20 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[July, 



because they are now more successful than when 

 they formerly kept the natives ; but there is not 

 in this the least evidence in their favor. The extra 

 cost of the Italians and their being somewhat 

 new, will naturally cause one to take more inter- 

 est in them, and give more time and attention 

 to them, than was formerly given to the natives, 

 and there are but few of us who have not learned 

 a great deal more about the proper management 

 of the Italians than we knew before. This, with 

 the difference in seasons, and the great pains 

 taken in raising Italian queens to have them 

 crossed with different stocks or importations, 

 and in selecting the most prolific for queen 

 mothers, while the natives are left to take their 

 owu course, will easily account for this apparent 

 difference. Let a native queen be taken from 

 the foiest of Canada, and another from Tennes 

 see, or from any remote distance from each other. 

 Let queens be raised from one of these, and be 

 fertilized by drones from the other, and with 

 these queens establish half a dozen or more colo- 

 nies and place them beside the same number of 

 Italians of the most approved stock, in the same 

 kind of hive and with the same treatment. Say 

 that one-half of eacli kind be put in two-story 

 hives, and the extractor used, while the other 

 half be furnished with surplus boxes, and let the 

 result be carefully watched and compared, not 

 for one season only, but for several. Has this 

 ever been done? "Who will try the experiment? 



Native. 



found them benefited by receiving half a pint of 

 water each two or three times a day while they 

 were excited. I also kept the outside of the hives 

 and the inside of the car wet to keep them cool. 

 Bees have gathered more than the usual amount 

 of honey from fruit bloom this season. 



Cadiz, Ohio, May 12, 1872. R. Wilkin. 



, [For the American Bee Journal ] 



"Gallup's blowing up Grimm" does suit me. 



When I see W. H. Furman's suggestion that 

 there is little confidence to be placed in Grimm's 

 queens, the good of beekeepers, and a desire to 

 have justice done, impels me to offer my mite 

 of evidence in the case. I make no pretentions 

 to the nicety of discrimination of purity of Itali- 

 ans that some do. yet I have been cultivating 

 Italian bees for ten years, have visited several 

 of the most reliable queen raisers in this country. 

 and purchased queens from others, also imported 

 from four or five different breeders in Europe, 

 and yet I must say that on examining Grimm's 

 apiaries a few days since I concluded they were 

 as reliable for purity as anything I could get 

 either in Europe or America and consequently 

 purchased seventy- two colonies out of Kate's 

 apiary of about one hundred and thirty, of which 

 1 think there was not more than fifteen colonies 

 that I could say I know they are not pure. His 

 stock was not the brightest but certainly uni- 

 form in markings. 



I think Grimm's success consisted mainly in 

 his obtaining an abundance of reliable queens to 

 breed from, and Italianizing thoroughly a large 

 force of bees so that he has less need to be al- 

 ways manipulating with them. I only regret that 

 Mr. Grimm cannot make it suit to cultivate 

 queens extensively for the public. I brought my 

 seventy-two colonies near six hundred miles at 

 an expense of $1.06 each. I had them reshipped 

 at Chicago. I slept four nights in a freight car. 

 Through the day I watched their condition, and 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



There has been a very great loss in bees the 

 pa>t winter in this vicinity and north of us. 

 Fully one-half of the bees that were put in win- 

 ter quarters, seemingly in good condition and 

 with a great plenty of honey (and I think, per- 

 haps, too much) without apparent cause. My 

 bees in the Langstroth hive and others in this 

 neighborhood wintered well. In tall hives, sev- 

 enteen inches high, with frames I made, think- 

 ing them better for wintering bees, I lost five 

 out of seven, and my neighbor, having the Kid- 

 der hive, has over two hundred stocks, and lost 

 more than half; and another had eighteen stocks 

 in box hives, and lost seventeen. Fully one-half 

 the beekeepers lost all. 



For the benefit of others I will narrate my 

 own experience. After my bees had been out 

 eight or ten days, on the 8th of April, the warm- 

 est day of the season, about noon a swarm of 

 bees came to my apiary and entered one of my 

 full hives. Soon I saw my Italian queen come 

 out. 1 caught and caged her. The bees con- 

 tinued to come out and formed in a cluster under 

 the bottom board, and another queen, nearly 

 dead, having been stung, appeared. I put her 

 back in the hive, supposing the bees would come 

 back before night. Soon another swarm came 

 from my near neighbor's ; three came before 

 night. 



During this time three of mine left, and the 

 fourth commenced to leave, whereupon I closed 

 them up and saved them. I caught and caged 

 the queens of two hives. Towards evening I 

 took what bees I could get on the outside of the 

 hives and put them in the two hives of which I 

 had the queens, ;tud returned the queens into 

 their own hives. 



One is all right, I think. But the other was 

 the next day minus bees. All these swarms had 

 left honey in abundance. Mine had from thirty 

 to forty pounds of sealed honey, and no brood in 

 either of them. Some swarms had left their 

 hives previous to this day, but this day was a 

 perfect stampede, or day of jollification and 

 death in this place. This is a new thing or 

 freak in bee-culture that I do not understand, 

 and is quite discouraging after having success- 

 fully wintered them. What is the reasons of 

 their leaving full stores to die ? Not one swarm 

 gathered in a bunch, so that they could be hived. 

 Is it possible that the queens were worthless? I 

 lost five stocks in wintering and three by leav- 

 ing. David Bkokau. 



Oconornowoc, Wis. 



Ex-Mayor Winthrop of Calais, Me., recently 

 discovered, when removing an old chimney, one 

 of the flues well stocked with honey. 



