Oct. 1, 1911 



601 



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Cyprians and Their Characteristics; Why they were 



Discarded; Why Brood-rearing at Certain 



Seasons of the Year is Undesirable. 



Are there any pamphlets about Cyprian bees 

 that came out when they were introduced in the 

 early 80"s, or any other literature about them that 

 does not simply dismiss them as being too cross? 

 I have the old bulletin. No. 1, new series, but the 

 information given about the actual management 

 of these bees is meager. It must necessarily be so 

 in such a short general treatise. 



I .seem to have much more trouble l^eeping them 

 from swarming than witli their tempers. The one 

 colony that never got the fever gave me about 110 

 pounds of chunk honey, drawing the foundation, 

 and at least seven out of the ten others would have 

 done as well if they had never swarmed. I was 

 much astonished when a bee-keeper a mile and a 

 half north of me said he had no honey and no 

 swarms so far as he knew. His bees were probably 

 not quite ready for the dandelion flow, and in the 

 drouth following did not build up for what there 

 was of the clover flow. 



I have some very wide L. -depth hives with the 

 frames broadside. Cyprians kept in these are 

 prone to fill the central combs chock full of brood, 

 wholly neglecting a couple of combs at each end. 

 But most of my brood-chambers are regular ten- 

 frame width, with standard-length frame so deep 

 that it nearly goes through a shallow super rim 

 butted below the body. The capacity is about 15->4 

 L. In the latter type of hive they make a nicely 

 rounded brood-nest such as ordinary bees might 

 form in a ten-frame L. depth. This makes a far 

 better winter nest, according to the ideas which 

 have been advanced: and as the hive is more with- 

 in the limits of possibility in handling, and is near- 

 ly standard in every thing but the length of the 

 end-bar and the division-board, so far as I can see 

 it Is much to be preferred. I believe, too, that 

 there is a slightly greater total amount of brood 

 reared when the deep frames are used and the Cyp- 

 rians allowed to gratify their desire to extend their 

 brood-nest vertically. 



I am much impressed with the idea that this race 

 is overwhelmingly superior as honey-gatherers, 

 under certain conditions — that i.s, on a long slow 

 flow, or when drouth intervenes so as to stop other 

 bees from brood-rearing. The clover and basswood 

 are receding in most places, while from all I hear 

 rnelilot and vetch are coming. This will finally 

 make a slow flow from dandelion to asters in most 

 places. The gentleman with whom I compared 

 notes cellar.s his bees instead of leaving them un- 

 protected on their summer stands, as so many do 

 here, so there ought not to be a great difference on 

 account of wintering. 



Hicksville, O. Ben. P. Edgerton. 



[There are no pamphlets or bulletins, that we 

 know any thing about, having to do particularly 

 with Cyprian bees; but along in the early 80\s, es- 

 pecially after D. A. Jones retxirned from the orient, 

 in 1881, there were many articles in all of the bee- 

 journals concerning the merits and demerits of 

 Cyprians and Holy I^and bees. The Holy Lands 

 seem to have been further differentiated into Pal- 

 estine and Syrian. The only literature you will 

 find relating to these strains was that published in 

 the bee-journals during the time mentioned. In 

 most of the text-books, a brief description of them 

 will be found. 



It was generally acknowledged at the time, that 

 Cyprians were excellent honey-gatherers; but their 

 bad temper, that showed itself considerably more 

 at some times than others, put them out of favor 

 with bee-keepers generally. We kept Cyprian and 

 Holy I^and bees at our outyards for years. We did 

 not have much difficulty in handling them if we 

 worked very slowly and not using too much smoke; 

 but as both races ran excessively to brood-rearing, 

 in season and out of season, whether they were 

 stimulated or not, and as both of them were much 

 crosser and took more time to handle than Ital- 

 ians, and did not very greatly excel them, if at all, 

 in honey-gathering Qualities, tlie demand for them 

 grew less and less, until it ceased almost entirely. 

 While it is very desirable to have a strain at times 

 that will rear brood, and lots of it during tlie off 

 seasons, at certain other times of the year it is bet- 

 ter to have the queen let up. Generally speaking, 



in most of the Northern States It is not desirable 

 to have brood-rearing continue in full force during 

 the month of August; but it is well to have an in- 

 fusion of fresh blood during September and Octo- 

 ber. By putting in young queens, and practicing 

 stimulative feeding in Sertember, and where the 

 climate permits in October, Italians or Carniolans 

 will rear all the brood that is usually required. 



If you will try the Cyprians and Italians side by 

 side year in and year out in the same yard, we 

 doubt if you will find very much difference in 

 honey-gathering. 11 the Cyprians do gather any 

 honey in excess of Italians they are quite likely to 

 use it up in useless brood-rearing, yes, worse than 

 useless, at the wrono time of the year.* Italians, on 

 the other hand, will conserve their stores by let- 

 ting up on brood-rearing when they ought to do so; 

 for it is wasteful to raise a lot of bees that will con- 

 sume a lot of stores and then die before winter 

 comes on. 



To show you how easily you might be mistaken 

 as to the working qualities of your bees and those 

 of your neighbors a mile and a hall away, we may 

 say that of two of our outyards. only a mile and a 

 half apart, and with exactly the sanie strain of bees 

 In both, one lot crammed their hives full of honey, 

 and the other had to be fed. Your ( 'yprian bees, 

 you will see, might have been more favorably situ- 

 ated than the bees of your neighbors, for a differ- 

 ence of a mile and a half sometimes makes a big 

 difference in the amount of honey gathered. This 

 fact has been observed over and over again. Hence 

 the imijortance of scattering bees in outyards. — Ed.] 



Baby Nuclei and their Care ; Pollen Candy. 



How naany of your double matin g-boxes is a man 

 of some experience supposed to be competent to 

 attend to ? How many queens can be mated in a 

 short season like ours? 



Please give a recipe for pollen candy for late 

 breeding. 



How can we keep breeding going in September 

 the same as in May? How can we protect drones? 

 I want more stocks and queens. 



Cranbrook, B. C. Subscriber. 



[Our Mr. Mel Pritchard, with the help of one as- 

 .sistant, runs 250 twin nuclei; that is to say, 500 nu- 

 clei in all. He raises between 2000 and 3000 queens 

 every year. If the season is early enough so that 

 he can get queen-rearing operations under way by 

 the last of May he can raise 3000 queens. Mr. 

 Pritchard, however, is an expert in handling twin 

 nuclei, and we doubt if the average person could 

 do as well, at least without his experience. 



In a small way we would not advise you to fuss 

 with baby or twin nuclei. If you want to raise only 

 queens for your own use, better by all means use 

 regular Langstroth-size frames, or the frames you 

 are using in the apiary about two frames to the nu- 

 cleus. The baby nuclei require very close atten- 

 tion. They must be fed often; and the very act of 

 feeding makes them subject to the attacks of rob- 

 bers, which, by reason of their lack of strength, 

 they may not be able to repel. 



Recipe for making candy containing flour is as 

 follows: 



Into a piircelain. granite, or cop|n'r kettle (don't use iron) 

 pour a iiuantity of RTanulateil siis;ar and a very little water, 

 and place it on the stove. Stir .jnst enough to make a very 

 thick sjTup. and keep stirring- until the siig-ar is all dissolved, 

 but cease stirring- after it is all dissolved. Heat it g-radually 

 until it boils, and keep a grood fire until ready to take oft'. 

 Care will have to be taken that the mixture be not overcook- 

 ed. To determine when it has boiled enoug-h. dip the fing-er 

 into cold watei*. then into the ludling- syi-iip. then hiimfflia fly 

 liack into the water. When cooked cncnieh, the tilm of syrup 

 will crack on the ting-er when the .joint is bent. If one hesi- 

 tates to dip his welted finger into the boiling- syruii. let him 

 dip out a litt Ic witli a spoon and dro|) the contents into cold 

 water. If the residue hardens so that it is brittle, and breaks 

 between the fingers, the kettle should be lifted off; but the 

 fing-er test is the more accurate. This is what is called " cook- 

 ing- to a hard crack." At this stage remove the syrup from 

 the stove. It can now be poured into g-reased shallow tin 

 pans, and when cooled hard it will have a crystalline rock- 

 cand.v appearance if the work has been done right. 



To make it into a pollen candy, add one-fourth part of wheat 

 tlour. stirring: it into the hot syrup while it is cooling-. 



* In some of the warm countries this habit of almost contin- 

 uous brood-rearing- is a g-ood thing-. Where the hone.v-flow 

 lasts for months it needs fresh infusions of bees to fill in the 

 ranks of (dd bees dying- off. 



