THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



259 



only two living queens, wiiich T have 

 in-cservcd for my own apiary. Besides 

 I have never sold any queens to iMr. Hes- 

 ter. If he has received tl\is queen from 

 anotlier party, she was not of my impor- 

 tation, and if she was not a bogus import- 

 ed queen, she came from Tyrol, or from 

 Germanv, or elsewhere, not from Italy ; 

 for, from the Hhetian Alps to the point of 

 tlie peninsula it is impossible to lind a 

 single bee with but two yellow rings, 

 Avhen full of honey. These yellow bands 

 vary somewhat in width according to the 

 districts, but I am sure, and I guarantee 

 that, all the Italian bees that I have im- 

 ported and will import,wiU breed all their 

 workers with three yellow rings around 

 the abdomen. 



The queens, daughter of the imported 

 queens and drones, will vary ; some being 

 quite dark, but the workers will be all 

 alike in every hive. I voucli for it, hav- 

 ing seen the bees in their native land, and 

 having, for seven years, tested in my 

 apiary, queens coming from more than ten 

 different breeders of Italy. 



Hamilton, 111. Ck. Dadant. 



* I am mistaken, I pold au imported queen to 

 yiv. HoUett. tliis queen was from the previou.s 

 year's importation. Last year having received 

 but two queens alive out of 30. I have refunded 

 tlie money to many bee-keepers, among whom I 

 can name M. M. Root, Benedict, Argo, W. Cary, 

 Salisburv, etc. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Superiority of the Italian Bee 

 and ^Safe Wintering. 



I have kept bees for thirty years, but 

 found I knew but little about them until I 

 took the Bee Jouiiisal in lsT< > ; at that time 

 I had five hives. In 18T1 I bought two 

 queens of N. C. ]\Iitchell. In thirty days 

 I had two hires of nice three-banded bees, 

 but lost them the next winter. In 1872 

 I bought a queen of Baldwin & Bros, of 

 Sandusk)'^; from her I have some thirty 

 hives full blood and ten half breeds. In 

 1871 and '72 I lost twenty-seven hives 

 with disease I have now fifty-five hives all 

 iu first rate condition. In 1871 I bought 

 of N. C. Mitchell a Rough and Ready 

 hive and the right to make. Last fall I 

 had twenty three light and heavy. I pre- 

 pared them and put them away for win- 

 ter. All came out this spring in good or- 

 der. For experiment in Aug. 1878, I di- 

 Aided two Italian hives and made six hives 

 of them, three racks in each. Tliis spring 

 one of them filled their hive and swarmed 

 on the 1st of July. In three Aveeks filled 

 their hive and boxes, and swarmed the 2oth 

 of Aug. and now have their hive full. 



Last fall I prepared twenty -tliree hives. 

 I took oft' the honey board and covered it 

 with a piece of carpet, then made a box 



five inches high, the size of the top of the 

 hive; nailed on carpet for bottom, filkxl 

 with cut straw or hay, andputon theliivc. 

 That keeps the bees Avarm, as their brcatli 

 goes through botli carpets in tlie straAV. I 

 have a room made in my barn 12x20 feet 

 witli double doors and packed partitions, 

 so that it is above :3."> degrees llirough the 

 Avinter. I Avent every Aveek or tAvo and 

 lifted up tlic box of cut straw, and found 

 it Avarm between the two carpets, al- 

 though some times Avi't on top of the straAV 

 with their breath. In this manner pre- 

 pared there Avill be no bees lost, and they 

 dont eat over half as much as out in the 

 cold. I lia\-e got a large amount of honey 

 this summer and a AX'ry large increase in 

 Italians. D. A. Sherman. 



A Bee Parasite. 



I hasten to send a little insect, ap- 

 parently a red spider, Avhich I took 

 oft" one of my queen bees. She had 

 been dethroned to make room for a 

 Liourian, just sent me, and Avas releas- 

 ed in aqueenless hive into Avhicli I had 

 introduced her on* Saturday last. 1 

 opened the liive to find out Avlietlier 

 she Avas alive and Aveil, and found 

 her witli this little creature on Iicr 

 back. For a long' time, I Avas unable 

 to remove liim, as he Avas quite indif- 

 ferent to the pokes I administered 

 Avith a little piece of grass, and hid 

 himself under her Avings ; so I Avas 

 obliged at last to capture her majcstv, 

 and in the safe retreat of my study 

 remove this too faithful attendant 

 Avith a pair of twezers. I found only 

 two grubs in the royal cells. Proba- 

 bly tlie ])resence of the spider and the 

 cold Aveather had interfered Avitii the 

 breeding. — Bligh. 



[The insect Avas sent to an eminent 

 autliority connected Avith the British 

 Museum, Avho writes : The insect sent 

 is the bee louse of p]urope, and in some 

 parts of the Continent is not uncom- 

 mon ; in fact it is a nuisance, as many 

 as 50 to 100 being sometimes on a single 

 bee in Italy, etc. It is a Avingless dip- 

 teron, allied to the forest fly, "Hippo- 

 bosca ;" it is named Branla cwca; the 

 young are said to be produced in the 

 pupa state ; it lives by sucking the 

 bees. No doubt more are to be found 

 iu the hive whence the specimen sent 

 Avas obtained; if so, a specimen or 

 tAvo would be acceptable for the Mus- 

 eum collection. It is not frequently 

 found in England, except in imported 

 swarms of tlie Italian bee. — British 

 Bee Journal. 



