For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee Matters in Canada. 



REV. J. ANDERSON. 



Perhaps a few items from Canada 

 anent bees may be of some interest to 

 some of the readers of your valuable 

 journal. There has been, during the 

 latter end of last winter and the begin- 

 ning of spring, a very great mortality 

 among the bees in this province. This 

 I believe was owing to the mildness 

 and length of winter. My bees were 5 

 weeks longer in confinement last sea- 

 son, than they were the previous sea- 

 son. Four months and one week was a 

 long time to be imprisoned. The result 

 was I lost 4 colonies out of 54 put into 

 winter quarters. Those 4 died for the 

 want of food. They had not a particle 

 to live on, and the stores of others were 

 on the eve of being exhausted. In fact, 

 they consumed a third more food than 

 on ordinary winters. 



I find the Langstroth hive, which is 

 pretty well known in this province, to 

 be a most excellent hive for summer 

 use : but a most wretched concern for 

 wintering. For over 12 years I have 

 been experimenting with it, using every 

 recent invention commendable in order 

 to secure success in wintering, but I 

 am sorry to have to say that I failed. 

 It seems to me that it is too shallow to 

 allow the bees to form themselves into 

 a proper cluster, which is so essential 

 for winters such as we have here ; hence 

 the bees are in a constant state of rest- 

 lessness ; either too warm or too cold, 

 till finally they are siezed with the still- 

 ness of death while an abundance of 

 food is all around them. But perhaps 

 there is some special way for wintering 

 bees in this hive ; if so, the person who 

 describes it in the Journal will merit 

 my thanks. 



This season I met with rather singu- 

 lar things among my bees. I have just 

 now a colony of pure Italians which 

 lost its virgin queen about; a month 

 ago and refuses to raise one. Three 

 times I gave them combs with fresh 

 eggs to raise a queen for themselves, 

 but they refused to do so. In the first 

 piece I gave them, they commenced to 

 build cells, but before they were sealed 

 over they gave them up. In my last 

 attempt to aid them, I gave them a 

 frame full of fresh eggs and brood in all 

 stages, but they made no attempt to 

 build any cells. Being certain that 

 they have no queen and as certain that 

 they are unwilling to raise one, I pur- 

 pose offering them a queen in a day or 

 two, which may discover a little more 

 of their freaks. But is not this a very 



singular case ? It is in my experience. 



1 esterday I killed a young and very 

 beautiful Italian queen. She was just 

 a month old, and had everything 

 during her whole life as favorable 

 as could be wished ; nevertheless she 

 did not lay one single egg that I could 

 see. Her barrenness wore out my pa- 

 tience, and consequently I destroyed 

 her. Indeed, her own subjects seemed 

 to have been disappointed, for they 

 kept a large number of cells empty for 

 her eggs, and had them as clean as they 

 could be for weeks, nor did they appear 

 to be in great sorrow at her death. 



A few days ago in making a young 

 colony from a very strong one, I took 

 the queen — to which I attach a great 

 value because she invariably duplicates 

 herself — with a large number of her 

 bees, and placed them in another hive 

 prepared to receive them, where I 

 placed a frame with brood to make 

 them contented in their new home. 

 Having removed the old home from its 

 stand to a new locality, I placed the 

 new hive with queen and bees in its 

 stead. In a week's time I visited the 

 old home of my queen to see what num- 

 ber of cells I might expect. But to my 

 surprise, not a cell could I see ; but the 

 combs were full of eggs. While look- 

 ing at those eggs with feelings of dis- 

 appointment, the very identical queen 

 which I placed in my new hive passed 

 before my eyes. 



Tiverton, Ont., July 19, 1879. 



For tne American Bee Journal. 



Virgil and the Honey Bee. 



W. O. CARPENTER. 



The July number of the American 

 Bee Journal contains two very inter- 

 esting articles, one from T. L. Fraser 

 on " The Primitive Home of the Italian 

 Bee " ; the other from Prof. A, J. Cook 

 on " The History and Use of the Bee 

 Smoker." Both are more or less classi- 

 cal productions, and at once reminded 

 me of my school-days, when Virgil is 

 read more as a task than a pleasure ; it 

 will nevertheless well repay any of your 

 classical readers to peruse the 4th book 

 of Virgil's Georgics, which is entirely 

 devoted to the culture of bees. VVith 

 regard to the primitive home of the 

 Italian bee, as Virgil was then residing 

 in Etruria, and his time a good deal 

 divided between Kome, Brundusium 

 and other Italian cities, I take it he had 

 every opportunity of seeing and learn- 

 ing all about the nature, quality and 

 location of the Italian bee, which he 

 most emphatically describes in opposi- 

 tion to the common or black bee in the 



