GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino, New York. 



H THINGS MISLEAMNG. 

 '■■ I have read what the two Mil- 

 lers have to say regarding the flight 

 of bees^Arthur C. on page 866, 

 Sept. 15, and Dr. C. C. on page 

 966, Oct. 15 ; also what the editor 



says on page 964. It seems to me 

 that all but Dr. Miller put forth a mislead- 

 ing idea before the average reader. Editor 

 Root says, ' That they will generally not go 

 more than a mile in average localities and 

 seasons we believe is not far from the 

 truth.' This, I suppose, means a mile in a 

 straight line in all directions from the 

 apiary. Now, with 100 colonies could Edi- 

 tor Root, Dr. Miller, or Arthur C, in an 

 average locality, secure the yields per colony 

 reported, if the radius of flight were only 

 a mile?" 



In my memory of the days of the old 

 muzzle-loading rifles I can see the champion 

 shot of central New York putting the charge 

 of powder in the barrel of his gun, then a 

 cloth patch on the end of the barrel where 

 the powder had gone in, and on this patch 

 a ball of lead (100 of which it took to weigh 

 one pound), molded in the bullet-mold, from 

 a long-handled spoon of molten lead, heated 

 on the- coals in the open fireplace. Then 

 with a wooden ramrod, made from a split 

 hickoYy stick, this ball was pushed home, 

 and a percussion cap put on the " tube." A 

 chicken had been placed standing on a box 

 80 rods away (one-fourth mile), and who- 

 ever shot the chicken could have it. Many 

 would shoot, but very few got a chicken. 

 The old man would wait till all the amateurs 

 had tried and failed, then he would raise 

 the rifle to his shoulder, pull the trigger, and 

 the chicken would drop. Now for Editor 

 Root to tell us on page 964 that bees " very 

 often do not go much over a quarter of a 

 mile " for nectar does seem to me, as our 

 questioner says, somewhat " misleading." 

 And with 100 colonies set on the place 

 where the old man fired from, I can hardly 

 conceive of any beekeeper in this country 

 securing an average of 85 lbs. of comb hon- 

 ey as I did for 15 years in succession. 



Now for what I know to be positive facts, 

 proven by actual observation when the first 

 Italian bees were brought into this part of 

 the country. The late Jerome Burtis, of 

 Marietta, N. Y., a beekeeper of more than 

 ordinary ability in the early seventies, pro- 

 cured the first Italian queen that came into 

 central New York, receiving her in July. 

 He raised some ten or twelve queens from 



her the first season, so that he had nine 

 colonies headed with Italian queens the 

 next spring. As I had only blacks at that 

 time I was very much interested in these 

 Italians. When the apple-trees bloomed I 

 watched the bees at work on the bloom, and, 

 much to my surprise, saw several Italian 

 bees at work with the blacks. A count 

 was made, and the first gave three Italians 

 out of a total twenty. Other counts gave 

 from two to six Italians out of twenty, with 

 apple-trees pink with bloom as far as the 

 eye could see the orchards. Now, Marietta 

 was 2% miles distant, as the crow fiies, and 

 apple-trees were white with bloom all 

 around the 2%-mile radius from Marietta, 

 yet Mr. Arthur C. Miller and Editor E. R. 

 Root would have us believe that bees " will 

 generally not go more than a mile in aver- 

 age localities and seasons." 



Tliat same year, with no Italian bees 

 nearer, so far as I knew, I passed thru a 

 field of red clover 31/2 miles from Marietta, 

 and, seeing bees at work on the clover, the 

 first count gave three Italian bees out of 

 ten. The fields were red with clover every- 

 where. 



P]ditor Root speaks of moving " the 

 Waterworks yard scarcely a mile in an air- 

 line." Tliis was done in the aster bloom, 

 and " Not a one " came back. Now, asters 

 bloom in September here in central New 

 York, and bees are comparatively "slug- 

 gish " to what they are during May, June, 

 July, and August ; and with a whole apiary 

 moved I should hardly expect many to 

 come back, especially if eveiything about 

 their former home was cleaned up so that 

 the old site had no homelike look. 



About 1880, I sold during the latter part 

 of May a colony of Italian bees to a man 

 living about II/2 miles away, and he carried 

 them away after dark. The next morning 

 at about eight o'clock I saw bees hovering 

 about where the sold colony stood, and, 

 being short of colonies, I put another hive 

 on the stand having a frame of honey and 

 one of brood in it. At night I had a good- 

 sized nucleus in that hive, and built it up to 

 a full colony which stored me several boxes 

 of comb honey from the buckwheat bloom. 

 A year or two later I sold a colony during 

 the first days in June, having a $10.00 gold- ' 

 en Italian queen in it. This colony was 

 taken two miles away, and enough bees re- 

 turned the next day to make a small nucleus. 

 (See Editorials.) 



