496 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



a year, and at last, out of six queens sent at different 

 times, we have received two in good condition. 



When I received the queen at the postofflce, at 

 least a dozen men saw a sight they had never seen 

 before— a queen bee— an Italinn at thnt! " Look a 

 here, mister," said a by-stander, " you couldn't run 

 after me fast enough down the steepest hill in all 

 this country to give me a whole swarm of them 

 blamed stingin' things you've goi over there in your 

 yard; but don't you forget me when you get a gum 

 full of them yaller fellers to sell, for I want 'em." 

 You can no doubt infer that he had had some ac- 

 quaintance with my belligerent blacks, and that he 

 had read or dreamed something about the docility 

 of the Italians. His remark led a listener to expose 

 all of his knowledge of bee culture by asking how 

 long it would take " that queen and them bees in 

 there" to make a swarm. I made the crooked places 

 straight to his mind as well as I could, and after let" 

 ting all examine my bees to their satisfaction, I in- 

 vited them to visit my apiary at their convenience, 

 and retired to my home. Millaud Berky. 



Duck Creek, Dallas Co., Tex.. Aug. '.^5, 1881. 



Many thanks for your kind -words, friend 

 S., for I sadly needed them when your letter 

 came to hand. We have not, even with the 

 double cages and double bottles, succeeded 

 in all cases. See the letter below : — 



The bees arrived on the 25th, dead and dried up. 

 If you can send bees on a two-weeks' journey, so 

 that they will be alive when they arrive, do so; if 

 not, why not say so? R. Beeton. 



Santa Barbara, Cal., Aug. 25, 1881. 



The above was a package of live queens, 

 all in double bottle cages too. £ wonder if 

 our friend who wrote it thinks our queens 

 cost nothing, and that we make a practice of 

 sending them that way all the time. We 

 have got to try it again ; but with this herce 

 drought we are having now, I really feel 

 fearful it Avill be only to lose again, al- 

 though we have many times this season sent 

 them to California in nice order. 



THE (TPRIANS. 



"more about" friend HAYBI'RST'S "TEA-P\RTY." 



?g^.^ELL, friend Root, I suppose I must stand up 

 Wm and " speak my little piece" in regard to the 

 Cyprian bees. While " Hayhurst's Tea-Par- 

 ty " is quite extravagant, and was sent to you with- 

 out my knowledge or consent, it will give the reader 

 a pretty good idea of my opinion of the one bad 

 point of the Cyps; viz., their vicious temper. 



The only experience I have had with them was 

 with the imported queen which I sent you, and her 

 progeny. I purchased this queen of friend D. A. 

 Jones last summer, and have no doubt that she was 

 one of his best, as he received $15.00 for her at about 

 the time he had reduced the price of imported 

 queens to from $7.00 to $12.00. 1 raised 10 queens 

 from her last fall, 8 of which were wintered in my 

 yard, the other two were sold. These queens were 

 mated with Italian drones. I could see no difference 

 between them and the pure Italians as to winter- 

 ing qualities. We treated all our bees alike for win- 

 ter, and they came out in the spring all in very near- 

 ly the same condition. 

 Very early in the spring, the imported Cyprian 



colony, as well as the other eight, " yielded to treat- 

 ment " more readily than the Italians; but by the 

 time the honey harvest and swarming season began, 

 the Italians were fully up with them, both in numbers 

 and stores. Friend Harrington is correct In saying 

 that "they are great honey-gatherers." So are our 

 gentle Italians. He says, "They work on red clo- 

 ver." So do our enterprising Italians, who dig away 

 at it when nothing better is at hand, and even lay up 

 a surplus when black bees are consuming their 

 stores. But they are not "the best-natured bees" I 

 ever worked with. I used to be so egotistical as to 

 think that I could handle, without trouble, ariij bees 

 that gathered honey: my egotism is all gone now. 

 Whj-, Mr. Editor, I would rather "go through" sev- 

 eral hybrid colonies than one pure Cyprian; not 

 that the hybrids are less inclined to sting when first 

 disturbed, but a few puffs of smoke will send them 

 head first into their honey, and, once gorged with 

 this, they are no trouble. Cyprian bees, at home, 

 never gorge themselves; they are always on the 

 alert, can not be frightened, and the slightest jar 

 sends Ihou-ands of them into the air, all ready to 

 plant their stings in the first moving object thej' 

 may see— the only remedy being to close the hive 

 and leave the field to them for awhile. 



Now, when a fellow is running, without help, 3C0 

 colonies in the dollar-queen and pound-nucleus busi- 

 ness (as I did during the busy season this year), hav- 

 ing orders pouring in with every mail, customers, as 

 well as bees, in a hurry, or during extracting time, 

 when every minute lost means pounds of honey 

 gone, it is not very pleasant to lose even ten minutes 

 of the precious daylight for such a purpose. I can 

 work all daylong without the use of smoke, with my 

 pure Italians, the thermormtcr at 110° in the shade, 

 and during the worst drought we have ever known, 

 and have no robbing, no bees hurt, and scarcely a 

 sting; while the worst slinging I ever had was from 

 our imported Cyprians, duiing the height of the 

 honey harvest, their hive crammed with loose honej% 

 and I did nut kirk it over eitliir. We do not handle 

 bees in our yard in that way, and I {irotest against 

 the imputation. 



Another great objection to having such stingers 

 about is the effect upon those who are so kind as to 

 visit us. The last time friend Salisbury was at our 

 house, while I was recounting to him my troubles, 

 the tears rolled down his jolly face, not so much in 

 sympathy with me in my misfortune, but because a 

 Cyp had paid her " respects " to his nose. He didn't 

 stay with us so long as we would have liked; and as 

 his frisky white Pegasus trotted down the dusty 

 road, I thought, "Alas! we shall have no more pleas- 

 ant calls from friend S. until the last Cyp has disap- 

 peared." 



Please call on us, friends; they are all gone now; 

 and if the imported queen we had is a type of the 

 race, they will stay away. E. M. Hayhukst. 



Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 9, 1881. 



Why, friend II., the Cyprian colony has 

 not behaved so very badly in our apiary. 

 They made only one visitor (who, by the 

 way, is quite a bee man too), hunt shelter 

 amid the lima-bean plantation. John, who 

 was handling the frames, stood very still, 

 right over the hive, and he did not get stung 

 at all. We rather like to have one such col- 

 ony, just to take the conceit out of some vis- 

 itors that one meets once in a great while. 



