18'.)4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURK. 



fKl 



shade is simply a shade-board, wiiich keeps ih(^ 

 sun's rays from striking the iiive from 10 a. m. 

 to 2 p. M., I think little or no dilTerence will be 

 made as to the time of th«Mr swarming, as the 

 sun heats up the hive in the moi'ning hours, 

 from which it does not cool off much till it 

 shines on il again in the afternoon, so that 

 there is all the warmth necessary for rapid 

 brood-rearing. But where the shade is a dense 

 one from overhanging trees, the warmth from 

 the sun can not reach the liive, and thus brood- 

 rearing is retarded, causing later swarming. 

 Such dense shade as above spoken of is a thing 

 to be avoided by the apiarist who would secure 

 the best results from his bees, in the opinion of 

 Doolittle. Then, again, it apparejitly depends 

 on the wants of the bee-keeper: for, seemingly, 

 when the novice in the business has a great 

 desire for swarms, the bees will most likely 

 tarry in the sun or in the shade; and when, in 

 later years, he has more than he wants, they 

 will begin to swarm before breakfast, and con- 

 tinue to do the same till after supper, until he 

 almost curses the day, which is sweltering 

 hot, and alive with swarms which ought to 

 stop their nonsense and go to work in the sec- 

 tions, as continued swarming and section honey 

 do not go hand in hand. 



ITAMANl/.ING. 



Question.— With a view of being least liable 

 to go wrong, how should a beginner manage to 

 Italianize ten or twelve colonies of black bees? 



^4?i.s(('c/-.— That depends upon whether you 

 are desirous of doing all the work yourself, and 

 thus learning all the little kinks of queen-rear- 

 ing, or whether you simply wish to have all 

 your bees of the Italian variety as speedily as 

 possible, with no further attention being paid 

 to the matter. If the latter, then I would ad- 

 vise buying untested queens of some reliable 

 dealer; learn of him how to introduce tiiera 

 safely: and. when introduced successfully, you 

 will have solved the matter. If. on the other 

 hand, you would like to know something of 

 queen-rearing yourself, then buy a queen of 

 two different parties, known to be purely mat- 

 ed, and raise queens from one and drones from 

 the other. Keep down all black drones by 

 using only worker combs in the brood-chambers 

 of the black colonies, except a little piece two 

 or three inches square in one comb, keeping 

 that comb in a certain position in each hive so 

 that once every three weeks you can take these 

 combs from the hives and shave the heads from 

 the nearly mature drones. Thus you will have 

 no black drones; and if your neighbors do not 

 keep bees, and there are no colonies of black 

 bees in the timber in any woods not nearer 

 than three miles from you, you will have little 

 diliHculty in having the majority of your queens 

 purely mated, after which your yard will keep 

 Italian, no matter whether you increase your 

 bees to :;(X) colonies or allow them to remain at 



their present number. But should there be 

 flying black or hyltrid drones in your neighbor- 

 hood, your young queens would give, practi- 

 cally speakiHg, pure Italian drones, so tliat the 

 next year the most of your queens will mate 

 with th(^se, when by selection, after you have 

 seen tlie progeny, you can soon have the whole 

 apiary stocked with none but Italians. 



[A number of years ago the correspondtuits of 

 Gi.RANiNGs seenuui to generally agree that 

 fei'iliiig back was not prolitable; we therefore 

 indorse what IMr. Doolittle has to say. In re- 

 gard to Italiani/.ing, we also indorse him here 

 too. IVrhap-; it may well to suggest that un- 

 tested Italian queens can now be bouglii uiore 

 cheaply than at any other lime; and just after 

 the iioney harvest we know of no time when 

 Iialiaiiizing, or. more generally speaking, chang- 

 ing the quel ns. can be effected rnoff^ economic- 

 ally. In the advertising columns of our journal 

 you will see how cheaply queens can be bought. 

 We take pleasure in recommending yon to thii 

 whole of them. for. so far as we know, they are 

 all careful and conscientious breeders.— Ed.] 



^■hccd^^gi/i^^ 



At the last ineeting of the Ontario Co (N. Y.) 

 Bee-keepers' Association, the following resolu- 

 tions were adopted: 



W)iere,ax, Tlie U. S. Government has voted many 

 tliousands of dolliirs for the promotion of science 

 and arts for the benefit of the few; — 



TI7((7eoN. The V . S. Government has voted many 

 thousands of dollars for the promotion of agricul- 

 ture, but has never voted a dollar for the promo- 

 tion of apiculture, upon which rests much of the 

 success of the agriculturist, horticulturist, and the 

 prosperity of millions;— 



Tlicief(»e resiilccd: We, tiie bee-keepei's of Ontario 

 Co., N. Y., in convention assembled, would respect- 

 fully ask and demand that Congress vote a suitable 

 appropriation, and employ competent parties to 

 visit Judea and the East Indies, for the purpose of 

 securing A i)ix diirfiat(t and other races of bees not 

 now domesticated, and secure their introduction 

 into the U. S. 



Further rcmolvcd. That a copy of these resolutions 

 be published in the bee-journals, and tliat the bee- 

 keepers of the U. S be asked to join in petitions to 

 Congress for the same purpose. 



W. F. Marks. ) 



L. C. Mathek, J- Com. 



Bellona, N. Y. 



F. D. FaENCH, ) 

 Ruth E. Taylor, Sec'y. 



DKONES FROM VIRGIN QUKENS- ARK THEY 

 GOOD FOR ANY TIlIN«i ? 



Are drones from a virgin queen virile ? If so, 

 I'm right for drones all the year round. This 

 climate is so mild that I can raise queens all 

 the year round; and if I can have select drones 

 in mid-winter I can have my queens fertilized 

 by them. I clip the wing of one of my most 

 suitable virgin queens, and after a while she 

 will commence to lay in worker cells. Of 



