702 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



strain of bees, quotes a letter from Olden- 

 burg, Ind., dated June 14, 1899, saying-, 

 "Golden Italians, which are as lazy as they 

 are prolific." But W. Z. H. adds, "1 have 

 had some strains of goldens that were ex- 

 cellent workers." 



H. C. Morehouse, in Rocky IMountain 

 Bee Journal, Aug. 15, 1902, writes: " The 

 yellow Italians breed up quickly in spring, 

 but dwindle badly during winter, and are 

 almost as vicious as full-blooded Cyprians. 

 They are good workers, but better robbers, 

 and their great prolificness keeps them 

 strong at all times, except in early spring. '' 



H. H. Hyde, in Gleanings, Jan. 15, 

 1902, says, " We have found these goldens 

 to be g:od workers, and a very good bee 

 for climates that have a short season or 

 where there is only one short honey-flow." 



C. Russell, Gleanincs, 1900, says, "I 

 would not take the best five-banded golden 

 in the world as a gift." 



J. B. Scoggins, in Nov., 1901, Southland 

 Queen, says, "For honey I want the five- 

 banded Italians mated to black drones, as 

 they will always roll up the honey." 



I have seen and handled exceedingly gen- 

 tle goldens, ugly goldens, good and bad 

 goldens, and the same of the three-banders. 

 Nearly every fault can be laid to the gold- 

 ens, and, on the other hand, there is not a 

 virtue possessed by any strain of Italians 

 which some strains of goldens do not pos- 

 sess. In the way of beauty, I have never 

 seen bees which, to my eyes, would com- 

 pare with a colony of " golden albinos " 

 which I saw in the queen-yard of Mr. Thos. 

 C^ antrj', of South Dakota. I would be 

 willing to j jin J. M. Gibbs' "Three banded 

 Italian Bee Club," and just as willing to 

 join a "Golden Italian Club." 



As to the foreign races of bees, some of 

 them, in some traits and for special pur- 

 poses, greatly excel the average Italians. 

 I have quite a number of Carniolan queens 

 mated to Italian drones, which makes, al- 

 most always, a gentle bee, not much inclin- 

 ed to swatm, caps honej* whiter than aver- 

 age Italians, shakes off extracting-combs 

 somewhat easier, more prolific, builds up 

 somewhat better, and breeds during harvest 

 a little more than Italians; so ycu see that 

 I am not wholly satisfied with any strain 

 of Italians yet tested. 



It may not be generally known, but it is 

 a fact, I think, that some of the world's 

 most extensive bee-keepers prefer the Car- 

 niolans Previous to the death of Capt. 

 Hetherington, Carniolans were largely in- 

 troduced into his ex ensive apiaries, as he 

 had found them "far superior in honey- 

 gathering." 



W. L. Coggshall also uses some Carnio- 

 lans, though W. W. Somerford once wrote 

 in Gleanings that to the introduction of 

 a non-swarming strain in his apiaries was 

 due the greater part of Mr. Coggshall's 

 success. If the Carniolans are a non- 

 swarming strain, the fact has not previous- 

 ly been mentioned. 



In April, 1901, I called on L M. Brown, 



of Sioux City, Iowa, and f jund him using a 

 great many' goldens from a noted Florida 

 breeder. Mr. Brown produced extracted 

 honey at that time, and found this strain of 

 goldens to be unsurpassed. 



Doolittle, in explaining his position in re- 

 gard to the relative merits of the leather 

 and golden stock, was unable to see any 

 but "minor differences" between them, 

 while H. E. Hill once wrote that, in a poor 

 honey- flow, the goldens "were scant and 

 scattering layers, " and that their brood 

 would often produce "cute little golden 

 drones " instead of workers. I have heard 

 that, in rearing golden queens, an abnor- 

 mally large proportion of them turn up 

 missing in the nuclei. Finally, I have not 

 found a strain of goldens sutficiently supe- 

 rior to pay me for the trouble of rearing 

 many golden queens and re-queening my 

 apiaries. 



Boise, Idaho. 



HIVING SWARMS FROM INACCESIBLE 

 PLACES. 



Dr. C. C. Miller: — Please answer the 

 following questions: 



1. How long should one leave a swarm on 

 a limb before touching it? 



2. When the bees settle on a lot of small 

 limbs and on the ground, how do you han- 

 dle them? 



3. If they get on an old gray-willow 

 stump that you can't move, how would yoa 

 handie them? 



4 Af;er studying for a long time I got a 

 colony last spring, but did not let it swarm 

 last season, but divided it until I had five 

 colonies which wintered well, on^y about a 

 handful dying. When warm weather came, 

 two colonies quit their hives and went in 

 with the oihers — at least I suppose they 

 did, as they disappeared, and the others 

 seemed to have many more bees. 



5. The other day I heard bells ringing 

 and pans beating, and thought the house 

 was ou fire. I rushed up from the garden 

 to find a swarm settling in a clump of wild 

 roses, and on the ground at the rocts, and 

 on every dry stick lying around. How 

 would you have hived that swaim? I used 

 the little bee sense and what horse sense I 

 had, and cut off what I could, swept the 

 rest into a pan, and put them into the hive. 

 I left the hive there. At night I picked it 

 up and placed it with the others; but most 

 of the bees left it the next day. There is a 

 lot in it yet. but nothing like the lot I gath- 

 ered up. Where do you suppose they went? 



6. Yesterday another lot went out about 



