166 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CtlLTURE. 



Apr. 



(3) Thn Italiars are rmtch mare indinrd to huikl 

 drone comh than the Macks. 



When f<irage is abundant, if an empty frame was 

 placed between two full ones, my experience with 

 the blacks led me to expect them to till it with work- 

 er comb; and if their qvieen was one of the current 

 year, I could count upon this witk almost absolute 

 certaintj'; while, under the same conditions with 

 Italians, drone comb was the rule and worker the 

 rare exception. The Italians, instead of filling the 

 empty frame, often occupy the vacant space by 

 bulging nut the other combs; and if the honey in 

 them was capped over, they would sometimes build 

 another tier of cells right upoa the cappings of the 

 old combs! Time would fail me to describe my va- 

 rious experiences in trying, when forage was abun- 

 dant, to induce Italian stocks to build worker comb; 

 and it was only by a very free use of the extractor 

 that, toward the close of my career as an active 

 apiarian, I was able to Sfcure— what cost me no 

 trouble with the blacks— a sufficient supply of work- 

 er comb. By the use of comb foundation we are 

 now much better able to remedy this defect in 

 Italians. 



Having now mentioned some of the points in 

 which the blacks are manifestly superior to the 

 Italians, and reserving others for future discussion, 

 it must bo evident that the Italians must have some 

 extraordinary advantages, to give them the prefer- 

 ence among our leading bee-keepers. These I pro- 

 pose also to notice in another article. 



From all that I can learn of them, the Cyprians 

 seem to have in high perfection some of the very 

 best qualities of the blacks and Italians; and unless 

 Mr. Benton can find something still better for us in 

 Asia we may well congratulate ourselves on its In- 

 troduction in undoubted purity into this country. 

 All honor to Mr. D. A. Junes, of Beeton, Canada, 

 whose extraordinary energy and experience in the 

 management of bees, and large expenditures, have 

 done so much, and promise to do so much more, to 

 secure for Europe and America the best race of 

 bees, or the best cross between dlflferent races, that 

 the world can give us! Without Mr. Jones, Mr. Ben- 

 ton might have longed in vam for such golden op- 

 portunities; and we should be still groping in the 

 dark, as we have been for so many years, talking 

 and planning " how to do it," but still ever so much 

 further ofl than we now are from the desired goal. 



The Holy-Land bees procured by Mr. Jones' per- 

 sonal visit to Palestine will probably bo found to 

 have the same good traits with the Cyprians, and to 

 be much nearer allied to them in size and disposi- 

 tion than to the Egyptian (Aim fasciata.) Jtf. Jones 

 himself gives them the preference, and it may be 

 that our most Viilued bees shall come to us from 

 that promised land, flowing iu milk and honey! As 

 the Italians are doubtless a cross, there is not much 

 to be expected by mixing their blood with the new- 

 comers. 



For the present, I will close by urging great cauti07i 

 on both buyers and sellers. It is well known that 

 tested Italian queens have been advertised, not only 

 by parties having insufficient experience in queen- 

 breeding, and without adequate arrangements for 

 keeping them purf, but from those who have bred 

 from very poor hybrids.* Reliable breeders will find 

 it much to their advantage to inform the public 

 from whom they procured their original stock, and 



why they can safely guarantee the purity of the 

 queens they offer for sale. If these precautions are 

 not attended to from the start, we must expect to 

 have "confusion worse confounded " by an ever-in- 

 creasing medley of bastardized bees. 

 Oxford, O., March, 1881. L. L. Langstroth. 



POLLEN AND DYSENTERT. 



Neighbor H. has some bees a fcvv miles in the 

 country, which gathered such quantities of pollen 

 that he had whole combs filled with it. Some of 

 these combs were put in good colonies, to enable 

 them ti) r;iise brood in the winter. All these bees are 

 !^o badly aftecttd that II. shvs he will never more put 

 in pjUen until we have spring weather. 



CYPRIAN AND HOLY-LAND QUEENS. 



As it is just as easy to raise Cyprian and Holy- 

 Land bees as any other, I believe the general ten- 

 dency is to offer them at the same prices as Italians. 

 As the difference is so slight between them and the 

 Italians, of co<ir«e it will be impossible to tell those 

 cros>!ed with Italians from those that are not. We 

 shall, therefore, have to call those pure that show no 

 traces of black blood, unless kept iu an apiary by 

 themselves, as neighbor H. has them. 



ONE-POUSD HONEY-TUMBLERS. 



Pleasf: do not scold, friends, when I make a mis- 

 take in my intentions of doing you a favor-. You see, 

 I found some very nice ghiss tumblm-s that I could 

 buy for cmly 28c. per doz., and I found we could 

 make tin tops for them at about a cent apiece, so I 

 advertised honey-tuinhlers at the very low price 

 mentioned in Feb. No. When the tumblers came, it 

 was found no two of them were exact ly of a size, and 

 so we were obliged to have them all sent here, un- 

 pack, fit the covers, box them up again, and re-ship. 

 This has made it necessary to advance the price to 

 53.00 per box of C doz., to cover expenses. 



'Amere tinge of yellow has often beon made to give golden 

 hue to some very black transactions. 



HONEY-LABELS. 



Perhaps more than one of you have remarked 

 that our labels on cans of honey do not beffin to 

 compare with those on other canned goods. In view 

 of this, I have had some large labels made by a label 

 maker, fi)r canning establishments, and, to my sur- 

 prise, 1 find that a libel ■llixia (large enough to go 

 clear around a 2-lb'. can), printed in five bright showy 

 colors, Clin bo had for only 250. per 100. Of course, 

 at this price the address and source of the honey is 

 left lilank; but we can print this in for 25c. more, 

 per hundred; 75c. more for 500, t)r $1.00 more for a 

 thousand. If wanted by mail, the postage will be 3c. 

 per 100. These labels are just the thing tor any kind 

 of tin pails or cans, but might be objected to for 

 glass, because they cover almost the whole of the 

 cati or jar. Samples of these new labels will be mail- 

 ed free on application. 



FOUNDATION MADE FROM RUBBER INSTE.AD OF 

 PLASTER PLATES. 



We have been hard at work on the problem, for 

 thepast month, and have succeeded in making plates 

 of pure elastic rubber, that will make fdn. better, 

 and even faster, than plaster plates, while the intro- 

 ductitm ot any foreign substance does not injure 

 them In the least. Nothing seems to be In the way 

 of making fdn. ria-ht in the wired frames, although 

 we have not done this as yet. The sheets turned out 

 are perfectly trimmed the size of the rubber plates 

 used. A pair of plates to make fdn. to perfectly fill 

 an L. frame {S%x\'J'-i) will at present cost $5.00, and 

 other sizes in proportion. If mounted and hinged, 

 ready for work, the price will be $7.00: the whole ap- 

 paratus, including wax boil-r and fountain, as per- 

 fect as we are now able to make them, will be $15.00. 

 Voucan now have them to make any kind of fdn. 

 you choose, by sending us a perfect sheet. A metal 

 pi ito has to be nude, to work the rubber on, and as 

 this metal plate has to be a perfect copy of the wax 

 she^t, this is where the expense comes in. By ap- 

 plying pressure, the wax can be nearly all forced 

 out so as to leave only a n^t work of walls. The 

 suggestion of using soft rubber came, I believe, first 

 from Mr. Gray. We have not, as yet, made plates 

 larger than about 4xii inches. We may be able to 

 make the price lower, after a while, but so far it 

 has cost quite a little money out, in the experiments. 



