1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



83 



MORE ABOUT THE BAKER BEES. 



ALSO SOME GENERAL REMARKS RELATIVE TO A 

 STRAIN OF BEES THAT WILL STAND OUR WIN- 

 TERS WITHOUT SPECIAL PROTECTION. 



[See pages 741, Dec. 1, and 18, Jan. 1.] 



fRIEND ROOT: -During the past summer I 

 have been gathering up some bees, prepara- 

 tory to making a specialty of apiculture, and, 

 of course, I wanted some Italians, so that 1 could 

 Italianize what I already had. Well, I was recom- 

 mended to a Mr. Baker as a bee-keeper who had 

 pure Italians, and 1 went there and found them as 

 represented, and I purchased a choice colony of 

 him, and afterward removed them home. Well, 

 when Mr. Robbins' article came out in December 

 number of Gleanings, I, of course, was deeply inter- 

 ested, and resolved to investigate the matter for 

 myself. 



I put the matter off until I received the January 

 number of Gleanings also, and in that a second ar- 

 ticle from Mr. Robbing. But yesterday I took both 

 numbers of Gleanings referred to above, and drove 

 over to Mr. Baker's, a distance of about 12 miles, 

 and now I will give the result of my investigation. 



Mr. Baker did go west from VanBuren, as stated 

 in Mr. Robbins' article, but not with the intention of 

 staying there permanently, and has since returned. 

 When he went west he did not sell his bees, but left 

 them in care of his brother. After he had been in 

 the West some time he wrote to his brother to sell 

 the bees, all but 4 or 5 of the best stocks, and his 

 brother put them up at a sale, and sold them as di- 

 rected; and Mr. Baird, instead of getting the bees 

 direct fi-om the owner, got them at this sale. Mr. 

 Baker says be is acquainted with all the parties 

 mentioned in Mr. Bobbins' article, and is fully satis- 

 fied the bees mentioned are of his particular strain. 



WHAT MR. baker HAS TO SAY ABOUT THEM. 



Well, he has never lost any bees yet in wintering, 

 except one, and that one the combs broke down, 

 and when a warm day came they swarmed out and 

 left. He has noticed that his bees, when flying in 

 and out, go very rapidly— some stocks more so than 

 others. His bees are not as bright as some he has 

 seen: but when the queens are purely mated, the 

 three bands of yellow are well defined (all queens not 

 90 mated he destroyed); the queens are rather dark. 

 As to their having a waspish appearance, he had 

 nothing to say, nor did I ever notice It, but will ob- 

 serve in regard to that when warm weather comes. 



He claims they are very prolific. As to their 

 honey-gathering qualities, I will try to tell that in a 

 few words. I want to say about Mr. Baker person- 

 ally, that he has never read a standard work on api- 

 culture. All he knows about bees he claims to have 

 learned by actual experience. He owns a farm, 

 and attends to his bees in the few spare moments he 

 can snatch from his farm work. He has one queen 

 that produces now and then a bee not marked as a 

 pure Italian; the remainder, between 20 and 30 

 stocks, are all marked as pure Italians, and this 

 with an apiary of badly hybridized bees within 

 about 60 rods of him, containing about 75 colonies. 

 As Mr. Baker never read any of the bee publica- 

 tions, of course he knew nothing in regard to mod- 

 ern applications for obtaining surplus honey, and he 

 has worked more for increase, as he could always 

 sell stocks of bees to a guod advantage. He never 

 worked so much for surplus; but after all, the re- 

 turn from this source was satisfactory. He says he 



does not fear the wintering problem. He is feeding 



one colony now that was robbed in the fall; has fed 



them every day this winter. He simply raises the 



^ cover, and pours some syrup down over them. He 



! showed me these bees yesterday, and they were 



I lively, bright, and healthy. They stacd, as do all 



j the rest of his bees, unprotected on their summer 



stands, except a kind of shed over them. 



Jacob Guisinger. 

 j Stanley, Ohio, Jan. 15, 1884. 

 [ I have given the above, priiicipally that we 

 may get a fair view of the case, and i trust 

 I the friends who have written in regard to 

 I these bees will not get into any controversy 

 in the matter. While i am pielty well sat- 

 ! istied that an apiary of bees where spring 

 i dwindling has never been known is less lia- 

 ble to be affected that way, I can hardly be- 

 lieve this apiary of '20 or oO colonies has any 

 special merit in the direction mentioned, 

 over Italians slightly mixed with common 

 bees in general. It is not very unusual to 

 iind whole apiaries that winter safely ,winter 

 after winter, and that without very much 

 care. The principal point before us is this : 

 These bees were never bred with any special 

 I object in view. Whatever remarkable trait 

 they may possess came about accidentally. 

 Other bees— blacks and hybrids— are round- 

 about in the neighborhood, and thus crossed 

 j and re-crossed, as bees usually are. If there 

 were one or two colonies found in the apiary 

 having remarknble powers of endurance, it 

 would be nothing very remarkable ; but it 

 i seems to me it would be very remarkable 

 indeed that the whole of them should be 

 I greatly superior to bees in the vicinity, or, if 

 I you choose, to bees in general. I know I hurt 

 a good many people's feelings by the cautious 

 1 way in which I advise acting in regard to 

 I these new things thut come up ; but a great 

 and growing class of learners are depending 

 upon me a good deal for advice ; and while I 

 am sorry to discourage or throw cold water 

 on any new project, still I feel it would be a 

 serious thing for me to let any individual in- 

 terest stand in the way of guiding these 

 young friends safely and wisely. 



A VISIT TO SOME OF THE CONVENTIONS 

 IN THE SOUTH. 



ALSO MENTION OF SOME OF OUR PROMINENT 

 SOUTHERN BEE-MEN. 



f STARTED with 13 colonies; increased to 30 by 

 artificial swarming; but lost nearly all fhe 

 — ' white-clover blossom by dividing at the wrong- 

 time; secured about oOO lbs. extracted honey from 

 heart's-ease. Buckwheat was a failure this season. 

 We did not get a drop of rain from Aug. 15 to Oct. 1. 

 The bees worked on the leaves of the oak during 

 September, early in the morning; but what they got 

 from leaves I could not say. I was not so fortunate 

 as you and friend Cork, of Niagara, to have a ladder 

 to get up the tree. 



Taking the season all together, it was not up to 

 the average. I visited Louisville last August to at- 

 tend the exposition and the Kentucky Bee-Keepers* 

 Convention. While there I met friend Hart, who 

 gave quite a description of Florida and her honey 

 resources. He was listened to very attentively by 

 all the bee-keepers, as a great many of them are 



