THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



149 



4(jni;$poiuUuci;. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bad Luck. 



It is but right thut bee-keepers should 

 report their failures as well as their suc- 

 cesses, but I confess 1 have uot the same 

 heart to write about one as the other. 

 ■\Vheu my bees all come through the 

 wmter and sjiring iu good conditicni, and 

 arc able to gather plenty of honey early 

 iu the season, I tind it an easy matter for 

 my pen to tell all about it. But when 

 thcj' die in the winter, and die in the 

 spring, and then have to be fed through 

 spring and summer, I have little disposi- 

 tion to talk or write bees. 



The caption of this article is my apol- 

 ogy for failing to put in my usual appear- 

 ance iu the columns of the Amekioan. 



'"Bad luck" is no name for it. It is no 

 luck at all that I have had this season. 

 I could almost wish I never seen a bee. 

 This is the way I feel when I look into my 

 weak and starving stocks, and have to 

 feed them every few days to keep them 

 alive. But this feeling is a little modi- 

 tied when I sit down to my table, and 

 pour out over my cake and pie the boun- 

 tiful honey of last years' gathering. This 

 pleasant reminder of last season's success 

 takes a little of the edge off my present 

 bad luck, and stimulates me to give 

 enough attention to my depleted stands 

 to keep them from starvation. It keeps 

 alive within me the hope that my "luck" 

 may some time turn, and honey again 

 flow from my old-time extractor. 



I thought until late in February, that 

 my bees were wintering admirably. 

 And even when I set them out iu March, 

 only a few of them had died, and they 

 mainly from want of food. But after I 

 set them on their summer stands, they 

 dropped oft" one after another, until I had 

 left only twenty out of fifty-four. And 

 yet I was uot discouraged, as I felt sure 

 that as soon as the houej' season came 

 I could increase them to any number I 

 might want. 



This hope, however, and all other 

 hopes for ihis season, were blasted by 

 the slice of winter that was hurled on us 

 in April. Everything in the shape of 

 bloom and budj> were killed too dead for 

 reserrectiou. Even the poplar buds, 

 which had just be^iu to form, were all 

 ■destroyed. The poplar is our main reli- 

 ance for honey. This, with everything 

 else, was cut oft'. The locust has als» 

 fajlftd to put out any bloom, although its 



buds had not begun to form at the time 

 of the frost. We have nothing now 

 from which our bees can gather any sur- 

 plus, except a little scattering white 

 clover, and there is an unusually small 

 amount of that this season. Rains that 

 have fallen in the last few days may in- 

 crease this bloom some little, but I do 

 not look for any surplus honey from this 

 or any other source this season. I shall 

 be well satisfied if my bees can find 

 enough to live on without help from me. 

 I have had to feed the most of them up 

 to within a week or two past. Some I am 

 feeeding yet. There is not much bee- 

 fever in this section this season. 



Charlestown, InL M. C. Hester. 



From the Practical Farmeri 



Italian Bees. 



This variety of the honey-bee is found 

 south of the snow-covered Alps in North- 

 ern Italy, and is of a striped golden color. 

 They were accidentally discovered during 

 the war of Napoleon III, by Captain 

 Baldenstein, who carried the first colony 

 across the Alps in 1843. In 1853 they 

 were introduced by Dzierzon into Ger- 

 many, and into the United States in 1860. 

 There has been several importations. 



"We were slow to believe all the gooA 

 things said of them by German apiarians, 

 until convinced of their superiority by the 

 universal testimony of prominent Ameri- 

 can bee-keepers, coupled with our own 

 experience. From the mass of testimony 

 in favor of the Italians, we condensed the 

 following points of superiority over the 

 common bee : 



1st. The queens are more prolific than 

 the common kind, consequently the colo- 

 uies have more brood, swarm earlier and 

 more frequently. 2.1. They are less sensi- 

 tive to cold, working more hours iu the 

 day and in cooler weather, hence, collect- 

 ing a greater amount of stores. 3d. Their 

 strength being greater and wings larger 

 they are more active, fly more swiftly, 

 and are less liable to be robbed, but easily 

 master weak colonies of common bees 

 and appropriate their stores. 4th. "When 

 bred in combs of their own building, they 

 are longer and their honey sacs lai'ger. 

 5th. Their proboscis being longer they 

 are able to work upon ftoA-ers that the 

 black bees cannot operate on. (jth. Their 

 beauty of color and graceful form renders 

 them an object of interest to every person 

 of taste. Henoe they attract many visitors, 

 who admire their golden color, so beauti- 

 fully shown by the sun rays, as they pass 

 swiftly to and from the hive. 



New York. II. A. Ki>'g, 



