70 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



with the plan, perhaps it will be well to de- 

 scribe it here. The reigning queen is remov- 

 ed a few hours previous to liberating the 

 new queen; then the queen to be introduced 

 is kept from food for at least half an hour, 

 when she is liberated right on the combs 

 just after dark by lamp light The hive is 

 not to be opened again for 48 hours. The 

 object of starving her a little is to put her 

 in the right attitude whereby she will be fa- 

 vorably received. She will ask for food, 

 which will be given her, and this of itself 

 has a tendency to predispose the bees toward 

 her favorably. Mr. Simmins claims the 

 method is almost infallible; but we have not 

 found it so in our own experience. The 

 average bee- keeper would, in my opinion, 

 secure better results by following the candy 

 methods as recommended in all the mailing- 

 cages that are sent out; but in this connec- 

 tion it might be well to state that the best 

 time to introduce queens is toward night, 

 especially if they are to be released among 

 the bees. 



DAMPNESS — IS IT DETRIMENTAL TO THE 

 WINTERING OF BEES IN BEE-CELLARS? 



In the department of Conversations with 

 Doolittle, in this issue, Mr. D. rather con- 

 veys the impression that dampness is not 

 harmful in cellars, and that ventilation is a 

 detriment rather than a benefit. Both of 

 these factors, whether injurious or not, 

 hinge on conditions afforded by the structure 

 of the cellar, and the locality. I fear that, 

 if the advice or teaching is followed by oth- 

 ers, it is liable to lead to disaster. While 

 there can be no question that Mr. Doolittle 's 

 practice is correct so far as his locality and 

 conditions are concerned, yet a change of 

 conditions would, I am sure, give entirely 

 different results. Mr. Doolittle is able to 

 do what most of us can't do, and that is to 

 control temperature within a range of three 

 or four degrees, and this one factor makes 

 it possible for him to get along with little or 

 no ventilation, and at the same time pro- 

 tects the bees from the dampness described. 

 In our locality, subject to such extremes of 

 temperature, dampness makes fearful havoc. 

 We tried to do as Doolittle does, and failed 

 with a loss of some three or four hundred 

 colonies in two different cellars at outyards. 

 The experiment was not tried once, but sev- 

 eral different winters. When the tempera- 

 ture is liable to go up or down, ventilation 

 and dampness are two very important fac- 

 tors. This conclusion is not based on experi- 

 rnents made in Medina only, but observa- 

 tions made in other cellars indifferent parts 

 of the country. Our temperature runs all 

 the way from 38 or 39 up to 60 and 65. When 

 high, we ventilate; when low, we close the 

 windows, letting the natural heat of the 

 cellar warm it up. Our cellar always smells 

 sweet, and the bees come out in fine condi- 

 tion. But in two other cellars where we 

 had dampness and didn't ventilate, the bees 

 nearly all died each winter, and even when 

 we did ventilate the dampness killed them 

 just the same. When the temperature is 



liable to go down below 40° F , accompanied 

 with dampness, serious results are almost 

 sure to follow. 



CAUCASIANS; CONFLICTING TESTIMONY CON- 

 CERNING THEM. 



In this issue we publish an article from D. 

 E. Lyon, Ph. D. , which speaks quite favora- 

 bly of Caucasians. It will be noted he in- 

 troduces a letter from Mr. Frank Benton, 

 which, while not claiming any thing remark- 

 able for these bees in the way of honey-pro- 

 duction, goes on to describe their distinctive 

 markings. The illustration in Dr. Lyon's 

 article, in connection with Mr. Benton's de- 

 scription, will give one a pretty fair idea of 

 how this particular strain of bees looks. It 

 seems as if there would be no difficulty in 

 distinguishing these from the ordinary black 

 bees of this country. 



But wiiile we hear all kinds of conflicting 

 testimony as to their value as honey- produ- 

 cers, yet there seems to be substantial 

 agreement as to their gentleness; but on 

 other points the testimony is decidedly at 

 variance. Mr. J. B. Hall, of Canada, one 

 of the fairest bee keepers — that is. as little 

 open to prejudice as any one on this conti- 

 nent—describes in the American Bee-keeper 

 one strain of Caucasians which he introduced 

 22 years ago, and which, ever since, he has 

 been trying to get rid of. They ran too 

 much to building queen- cells, he says, he 

 having counted at one time as many as 112 

 perfect queens thrown out in front of the 

 entrance of one hive. Another thing, their 

 cappings were concave instead of convex. 



Mr. Julius Hoffman, of Hoffman-frame 

 fame, in the American Bee-keeper, says he 

 introduced them to his apiary in 1880. He 

 reports that they did little or no work on 

 buckwheat, but produced the finest grade of 

 white comb honey. This would conflict 

 somewhat with the statement of Mr. Hall; 

 but he agrees with him when he says they 

 will raise from 75 to 100 queen- cells in 

 bunches. He concludes by saying he thinks 

 they would be a good bee for clover sections; 

 but because they are practically useless for 

 buckwheat honey he discarded them. But 

 both Mr. Hall and Mr. Hoffman speak of 

 their bees as being more or less yellow, re- 

 sembling Itahans. Mr. Abram Titoff, the 

 Russian representative in this country, 

 speaks of two strains of Caucasians — the 

 yellow and the black in particular. The 

 kind condemned by Mr. Hall and Mr. Hoff- 

 man in the Am,erican Bee-keeper were on 

 the yellow order, while tho^e praised by Dr. 

 Lyon are black. Apparently there may be 

 a difference in the strains of this race. 



Some seven or eight years ago, while I 

 was in Colorado, the Rauchfuss Brothers 

 spoke to me about a new race that was very 

 gentle and good workers, which they had 

 just introduced. If I remember correctly 

 they were Caucasians. These bees looked 

 very much like the black Caucasians that I 

 have seen in recent importations. At that 

 time both the Rauchfuss Brothers spoke 

 favorably of the bees, particularly putting 



