352 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



brownish color. The black bees, in dis- 

 tinction from the others, are smaller and 

 quite black. 8. Carniolans and the Italians 

 are not the same. The former have white 

 fuzz -rings and steel-blue black bands. 

 The Italians — well, yon know, or ought to 

 know, wliat they look like. Both are a very 

 gentle race of bees — the Carniolans, it is 

 said, being a trifle larger. With what ex- 

 perience we have had with one colony in our 

 apiary, we should think they were. Mr. 

 Cheshire, in his book, " Bees and Bee-Keep- 

 ing," gives some measurements in proof of 

 this. 4. We believe there is a slight differ- 

 ence between the Holy-Iiands and Syrians ; 

 but what that difference is, very few of us 

 Yankees can determine. The native home 

 of the two races is not more than 100 miles 

 apart. 5. There are six or seven different 

 races of bees. 6. It is a hard matter to 

 answer this question, for there is no one man 

 who has had experience with all of them ; 

 and if he had, his order of arrangement 

 would probably not agree with the graded 

 valuation of some one else. Most bee-keep- 

 ers agree, however, that the Italians, for 

 general purposes, are the best. Other races 

 nave their peculiar merits. For instance, 

 the Eastern races, the Holy-Lands and Cyp- 

 rians, are characterized by being very pro- 

 lific, more especially tlie former. Both ai'e 

 more vindictive than the ordinary Italians. 

 The Cyprians have left a good record as 

 honey-gatherers. Scarcely any one, now, 

 however, sounds the praises of either one of 

 these races of bees pure ; and we don't know 

 of any one who advertises them at present. 

 Again, the Carniolans are said to be gentler 

 than tlie Italians, though we can not dis- 

 tinguish any particular difference in this re- 

 spect. They are given to swarming much 

 more than the Italians. It is said, and our 

 experience goes to substantiate it, that they 

 secrete very little propolis. This latter 

 trait is quite desirable indeed. 7. The best 

 honey-plant for this locality is clover. In 

 some" respects, basswood (or linden, as our 

 friend Mason would have it) is superior. 



A PECULIAR AFFECTION. 



Is there any foundation in fact for the suspicion 

 which 1 have sometimes had, that a person's eyes 

 may be affected from working over a colony of 

 bees? My experience is this: On several occasions 

 after being engaged in handling my bees, ray eyes 

 have become very much inflamed; the eyelids be- 

 come puffed like sacks of water, and the sensation 

 felt is a painful itching and burning, and this con- 

 dition lasts from two to three days. This has oc- 

 curred when I have not been stung in any part of 

 my body. I have been keeping bees five or six 

 years, and am accustomed to handling them as 

 much as is needful, and, of course, get ray due pro- 

 portion of stings. But a considerable nuraber of 

 stings seems to be a trivial matter in my case, and 

 the effects pass oft' within twenty-four hours. I can 

 not charge this eye affection to the bees from my 

 present knowledge, as I work over them so many 

 times without this result. But 1 do not now re- 

 member of ever having had the trouble except di- 

 rectly after handling them. J. F. Parker. 



Philadelphia, Penn., Apr. 9, 1888. 



Friend P., other bee-keepers besides your- 



self have at different times described simi- 

 lar affections, which they attriljuted to the 

 influence of tlie poison from the bees. 

 There may be something in it. I am in- 

 clined to think, however, that the l)ees are 

 oftentimes blamed when they have nothing 

 to do with it. Even so wise and learned a 

 man as father Langstroth at one time got a 

 notion that being even near a bee-hive af- 

 fected him unpleasantly. He afterward, 

 however, practiced handling bees right 

 along every day, without any bad sensations 

 at all ; and I believe he was forced to conclude 

 that it was a good deal the effect of im- 

 agination ; that is, he imagined the bees 

 were the cause of the peculiar sensations, 

 when they had nothing to do with it. Mr. 

 Cowan, in a recent article in the B. B. J., 

 suggests that these symptoms are so nearly 

 identical with hay fever that they may have 

 a common origin ; namely, the influence of 

 the pollen of grasses and flowers at certain 

 seasons of the year. 



SOME EXPERIENCE IN CLIPPING QUEENS' WINGS. 



Last spring 1 commenced with 25 colonies of 

 bees; and as I wished to experiment somewhat I 

 clipped the wings of 12 queens. The first that 

 swarmed had a queen with clipped wings. I found 

 her before the hive, caged her, and hived the bees 

 all right. The second I could not find at all, neither 

 in the hive nor outside. In vain I looked for that 

 ball of bees clinging to the queen. The third 

 swarm clustered on a small tree. I hived it, and in 

 about ten rainutes the bees had all returned to the 

 old hive. In vain I searched for the queen, and 

 circumstances in the hive afterward showed that 

 she was lost. 1 had seven natural swarras. Six had 

 queens with clipped wings. Three of these I lost. 

 I was on hand every time before the bees had all 

 left the hive, and I have the ground strewn with 

 sawdust. Now, what has become of my queens? 

 Do you think I had not clipped their wings suf- 

 ficiently so that they could fly a little? or what was 

 the matter? If I should not lose queens by it I 

 should prefer clipping their wings; but with my 

 last summer's experience it is rather discouraging. 



IS IT advisable to contract THE ENTRANCE 



TEMPORARILY OF A COLONY IN VERY COLD 



SPELLS OF WEATHER ? 



Has it been tried already, closing the entrance 

 entirely in extremely cold weather? I have at 

 present a few weak colonies, and I have closed the 

 entrance to their hives with a rag, to try how it 

 would work, as we have a cold spell here at pres- 

 ent. I have my bees all in tenement hives, double 

 walls, packed with chaff, the space between walls 

 being from 3 to 4 inches of the lower story. 



Nappanee, Ind., Feb. 28, 1888. L. A. Ressler. 



Friend R., your experience in clipping 

 queens has been much like ours, and that is 

 why we have of late discontinued it. We 

 would rather manage a swarm with a flying 

 queen than one which can not fly. Your 

 queens probably hopped off in the weeds and 

 grass, and were lost. It miglit answer to 

 cork up the entrances when it is very cold, 

 and open them when it gets warm, if one 

 had nothing to do but to chase around to the 

 hives with every change of the weather. D. 

 A. .lones once recommended something of 

 the kind ; but I think he departed a little 

 from his ordinary good judgment when lie 



