1897 



Ur^EANINCS IN BEE CULTURE. 



373 



Thanks for your iuvitatlon. I have conclud- 

 ed to accept it. and at the same time call upon 

 other bee keepers of your State. It was seven 

 years ago iliat I visited beekeepers of your 

 State, and at your kindly hint 1 am in hopes to 

 repeat that trip in part.— A. I. R.] 



APIS DORSATA. 



WHY THE CO>!VENTION DID NOT INDORSE THE 

 I'KOJECT TO GET THEM. 



By W. C. Frazier. 



This question has been asked on an average 

 of once every tv?o weeks since the convention; 

 and while many good reasons have been given, 

 still the inquirers do not seem to be satisfied, 

 and think there is some selfish motive behind 

 it that prevented the indorsement. Xnthing of 

 the kind existed. Now, I am something of a 

 bee-importer myself, and am aware that if 

 Apis dorsatd would prove only half as good as 

 it has been painted, the man who succeeds in 

 introducing It could carve his name above that 

 of Dzierzon. Berlepsch. or our own father Lang- 

 stroth. He would not only be respected and 

 honored, but he might make a snug little for- 

 tune out of it. Now, I, or half a dozen others 

 whom I could mention, who understand the 

 business, and have had some experience in im- 

 porting, could lay down at our own apiaries 12 

 of these queens at a cost not exceeding one hun- 

 dred dollars for the dozen; and the man who 

 furnished them, the one who gave them a rest 

 in Europe, before crossing the Atlantic, and 

 the express companies that handled them, 

 would all get a satisfactory equivalent for their 

 labor and care. 



Now, what's to hinder some one sending for 

 a consignment? It is not the want of means, 

 as that could be secured, even if the one want- 

 ing to send did not have the money himself. 

 It's simply the lack of queens. This bee has 

 been known as the giant bee of India or Ceylon, 

 or somewhere else. Now, before the govern- 

 ment or any one else undertakes to send for it, 

 would It not be well to locate it? India or 

 Ceylon is rather indefinite. I might say there 

 is gold in South Africa or in Alaska, or even in 

 the United States; but it would require con- 

 siderable panning to locate it on such meager 

 information. There are Englishmen all over 

 India; and if this race of bees could be domes- 

 ticated it seems rather strange that some of 

 them have not tried their hand at it. English- 

 men usually have an eye to what will pay them, 

 quite as much as we Americans. 



These matters were talked over to some ex- 

 tent by a few of us at Lincoln; and the way 

 the thing now stands, I should not feel like 

 investing any of my money in the uncertain 

 venture of trying to get them, and I don't think 

 at present the government could be induced to 

 with the meager information at hand; and 



should any one anj/w/iere succeed in domesti- 

 cating them, and have queens to dispose of, 

 there would be no necessity for the government 

 to step in, as some of us would have an order 

 in for them before he could get his papers and 

 his trunk packed. 



If any one will take the trouble to look over 

 the reported honey yields given at the Lincoln 

 convention by those present, many receiving 

 from 100 to 450 lbs. per colony, he will readily 

 see why Apis dorsata did not create more 

 enthusiasm. Sensible men let well enough 

 alone. Most people would be satisfied with 

 such bees, and would only want a few more of 

 them. At some future convention, where the 

 honey yield has been a failure, they will per- 

 haps highly indorse them. 



Now, lest I be misunderstood I want to say 

 that, personally, I have not the slightest objec- 

 tion to the government's sending after them; 

 and there never was a time when there was a 

 Secretary of Agriculture who would give such 

 a proposition more attention than we have at 

 present, and it would not be necessary to ex- 

 plain to him that there is such a pursuit as 

 bee-keeping. But if such a petition is present- 

 ed, if you want to succeed, get things in shape 

 and locate the bees first. 



Atlantic, la. 



[This was written before the editorial ap- 

 peared on page 339 in May 1st issue. I had not 

 seen his manuscript when I wrote the editorial 

 in question. It will be seen that our thoughts 

 run much in the same line.— Ed.] 



ANSWERS TO 



ISEASOMBLEQtnESTII 



Br G.M.DOOLITTLE.BOROOINO.N,Y.' 



MULTIPLICATION OF COLONIES. 



Question.- 1 have purchased some bees, and 

 wish to increase them. Is there any way of 

 multiplying colonies, except by swarming, as 

 the bees conduct this, for increase? I must be 

 from home from 8 a. m. to 4 p. m. each day, ex- 

 cept Sundays; and if there were any way to 

 multiply my colonies except by natural swarm- 

 ing it would be much more convenient for me. 

 Please tell us something about this in your de- 

 partment in Gleanings. 



Answer.— The multiplication of colonies of 

 bees, outside of natural swarming, is some- 

 thing that is as old as the most ancient of the 

 things about bee-keeping. In the latter part of 

 the seventeenth century, Swammerdam told of 

 a bee-keeper who knew the art of producing 

 queen-bees at pleasure, and who secured four 

 times as many colonies annually as were usually 

 obtained; and in 1762 Grewell gave directions 

 for making artificial swarms and dividing colo- 

 nies. Others announced previously to the nine- 

 teenth century, that bees were able to raise 



