OCTOBKR 15, 1914 



nature does not supply it near the apiary. 

 A dish with something in it, such as small 

 laths, excelsior, siraw, etc., to prevent the 

 hees from drowning, will suffice. A couiile 

 of bai'rels with arrangements for continual 

 drip (a spigot (cock) or siphon) would be 

 convenient for large apiaries such as you 

 have in America. The barrels should stand 

 on a foundation one and a half or two feet 

 liigh. The drip should fall on a slanting 

 board, with rills, or covered with gunny- 

 sacks, etc. 



When the bees have young brood they 

 need much water. A large force of bees is 

 needed in the apiary to carry water. In 

 <>arly spring the weather often changes sud- 

 denly and many water-carriers cannot 

 retuin if they have to go a considerable dis- 

 tance. We often have very bad weather for 

 several days in succession. It is not only 

 the loss when bees are more valuable than 

 at any other time, but the extra work saved 

 to the bees would pay for the trouble of 

 providing water in one or more places in 

 the apiary. 



Water at about 70 to 80 degrees F. is 

 recommended. A beekeeper can readily 

 make an arrangement for warming it. A 

 kerosene-lamp will supply the heat very 

 cheaply. If desired I will describe in detail 

 one I have made. 



OBSERVATION STATIONS. 



In many of the provinces observation 

 stations have been established. A hive on 

 scales is weighed once or twice daily during 

 a part of the year. The number of days 

 and hours during which the bees fly, the 

 amount of rainfall, prevailing winds, etc., 

 are noted. These observations are sent 

 monthly to the chief of observers, who tab- 

 ulates the results ond publishes them with 

 comments. Bavaria has 31 such volunteer 

 observers in the various parts of the king- 

 dom. Switzerland has .39. The chief, Mr. 

 Juestrich, in his annual report in the 

 Schirieizerisclie Bienenzeitung states that 

 the 39 stations have 52 hives on scales, 44 

 of these having frames in an upright posi- 

 tion, and 8 in the same way that you have 

 yours. The top-bar is longer than the ends. 



The average monthly consumption per 

 colony was, November, 710 gi'., 1.6 lbs. ; 

 December, 688 gr., 1.5 lbs. ; January, 794 

 gr., 1% lbs. The average consumption in 

 ten years was, for November, 741 gr. ; De- 

 cember, 888 gT. ; January, 956 gr. In Ba- 

 varia the average is given for 19] 1; Novem- 

 ber, 595 gr. ; December, 446 gr. ; in 1913, 

 November, 371 gr. ; December, 691 gr. 



In April the brood was measured, 14 

 colonies showing an average of 34 cm^, or 

 about 544 square inches per colony. 



Markt Oberdorf, Bavaria, March 16. 



S VSo PURE ITALIANS F' 



BY DC. C. C. MILLER 



Dr. C. C Miller: — I certainly agree with all you 

 have written in favor of the black and hybrid race 

 of bee.s being .';uperior for comb honey ; and with 

 my experience I am unable to see why you have 

 changed over to the Italians. Some of the poor pea- 

 sons the blacks have more than doubled in the 

 amount of comb honey produced. I have been a 

 close observer of the workings of the two races, and 

 in every instance the dark race leads the yellow in 

 the production of comb honey. In working for ex- 

 tracted honey I do not see any difference in the 

 average. With this experience I am still partial to 

 the dark race; but as the whole fraternity seem to 

 differ I am still frying to secure a race or strain of 

 Italians that will do what is claimed for them, or at 

 Ica.st as well as the blacks. You seem to be satisfied 

 with your present line of Italian stock. The ques- 

 tion is, where did you secure the queens that do so 

 well for you at this time ? I desire to purchase a 

 few queens this season, and am at a loss to know 

 where to get them. All queens that I have purchased 

 of late years have proven to he very much inferior 

 to what I already had, and in some instances very 

 injerior. Some that I have received produced bees 

 that are the most determined robbers that ever in- 

 habited a liive. Others will do nothing in comb 

 honey. Can you give me the address of one or more 

 breeders vvhiise stock you know is good/ 



S. COULTHARD. 



Thompsonville, Mich., April 17. 



Jt is not the easiest thing to m.ake entirely 

 clear my view with regard to blacks, Ital- 

 ians, and their crosses. It is true that I 

 have had hybrids which did .so "well that 

 Italians I obtained did not equal them in 

 storing. From this some have concluded 

 that I believe black blood better than Ital- 

 ian. That inference is warranted only o)i 

 the ground that the whole of what I said 

 was not taken into consideration. Let me 

 try to make the matter clear. 



The hybrids I had, which were better than 

 Italians, had been bred up through years of 

 careful selection. As I have said more than 

 once, if I had taken the .same pains in select- 

 ing from pure Italian stock, it is entirely 

 possible that I might have had Italians still 

 better than my hybrids. It is well known 

 that a first cross is likely to have more vigor 

 than either parent cf pure blood. So I bred 

 from my best stores, which were hybrids. 

 It is also known (although I didn't know it 

 in my early beekee])ing days) tl.al follow- 

 ing up with crosses is not likely to result so 



