218 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



storage-tanks you say the honey "is very 

 thick when it comes out of the combs." In 

 view of Mr. Alexander's avowed statement 

 that the most of his honey is extracted be- 

 fore the combs are sealed, the wonder to 

 the writer is, how can his honey be thick 

 when it is extracted? Clearly a question of 

 locality again, as here with us buckwheat 

 honey is always thin if extracted before 

 the combs are sealed. Indeed, it is never 

 as thick as clover or bass wood honey, even 

 if left on the hives till sealed. 



Lest my motives in this writing be mis- 

 construed, let me say that Mr. Alexander is 

 in the eyes of the bee-keeping world at 

 present, as Dec. 15th Gleanings aptly 

 puts it, "Alexander the Great," and any 

 thing coming from his pen is sure to be act- 

 ed upon by thousands of bee-keepers (espe- 

 cially amateurs) another year. While his 

 methods are, no doubt, sound for his own 

 locality, which, by the way, is one in a 

 thousand, yet, as before stated, for the 

 great majorty of localities I feel confident 

 some of these same methods are not practi- 

 cal. In view of this, Mr. Editor, is it not 

 wisdom to caution beginners about leaving 

 the " beaten paths " too far, and following 

 what may, in their localities, turn out after 

 all to be a phantom? 



Markham, Ont., Can. 



[Notwithstanding I have stated that Mr. 

 Alexander's locality is a peculiar one; that I 

 did not believe the average locality would 

 support anywhere near 750 colonies, and 

 that I did not think the average bee-keeper 

 would do well to extract before the bees 

 capped their combs, and notwithstanding 

 that Mr. Alexander has also himself put 

 emohasis upon some of these things; yet I 

 believe that many of our readers, especially 

 those who have conditions considerably dif- 

 ferent, would do well to consider thoroughly 

 all that Mr. Byer has to offer. In defense 

 of Mr. Alexander I may add, however, that 

 if Mr. Byer or any one else could see the 

 situation as it exists in Delanson and vicini- 

 ty, he would see how well Mr. Alexander 

 knows his locality and how well he makes 

 use of that knowledge. 



As to the thickness of Mr. Alexander's 

 honey, I repeat that what I saw in the tanks 

 was of good bodv and quality. Some of the 

 points suggested by Mr. Byer are covered 

 by Mr. Alexander in this issue.— Ed.] 



BANAT BEES. 



A Description of a New Race. 



BY L. A. LAWMASTER. 



I have tried most races of bees, including 

 the Banats for three years. I consider thtm 

 the best and gentlest bees in America to- 

 day I have the Caucasians and Banats, 

 and" I find the Banats the gentlest, while the 

 Caucasians run around over the comb and 

 crawl over my hand; but the Banats keep 

 quiet on their combs, and do not run around 

 over the combs. I have handled them with- 



out smoke when gathering honey, and have 

 taken off the surplus section without a bit 

 of smoke, and have opened up the hive quite 

 often and taken all the frames out and put 

 them back without the use of any smoke. 

 They are about the same color as the Carni- 

 olans, only a little lighter gray color. The 

 drones are about the same as the Carniolans, 

 only whiter on the body, and have more 

 hair on the last segment. The queens are 

 smaller and darker than the Carniolans, but 

 just as prolific. They do not swarm as much 

 as the Carniolans I have kept them three 

 years and haven't had a swarm yet. They 

 have gathered a third more surplus honey 

 than t^e best Carniolan bees have. 



I will say in conclusion that they suit me 

 the best of any bees I ever tried. They are 

 hardy and industrious. 



Upper Sandusky, 0. 



HANDLING BEES AT COUNTY FAIRS. 



No Cage Necessary. 

 BY I. HOPKINS. 



I was highly amused on reading your edi- 

 torial under the above headmg in your issue 

 for September 15, especially that part de- 

 scribing the elaborate preparations made for 

 the demonstration, where you selected a col- 

 ony of gentle bees, and got rid of the " fly- 

 ing bees" before putting it m a cage. I 

 presume the reason for this preparation, and 

 confining the b es and the man in a cage 6 

 X5^X4 ft., was to prevent the onlookers 

 getimg stung. Now, I may tell you that it 

 is nearly 25 years since I first commenced to 

 give such demonstrations publicly, and for 

 the last 12 years I have done it annually at 

 agricultural shows; and all the protection 

 the public had or needed was a few hurdles 

 to make a ring so everybody could see. 



My demonstration has been the transfer- 

 ring of bees and combs from boxes to frame 

 hivt-s without smoke, veil, or other protec- 

 tion — generally from three to four boxes, 

 sometimes blacks, sometim.es hybrids, just 

 as they came along. The ring was formed 

 of sheep-hurdles, about 60 ft. squai-e. That 

 was all. The man who knows his work can 

 get the bees under control at once without 

 smoke, and I have never known an onlooker 

 to get stung. I. Hopkins. 



Auckland, New Zealand. 



[See editorial and article of the editor 

 elsewhere in this issue. I am willing to sub- 

 scribe to your statement, after a further 

 trial of the plan of exhibiting bees at county 

 fairs, that no special precaution need be 

 taken to secure extra-gentle bees; but I 

 would hardly advi.se handling them in the 

 open, for the reason that horses driven near 

 by might, with their switching tails, get 

 stung; and this would cause a catastrophe 

 in a crowd that would be serious, and it 

 would bring down on the head of the bee- 

 keeper the wrath of every one. At our 

 county fair I scooped up some handfuls of 

 bees, stepppd out of the cage, and walked 



