58-1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



Grimm's method is mine exactly, and I thoroughly 

 agree with Mr. Jerome Wiltse on ventilation. I 

 simply write to corroborate thtm. 

 Elmwood, 111., Nov., 1S81. M. H. Snyder 



Have you not simply compared cellar win- 

 tering with outdoor wintei ing without pro- 

 tection, friend S.? I too sleep better when 

 I know my bees are comfortable ; but with 

 our varying climate, it seems to me they are 

 most so in well-fixed chaff hives, in their 

 summer houses, undisUirbed. 



A CHEERINO REPOKT FRO:« OUR OLD 

 FMIKINU J. S. WOOUBURN. 



ALSO SOMETUING -IBOUT LATE-REARED QUEENS. 



^ggS) V the middle of April It^ist I had in my yard here 

 Ji^^ 13 colonies of Italian bees, only 5 of which 

 were entitled to the claim of being fair, aver- 

 age colonies. The remaining 7 would not, I believe, 

 have been purchased by any of your readers as 

 third-rate nuclei. All of the number, moreover, 

 were nearly through with their winter stores. Feed- 

 ing, nursing, and a building-up of the weaker from 

 the stronger, was the only programme of manage- 

 ment that seemed to promise any thing short of the 

 practical extinguishment of my "Home" apiary 

 (these 12 were the sole survivors of the 30 fine stocks 

 which this apiary counted in the fall of 1880), and up- 

 on this programme I entered with but slight expecta- 

 tion of the bnuntiful return which a kind Providence 

 had in store for me. Thirty lbs. of sugar were made 

 Into a thin syrup, and fed to the 13 colonies, princi- 

 pally to the stronger ones, and as their brood began 

 to hatch, assistance was brought from the stronger 

 to the weaker, and this was kept up till I had in each 

 of my hives a state of things that enabled its bees to 

 conserve to the full the laying capacity of their 

 queen. About the first of June, 10 colonics were se- 

 lected and arranged for the extractor; the other two 

 were divided and devoted to the raising of queens. 

 And now here is my report for the season: — 



From the 10 run on the extractor I received 1119 

 lbs. of the finest honey I ever handled, and 22 swarms. 

 From the two c^snsigned to the rearing of queens, I 

 sold $34.00 worth of queens; took 46 sections of comb 

 honey, and now have from them 8 good stands of 

 btes. To put these and a few of the others in ap- 

 proved condition for winter, I have fed this fall just 

 200 lbs. of sugar; but as the cost of this, as also of 

 the 30 lbs. fed in the spring, and 3 Cyprian queens 

 purchased during the summer, is more than "off- 

 eeted" by the proceeds of queens sold, I have still 

 the happiness to report my yield for the season as 

 fully up to the amount of hooey taken, and increase 

 of stocks secured; that is, 1165 lbs. honey, and 38 

 Bwarms, or 9654 lbs. honey, and 333}3' per cent in- 

 crease per colony, spring count. 



My honey was all sold at an average of about 12J4 

 cents per lb. within 60 days of its being taken from 

 the hive, and without the least conscious effort. I 

 did not even have to hang my sign upon the gate; 

 the honey was so good it just sold itself. My bees 

 are, I think, in exceptionally good condition for 

 winter. 



I close with this single statement, together with the 

 moral to which it unmistakably points. My queens 

 In the spring were, with two or three exceptions, 



reared lale in the season of 1880, and were therefore 

 such as Mr. Doolittle and a few others would con- 

 demn as comparatively worthless. But the lesson 

 to which this fact points, especially in the light of 

 this season's wi.rk, it seems to me, is that it matters 

 not when or how our queens are reared, pj'ouidcd 

 they are raised from approved stock, and at a time 

 when the internal economy of the hive is such as to 

 supply the essential requisites of the sivai-ming peri- 

 od: namely, flying drones, brood in all stages, and a 

 full proportion of workers of all ages, and under the 

 agreeable stimulus of busy labor. And who, I may 

 add, knows better how to attain and to maintain this 

 indispensable condition of things than the intelligent 

 and wide-awake bee-keeper who is endeavoring to 

 turn an h(mest penny in connection with the press- 

 ing demands of the "dollar queen" trade? Given 

 the pasturage of the Doolittle ranch, and the prac- 

 tical skill and well-timed diligence of the Doolittle 

 brain and hand, and there is not, I firmly believe, an 

 Italian apiary in the broad land that would not com- 

 pete closely with the Doolittle apiary in its yearly 

 returns. J. S. Woodbcbn. 



Livermore, Pa., Nov. 8, 1881. 



!■ * ■»■ — 



APIS AIUGRICANA. 



THE COMING BEE. 



understanding of how to produce a strain of 

 bees, all points considered, superior to any 

 race or strain we now know of, is so simple 

 that I am induced to outline it to your readers, after 

 reading the ideas of friends Hutchinson, Viallon, and 

 others, upon the subject. The above-named gentle- 

 men seem to be somewhat mixed up as regards the 

 best ways and means, and whether any such result 

 can be obtained or not. I may be mistaken in my 

 judgment, and a little more light might rob me of 

 my clearness in the matter, and dazzle to blind; but 

 I feel thus confident, that I will give you my course. 

 I will first make a few statements upon which I feel 

 sure all will agree, and then draw my deductions 

 from the facts I shall state, and leave you to Judge 

 of their logic. 



1. Markings are no positive indication of any spe- 

 cial degree of any trait in the character of the bee. 

 We have all seen colonies standing side by side that 

 were equal, in every way discernible, to the master; 

 and yet that result which we so highly prize came 

 from one in a two-fold degree, compared with the 

 other. 



3. Traits of character are as hereditary with the 

 races of bees as with other races. The above fact 

 we have demonstrated over and over again, in our 

 manipulations of the two races now common to the 

 apiarists of this country. Italians closely guard the 

 hive; Germans speedily build comb; Cyprians sharp- 

 ly sting. 



3. We are now In possession of good qualities 

 enough to meet the demands of the highest aim of 

 our most progressive breeders, and the only work 

 left is to consolidate these qualities Into one strain 

 of bees, and, to the exclusion of various other pro- 

 pensities possessed by the various races and strains 

 now ours. Then we can exclaim, "Eureka I" Apis 

 Americana I " How we shall accomplish this object, 

 Is what I am going to try to point out. If you have 

 in jour yard a queen which Is abnormally unpro- 

 liflc. you destroy her, with almost perfect assurance 

 that the one the colony "will rear from a cell from 



