1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



231 



black bees in box hives. Last spring I had pure 

 Italians, black bees, and a variety of hybrids. 



I soon found my hybrids cross, but the hybrids 

 raised from hybrids and impregnated by black 

 drones, possessed all the bad qualities of both pa- 

 rentage and but few of the good, as they were less 

 prolific, and did not gather as much honey as the 

 old discarded black honey bee, while the pure 

 Italian queens were most prolific and gave much 

 the largest yield of surplus honey. I must say 

 I could not make any distinction in the honey 

 l^roduct of the half-bloods, as they were as pro- 

 lific and gave as much surplus honey as the pure 

 Italians. 



I had six miserably cross and unproductive 

 stands of my raising breeding downward, which 

 in my opinion gave me a good opportunitj"^ to 

 test the doctrine as to the superiority or inferi- 

 ority of "the coming bee." 



Any one keeping hybrids and crossing them 

 with the black honey bee, in my humble opinion 

 will find himself the possessor of a miserable 

 substitute for the good old black honey bee, or 

 their superiors in every particular, the Italian. 



I commenced last spring with twenty-nine 

 stands, many weak, mostly in old-fashioned 

 boxes — transferred them to the Langstroth hive. 

 I used the Gray & AVinder honey extractor, 

 which is superior in every particular over any 

 I have had the pleasure to examine ; took fifteen 

 hundred of what is called slung honey and in- 

 creased my colonies to fifty-three. I Italianized 

 iny apiary, discarding hybrids. 



Geo. L. Lucas. 



Peoria, 111. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Eemoval of Stocks in Summer. 



The majority of beekeepers suppose that bees 

 cannot be removed, in summer time, for short 

 distances, without losing the greater part of the 

 old workers, by their returning when loaded to 

 their old stand, though circumstances sometimes 

 make such removal desirable. In such cases it 

 maybe useful to the inexperienced to know how 

 I have managed matters, as I have at various 

 times removed stocks from ten to eighty rods 

 with perfect success. 



I removed three colonies last June, for one of 

 my neighbors, about eighty rods, in the follow- 

 ing manner : — doing it in the middle of the day, 

 when the bees were mostly out in the fields at 

 work quite busily. The first performance is to 

 smoke them sufficiently to stop any more bees 

 from leaving the hive, and then keep doing so, or 

 rap])ing on the hive for about thirty minutes, at 

 short intervals. Then, if in a box hive, drum out 

 all the bees you can get out, together with the 

 queen into a box ; or, if in a movable comb hive 

 (as those on which I operated were) drum and 

 brush out all the bees into a box. Now carry 

 the bees to where you want to place them, also 

 the hive, comb and brood, and re-hive the bees 

 by emptying them down on a board or cloth in 

 front of the hive, letting them run in, and the 

 thing is done. 



In removing the three swarms eighty rods, as 

 above, not more than a dozen bees returned to 

 the old stands, and those were probably out to 

 work and had not returned when the hives were 

 removed. But suppose we had removed them 

 in the usual manner, by fastening up the hive 

 and removing them at night. Nearly all the old 

 workers would have returned to the old stands 

 the next monung, and have been lost to the 

 stocks. I have seen stocks entirely ruined by 

 removing them short distances at night, in the 

 last manner. 



E. Gallup. 



Orchard, lotca. 



[For tlie Aiiiericau Bee Journal.] 



The Season in Iowa. 



Mr. Editor : — I commenced last spring with 

 132 colonies. They commenced swarming the 

 30th of May ; I had 08 i^rime swarms by the 5th 

 of July. Returned 26, had 204 colonies the first 

 day of October ; united the nuclei with the 

 weakest, and put them into winter quarters No- 

 vember 28th. AVitli the extractor, I took from 

 42 colonies 8 j barrels of honey, averaging 73 lbs. 

 per colony. Of box honey and combs in small 

 frames, I took nearly 2,000 lbs., very nearly 20 

 lbs. average for the rest of my colonies. I sold 

 my strained honey in Burely for 18i cents j in 

 jars, for 20 cents. Box honey from 20 to 22 cents 

 per lb. All this honey was made and taken 

 away before the 20th of July, and is of course 

 number one. This season did not come up to 

 the last Avith me, but will still leave something 

 for this summer's work. The honey is now 

 nearly all sold. I had to feed some of the late 

 swarms, as the season hereabouts was cut short 

 the latter part of July by the drouth- 



By the way, I have made a bee feeder, which 

 is cheap and is O. K., without a patent. Take 

 one or two round oyster cans, empty of course ; 

 take off the top and bottom by holding them 

 over hot coals. The end which is not injured I 

 use for a cover. A tin band is ijut over the out- 

 side to hold on the muslin, the same as a strainer ; 

 the band to be one or one and a half inches wide, 

 hemmed on one side. A tinner will make them 

 from two to three cents apiece. This feeder I 

 place over a hole in the honey-board, where the 

 bees are clustered. There will be a half-inch 

 space between the honey-board and the muslin, 

 the band ijrojecting that far below the muslin. 

 It works well. I believe in feeding bees early in 

 spring to stimulate them to breeding. I double 

 up my colonies if weak in April, it will pay best 

 for increase or for yield of honey. I do not 

 jjractice artifici^d swarming — natural suits me 

 best. AVhere honey is the object, never let a 

 hive swarm but once, and often put back the 

 first swarm, if not an extra one ; but where in- 

 crease of colonies is required, artificial swarming 

 will do the business. I take all queens' cells 

 from colonies which have swarmed naturally for 

 queen raising, and choose from those who are 

 the best workers and are of color. My half- 

 breeds have, on an average, yielded the most 

 surplus honey in boxes. AVith the extractor I 



