244 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Purity of Italian Queens. 



My friend Ck. Dadant misapprehends me 

 somewhat. 



I do not rely on color simply, as a test of 

 purity. But this I do say, that every perfectly 

 pure (if I may be allowed the expression) Ital- 

 ian worker has three yellow bands. In other 

 words, a pure queen impregnated by a pure 

 drone, will produce a progeny of bees every 

 one of which will have three yellow bands; but 

 the bands may be lighter or darker in color. In 

 some instances the color will be almost orange, 

 in others a light yellow. It is not the color 

 that is affected by a dash of black blood, but the 

 number of the bands; for a hybrid stock will 

 often contain workers of a light yellow color. 



Friend Uadant thinks that if a "three-fourth 

 Italian drone" should mate with a pure Italian 

 queen, I would hardly be able to detect the 

 change, if I rely only on color. Now, as it is 

 not on color, but on the number of bands I rely, 

 it will be seen that the change would be easily 

 observed; for the slightest dash of black blood 

 will cause some of the bees to lose a band, and 

 some two bands. Now, it is held that if a pure 

 queen mates with a black droDC, her worker 

 progeny will be hybrid; but her drones will be 

 pure as herself. This theory is correct, yet the 

 drones are not pure; though they are as pure as 

 the queens that produced them. Paradoxical 

 as this seems, it is easily explained. The abso- 

 lute purity of the queen ceases at the moment 

 of coition with the black drone. She is no 

 longer pure— her whole system has been im- 

 pregnated, so to speak, with black blood in the 

 act of coition, and as the eggs which produce 

 the drones are particles of herself collected to- 

 gether, so the drones produced by those eggs 

 have, like herself, a dash of black blood ; and 

 in cverv case when such a drone meets with a 

 pure queen, the progeny, although not hybrid, 

 Avill show the dash of black blcod by losing one 

 or more bands. Yet every bee will be marked; 

 and none entirely black, as in hybrid stocks. 



If, therefore, such a slight dash of black 

 blood causes the loss of a band, the impurity 

 would be easily discovered in such a case as 

 supposed by friend Dadant, as the dash of black 

 blood would be greater and more direct. 



The above theory is as true in reference to 

 many other animals, as with the bee, which can 

 be clearly shown if necessary. 



J. H. Thomas. 



Brooklin, Ontario. 



[For the American Bee Journal. ] 



That "Economic Hive." 



Mr. Editor :— I wish to give my testimony 

 in favor of the hive called as above by Rev. J. 

 W. Truesdell, and explained by him in the 

 May number of the Bem Journal. I hit upon 

 the same plan several months ago, partly by 

 reading Mr. Gallup's and Mr. Price's articles, 

 and partly because my frames were 12 by 14 

 inches inside measurement, which I became 



satisfied were too high for profit and conve- 

 nience in handling. Concluding to make the 

 frames 11 inches high, I made up the loss in 

 depth by making my hives wide enough to hold 

 twelve frames and a partition board. 



I cut down the frames and hives of sixteen 

 stands of bees, part of them the middle of April, 

 aud the remainder a few days ago. I made my 

 caps twelve inches high, and large enough to 

 shut out the main hlv?, which makes a very 

 simple and inexpensive double hive. The nu- 

 cleus apartment seems to be the best yet devised 

 for raising queens. Each hive can be made 

 with a small entrance in one end, and be used 

 for a nucleus at any time, to put in all spare 

 queen cells, by adjusting the partition board. 



My Italian bees have plenty of honey, are in 

 fine condition, and arc putting out brood very 

 rapidly. I wintered them in double hives on 

 their summer stands. Have used double hives 

 for three years,. and have never lost a swarm in 

 them. I lost a swarm the last March in the 

 only single hive I had, in this manner: They 

 had lost but little honey, and I was feeding 

 them. One sunuy day after a very cold one, 

 I opened them in the morning and found them 

 apparently dead. They appeared to be as life- 

 less as any dead bees I ever saw. I brushed 

 them oil the bottom board in a pile on the 

 ground. Passing near them in the afternoon, 

 to my astonishment, I found them alive, queen 

 and all. I gathered them up, and if the next 

 day had been warm enough for bees to fly, think 

 I could have saved l hem. But as they had not 

 not discharged their fasces, aud the weather 

 continued cold for a week or more, I could not 

 save them. 



Just after a few days of cold weather along 

 the first of March, in examining a stock con- 

 taining a pure Italian queen, I found a handful 

 or two of dead bees between the second aud 

 third outside frames. As it was quite cold, I 

 did not look to see if their queen was sale. The 

 next two weeks was very cold weather. The 

 first warm day, which was four or five weeks 

 after, I opened the hive and found a small dark- 

 colored queen and the cell she was reared in. 

 As she has not laid any egg * since, and as there 

 was brood the first of March, she must have 

 been reared when the weather was at zero. 



I have received much useful information from 

 the Bee Journal, and advise all bee-keepers 

 to subscribe for it. J. L. Peabody. 



Yiuden, Ills. 



[For tho American Bee Journal.] 



Crooked Combs. 



Is there any way to secure straight combs ? 

 If so, I should like to know hew. Will Mr. 

 Quinby, or some other beekeeper of experience, 

 please give me his plan ? I am using the frame 

 hive, but my bees make the combs crooked. I 

 have one hive with five frames wove together 

 so that they caunot be separated. Is any one 

 else having the same trouble ? 



Ciiarles Taylor. 



Bordentown, N. J., May 6, 1869. 



