THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



4;i 



hive ia the morning to see how much 

 honey they would gather througli the 

 day, on weighing it again in tiie evening 

 it was just 10 lbs. lighter. 1 then exam- 

 ined the hive and found there was a 

 medium swarm and a queeu. 



I have said that the last three seasons 

 were poor, and so they were as a general 

 thing, but in some localities they done 

 better than others ; mine has paid but 

 little over expenses in the years mention- 

 ed, last season I got WO lbs. extracted 

 honey, and this winter so far have lost 

 about one-third of my bees. 



N. Camkrox. 



Iowa Bee-Keepars' Association. 



On Wednesday Jan. :30t!i the annua! meet- 

 ing of the Central Iowa Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation was held in this city. 



After transacting routine business the 

 following resolutions were adopted : 



Resolved, That this convention adjourn 

 to Wednesday the nth day of February 

 next at the City Hall, in Cedar Rapids, antl 

 tlie committees are instructed to have their 

 respective reports prepared — especially that 

 relating to the success of Bee-Keepers in 

 1874. 



Resolved, That the growing interest and 

 value of the apiary, in tlie iState, especially 

 its central portions, invite not only a full 

 attendence of our mcnbers, but also of 

 others interested in this rapidly increasing 

 source of wealth in Iowa— now standing 

 only second to any .State in the Union in 

 this branch of material prosperity. 



Resolved, That Thk American Bioe 

 JouKXAL of this city, and other city papers, 

 daily and weekly, are requested to publish 

 these resolutions, and that their exchanges 

 interested in this subject be requested to 

 copy. 



J. ,^[. May, D. W. Thayek, 



Secretary. President. 



For the American Bee Jouniiil, 



Solid Frame. 



On page 214, Vol. X, Xo. 9, of the 

 Ameeican Bee JoriiNAi., in your reply to 

 3Irs. G. W. Church, you say some bee- 

 keepers always allow a margin in this 

 way to secure more care in taking out 

 the first frame. When it is so left, care 

 is necessary when honey is plenty to pre- 

 vent the bees from tilling the vacant 

 space with comb." 



Now, this care means a great deal of 

 trouble and yet with hives that have no 

 movable sides, this margin is positively 

 necessary to save the life of the bees and 

 perhaps the queen. To avoid all this 

 trouble and j'^et to secure the advantages 

 this margin oft'ers I use what I call a solid 

 frame. It is nothing more than a tliin 



and light partition of board made the 

 si/e of the frame so as to move easily ; 

 this is put in the extra space or margin, 

 and pushed up to the comb so as to allow 

 a passage for the bees between. There is 

 then no further trouble ; when you want 

 to open the hive you have only to push the 

 solid frame back against the side of the 

 hive and lift it out clear of the combs. 

 You then have room to work freely, be- 

 sides having no bees killed. 



Austin, Texas. B. 11. Ives. 



Fertile American Boc.Tournal. 



The Italian Test. 



In a late number of tlie JontxAi, I asked 

 If there was any lixed and certain test of 

 Italian purity. 1 did this in part because 

 some of our most prominent bee-keepers 

 were maintaining that " a few black bees " 

 among the Italians were "no mark of im- 

 purity." It seemed to me, that if black bees 

 whereto be found among the Italians, "even 

 in Italy," as had been asserted by Mr. Da- 

 dant in a previous number of the Jouhxal, 

 it would be of little use for us to hope to im- 

 prove the grade of our hives by importations 

 from that country. 



But Mr. Dadant comes to our relief (?) in 

 the November Jour.NAL, by telling us that 

 it was not black bees, but only "seeming 

 black bees" that he saw in Italy. They were 

 black, yet only in appearance, and that from 

 the effects of their food and ffeces. This ex- 

 ])lanation may be satisfactory to Mr. D. but 

 to :ny mind it seems "rather thin." If they 

 were "seeming black" bees, as termed by 

 Mr. D. how does lie know that their color 

 was caused by the matter within them ? or 

 how does he"^ know they were not genuine 

 blacks '? May I not, with equal reason, say 

 of any one and two banded hybrids, that 

 they are only seeming hybrids ; that one or 

 two of their rings has been temporarily ob- 

 scured by their food or freces, and that their 

 rings will re-appear in their full luster as 

 soon as the dark matter has passed from 

 their bodies ? 



I don't believe that any three-banded Ital- 

 ian bee ever took anything into its stomach 

 so dark as to render it in appearance like a 

 black bee. On one occasion a year or two 

 since I fed a few of my Italiairstocks a mix- 

 ture of very dark sorghum molasses, I 

 could easily discern the dark matter through 

 the wiuEjs, but the rings themselves were 

 as readily distinguished as before the molas- 

 ses had been taken into their sacs. I have 

 also often seen Italians with their bodies 

 greatly distended with very dark fiecal mat- 

 ter, and yet they had no appearance in com- 

 mon with the black bee. The peculiar 

 workings of the Italian and black bee are so 

 different and distinct, that the merest tyro 

 in bee-keeping can never be at a loss to dis- 

 tinguish one from the other. 



I have no reason to doubt the statement of 

 Mr. D. that he saw "a few black bees" 

 among "the thousands of well marked" in 

 Italy ; yet I do question very seriously his 

 judgment, that such bees were only "seeni- 

 "ing'black," and not black in blood. His 

 own statement convinces me, that many of 

 the bees he saw, were as much hybrids, as 

 any we have in America. And I believe 



