660 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



structed, opposite the bee-entrance of 

 the hive. 



I confined myself to three varieties, 

 to-wit : The large yellow 5-banded bee, 

 which I found very domestic ; the hybrid 

 or 3-banded bee, which is smaller, bet- 

 ter breeder, and much better honey-pro- 

 ducer, but rather unpleasant to manip- 

 ulate. I next secured several hives of 

 the small black bee — great fighters, 

 good honey-gatherers, and all in all the 

 most profitable variety of the three. In 

 my selections I was careful to secure 

 only such bees as could take the nectar 

 from red clover. 



I kept no diary of my venture, but 

 from memory I am able to give some of 

 the many points of superiority in my 

 bees, which are the " Bombus," or, as^ 

 the unscientific herd would tell you that* 

 Eupatorium perfaliatiim was Boneset ; 

 so they would tell you my bees were 

 bumble-bees, but what's in a name? The 

 points of superiority that are most 

 marked in the Bombus and its hybrids 

 over the Italian and its hybrids are 

 these : 



1st. The Bombus requires no prepara- 

 tion for winter, which is no small item 

 of expense. 



2nd. You have no old black comb to 

 begin the next season with, which is un- 

 doubtedly a fruitful source of " foul 

 brood." 



3rd. The Bombus bee selects its own 

 winter quarters, consequently you can 

 extract your entire stock of honey every 

 fall, as the comb is then free from 

 young brood. 



4th. The Bombus bees are strictly non- 

 swarming. The time saved to the api- 

 arist and worker bee in this particular 

 is a fruitful source of revenue in a large 

 apiary. 



5th. The Bombus bee never gathers 

 anything but the purest nectar, and 

 from the choicest bloom. 



Query — Would not the total annihila- 

 tion of that filth gathering Italian, and 

 the general adoption of the Bombus bee 

 in its stead, be the most effective way to 

 rid the bee-journals of that stale subject 

 of adulterated honey, and of supplying 

 the markets of the world with the pure 

 nectar of the gods ? 



I have but little charity for the man 

 of one idea. This trait led me of late 

 to temporarily lay aside the work of 

 Bombus bee-culture and substitute the 

 Italian. The change necessitated a 

 change in the construction of my hives, 

 and now in my second boyhood I find 

 myself trying to perfect a hive for the 

 better accommodation of the Italian 

 bee. After putting it to a thorough test 



the coming summer, I propose to submit 

 it to the readers of the Bee Journal 

 for an opinion. 



WINTERING BEES IN A GREEN-HOUSE. 



I have converted my green-house, 

 10x24 feet, into winter quarters for my 

 bees. I covered the ground floor with 

 old leaves, then arranged my hives in a 

 row through the center, put a stove in 

 one end, and the entrance door in the 

 other. The ground floor did not freeze 

 the past winter, even near the door. The 

 south half of the roof is covered with 

 glass the same as for plant-raising in 

 the spring, making it equally as light as 

 for plants. Contrary to the light-ex- 

 cluding idea I have thrown on them all 

 the light they might get if in their native 

 tree or bee-hive out-of-doors, which I 

 believe to be the correct theory. When 

 they would begin to show any uneasi- 

 ness, I would raise the hive from the 

 bottom-board, clean it, then build a fire, 

 dry out the hive and building, and give 

 the bees a flight. They make the air 

 thick with their gambols, but go home 

 at night, after two days, and the hive 

 and green-house are dry. I then clean 

 out the litter, and replace it with clean, 

 dry straw, and shut them up again. I 

 gave them several flights the past win- 

 ter, and in my next I will give you the 

 result of my theory put to practice. 



Anamosa, Iowa. 



A De§cription of the New Crane 

 Bee-Smoker. 



Writte7t for Oleatdtigs in Bee-Culture 



BY ERNEST R. ROOT. ^ 



In the illustration to be found on page 

 646, will be seen the outward appear- 

 ance of the new Crane smoker, which 

 shows that it is beautiful in design, and 

 handsomely and well made. Indeed, It 

 is the most expensive in construction of 

 any smoker ever before put out. The 

 bellows, to begin with, is made ample 

 and substantial, having an Inside spiral 

 spring, J, Fig. 1. These springs have 

 been carefully tested : and on an exten- 

 sive test, with Clark smokers, we find 

 them to be, to coin a word, unbreakable, 

 and elastic. The boards are nicely fin- 

 ished on the outer surface, and the 

 valves are adjusted with great care, 

 each one being inspected before going 

 out. 



So far, the smoker presents no new 

 ideas. The particular feature which 

 Mr. Crane claims as his Invention is the 



