"284 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



1 



•black, according to the different persons tell- 

 ing me of them." 



"Did you find them thus?" 



"I am not sure what part 'locality' plays 

 in this matter; but I have never seen a col- 

 ony of black bees in Montana. ' ' 



"What color seemed to predominate with 

 the Carniolans you had?" 



"I have repeatedly sent for Carniolan 



?ueens, and they have been red; even the 

 larniolans that I ordered from the noted 

 turned red when they crossed the Mon- 

 tana line." 



' ' You do not mean red as we consider the 

 term generally, do you?" 



"Well, perhaps not. My bees all show 

 the yellow bands— some three, but more of 

 them five; and if there is any difference be- 

 tween my Cartiolans and your Italians it 

 would take an expert to detect it. Are the 

 Carniolan queens red?" 



"Those I had were not." 



"What color were they?" 



' ' Very nearly the color of the black or 

 German queens. One of those I had came 

 very near being the color of a quite dark 

 impDrted Italian queen, bordering on the 

 leather color somewhat, but did not resemble 

 my golden Italians in the least; and I am 

 surprised that you should receive queens, 

 said to be Carniolan, from — — that were any 

 thing like the golden or five-banded Italians. " 



" Do the workers from Carniolan queens 

 show yellow bands?" 



"The worker progeny from all four of the 

 Carniolan queens which I have had, from as 

 many different breeders, and as many differ- 

 ent times during eight years, were not uni- 

 form. One queen gave about half her work- 

 ers that were black with the steel gray 

 bands of hair on the segments of the abdo- 

 men, while the other half showed two and 

 three bands, like the Italians, trimmed with 

 the steel-gray hairs. The other queens gave 

 only about one bee in twenty with yellow 

 on the horny scale to the three segments of 

 the abdomen next the thorax." 



* ' Then it would seem that the Carniolans 

 which I have had were not nearly as pure 

 as yours, according to the different descrip- 

 tions in the papers." 



' ' That is the way it would look. But per- 

 haps you are just as well off, for I have got- 

 ten rid of those I have had." 



' ' What was the trouble with them ? Were 

 they not good honey- gatherers ?"| 



" The individual bees might be good hon- 

 ey-gatherers; but the trouble was I could 

 not get enough of these individual bees col- 

 lected together at the time our honey harvest 

 was on to do more than gather honey enough 

 for the feeding of the brood." ^ 



"How was that?"R 



' ' The queens would lay only sparingly up 

 to the time when the honey harvest com- 

 menced; and when honey began to come in 

 to an extent in proportion to the fewness of 

 bees in the Carniolan colonies, then the 

 queen would go to laying at an extravagant 

 pace, so that the larvae from these eggs 

 would take all the honey the field bees could 



gather as their food. And when that ex- 

 travagant pace of eggs and larvae emerged 

 into bees the harvest was past and they 

 would starve unless fed with sugar syrup or 

 combs of honey from their thrifty Italian 

 neighbors. But it might be different in 

 Montana, where you have a more continu- 

 ous honey-flow." 



"lam much obliged. Here comes the 

 'Stanley flyer.' I am back for Montana. 

 Good by." 



SUPPLY AND demand; OVER-PRODUCTION 

 AND TOO HIGH PRICES. 



I noticed in the Jan. 1st issue of Glean- 

 ings that Mr. Doolittle takes a somewhat 

 somber view of the outlook for the sale of 

 honey, and accounts for its slow sale by 

 over-production, and the fact that it is not 

 a standard article of consumption like whis- 

 ky, tobacco, tea, etc., rather than the fear 

 of adulteration. Now, while I have great 

 respect for Mr. Doolittle's opinion, I can not 

 altogether agree with his conclusions. It 

 occurred to me to give my views, although 

 they may be little better than "fancies and 

 fallacies." 



In my mind there is little doubt that adul- 

 teration plays an important part in the sale 

 of honey. Let us suppose a certain city 

 takes or consumes 15,000 lbs. of honey, pure 

 and adulterated, for it all sells as honey. 

 We will further suppose that lO.OuO lbs. of 

 this is adulterated with glucose, half and 

 half. We will suppose further that a pure- 

 food law is enacted that compels each to be 

 sold under its own name. It needs no argu- 

 ment to show that there will very soon be 

 a decrease in the sale of glucose and an in- 

 creased demand for pure honey. As bee- 

 keepers we may rejoice that pure- food laws 

 are spreading from State to State with very 

 satisfactory results. 



Another factor that Mr. Doolittle seems 

 to have overlooked is the decrease of honey- 

 producing plants. If I am correctly inform- 

 ed, the white sage of Southern California, 

 that formerly produced such bountiful crops 

 of honey, is disappearing before the settle- 

 ment of the country. 



Basswood has been placed high in the list 

 of honey-plants, as one of the most impor- 

 tant, if not the most so, in the production 

 of surplus honey. With intelligent bee- keep- 

 ers there seems little reason to doubt that 

 this source of honey will soon be cut off, very 

 largely at least; and as basswood goes, so 

 do the bee-keepers. Mr. A. E. Manum, who 

 formerly lived eleven miles from me, and 



^^ 



