526 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



or three customers have complained, saying that a 

 queen was not prolific, or that she did not produce 

 the right kind of bees, and other queens have been 

 sent. 



I presume that the queens roared in Italy are very 

 much like the queens reared here; that is, some are 

 good, and others bad or indifferent; and it would 

 seem reasonable that, by selecting the best queens 

 to breed from, and then selecting again from their 

 daughters, and then choosing again from their 

 daughters, and continuing this selection, that a su- 

 perior strain of bees might be developed; but right 

 here steps in that drone part of the problem, about 

 which friend Viallon so graphically writes. Last 

 spring 1 had half a dozen black and hybrid colonies 

 on the yard. I kept them free from drones until I 

 reared Italian queens to put in their p'.aces, and I 

 can imagine what a task it would be to keep a large 

 number of colonies free from drones. I have read 

 of giving each colony a comb of drone brood, from 

 choice stock, putting it at one side of the hive, away 

 from the brood-nest, and then removing it after the 

 drones had hatched. It was asserted that this would 

 satisfy the desire for drones, and that, if no drone 

 comb was afterward allowed in the hive, no more 

 drones would be reared. I have never tried this 

 plan, but have alwas's kept my own and my neigh- 

 bors' hives supplied with purely mated queens; in 

 most instances, daughters of imported mothers. If 

 fertilization in confinement could be made practica- 

 ble, I should have more faith in Apis Americana. 

 We now have several different races, or varieties, of 

 bees in this country, each one of which seems to 

 possess some desirable characteristics. Now, if all 

 these valuable traits could be combined, the result 

 would probably bo A. Am. It seems to me that 

 friend Jones, with his isolated islands, is doing as 

 much, perhaps, as any one in developing A. Am. 



I would not say a word to discourage any one who 

 is trying to Improve the Italians or any other variety 

 of bees; on the contrary, I would do all in my power 

 to encourage them; yet it is my opinion,thSit, for the 

 present at least, we had better continue import- 

 ing. 



If I am correctly informed, Italy, Cyprus, and Pal- 

 estine do not afford so grand honey resources as are 

 found in our own beloved land, and the bees of 

 those distant climes are obliged to labor very per- 

 sistently in order to obtain a subsistence, only the 

 " fittest " surviving. When they cross the Atlantic 

 they bring with them that disposition to labor, even 

 for a small reward; audit is only after living for a 

 time in this land of plenty that they discover how 

 easy it is to live and yet be a trifle lazy. Of course, 

 this is an old and oft-repeated theory, which may or 

 may not be true; but it is well known that the re- 

 moval of fruits, vegetables, plants, grains, animals, 

 etc., to some distant and more favorable locality is 

 usually followed by excellent results for the first few 

 gcncraUims; and why should not this rule hold good 

 in regard to bees? I do not wish to bo understood, 

 however, as having no faith in A. Am., because we 

 Americans are such a restless, progressive, go-ahead 

 people {made up from different races, as will proba- 

 bly be the case with A. Am.), a people that are satis- 

 fled with only the best, that the time when A. Am. 

 will be placed in a higher r.ank than all other bees, 

 and be in a great demand the world over, may not be 

 so far distant as some of us imagine. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, 



Bogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



DOOLiITTIiE'S REPORT FOR 1881. 



^5^-5^INTER seemed loth to give place to spring, 

 w™* so it was April 20th before our bees could 

 -^ -' fly to any amount, at which time I found the 

 long, severe, cold winter had made sad havoc with 

 my pets, and that I had only 30 colonies left out of 

 my 112, which were in good condition Dec. 1st, 1880. 

 Those oO were obtained by uniting, till I thought 

 they were strong enough to be of use tome; and 

 had I united to 2.5, probably better results could have 

 been obtained. May 1st, elm and soft maple invited 

 the bees to their opening buds to obtain pollen, 

 while on the 12th, golden willow gave them their 

 first taste of new honey. There seems to be some- 

 thing in this first honey that sets the bees "booming' ' 

 as to brood-rearing, as nothing else does during the 

 whole year; and often a surplus of 10 lbs. of honey 

 is obtained from the few trees we have along a small 

 stream near us. On May 21st, apple - blossoms 

 opened, and our bees were given a fine treat for sev- 

 eral days, securing a nice store of apple honey to 

 keep them until white clover bloomed. Owing to 

 the extreme heat during May, white clover com- 

 menced to bloom June 1st, about fifteen days earlier 

 than usual. On the night of June 6th we had ahard 

 frost, followed by cold, cloudy, rainy weather, which 

 lasted till the 29th, keeping our bees from the fields, 

 so white and enticing to them, much to the annoy- 

 ance of their owner, if not to themselves. At this 

 time the bloom was nearly past; liut as good weather 

 now favored us, some little was gleaned by the in- 

 dustrious bees. July 8th, basswood opened, and we 

 expected to see a rush made for the honey that al- 

 ways seems to set the bees crazy, as it were. But 

 our hopes were again disappointed, for the honey- 

 flow from this source was very meager indeed ; in 

 fact, it was the poorest basswood season I ever 

 knew, and at its close our hopes were blasted, as 

 scarcely a box of surplus honey had been taken. 

 However, our bees were in the best possible condi- 

 tion to secure all there was, so we had no ground to 

 blame ourselves for not doing well our part. Along 

 during the latter part of basswood, we had noticed 

 that the large kind of red clover was blossoming, so 

 that the fields were getting red, which was a treat to 

 our eyes, as a worm in the head had kept the red 

 clover from blossoming for the past few years. As 

 the fields grew redder, our spirits rose, and hope 

 revived; for in 18T2 our bees gave us as high as CO 

 lbs. of box honey from some hives from red clover 

 alone. Soon the bees began to " go " for the clover, 

 and, to our astonishment, the few acres of teasel 

 within the range of our bees' flight was yielding 

 honey wonderfully. The bees now "rolled" in 

 honey at a rapid rate for aboui 10 days, and then 

 "slowed up," so that August 1st found the season 

 for 1881 over with us, as the 100 or more acres of 

 buckwheat within the range of our bees' flight 

 yielded no surplus. Four years have now passed 

 since we have had a pound of surplus honey from 

 buckwheat. As the result of our season's work, we 

 have taken in comb honey, 331V lbs., and 718 of ex- 

 tracted, giving a total of 4035 from our 30 colonies, 

 which gives an average of 134V4 lbs. to the colony, 

 and brings our average for the past 9 years up to 

 92 lbs. per colony. We have increased the 30 col- 

 onies to 80, which are in good condition for winter. 

 We have also reared and sent out 83 tested queens, 

 which of course lessened our honey report to a cer- 

 tain extent. When spring opened we had but one 



