THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



107 



lific than one fed partly on worker and partly on 

 royal food. 



I have not been able to discover any differ- 

 ence between a natural queen or a forced or 

 artificial one, provided they were both started 

 from the egg, raised in a strong nucleus, at or 

 about the swarming season, or when forage was 

 abundant. The queen-raiser can easily see 

 that there are other methods than those I have 

 recommended, to secure cells started from the 

 egg. I do not wish to be understood to say 

 that all queens raised from the egg are equally 

 fertile, or that one will live just as long, to a 

 minute, as the other ; but that they will average 

 up to. the standard. 



Purchasers of queens, here in the west espe- 

 cially, have been badly humbugged by such 

 queen-breeders as Flanders, Kidder, Mack, and 

 a host of others, who have sent out one-striped 

 queens as pure. In ninety-nine cases out of one 

 hundred, the purchaser did not know what a 

 genuine article was ; and unscrupulous dealers 

 have taken advantage of this ignorance to 

 get rid of their impure stock. Mr. Baldridge 

 circulated the report, through the Bee Jour- 

 nal, that Professor Flanders was dead. Well, 

 in his western circulars, he now signs himself 

 W. A. Flanders, A. M. The interpretation of 

 A. M. I suppose means After Money. The Bee 

 Journal has probably killed the Professor, or 

 he has taken an overdose of his bee-charm. 

 Mr. Kidder is now probably dead, as Mr. Lang- 

 stroth, or his agent, obtained a judgment against 

 him for infringement. For particulars, see Re- 

 ports of Cases in United States Circuit Court, 

 Northern District of New York, Roswell C. 

 Otis (Langstroth's agent) vs. Charles Austin 

 (Kidder's agent). Decision rendered at Utica, 

 March 21, 1866. 



Elisha Gallup. 



Osage, Iowa. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Hybrid Bees.— Bee Stings. 



It seems highly improbable that among a mul- 

 titude of drones from a large number of hives 

 standing near, a queen should be impregnated 

 by a drone from a distant swarm or apiary. The 

 fact, however, that this frequently occurs, seems 

 to be well established. In hiving a swarm of 

 bees on the 17th of June last, I discovered them 

 to be Italian hybrids, about one bee in six or 

 eight having two or three yellow bands — the 

 third band, in those having three, being nar- 

 row, and somewhat indistinct. My bees were 

 all natives, and, previous to this spring, I was 

 not aware that there were any Italian bees with- 

 in six or seven miles of mine, except wild swarms 

 in the woods. Last spring, a neighbor, nearly 

 three-fourths of a mile distant, procured a colo- 

 ny of Italians. A year ago, a swarm of Italian 

 hybrids were found in the woods, two miles 

 from my apiary. This season, two others have 

 been found, one of them nearly or quite pure 

 Italian, at a distance of four and five miles in 

 another direction. As the only swarm of Italian 

 bees known to be in my immediate neighbor- 



hood was three-quarters of a mile distant, my 

 queen must have mated with a drone from this 

 swarm — in which case it must have been a young 

 queen, reared to take the place of one lost or 

 disabled in the old hive; or with a drone from a 

 wild swarm in the woods, which is much more 

 probable, as there was no appearance indicating 

 the loss of the queen, two swarms being cast 

 early in the season, in the regular way. 



There is no reasonable doubt that the foreign 

 blood was introduced by a drone from a colony 

 of wild bees, partly Italian. This shows that im- 

 pure Italians may be reared, where there are no 

 domesticated native bees within several miles, as 

 there are always wild bees in wooded townships. 

 There are two other instances in this county 

 where the native or black bees have hybridised 

 with Italians, and in neither case were there any 

 Italian bees kept in the neighborhood. 



Speaking of remedies for the stings of bees, 

 Langstroth says: "It may be some comfort to 

 novices to know that the poison will produce 

 less and less effect upon the system. Old bee- 

 keepers, like Mithridates, appear almost to 

 thrive upon poison itself. When I first became 

 interested in bees, a sting was quite a formida- 

 b'e thing, the pain being often very intense, and 

 the wound swelling so as often to obstruct my 

 sight. At present, the pain is usually slight, and, 

 if the sting is quickly extracted, no unpleasant 

 consequences ensue, even if no remedies are 

 used." It is well known that the system may 

 become accustomed to some poisons taken into 

 the stomach, so as not to be immediately affected 

 by quantities that would be sufficient, in other 

 cases, to produce a fatal result; and there seems 

 to be some reason to expect a similar effect from 

 the poisonous stings of insects. But being re- 

 peatedly poisoned with stings, in my own case, 

 and some others that I have known, seems to 

 have increased the effect of the poison. If Lang- 

 stroth's theory had any application to myself, I 

 have been stung enough in former years to make 

 the effect of a sting almost a pleasure; but, on 

 the contrary, while the effect used to be slight, 

 it is now more severe, sometimes producing 

 eruptions all over the body, and frequently 

 headache, and sickness at the stomach. Does 

 one become accustomed to the poison of mos- 

 quito bites, so as to make them agreeable? The 

 Rev. Mr. Kleine advises beginners in bee-keep- 

 ing to allow themselves to be stung frequently, 

 assuring them that, in two seasons, their sys- 

 tems will become accustomed to the poison. A 

 safer way for beginners, and all others, is to 

 handle the bees properly, and avoid testing, in 

 their own persons, the theory of being hardened 

 against the effect of stings. M. O. Howe. 

 Fayetteville, Vt., Sept., 1868. 



In Echoes from Cornwall is a "Legend of the 

 Hive," commencing — 



Behold those winged images \ 

 Bound for their evening bowers ; 



They are nation of the bees, 



Born from the breath of flowers ; 



Strange people are they ; a mystic race 

 In life, and food, and dwelling-place I 



