June 13, 1907 



515 



iliu-fd ,-1110111 ion (|uecii-ccUs. \Vc savcU 

 the virgin queens and put them on the 

 hives according to my method, having 5 

 or 6 on the hive — some of them in the 

 city and some of them out at my place, 

 where tlie other bees were. More than 

 half of those out where the 150 colonies 

 were, were impurely mated. There 

 were no drones flying in our yard, how- 

 ever, except the Italian ones. Those in 

 my brother's hives were every one of 

 them mated with Italian drones. There 

 was not a single queen mated there 

 except the pure ones. They were yel- 

 low. I concluded the condition of be- 

 ing hemmed in in the city had something 

 to do with that. The apiaries were not 

 to exceed % of a mile apart. We tried 

 that repeated!}', and we had the same 

 experience every time. We could get 

 them purely mated in the city without 

 any trouble, but if we undertook to 

 mate them out where the other colonies 

 were, at least half of them would be 

 impurely mated, 



Dr, Bohrer — I wrote that question, be- 

 cause I believe it is one of consider- 

 able interest. I stated, I think, once 

 before here today, that I bred queens 

 as early as 1864, and I made it a point 

 in the years 1864 to 1S66 to get control 

 of all the black bees within 6 or 8 miles 

 of me, and of course out beyond that 

 there were hybrid bees, because they 

 were mixing constantly, I dropped out 

 in 1873, moving to Kansas, where the 

 country at that time was not adapted 

 to bee-keeping at all, and since I have 

 come back into line again I find there 

 has not been very much improvement, 

 if any, in the Italian bee brought to 

 this country. The bees that I got in 

 an early day, I got some from Mr. 

 Arthur Gray, of Butler County, Ohio, 

 and some from Mr. Langstroth, I got 

 one queen from Mr. Langstroth that 

 duplicated herself oftener than any I 

 ever reared, and yet after rearing about 

 100 queens one hatched out that was 

 the blackest insect I ever saw in my 

 life, of any kind, showing that there 

 was some foreign blood. There came 

 the question, then, whether there was a 

 distinct race of bees that were Italian; 

 whether they were pure and distinct, 

 not amalgamated with any other race 

 of bees, and while this question was up, 

 and I was studying about it, and I don't 

 know but writing about it, I met Mr, 

 Langstroth in Cincinnati and we had a 

 talk on the subject. I told Mr. Lang- 

 stroth about this queen I purchased, and 

 having so many duplicates— about 100— 

 and then having an insect as black as 

 any I ever saw, and that I had somt 

 doubts as to there being a distinct Italian 

 bee, whether they are a distinct race. 

 He said, "I know they are not, but 

 what their make-up consists of I can 

 not tell." I have done a good deal of 

 investigating for many years, and I do 

 not believe by importing the various 

 types of bees, Cyprians and Caucasians 

 and diflferent breeds, that we are going 

 to_ improve our bees very rapidly. I 

 said down in San Antonio, to Dr, 

 Phillips that I was opposed to the Gov- 

 ernment sending out Caucasian queens 

 to breeders unless they would pledge 

 themto breed 12 to 15 miles from other 

 apiaries, so that amalgamation would 

 be impossible. Keep them separate and 



Aiiic>rican ^ae Journal 



sec if they arc- i • illv worlliy lu be in- 

 troduced in the United States, or not. 

 The Italian bees as we had them in 

 their highest degree of purity along in 

 the '6o's were undoubtedly an improve- 

 ment on the common black bee, I never 

 had a colony of Italian bees destroyed 

 by the moth-miller. They were better- 

 natured. Then I handled my bees many 

 and many a time without any protec- 

 tion whatever, either on my hands or 

 over my face, I can't do it in Kansas 

 with the bees I have now; only occasion- 

 ally when there is quite a flow of honey 

 the bees are bettcr-iiatured. We are all 

 bclter-naturcd wlu-n we h;ivc a full 

 stomach, and the bees are pretty good- 

 natured at a time like that. You can 

 open up a colony of hybrids — not Cy- 

 prians, they do not ask any odds for 

 a flight at any time, but they are good- 

 natured at a time like that, but at any 

 other time I won't venture. Sometimes 

 they appear to be as innocent and harm- 

 less as flies, and at other times they 

 will come out at me, thousands of them. 

 The reason I put in that question was 

 to argue that very point, and to show 

 what amalgamation is doing for us, and 

 that from 10 to i; miles is as close as 

 I would advise their being bred, the 

 diiiferent races of bees. 



Taking Bees out in Spring. 



"How soon in the spring should bees 

 be taken from the repository?" 



Dr, Miller — Take them out when the 

 soft maple is in bloom, unless the wea- 

 ther is such that you feel pretty sure 

 vou will have cold weather after that; 

 but not earlier than that. 



Mr. Moore — When the oak leaf is as 

 large as a squirrel's ear, 



Mr. Horstmann — What time does the 

 soft maple bloom? 



Dr. Miller — If you haven't any soft 

 maple you must take some other rule, 

 but the soft maple is a very common 

 tree, and I have no doubt Mr, Horst- 

 mann can find it without going verv 

 far from his home, unless they are 

 scarcer than I think, 



Mr, Horstmann — Can you give us 

 about the time of the month? 



Mr, Taylor — First to the loth of April, 

 Mr, Moore— I think the bo.x-elder 

 takes the place of the soft maple in 

 this part of the country. 



Dr, Miller — That is much later, 

 Mr. Moore — I mean as to prevalence 

 of the wood, 



Dr, Bohrer — Any pleasant day when 

 it is warm pnoiif for the bees to fly, 



Mr, Wilco.x — When the soft maple 

 blooms. 



Mr. Wheeler — When the thermometer 

 is_ from 55 to 60 degrees, without any 

 wind, is my view. 



Dr. Miller — That might occur in Feb- 

 ruary. 



Mr, Wheeler— Month of April, then. 

 Mr, Taylor — About my latitude, (La- 

 peer Co,, Mich..') take them out the 

 last days of March, when it is too cold 

 for them to fly, 



Mr, Hutchinson — Suppose the bees 

 are uneasy and would force themselves 

 out, would you take them out then 

 when it was cold ' 



Mr, Taylor— I do not think they 

 would be uneas; ■ j uneasy as to force 



them out, if you took them out when 

 cold. 



Mr. Hutchinson — I agree with you, if 

 the bees are healthy. 



Size op Hives. 



"Which is better, an 8 or a 10 framt 

 hive?" 



Mr. Wilco,\- — I would say an 8-framc 

 for comb honey, and a 10 for extracting. 

 Mr. Hutchinson — I second that, 

 Mr. Clarke — I prefer the 8-frame to 

 the lo-frame, for the simple reason, if 

 you know how to manipulate the 8- 

 frame properly you can produce one- 

 half more honey than you can with the 

 same process and use the lo-frame hive. 

 I do not claim to know as much as 

 many of the older bee-keepers that are 

 here, but I use both kinds together, and 

 I have tried them on an equal footing, 

 with the colonies of equal strength, and 

 the queens in the colonies bred from 

 the same queen-mother and cquall}' pro- 

 lific, sitting in the same yard, and I have 

 set them on scales alongside one an- 

 other. That is my result in 15 years. 



Dr, Bohrer- — Did you succeed in win- 

 tering them as well in the 8-frames? 



Mr, Clarke — Yes, sir. I have nevei 

 lost a colony in 15 years, wintered in 

 the cellar. 



Mr. Abbott — I suppose I ought to say 

 that when I wrote those heretical arti- 

 cles some years ago, I said I would not 

 have anything but an 8-frame hive for 

 comb hone}'. I am just of the samt 

 opinion now. If I were starting in busi- 

 ness again, I would not have anything 

 but a lo-frame hive. I am sure I am 

 right now. I was just as sure I was 

 right the other time. That 's the result 

 of getting older, and getting your hair 

 a little grayer, ' 



Mr, Horstmann — I would like to have 

 Mr, Abbott tell us why he knows he is 

 right. We want some reason for it. 



Mr. Abbott — There is not room 

 enough in an 8-frame hive for an ordi- 

 nary man to keep bees successfully. 

 You won't give the bees the room they 

 need as ' rapidly as they need it. In 

 a lo-frame hive they have the room 

 to start on, and you give them more 

 surplus room when you put on one super, 

 and when you put on two of course 

 you give them still more in proportion: 

 and you are more likely to give them 

 room when they ought to have it. The 

 reason why so many people fail in bee- 

 keeping is because they do not give the 

 bees room at the right time, and plenty of 

 it. There is more honey wasted in the 

 State of Missouri from ignorance as 

 to when bees need the room than there 

 is gathered in all the hives of Missouri 

 every year. I am confident of that ; and 

 I am confident that if we could take 

 out the 8-frame hives that are now in 

 the State of Missouri, an-d replace them 

 with lo-frame hives, we would not only 

 increase the hive four sections more, 

 but we would increase the crop nearly 

 double. I feel confident of it, I have 

 watched the matter very closely, and I 

 do not think, for the farmers especial- 

 ly, that anything smaller than the ca- 

 pacity of a lo-frame hive ought ever 

 to be used, I did not believe that when 

 I was writing those articles, but if I 

 were starting tomorrow, and for those 

 reasons, I would start with a lo-frame 



