1900 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



133 



was not what led me lo touch this Hive 

 for Wintering question. It was to tell 

 the reader of something good along the 

 out-door wintering line that Bro. Her- 

 ring's article brought to mind, which 

 I think I have not spoken of before. 

 When at Providence, R. I., a few win- 

 ters ago, one of the bee-keepers there 

 (and they have some as brainy and 

 bright bee-keepers in and around Provi- 

 dence as are found anywhere in the 

 world) asked me if I would try cork dust 

 in packing bees for winter, using it in 

 place of chaff for packing. He said it 

 should cost me nothing except the 

 freight, as there were hundreds of 

 bushels of it thrown away each year, it 

 coming to that city as a packing for 

 foreign grapes. I assented to the trial 

 part and here wish to say that I have 

 never had bees winter so perfectly out 

 doors as have those furnished with this 

 cork dust for the packing between the 

 walls of the hive, where chaff is usually 

 used. You who live near cities where 

 foreign grapes arrive, speak for this 

 useless cork dust and see how it can be 

 turned fi'om its uselessness in the cities 

 to a utility in packing bees in the 

 country. 



ITALIANS INFERIOR AS COMB-HONEY 

 PRODUCERS. 



I now wish to notice Bro. Greiner's 

 words, found in the middle of the first 

 column on page 103, differently from 

 what I noticed them above. He says : 

 "Very many of us bee-keepers here are 

 pretty well satisfied that the Italian is 

 inferior to the native as a comb-honey 

 producer." I wish he would tell us 

 wherein the Italians are inferior. Is it 

 In that part wherein the Italians start 

 out and fill the sections with comb when 

 only a slight flow of honey is on, instead 

 of their using the tactics of the natives 

 of building their combs only a little way, 

 lengthening out the cells and seal- 

 ing tWem, then starting up a little 

 further, with the next flow of nectar, 

 lengthening out the cells and sealing 

 again, and so on, filling the sections a 



little at time, till the experienced eye 

 can tell at a glance that such sections 

 were filled by ftative bees in a season of 

 light flows of nectar, by their "wash- 

 boardy" appearance? Is it because he 

 has found the claim good, which was 

 made years ago, that the Italians were 

 slow in entering the sections ? If th's 

 is the ease, did he study the traits of 

 the Italians and "manipulate them ac- 

 cordingly," as Bro. Pridgen told us we 

 must do with any race, in order to meet 

 success? Was it becaus^e they capped 

 * their combs so closely to the honey that 

 the same was given a watery appear- 

 ance? If so, did he try purchasing a 

 variety of Italian bees that capped their 

 combs white? Failing in these points 

 would show that he was not as alive to 

 the good points in the Italian bee as to 

 those in the natives. We should like to 

 hear something further in this matter 

 from Mr. Greiner before he condemns 

 Mr. Herring's pet I'ace in such a whole- 

 sale manner. 



•'DOWNY MISSES." 



On page 108 I see friend Pridgen has 

 got after me, and, to answer him Yankee 

 fashion, I am going for him to see if we 

 bee-keepers cannot draw a little larger 

 ray of light than has yet been shed on 

 the Introduction part used with those 

 "downy misses" which, he tells us, he used 

 "with the assurance that as few will be 

 rejected as there are cells that fail to 

 hatch and are torn down." If Bro, 

 Pridgen can give us a certain, easy plan 

 whereby these downy misses can be in- 

 troduced to a colony from which a lay- 

 ing queen has just been taken, just as 

 certainly and as easily as a ripe cell can 

 be introduced, he will confer on the 

 readers of The American Bee-keeper 

 more good than Doolittle can by these 

 emphasizing articles in a whole year. 

 Thus, you see, Bro. Pridgen, if you de- 

 sire to do good to the bee-keeping fra- 

 ternity, here's your chance, making the 

 minutia and details of the plan so plain 

 that the novice, or "the wayfaring man, 

 thouo-h a fool, need not err therein." 



