230 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Apit. 



Mr. C. Bonnet, who found them good, and even urg- 

 ed me himself to publish them, so that it is with his 

 permission that they appear under his auspices. 

 This proof of his approbation is such an honor to me 

 that I am not able to Seny myself the pleasure of 

 informing my readers of it. 



I do not ask to be believed solely upon my word. I 

 will tell of our experiments, and of the precautions 

 that we took; I will detail so exactly the processes 

 that we emplojed, that all observers will be able to 

 repeat these experiments. And if then, as I do not 

 doubt, they obtain the same results as we, I will 

 have this consolation : That the loss of my sight has 

 not rendered me wholly useless to the progress of 

 natural history. 



[Page 57 of Ruber's Book.] 

 Secrmd le'ter of Mr. Hulur to Mr. Bonnet— Continua- 

 tion of the observations on the fecundation of the 

 queenbee. 



Prkgny, the 21st of Aug., 1791. 

 Dear Sir:— It was In 1787 and 1788 that I made all 

 the experiments r f which I gave you an account in 

 the preceding letter. They appear to me to estab- 

 lish two truths regarding which up to this time there 

 existed only very vague information. 



1. Queen-bees are not of themselves fertile; they 

 become so only after mating with a drone. 



2. The mating takes place outside of the hive and 

 high in the air. 



Ttiis last fact was so extraordinary that, notwith- 

 standing all the proofs we had obtained of it, we 

 still desired very much to— 



I have compared the above with the book 

 on Fluber, sent me bv friend Henderson, and 

 it is entirely different from it. If the book 

 is to be written in the same spirit and vein 

 of the preface given above, what bee-keeper 

 Is there who would not want it V Now, 

 friends, the facts are all before you. What 

 shall we do about it ? 



HOLY-IiAND OR SYKIAN BEES. 



ALSO A GOOD WORD FOR THE SYRIO-ITALIANS. 



f^^RIEND ROOT:— On page 81, Gleanings for Feb. 

 il^ 1, friend Green gives a description of his Syr- 

 — " lau bees, and then asks the question, "Are 

 they pure Syrians?" From the experience I have 

 had with them, I can only agree with yourself in 

 thinking they are a cross between the Syrians and 

 Italians. 



In 1883, after reading a great deal about the Syr- 

 ians, I resolved to get some, and was fortunate 

 enousrh to get one of the Jones imported qtieens. I 

 Introduced her to a colony of Italians in June; and 

 by the time what we call our fall crop of honey came 

 on, they were about all Syrians, and a powerful col- 

 ony too. As the proppect for honey was very flat- 

 tering, I expected something extra from them. So I 

 picked out two colonies, one a pure Italian, the oth- 

 er what friend Heddon calls a cross between the 

 German and Italian, to compete with them. All 

 three colonies were as near alike, as it was possible 

 for mc to judge, in bees, brood, honey, comb, size of 

 hive. Every ihlhg being ready, on went the sections. 

 The bees took possession at once. Each seemed to un- 

 derstand I wanted them to do their best; and as 

 neither attempted to swarm, they soon were crowd- 

 ed. I gave them room by addinjf another case of 



sections, which was followed, before a great while, 

 by a third. Each case contained 30 one-pound sec- 

 tions, which, when taken off and weighed, the differ- 

 ence of 5 lbs. was not found between them. Neither 

 gathered any more surplus, nor gained in body of 

 hive. This satisfied me there was not much differ- 

 ence in their working capacity. I found that the 

 Syrian queens were wonderfully prolific, and hard to 

 find when wanted. The bees are veiy cross, and 

 much like the blacks In running and tumbling off 

 the combs. I believe I was stung more by this one 

 colony than by all the rest of my in colonies. I re- 

 solved to replace this queen as soon as possible with 

 an Italian. 



Some time in September, in looking through this 

 hive I found a great many capped queen-cells; and 

 upon further examination I could find no eggs nor 

 young larvfc. I found the old queen outside the 

 hive dead; and as she had a mashed appearance, I 

 thought I must have injured her somehow the last 

 time I opened her hive. As she was very prolific up 

 to that time, I could see no reason for the bees su- 

 perseding her. I cut out all queen-cells, and intro- 

 duced an Italian queen. As many of these cells were 

 extra nice, I thought I would saveone and get the 

 queen mated with an Italian drone, which I did. She 

 was almost an exact duplicate of her mother. She 

 went into winter quarters with fewer bees than I 

 liked, and came out in the spring very weak, bees 

 covering only three of my frames, 9'/2X 11^ inches, 

 ^nside measure. These bees were not nearly as 

 cross as the original stock. The queen seemed to 

 possess the great fertility of her mother. By spread- 

 ing the brood and inserting empty combs (I was care- 

 ful to exclude all drone comb, as I did not want to 

 get them mixed with my Italians), I had them ready 

 for the boxes by the time white clover came. 



It was cold and wet all through clover bloom, and 

 we had no fall crop; still this colony made more 

 than 701b3. of honey in I-ft>. sections, which was much 

 better than some of my Italians did that were twice 

 as strong in the spring, and all given the same atten- 

 tion. I am wintering the queen again. If she win- 

 ters all right, I will give her a still further trial the 

 coming season; I will also raise a few queens from 

 her, and cross them with the Italians. This, I think, 

 will still reduce the crossness of the bees, while the 

 queens, I hope, will still retain the fertility of the 

 pure Syrians, at lenst to a great extent. This great 

 proliflcness with some (so (/icy say) is an objection; 

 but I have never seen the queen yet that would lay 

 too much for me at any time of the year. If I can 

 get a bee that can beat the Italians in building up 

 for the early crop of honey, and still be as easy to 

 handle, I want it. 



My experience with the Italians has been very 

 satisfactory; but let us not cease to experiment; 

 and if there is any thing better, let us have it, by all 

 means. The only point I can see where the Syrians 

 beat the Italians is in the wonderful fertility of their 

 quetns. But the viciousness of the pure race will 

 for ever bar them, I think, from bpcoming popular 

 with most beekeepers. When the season arrives, 

 if friend Green will take the trouble to mail me some 

 of his bees I will return some that I know to be 

 Syrio-ltalians; then he can judge by comparison 

 what his are. 



My bpes are wintering nicely so far, and are In 

 much better condition than they were this time last 

 year; although we have had, from the commence- 



