238 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



the fact that they are kept within a city can- 

 not be made a nuisance. In the case of "Clark 

 versus the City of Arkadelphia, Ark., the Su- 

 preme Court held that, "Although bees may 

 become a nuisance in a city, an ordinance 

 which makes the owning , keeping or raising 

 of bees within the city limits a nuisance. 

 whether it is in fact so or not, is too broad. 

 and is not valid.*' There were other cases de- 

 cided in the same way. 



However, if your bees should sting people. 

 they could recover damages and force you to 

 remove them. 



Bees will not fly through a wire luesli 1 

 inch or less in diameter. So a very safe thing 

 for you to do is to establish a small net fence 

 around your apiary, on the sides next to the 

 street or the neighbor. I have seen this in 

 the City of Peoria. 111., with very satisfactory 

 results, 



A little gift of a comb of honey, tn the 

 neighbor who dislikes the bees, donated at the 

 time of harvesting the crop, may smooth down 

 much dissatisfaction or prejudi(je. 



hive, on top of the frames of the other hivi.- 

 but the fiueen will probably be slower in go- 

 ing down to it than she would be in going up. 

 The same precautions are necessary in either 

 case, to close up any openings that would give- 

 too much exposure of the combs. 



cause of Isle of Wight disease, it 

 might be killed by smoking the bees 

 with sulphur smoke, and says: "To 

 my mind it may be a question of de- 

 ciding how little will kill the mites 

 without harming the bees." 



A Drone Layer 



The hive of bee^*; in my apiary that T exam- 

 ined to see if they were short of supplies had 

 4 or ft pounds of honey and lots of pollen 

 stored, and they seemed to be working strong. 

 They are Goldens, and have one of the finest- 

 looking queens you ever saw, but there was 

 not a bit of worker brood in the combs, but 

 lots of drone brood in worker cells. This is 

 a young pueen, about 8 months old. Now 

 what is the trouble, laying workers, or an 

 infertile oueen. or what? MISSOURI. 



Answer. — That queen is a drone-layer and 

 absolutely worthless. The sooner you replace 

 her with another, the better it will be for the 

 colony. If the colony is strong, you might 

 save it by killing the queen and giving them at 

 once some brood just batching from the eggs, 

 in place of their drone brood. If you can give 

 them a good queen it would be still better. 



As far is I am able to judge, the queen 

 must have been disabled by chilling. That 

 sometimes makes a fertile queen a drone-layer. 

 However, she may simply De an inferior aueen 

 which has already lost her fertility. Such ac- 

 cidents happen more readily among the Gold- 

 pns than among the others, because of their 

 being too much in-bred. 



Transferring 



1 have a colony of bees in a box hive and 

 would like to transfer it. I have a lOframe 

 Jumbo depth dovetailed hive with five frames 

 of drawn comb and the rest with full sheets 

 of foundation. I have had no experience, and 

 would like to know the easiest way to transfer 

 to this hive. IOWA. 



Answer. — When the colony becomes sli»ng 

 enough, which ought to be in May or June, 

 turn the box hive bottom side up, and fit the 

 other hive, right side up, on top of it, without 

 its bottom board, using such slats or short 

 boards as may be needed to close any too 

 wide openings to the outside. In short, fix 

 your hives so that the bees can go from one to 

 the other, and also so they can go back and 

 forth to the field. 



The queen will go up into Ihc movable- 

 frame hive as soon as she is crowded for 

 room below. If she docs not move soon 

 enough to suit you. you may drive her up by 

 using a little smoke and drumming the bees 

 for a few minutes. After the queen has bec-n 

 in the upper hive 21 days, the brood will all 

 be hatched out below. You may then re- 

 move that lower story and use it as you see 

 fit. 



Vou can also put Ihe lower story, or box 



Goldens 



Are the Golden Italians as good hniiey gath 

 crers and geiiera!-|nirpose bees as the three- 

 banded ? Also, what was their origin? 



OHIO. 



Golden Italians are not a special variety of 

 the Italian race, although there are occasion- 

 ally in Italy bees of a slightly lighter shade 

 than the average. The bees which may be seen 

 in Italy, from one end of the country to the 

 other, have three yellow rings on the abdo- 

 men next to the thorax. These rings being 

 more or less transparent, the color of the 

 honey within their abdomen has some influ- 

 ence upon their yellow appearance. In ordi- 

 nary conditions, the yellow resembles more a 

 fair leather color. Their temper is mild and 

 they hang quietly upon the combs when prop- 

 erly handled, while the common bees cluster 

 under the combs and often fall to the ground 

 in spite of the care taken. This is the pure 

 race of Italian bees. 



By selecting yellow queens from the yel- 

 lowest 'bees, beekeepers, especially in America, 

 have succeeded in producing an artificially 

 made variety of "golden bees." Their color is 

 brighter and the rings of the abdomen have 

 nearly all more or less of the transparency of 

 the three rings common to all the bees of their 

 race. Usually the "goldens" are as quiet on 

 the combs as the ordinary Italians and as 

 peaceable in temper, but they are often less 

 prolific, because of having been selected for 

 color at the expense of other qualities. 



Some "goldens" have been bred through a 

 mixture with Cyprian bees. The Cyprians 

 are of brighter hue than the Italians, having 

 a golden shield upon the tip of the thorax. 

 They are really "copper-colored." It has often 

 been remarked that their color is well matched 

 with the name of their native island, Cyprus, 

 the name of which is derived from, or similai 

 to, the Latin word "cuprum" (copper). The 

 Cyprians are very active, very cross, and al- 

 most impossible to subdue. The Golden Ital- 

 ian bees which have been produced by the 

 mating of Italian mothers with Cyprian drones 

 retain to a certain extent the activity and ir- 

 ritable disposition of the Cyprians. So when 

 we meet golden Italian bees which are of iras- 

 cible temper, we usually suspect them of hav- 

 ing inherited those traits, at some time or 

 other, from the Cyprian ancestors. 



Thus it is impossible to say whether the 

 goldens are as crood honey gatherers as the 

 ordinary pure Italian bees. Much depends upon 

 their descent. Personally. I have no desire to 

 breed from golden Italian bees. At least, the 

 question of color is, a very secondary question, 

 in my mind. The qualities we should seek in 

 our bees arc : honey-gathering qualities, pro- 

 lificncss, gentleness, with color as an adjunct 

 which may be pleasant to have, but not in any 

 way indisitensahlc. 



ODDS AND ENDS 



Wintered Without Loss 



My bees, 32 colonies — have win- 

 tered without loss. They are working 

 fine on fruit bloom and dandelion. I 

 have never seen clover look more 

 promising at this time of year than it 

 does now. Surely the indications are 

 for a good honey crop. 



B. A. Manley. 



Milo, Iowa, April 21. 



Ellis County Beekeepers Meet 



The Beekeepers' Association of El- 

 lis County, Texas, held their annual 

 field meet April 8, at the home of T. 

 W. Burleson, in Waxahachie. In 

 spite of very inclement weather, the 

 meeting was well attended. One of 

 the main features of all field meets 

 is the picnic dinner, and those pres- 

 ent certainly thank Mrs. Burleson for 

 the wonderful "eats" placed before 

 them. The work of the afternoon 

 was of a character that is seldom 

 found at beekeepers' gatherings. A 

 regular school of instruction was 

 held. Several box hives were trans- 

 ferred to movable-frame hives and 

 the full process of shipping pound 

 packages and the building of colonies 

 from pound packages was gone 

 thi'ough with. Every one present was 

 highly delighted with the methods 

 that were used by Mr. Burleson and 

 it is needless to say that everyone 

 learned much of value. Visitors were 

 present from both Dallas and Johnson 

 Counties. The Ellis County Bee- 

 keepers' Association is one of the 

 best in the State and has been ex- 

 tremely active in the work of en- 

 couraging better beekeeping in North 

 Central and Eastern Texas. 



Can the Mite Be Killed? 



A. J. Ridley, in British Bee Jour- 

 nal, suggests that if the newly-discov- 

 ered mite which is called Tarsonemus 

 Woodi, is shown to be actually the 



Guadalupe Valley Field Meet 



Five of the prominent beekeeping 

 counties of Texas, located along the 

 valley of the Guadalupe River, have 

 been united in the Guadalupe Valley 

 Beekeepers' Association for a number 

 of years. Their annual picnic was 

 held April 13 on the Guadalupe 

 River near Seguin, over fifty bee- 

 keepers were present and quite an 

 elaborate program was carried out. 



After a bountiful picnic dinner, 

 the beekeepers were addressed by Mr. . 

 Louis H. Scholl, editor of the Bee- 

 keepers' Item. Mr. LeStourgeon, ■•'f 

 the Texas Honey Producers' , then 

 told of the coiTect packing of honey, 

 emphasizing the fact the beekeepers 

 must develop their local trade to a 

 far greater extent than ever before. 



H. B. Parks, Secretary of the 

 American Honey Producers' League, 

 spoke on the relationship between the 

 nectar-yielding plants of the San An- 

 tonio district and the problems of 

 beekeeping. 



Miss Alma Hasselbauer, Secretaiy 

 of the Texas Honey Producers' Asso- 

 ciation, spoke of the work of asso- 

 ciations as a help to the beekeeper. 



Mr. Alex, of the Texas Experiment 

 Station, told of the work of the State 



