm came off on the 2d of 

 July and filled twelve boxes. Our honey was 

 mostly gathered from clover and sold for thirty 

 cents per pound. Doty Brimmer. 



HoosiCK, N. Y. 



A specimen of Trebizond honey, which still 

 retainsthe deleterious properties ascribed to it in 

 Xenophon's Anabasis, was sent to the London 

 Zoological Society in 1834. 



There are always some people who are so for- 

 ward in their belief that the very fact of seeing a 

 statement in print is authority enough for them. 

 — Mudie. 



It is in those cases of which we can personally 

 observe or perform only a part, that association 

 and co-operation is of much value. 



I^^Send us names of bee-keepers with their 

 post office address. 



