1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



403 



number of those not dipt. Clipping certainly lessens the 

 wing power of the queen, and, in consequence, places a limit 

 upon the time and distance of her flight. It will be observpd 

 that such a limit naturally conSaes the queen more within a 

 home radius, or circle, of the home drones. 



My first experiments were attended with considerable 

 doubt as to whether the queens would still retain sufliciont 

 wing power to successfully mate with the drones, but the uni- 

 form success attending the experiments led me to clip as much 

 as "s of an inch from two or three with equally good results 

 last season. Just how much can be dipt from the wings, and 

 still retain suUicieut wing power to accomplish successful 

 mating, is yet to be determined. Whether dipping a hundred 

 or more select drones will be profitable is questionable. In 

 lines of progress the unexpected usually occurs on the success- 

 ful side. As yet so little is known about the flight of queens 

 and drones that it is impossible to determine without experi- 

 ments in clipping of both. Possibly the clipping of botii 

 queens and drones would result in their occupying a lower 

 altitude in flight, insuring a still less number of mismated 

 queens. On the contrary, the drones might be so weakened 

 in their power of chasing flight as to be useless. Certainly if 

 the object can be accomplisht by clipping the queens only, it 

 will involve but little trouble and expense. 



It should be understood that success attendant upon clip- 

 ping is contingent upon having none but pure drones in the 

 apiary containing the young queens, also that the amount 

 dipt from each wing be uniform, otherwise with a lack of 

 balancing power the queens are sure to be lost. 



I am so well satisfied with past results that I expect to 

 clip all my young queens the coming season. — Bee-Keeper.^' 

 Review for January, 1897. 



Palestine Bees Compared with the Italiaos, 



Br G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes that he is thinking of commencing 

 bee-keeping soon, and says : 



" I am thinking of starting with the Palestine bees, if I 

 can find them. What do you think of them as a bee for me to 

 start with? Are they good honey-gatherers? A friend of 

 mine tells me that those he had were very prolific, and says 

 that the prolificness of any queen is to be greatly valued in 

 any race of bees — more than anything else. What do you 

 think in the matter?" 



Well, I think that prolificness in a queen isone of the good 

 things which goes toward making a success in bee-keeping, 

 but a queen should be prolific at the right time. If she is 

 thus, it is of great value ; if prolific at times when her brood 

 comes'on the stage of action when there is no honey to gather, 

 her prolificness counts for naught. If your friend had modi- 

 fied his statement so as to make it read that he valued the 

 prolificness of a queen above all other qualities, when it could 

 be jo regulated that such prolificness would be of the greatest 

 value to the bee-keeper, I would heartily endorse it ; but if 

 his writing as he did is to be interpreted that he regards the 

 prolificness of a queen at all times of the year more than any- 

 thing else, or above all other qualities, I must say that I think 

 his assertion a mistaken one. 



In this locality, where we have about six weeks during 

 the whole season in which the bees make any gain in honey, 

 what we want is a queen that can be coaxt to fill the hive to 

 overflowing with brood during a few weeks previous to this 

 honey harvest, and lay just as few eggs at all other times as is 

 consistent with accomplishing the above object. If your 

 friend had a piece of work which he must accomplish at a cer- 

 tain time, if he were to receive any profit therefrom, he would 

 hire his help before the time expired, or not at all. If he 

 wisht help at a c«rtaio time, and they did not come until it 



was too late, surely he would not keep and board them six or 

 eight months because it was not convenient for them to come 

 sooner. Surely not I He would tell them that he did not 

 want them, for it was too late. So I say, that, when bees 

 come to the stage of action in any great abundance after the 

 honey harvest is past, it is a damage to the apiarist, rather 

 than an advantage. 



Why I prefer the Italian bees to all others is for the rea- 

 son that they are more susceptible of being handled so as to 

 get the hive overflowing with bees at just the right time, than 

 are the bees of any other race. Also, as soon as the honey 

 harvest arrives the queen will cease her prolificness, and thus 

 we do not have a lot of "hungry hands" to board when they 

 are of no use to the apiarist. Many of our largest honey-pro- 

 ducers have come to think the same way, as is shown by the 

 following which has lately come to hand : 



" I get very much the best results from my full-blood Ital- 

 ians. The Italians seem to be very much more disposed to 

 partially stop brood-rearing, and bend all their energies to 

 honey-gathering, whenever there is a heavy flow of nectar, 

 than any other kind of bees which I have tried, and this is a 

 very great advantage." 



Now to the question about the Palestine bees : That they 

 cannot be managed so as to fill the above requirements in this 

 locality, is why I am adverse to them, and I think that one 

 would make a mistake in selecting them to start an apiary 

 with, even if they could be found, which I doubt, as they seem 

 to have withdrawn from sight during the last few years. With 

 me they would not start a large amount of brood at any other 

 time save when the honey-flow was on, and this X think is one 

 of the worst faults that any race of bees can possess ; for an 

 extra amount of brood during a honey-yield always means a 

 multitude of mouths to feed after the honey-harvest is past. 



When I tried the Palestine bees it was with the only hope 

 that they would prove better than the bees which I already 

 had ; but when I found out that I could not coax the queens of 

 this race to lay eggs rapidly except in the honey-harvest, I 

 saw that it would be impossible for them to give a large yield 

 of honey, no matter what other good qualities they might pos- 

 sess. After doing my very best with them for several years, 

 and with those from several different parties, I was obliged 

 to record only 50 pounds of honey as a surplus from the 

 whole, while I had to feed them a large amount to get them in 

 condition for winter, taking combs of sealed honey from the 

 Italians to feed them with ; while the same number of Italian 

 colonies gave over 500 pounds of surplus during the same 

 time and with the same management. 



With me, the Palestine bees would increase but little till 

 the honey-harvest arrived, when they would crowd every 

 available cell with brood, which brood would use up nearly all 

 the honey the few workers previously reared could gather 

 while the honey-harvest lasted. On the contrary, when the 

 honey-harvest opens, the Italians have a hive overflowing 

 with bees, and every comb filled with brood, and this brood 

 will gradually decrease till at the end of the harvest I have 

 lots of honey with few mouths to feed. 



Here is an item which many bee-keepers seem to lose 

 sight of when following their profession: Bees are of value 

 only when they come in time to take advantage of the honey- 

 flow ; and whether through the race of bees or the carelessness 

 of the apiarist we fail in this point, little profit, or none at all. 

 Is sure to be the result. 



The same fault that 1 have spoken of in the above exists 

 to quite a large extent in the Carniolan bees, or at least, has 

 done so with the three different lots I have had on trial. 

 While they can be brought up to rapid brood-rearing before 

 the honey-harvest, yet they are determined to breed all through 

 the harvest, and to a large extent after it is past ; so that, as 

 a rule, unless they are lookt after, many colonies are apt to 



