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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug. 7, 1902. 



filled bag over the brood-combs. They were strong enough 

 to swarm on the opening of the first blossoms. 



The plums were the first to blossom, and a goodly num- 

 ber of trees were in close proximity to my bees. I then dis- 

 covered in front of the hives quite a number of dead bees 

 with pollen on their legs, and on opening several hives I 

 found the bottoms covered with dead and dying. I remem- 

 ber picking up quite a number and sending them to various 

 authorities asking their opinion of what was the trouble. 

 A. I. Root, I remember, answered that he was unable to J 

 surmise the cause, and. you, Mr. Editor, may have received 

 a box of the dead. At the time I had not thought of any 

 one spraying. 



Ten days later I visited the apiary again, and I could 

 have filled a barrel with dead bees in front of the hives; 

 thousands were dead with pellets of pollen on their legs, 

 showing how quickly death came. I began then to look 

 about for the cause, and in conversation with the gardener 

 of an adjoining farm he made the statement, that " he must 

 go and see about the men spraying." 



"Spraying what?" was my inquiry. "Why, the 

 orchards," he replied. " We have been at it for two weeks, 

 to kill the codling-moth, etc." 



" The cat was out of the bag," and he was the ruin of 

 my bees. 



It is useless for me to add anything further, but the re- 

 sult was, that every colony but two dwindled to a handful, 

 and the moth soon made their appearance and I was com- 

 pelled to break up the apiary entirely, by uniting the best I 

 could. 



If your correspondent will visit some of his near-by friends 

 and make inquiries respecting the spraying while the trees 

 are in blossom, he will find the cause, and also what poison 

 they used. 



One main point before I close : The cause of his 

 " hatching young being healthy," was from the fact that 

 plenty of the old stores were in his hives, while in my case 

 they had but little, when the trees began to flower, and the 

 young were fed the poisoned honey as fast as it was gath- 

 ered. 



I sincerely hope others, if there were such, will give 

 their experience along this line, and that fruit-growers will 

 get their eyes open one of these days and learn that they 

 destroy thousands upon thousands of their best friends, not 

 only the honey-bees, but all classes of insects that our Great 

 Master has given to fertilize the blossoms to give them a 

 bountiful crop. 



If the same labor were expended in going over the 

 orchards and gathering up and destroying all the " wind- 

 falls " and defective fruit, which is the breeding-pen of the 

 codling-moth, that is put into the task of spraying, I will 

 guarantee the codling-moth will be a stranger in such 

 orchards. 



I was born and reared among fruit, and it was part of 

 my daily task to destroy all fruit that dropped. The result 

 was our fruit always maintained a high reputation, and no 

 spraying was thought of. Baltimore Co., Md., July 8. 



Do Robber-Bees Sting ?-Other Questions. 



BY ALLEN LATHAM. 



This question is raised on page 115, and having had 

 some experience in the matter I will venture to offer an 

 opinion. I say that they do. I would suggest here that 

 there should be a distinction made between thieves and 

 robbers. Some bees get a thieving habit and will sneak 

 about the apiary seeking an entrance here or there, always 

 watchful and alert to keep out of a struggle with the en- 

 trance guards. These bees are sneak-thieves. There are 

 other bees which get stirred up over some exposed honey, 

 or the poorly guarded stores of a weak colony, so that they 

 sally forth in conquest. Will they sting? Well, I should 

 say so ! They will sting both bee-keeper and the home bees. 



Last fall I had a colony which, swarming late and pos- 

 sessing an exceedingly prolific queen, bred heavily, and 

 had to hustle to get a living. A drop of honey could not be 

 exposed a minute before that colony would be in an uproar. 

 Sallying forth by thousands they would try to force every 

 entrance in the yard, and would kill and be killed by the 

 hundred. These bees were a bright yellow, and the dead 

 bees left by the entrances were by no means all yellow ones. 

 Many a time I watched these bees, and it was no infrequent 

 sight to see one of them turn on its captor. Being an ex- 

 ceedingly active bee it often got its sting into action first. 

 In more than one instance I saw the two bees sting simul- 



taneously and both die. These are facts. This is not the 

 only instance I have known, though I think that it is the 

 exception rather than the rule for robber-bees to sting the 

 home bees. 



AMOUNT OF HONBY CONSUMED BY A COLONY IN A YEAR. 



On page 263 is an excellent article by Adrian Getaz, 

 but in it is the statement that a colony consumes 200 pounds 

 of honey in a year. By my figures, allowing most gener- 

 ously, a strong colony will use only 165 pounds in a year. 

 I doubt if average colonies consume more than 120 pounds 

 in a year. If the matter seems of sufficient importance I 

 will later submit my figuring, but not now, for it would 

 take up a great deal of space. 



MOVING BEES A SHORT DISTANCE. 



I had occasion, last fall, to move several colonies a 

 short distance. For distances less than 20 or 30 feet this 

 plan worked well : The colony was moved about 10 inches ; 

 two days later two feet ; two or three days later a yard ; 

 and so on till the full distance was reached. The bees 

 seemed to get the habit soon of easily finding their hive, 

 though it was changed as much as four feet. 



For distances more than 30 feet I found this to work 

 well : I have portico hives, and I fitted over the portico a 

 board with four J^-inch holes in it. Few bees returned. 



BREEDING FOR LONG TONGUES. 



I would not discourage this worthy effort, but would 

 cry out against too great expectations. Though a bee with 

 a long tongue can thereby reach into a few deep blossoms, 

 a tongue too long will hinder the work on the shallow blos- 

 soms. At present the legs, tongue and other parts of the 

 bee are in perfect harmony. Give the bee too long a tongue 

 and the harmony is destroyed. Too long a tongue will 

 probably be a disadvantage in the domestic duties of the 

 hive. 



We can at best, then, seek to lengthen the tongue only 

 slightly. Shall we gain more than the red clover by a 

 lengthening ? Let him who knows answer. If not, then it 

 would be far better to seek red clover with short corolla. I 

 am strongly of the opinion that we already possess bees 

 with as long a tongue as their bodies will profitably utilize. 

 Let us breed for larger bees with the longer tongues. 



LONG-LIVED BEES. 



Too much can not be said concerning longevity of bees. 

 I shall continue to harp on this strain. A few years ago I 

 had a colony with a 4-year-old queen. The queen could 

 keep only four or five frames filled with brood, while other 

 colonies kept eight or nine. The colony stored twice the 

 amount (75 pounds) that I got from any other colony. The 

 season was a poor one. 



THE FATHERLESS DRONE. 



Though I do not question that the drone is fatherless in 

 the ordinary sense of the term, I do think that he has a 

 father in the sense of looking like the drone which was the 

 father of his sisters. Last summer I reared several queens 

 from a mother whose workers are yellow and whose sons 

 are well marked with yellow. Out of four of the young 

 queens two mated with yellow stock, the other two with 

 impure stock. The first two throw as yellow sons as their 

 mother, the second two throw as many black drones as they 

 do yellow ones. So that it is a mere accident, if you wish. 

 It may be. I do not know. I will, however, show the 

 progeny of these queens to any visitor. I have frequently 

 had queens throw blacker drones than their mother fur- 

 nished, and explained it by saying that the grandfather 

 was dark. But when some queens throw yellow grandsons 

 to a drone, and others black ones to the same drone, then 

 we have a puzzle. 



THE FATHER OF GREATER IMPORTANCE THAN THE MOTHER. 



How often are we disappointed while breeding from a 

 fine queen that we get queens uniformly inferior to the 

 mother. Until we control mating this will remain true. I 

 am more and more convinced that the drone makes up for 

 his sonlessness by transmitting his character to his daugh- 

 ters, and that the queen throws her peculiarities into her 

 sons. Allow me to off'er facts. A few years ago I bred 

 from a fine queen at a season when the drones flying were 

 mostly from colonies of a neighbor whose bees were very 

 vicious. The progeny of the young queens proved vicious. 

 Again, last fall I bred queens from a dark Italian queen 

 whose workers are rather cross. I had drones flying freely 

 at the time from a colony of most gentle yellow bees. The 



