/.v.v;. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



597 



imagine, it would be a great blessing to huiDanity, not only In 

 the bee-keeping fraternity, but in every other industry or 

 organization. If wo teach a falsehood, made by some ono 

 else, I thinic we are just as guilty as the man that made it. 

 We should know whereof we speak. Milam Co., Tex. 



Are Black Bees Capable of Improvement ? 



BV P. A. 8IOLI. 



I have read with great interest Mr. (i. M. Doolitlle's arti- 

 cle on page oUO, under the above heading, and tho I always 

 considered Mr. D. as an acknowledged authority In apicul- 

 tural work, and I admire his candid way in dealing out his 

 lessons to us younger bee-fathers without pretension, I cannot 

 help to differ from his opinion on this subject. He commences 

 by saying: 



'• Probably there would have been some improvement in 

 the black or German bee, had the apiarists of the United 

 States taken hold of tho matter with tho same will in breed- 

 ing which they have shown in breeding the Italian bee up to 

 its present standard." 



Had Mr. D. stopt right here, and not given any further 

 explanation of his opinion on the subject, every thinking man 

 and bee-keeper would heartily agree with him ; but then he 

 goes on to deny through the whole article what he himself 

 first had thought probulilc, declaring them — the black bees — 

 to be yet nearly the same, if not identically the same as they 

 were when they first left the hands of the Creator. 



Now, I don't wish to investigate what especial connection 

 or other source that Mr. D. has got to prove this last asser- 

 tion, but it seems to me that he is like a great many people 

 who have an idea of their own about how this world and 

 everything thereon, whether living or but existing, was 

 created. They form this idea of creation to suit their own 

 allowance, and by that means make their Creator just what 

 Mr. L. A. Aspiuwall is making the queen-bee to the worker — 

 their dependency, and nothing but their slave. 



Wnat more old-fashioned affirmation could have been put 

 up, than the one that the black bees were yet about the same 

 as they were ? God alone knows how many thousand years 

 ago, while all other living creatures have past through thou- 

 sands of progressing stations meanwhile. Is it not quite 

 doubtful whether bees were created at the very outset of 

 starting the insect world ? I for one believe it more probable 

 that bees are a formation or transition. Mr. D. himself as- 

 serts that the Italian bee, in his opinion, is nothing but a 

 sport — in other words, a variegation, or a certain state of 

 transition, and the same law of transition ought be applicable 

 alike to all varieties of the same species. Why, then, deny 

 the right and possibility of improving the black bee under 

 certain favorable circumstances? But have there been made, 

 anywhere or at any time, like efforts to breed the black bee 

 with a firm view and will to improve them in certain direc- 

 tions '? And then, it would, in my opinion, require a longer 

 period of time to show some markt improvements in a variety 

 so Bxt, than what has been spent to do the same with the 

 Italian bee, as the character of these latter has made breed- 

 ing far easier ; but give the black bee all the chances In the 

 hands of educated bee-keepers, who are not afraid of their 

 tail end, and you will see that improvements of this strain are 

 not only probable but certain, I am quite sure. 



Black bees are not considered so formidable and unim- 

 provable in European countries as here. And why ? Because 

 there they have been under some way of subjection for a long 

 time, but here they have begun to grow wild again, as half of 

 tho swarms — perhaps more — are going to the woods to be 

 OLcaslonally re-caught, and then in all probability put into 

 box-hives, straw-gums, or logs, to be robbed once every year 

 by destroying the bees. 



It Is impossible for me to close this without referring to 

 the article of Mr. L. A. Aspinwall, on the same page of the 

 American Bee Journal (500). I must say that to a certain 

 extent I fully agree with what Mr. A. has said there about tho 

 will of the worker-bee,concerning the arrangements governing 

 the position of the queen and the worker-bees of a colony. 

 Tho I long ago discarded the idea of looking upon the queen 

 as "Her Majesty," and am convinced that she is not the 

 leader of the colony — nay, not even considered the manager 

 of her own conduct — yet I cannot submit to the opinion that 

 the queen-bee is notliinfj but the slave of the workers. 



It seems to me, rather, that the queen is able to control — 

 and perhaps is responsible for — the moral conduct of the col- 

 ony ; that it depends upon her behavior to make the bees act 

 under certain circumstances, and I think that I have found 

 some proof for my assertion. To illustrate this, I will give 

 some of my own experience : 



Last fall I got one colony of black bees which had been 

 taken from a bee-tree; the combs taken out at the same time 

 had been fixt into the frames with wire, and are as bulgy and 

 crooked as possible. These bees are as irritable and formid- 

 able as any black bees can be found; did not swarm last 

 spring, and ran down in stores so that I nearly had to feed 

 them. Getting tired of them, I decided to break them up, 

 and gave a couple frames with adhering bees to an Italian 

 queen I had just received in another hive. Now, while the 

 old colony was loafing, and hardly able to make their own 

 living, this daughter colony — a mere nucleus — is working with 

 zeal from morning to night ; and when I go to inspect their 

 hive and open the same, they never act as if they were inter- 

 ested in what I am doing, but unconcerned they come and go, 

 attending to their work, and behaving about as good as Ital- 

 ian bees. Now, if this is only an exception — I don't know 

 whether it may be the rule — isn't it the influence of the Ital- 

 ian queen that has caused this change? 



Sonoma Co., Calif. 



Practical Bee-Keeping with Least Attentiofl. 



By E. H. COLLINS. 

 (.1 talk to the Indiana HIate Jke-Keqxrs' Association.) 



My text implies that bees need some attention. Let us 

 bear in mind, however, that Nature in bee-keeping, as in 

 other branches of farming, does the lion's share of the work ; 

 that we simply guide her efforts in our channels and aid the 

 bees mechanically. Remember the bees do pretty well with- 

 out us, and we can give them much time or little time, as our 

 other business may dictate. 



If we become familiar with their instincts, we can tell by 

 general appearances what their condition is, and avoid fre- 

 quent manipulation of the hives. 



A large apiarist in Michigan once said to a visiting bee- 

 keeper, that " those six or eight colonies you see in that cor- 

 ner of the yard have not had their brood-chambers opened for 

 several years, and they give me lots of surplus." 



If the queen becomes infertile they will supersede her. If 

 she is killed they will rear another. 



When I was a young man I once workt for a man whose 

 wife kept bees, and I ate of the honey just as much as I 

 thought I could eat and not appear ill-bred. And I have often 

 thought that in almost any family group, say of two or three 

 households, there Is one or more who has both tact and taste 

 enough to care for tees, and to delight in the management of 

 the busy little workers. 



Allow me to give you my first experience. I raised a 

 comb cautiously and slowly, expecting them to be vicious and 

 ready for war, but was both surprised and pleased to see 

 every one walk slowly about the comb as tho they were not 

 the least disturbed. At that moment I became master of the 



