124 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



May 



We queen breeders very often allow 

 our colonies to go queenless for quite 

 a while. With Italians this does not 

 matter so much, but with the Carnio- 

 lans it has a bad effect, for those that 

 I have left queenless have always turn- 

 ed out a regular mess of laying workers. 

 Last spring I purchased a fine breed- 

 er. She raised a large swarm of work- 

 ers and died out. They raised a young 

 queen and she was lost on her mating 

 trip, and in a few days apparently the 

 whole swarm began laying, and I nev- 

 er saw just such a mess. I introduced 

 a queen but she never done any good. 

 She was very pi'olific, but the workers 

 continued to fill the combs with their 

 eggs in such numbers that no brood 

 could be raised, and they finally dwin- 

 dled down to a handfull and starved 

 out. During a honey flow I slipped a 

 queen in at last and left another hive 

 queenless for about two weeks. This 

 being so late in the season, I did not 

 think the workers would lay, but they 

 did. I introduced a queen, and the 

 workers continued to lay and they are 

 still at it. They have consumed twice 

 as much honey as any other hive in 

 the yard. I do not know that this 

 condition of affairs is characteristic of 

 the Carniolan bees or not, as I have 

 had only one year's experience in 

 rearing them. But there is one thing 

 I do know, that in all my experience 

 with other races I have never had as 

 bad cases of laying workers as I have 

 described above. The bees are good 

 workers and fine breeders, most excel- 

 lent cell builders, and very gentle 

 when pure, but when cross-mated 

 with other bees, will sting you all over 

 in a minute. If I was running my 

 bees for increase I would prefer the 

 Carniolans, as they seem to increase 



faster than the Italians. They are 

 better comb honey producers than the 

 pure Italians, but for extracted honey 

 I am like Judge Terrell ; give me the 

 pure Italians — they swarm less and 

 get the most honey. If I was a honey 

 producer and knew what I do about 

 the two races of bees, I don't know 

 that I would spend much money in 

 exchanging one for the other, as they 

 are both good enough. In queen rear- 

 ing I believe the Carniolans are the 

 best, especially where cells are built 

 above a queen excluder. 

 Chriesman, Texas. 



(From the American Bee Journal.) 



POISONOUS HONEY.-DO BEES 

 GATHER IT? 



BY ED. .TOLLEY. 

 "apis VIRUM " IN ALL HONEY. 



Novice desires the readers of the Bee 

 Journal, who keep bees where moun- 

 tain laurels grow, to speak as to the 

 wholesomeuess of honey gathered from 

 it. He gives a very good description 

 of mountain laurel as it grows herea- 

 bouts. It grows in great abundance 

 on the mountains of Pennsylvania; 

 and the bees work some on it, but not 

 enough to get much surplus from it. 

 I believe the honey has never been 

 known to injure any one here, nor 

 does it seem to have any deleterious 

 effect on the bees. The leaves of the 

 shrub are generally conceded to be 

 poisonous. I never knew cows to eat 

 it here, but sheeD, left to their own 

 resources too early in the spring, have 

 been known to eat it, and it generally 

 resulted in giving the owner a job of 

 picking the wool off their dead carcas- 

 ses, too. The blossoms are generally 

 considered to be harmless. 'J'he boys 

 living near enough, gather and sell 



