1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



945 



omy of both food and fatigue." At first read- 

 ing, this sounds as if it coiild not be otherwise. 

 But is it really so? In a square or high hive of 

 the same cubic contents as a low hive, does not 

 the warmed air make up in depth fur what it 

 loses in ivuUli ■.' and will not, therefore, the bees 

 have just as much warmed air at their disposal 

 in them, and adapt themselves to it without 

 loss of food and fatigue? The preferableness 

 of the wide frame has. I presume, to be founded 

 on other grounds. 



There is mention made of " impropolisable " 

 frame?. Since their construction is not given, I 

 am unable to say whether their principle or 

 principles are known to us. There are differ- 

 ent "systems,'' the best of which seems to be 

 Mr. Palice's. It might be advisable to write to 

 him for information. Likewise I see a smoker, 

 L'Imbouchable, advertised, which is said to be 

 superior to all others (that is, to those used 

 there). There is also an "automatic " smoker 

 advertised. What it is, I can not say— perhaps 

 something entirely new. 



There is a way of wiring frames in use which 

 3 have never noticed here. The wiring is done 

 by means of a little implement with which 

 double-pointed tacKs are pressed down over the 

 hand-stretched wire into both the top and bot- 

 tom bars. 



There are also foundation-presses in use 

 which are quite plain, and seem to do away 

 with some of the inconveniences of our Given 

 press. 



While the Italian bee is the dominating one 

 in our country, a good many of the Swiss and 

 French bee-keepers still stick to the common 

 brown or black bee. Mr. Bertrand is by no 

 means so much opposed to them as our leaders. 



and says: "The race of bees of our country is 

 excellent, and one can, if he chooses, still im- 

 prove it without crossing them with the foreign 

 races at all. It suffices to make a little selec- 

 tion, to increase from the hives which give the 

 best results; i. e., to 'favor' their swarming or 

 to draw artificial swarms from them; further, 

 to remove all queens that produce inferior 

 workers, and to unite the bees with others." I 

 rememljer that Mr. Doolittle once, in reply to 

 an inquiry in Gleanings, remarked that, to 

 try improving the common bee, would not be 

 worth while, since the same is a fixed race ; 

 while Mr. A. I. Root, in a footnote, differed with 

 him, saying that the thing had not been tried 

 yet, and that, in his opinion, quite a change 

 might be brought about by selection. 



Concerning the foreign races of bees, the Car- 

 niolans seem to have just as many friends as 

 the Italians; likewise the crosses between them 

 and the other races are quite popular. There 

 is even one apicultural genius who thinks that 

 a cross between the common bee and both the 

 Italians and Carniolans is the apex of perfec- 

 tion. By the way, several queen-breeders speak 

 of Carniolan and Carinitiian bees. As I do not 

 remember having seen the latter mentioned in 

 our American Dee-literature, I tii"st thought the 

 two words might perhaps be synonyms, the 

 Austrian provinces of Carniola and Carinthia 

 adjoining each other; but when looking closer 

 I noticed that, in one of these advertisements, 

 a sharp distinction is made between them; that 

 they had been brought from their respective 

 countries, and that either is offered. Can you, 

 Mr. Editor, or perhaps one of your helpers, tell 

 us what the difference is? A Mr. Bellot, an 

 old, experienced queen-breeder, likewise dis- 

 tinguishes between Syrian and Palestinian 

 bees. Has such a distinction ever been made 

 in this couniry? He also says: "You know 

 that the oriental queens are much smaller than 

 the Italian queens," as if this were an u^ldoubt- 

 f>d fact. Well, the Holy-Land queens are 

 somewhat smaller, no doubt; but are ait of the 

 oriental queens smaller ? The Syrian as well 

 as the Algerian bees (the latter our Funics of 

 camel's-back fame) he calls "great robbers, 

 and very bad if one Is not very cautious when 

 opening their hives. They are of great vivaci- 

 ty when the temperature is high." Well, when 

 I think of how Messrs. A. I. and E. R. Root 

 were dealt with one day when they opened 

 their Punic hive, I believe you did not need 

 any Frenchman's testimony to said "vivacity." 

 " In times of scarcity," he continues, " the Pal- 

 estinian bees are the first to rob when a hive Is 

 opened," and gives as a reason for it that " their 

 sense of smell is still more developed" than 

 that of the other races. Regarding the rearing 

 of queens, he says: "The secret is, to work 

 with strong colonies composed of young bees; 

 the hives must contain honey of very good 

 quality, also fresh pollen." Do all American 



