1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUKNAL. 



13 



advantages of our hive are too numerous to even 

 think of, let alone mentioning in one article. 



Any one enclosing one dollar will get a full 

 descrii^tiou, so that any mechanic can make the 

 hive ; and that is as cheap as I can afford it, as 

 I cannot spend my time for nothing. The hive 

 is covererd by the Langstroth patent, so that 

 any one using it should own a right to that 

 patent. 



Those using my old form of hive can make 

 one of the new on trial, and move a swarm, 

 frames and all, into it immediately. The hive is 

 a good-looking one, and is calculated to winter 

 on the summer stand. But small swarms can be 

 placed in the old form of hive, and wintered in- 

 doors. There is no humbug about this hive, so 

 send on your dollar and get a description. The 

 cry comes to me from every quarter, inquiring 

 about hives, and .1 might spend nearly all my 

 time describing the hive ; but this I cannot af- 

 ford without pay. 



The season bids fair to be a good one. My 

 bees commenced swarming on the 14th instant. 

 There has been a heavy honey-dew for the past 

 few days. Red raspberries and white clover are 

 coming into bloom. The weather is hot and 

 moist, which favors the secretion of nectar, and 

 urges forward the swarming. In fact the swarm- 

 ing mania is up to the full standard. We had 

 two or three weeks of cold rainy weather, that 

 set the black fellows back early in May ; but the 

 Italians kept up their repvitation, for the con- 

 tinued breeding up to the full capacity. 



E. Gallup. 



Orchard, loica, May 26, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Hrusclika, and the Italians. 



Mr. Editor : — I procured a honey extractor 

 this spring, and the way it slings the honey is a 

 wonderment to the natives. With the old woman 

 in the sitting room running her sewing machine, 

 the slinger going at full speed in the room ad- 

 joining, and the old fashioned churn dasher in 

 operation near by, I tell you it sounds like busi- 

 ness at (Hir house. 



But this honey slinger don't belong to the de- 

 parment of poetry in bee-keeping — it is work 

 and trouble. No trouble to turn the gearing, 

 and no mistake about the honey coming out 

 easily and nice too ; but to get it uncapped, if 

 capped— to get the everlasting, ever sticking, 

 and never leaving Italians off the comb is one 

 trouble, and not the least one either. Smoke 

 them off on one side, they move over to the other ; 

 and unilertake to brush them off, you then and 

 there get iip an issue. It takes experience, in- 

 telligent experience at that, and withal 



"For care aad trouble set your thoughts," 



with the Italian bees and the Hrusclika machine. 

 Biit I feel a good deal like the old lady, who had 

 raised seventeen children (mostly boys and girls, ) 

 and then bouglit a kettle, and didn't know how 

 she did so long without it ! I am pleased with 

 the machine. 



The Italians swarmed earlier this spring by 

 ten days than the native brown or black, al- 

 though much weaker in numbers early in the 

 season. Their hives are generally clearer of the 

 moth-worm. They will not submit to as rougli 

 handling as the blacks, without using their 

 sting. On cold days, when opening a colony of 

 blacks, you are saluted with a general buzz, and 

 they raise themselves up on their fore legs as 

 high as their length will permit, yet after a few 

 moments they will submit to almost anything 

 the operator desires. Not so with the Italians, 

 for as soon as they are exposed in cold weather 

 to the light, they go for your eyes. I have fre- 

 quently opened hives of blacks without the use 

 of smoke, and not in the least irritating the 

 colony. I have never attempted to open a full 

 colony of Italians, without about a pint wanting 

 to sting. To keep them quiet, I have to use 

 smoke, every few minutes repeat, and double the 

 dose. I have yet to find tliem the peaceable 

 creatures some persons i^roclaim them to be. 

 Italians are not given to robbing, as the black 

 bees are. Their nature and disposition are to 

 gather stores from legitimate sources. They care 

 but little for broken honey, when anything can 

 be collected from blossoms. It has been re- 

 peatedly stated, and I can add my testimony, 

 that they go through the winter wiih half the 

 number of consumers as the blacks. My Italians 

 became so reduced in numbers last winter, tliat 

 I was fearful that the cold snap in December 

 would freeze them, but they went through all 

 right. 



Some dealers in and breeders of Italian queens 

 claim more superiority for the Italian bees, than 

 they are entitled to. I believe them a superior 

 bee in many respects, but do not subscribe to all 

 I see in their praise. 



In searching the hive for the queen, says one 

 dealer, "you can more easily find the Italian, 

 for she is perfectly yellow and can be readily 

 discovered." Introduce an Italian queen to a 

 black colony, and for the first three or four 

 weeks I agree with you. But wait three or four 

 months, until the colony is fully Italianized, and 

 it is just as easy to find a black queen (which, if 

 aged, nearly always has a red cast) amongst 

 black bees, as it is to find a yellow queen amongst 

 yellow bees. Some persons claim for them that, 

 their proboscis being longer, tliey can gather 

 the sweets from red clover. There are red clover 

 fields in abundance near my apiary, and I have 

 yet to see an Italian bee visiting the blooms, ex- 

 cept in the latter part of the month of Sep- 

 tember, or in October, when, on account of cool 

 nights and dry weather, or other causes, the 

 blooms are dwarfed and diminutive ; and then 

 the blacks as well as the Italians are foraging. 

 At this season of the year, the humble or bum- 

 ble bee, is the only bee I can find on red clover. 

 Wm. p. Henderson. 



Murfreesborougli, Tenn, June, 1871. 



I have often seen wasps and hornets at work 

 on the grapes in my father's vineyard, and in 

 others, but never saw a bee attack a sound, ripe 

 grape. — C. Schrot. 



