MAY 15, 1916 



iuust have biouglit down llie slaiularcl of 

 our blacks. 



But judicious selection and breeding may, 

 lerhaps, be able to give us a strain of bees 

 unsurpassed for the conditions of our bee- 

 flora and our changeable climate. 



The principal objection raised to blacks 

 in the United States seems to be that they 

 are not immune to European foul brood. 

 But this objection does not carry any weight 

 with us, as this disease is, fortunately, but 

 seldom met in this country — at least I have 

 never heard of any eases in which apiaries 

 were ruined by it, or nearly so, and I my- 

 self have never seen a colony affected by it. 



What I have against the blacks is their 

 habit of sacrificing honey-gathering to 

 brood-rearing during the latter part of the 

 summer flow. If, for the thoro ripening of 

 the honey, supers are left over a colony oi 

 blacks, they will entirely empty them to 

 rear brood, when a sudden stoppage in the 

 honey-flow occurs at this time. Considering 

 that their main winter stores must come 

 from the heather (which blooms in August 

 and September), the bees very likely only 

 follow in this their natural instinct, trying 

 to get as big a force of workers as possible 

 for the autumn-flow. But it remains an 

 objectionable habit all the same, which, 

 however, may possibly be outbred. 



The buckwheat-flow having failed us last 

 year I had a striking instance of the supe- 

 riority of the Italians. The one colony I 

 have of them, altho not very strong in 

 spring, gave me over 60 pounds of extract- 

 ed honey by July 15, while my best colony 

 of blacks (and one which, in the early part 

 of May, had been judged " a magnificent 

 stock " by one of our well-known practical 

 beemen, Mr. R. Tukker, see Gleanings for 

 October, 1908), gave me only 15 sections, 

 most of which were only partly filled. 



To be fair I must say that, when ordering 

 this colony from Italy, I paid something 

 extra to get a superior queen. The colony 

 has never swarmed; and, altho always hav- 

 ing done better than my blacks, the differ- 

 ence has never been so glaring as this yeai', 

 buckwheat seldom leaving us in the lurch 



In Holland a mouth bee-smoker is frequently used, 

 which leaves both hands free for handling the frames. 



altogether. But I hardly need to say that, 

 at present, all my colonies of blacks have 

 been provided with a queen reared from 

 brood of this Italian stock. 



I have one colony of Carniolans. I have 

 had these bees for some years, but I do not 

 like them. They stop work a couple of 

 hours sooner in the day than either blacks 

 or Italians, and they don't make up for this 

 by rising any earlier. I cannot complain 

 about their excessive swarming, as none of 

 my colonies of Carniolans ever swarmed 

 more than once in a season, and last year 

 they did not swarm at all. With me they 

 don't excel in honey-gathering, and have not 

 proven themselves superior to the blacks in 

 this resi^ect. 1 consider them a lazy sti'ain 

 of bees. 



Soest, Holland. 



SOME OF THE NEEDS OF THE PORTO RICAN BEEKEEPER 



BY RAFAEL VIDAL 



Porto Rican beekeeping suffers from a 

 general lack of knowledge of up-to-date 

 methods. No fault can be found with equip- 

 ment. It is modern and practical, but too 

 many persons have gone into the business 



and with tlie idea that all there is to keep- 

 ing bees is relieving the workers of their 

 honey at frequent intervals, and disposing 

 of the crop at fancy prices. 



There has been a sad awakening since the 



with a superficial knowledge of the subject, depression came, caused by the war. Prices 



