THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



131 



diseases which have, or may exist in tlie 

 country, tiiey have so loiiii; infiabitt'd. 



To th(! casual observer this uiay seem of 

 little moment, hut when we realize that by 

 this constant inter-comnuniication of bees 

 from one apiary to anotlier, which is every- 

 where taking place, under the idea of im- 

 provement, we may well treud)le at the con- 

 se(iuences which may and ])erhai)s have re- 

 sulted from this promiscuous interchange. 



That it is idle to longer continue this im- 

 portation, no one can tail to realize when we 

 consider that after nearly twenty years of 

 trial, no man has been abh^ to give any sub- 

 stantial evidence ot even their purity — save 

 that they were deeendants of imported 

 mothers. 



It may be inferred that the Italian bees is 

 superior to any and all other bees, but unless 

 we can have .some peculiarity to which we 

 cananchor, some ijuality to select, some vir- 

 tiu'e to projiagate, we have before us au end- 

 less chain of confusion and expense I 



What marks have we ? What do the im- 

 porters say ? flow do the Doctors agree ? 

 'J'lie only peculiarity of the pure Italian 

 which their scientihc bee culture has found 

 worthy of attention and propagation is the 

 so-called '"(xolden bamls,'' with a certificate 

 reading thus : "The offspring of an im- 

 ported uiother, pure fertilizer guaranteed." 



Ccntlemen I am not here to advocate the 

 virtues of any shade of bees, it is of no con- 

 sequence tome what manner of blood hioves 

 in my bees. My first and only important 

 question is, will they work ? If It is true 

 tliat we are, and are to remain unal)le to 

 propag-ate the Italian bee in its purity and 

 loreigli excellence to say nothing of its im- 

 provcnicnt it is a natiimal disgrace and a 

 poor compliment to our boasted .scientific 

 bee-culture. One will ask what shall we do 

 when can we find pure Italian bees. 



I cannot presume to say where they can 

 be found, the savan of the A. B. J. says it 

 is "common to find bees entirely black in 

 pure Italian coloniesin Italy." 



Now gentlemen if this is the ease we have 

 plenty of pure bees in this country, that is 

 as pure as Italians ever are ! If I had a 

 dark queen whose worker progeny had in 

 the main thi'ce bands lighter colored than 

 those of the lilaek bee. aiid also had a more 

 pointed abdomen, I should regard her pure. 

 If her bees would work promptly in the 

 boxes when there was a supply of honey 

 producing flowers, I would select her for a 

 breeder and raise my own queens from her. 



On the contrary if I had a very yellow 

 queen which produced very marked and 

 so-called '■•beautifuV^ bees and they would 

 not work promptly in the boxes, I would 

 regard her as an abnormality, suited only to 

 exercises in Dress Parade, and on no condi- 

 tion raise any queens fnnn her. 



The queens generally sold are from this 

 class of albino. This extra golden color is 

 what the queen raisers call their great im- 

 provement. I mean the improved Italian 

 which sells so well. No other improvement 

 has any cash value to queen venders, none 

 of them raise much honey 1 



What I have er.deavored to show is the 

 ntter folly of continual interchange of bees 

 either among our own or foreign a])iaries 

 under the delusive Impe of improvement. 



Some people suppose that close breeding 

 is injurious, and tlie iiueen-raisers ponder 

 to the whim. If it is. how long will it take 

 to find it out. Bees have beeii kept in Italy 



as long as we have authentic history, and 

 yet no percei)table change has ever been re- 

 corded. 



In stock breeding no real advances have 

 ever been made excej)t by in-anol-in breed- 

 ing. The famous \ ermont Jlerino sheep 

 were produced in that way, and it is said 

 that all the successful breeders of sheep in 

 Australia have imrsued the same course aiul 

 with the best results. AViiile those imbued 

 with the idea that stock deteriorated under 

 close breeding and have si)ent much money 

 to pri'veut it, have almost without exception 

 ruined their Hocks. 



No strain can become fixed except by close 

 breeding. Peculiarities in bee as in other 

 stock may become tixt>d by close lireeding 

 in all probability. ^Vnd with this view it is 

 idle to look to (|ueen raisers for valuable ini- 



Sroveinents. The lio))o of the honey pro- 

 ucers lies entirely within themselves. ''As 

 the coming honey bee" must bea 'io?je!/ 

 igntherer. T. F. Bixgham. 



Abronia, Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Winter (?) "Down South;' 



In this locality (middle Tennessee), bees 

 went into winter quarters heavy with honey. 

 They gathered from AVild Aster until aliout 

 the tenth of November, hence, in cases 

 where no extractor was used, the combs in 

 the brood apartment were nearly full of 

 sealed honey. Bees about here are all win- 

 tered on summer stands, yet I have not 

 learned of any serious loss, though the 

 weather has been unusually severe, the mer- 

 cury 2 degrees below zero for a short time 

 in an exposed place on the north side of 

 a brick house. Honey came in so rapidly 

 that I was unable to keep ahead of the I'il 

 colonies I had to extract from, and a few of 

 them were left until a warm spell between 

 Christmas and New Years. All of my 

 colonies wintered well, and commenced to 

 gather pollen from willows February 23d. 

 For about two weeks they have been g"etting 

 some honey from a small yellow flower 

 known as Bladder Pod, (Veslcarin Lese- 

 curla, Ord Cruciferae.) The fruit blossoms 

 are just opening. 



iSome of my colonies reared brood all 

 winter, and since this has been "the se- 

 verest winter known to the oldest inhabit- 

 ant." I infer that colonies in the proper 

 condition would do so every winter. 



My conclusions are that in this latitude, 

 the desired result will be attained if bees 

 are put in the following named condition : 



1st. In tight hives, entrance contracted 

 to }4 an inch, frames covered with a good 

 honej'-quilt, and top story tightly packed 

 with straw. 



2d. "Chock-full" of bees when winter 

 commences, and with a prolific young 

 queen. 



od. The cluster in the center of the hive, 

 witli about twenty lbs. of sealed honey, ar- 

 ranged in the form of an arch over and 

 around the bees, and with winter passages 

 cut a little above and each side of the center 

 of the brood combs, a single passage through 

 the others. 



Because bees will live through the winter 

 here with little or no care, many deem that 

 it is not necessary or that it will not pay to 

 I>rejiare each colony for its season of rest. 



KnoxvlUe, Tenn.' Fkaxk Bentox. 



