1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



6:7 



two of them almost pure blacks. A couple 

 of hives of vicious hybrids and one very 

 nicely marked Italians were in the lot. 

 When the saw-palmetto came out the Cau- 

 casians were bulging their combs with hon- 

 ey just above the brood-nest; and this was 

 the case when some pretty strong nuclei of 

 apparently almost equal strength had to be 

 fed to keep them from starving. In April 

 they had so much honey if an extractor had 

 been handy I would have thrown some of it 

 out to give the queen room. When I took 

 the queen to Florida, Ernest told me that 

 she was probably pretty old. They feared 

 she would fail soon, as she had been produc- 

 ing drones in worker-cells. This she did 

 the whole winter more or less; and while I 

 mention it, perhaps I had better add that I 

 have considerable reason to believe these 

 smaller drones reared in worker-cells are 

 not good to fertihze queens. We did not get 

 any laying queens until I could get this old 

 queen to laying eggs in drone comb. While 

 the hive was away ahead of all others in the 

 way of gathering honey, we were constantly 

 taking away brood for my experiments in 

 trying to get queens with my 22 nuclei. 

 When honey began to come in pretty lively 

 she began to show greater ability in filling 

 combs with eggs, until she finally outstrip- 

 ped all our other queens in this respect. 



About this time I found queen- cells in the 

 Caucasian hive; and when she began to lay 

 eggs in them I removed enough brood to 

 break up the swarming notion. 



Now, this is all I know about their dispo- 

 sition to swarm. With the experience I 

 have had I can not say whether they are 

 greatly addicted to swarming or not; but 

 even if this is true, I think that, by judicious 

 crossing, it could be corrected. Neither can 

 I say that Caucasian bees as a rule are ex- 

 tra-good honey- gatherers. I can only say 

 this: I would rather have that queen to start 

 an apiary than any other queen I ever be- 

 fore saw or had any thing to do with. 



1 my way home from Florida I talked 

 with Prof. Phillips and his assistant, Mr. 

 Leslie Martin, about the Caucasians. They 

 very nearly if not quite agreed with me in 

 all the points I have mentioned Mr. Mar- 

 tin opened a hive of them in the house-apiary 

 on their grounds in Washington; and in or- 

 der to see whether these Caucasians were 

 like my own on the island, I carried a frame 

 to the open door While standing there the 

 working bees took wing from that comb, 

 with that well-known "zip, zip," and went 

 out at the open door. Of course, they did 

 not take their bearings, so that, when they 

 returned with a load of honey or pollen, they 

 would go to the usual entrance instead of 

 coming back where they took wing. Ex- 

 periments at Washington indicate that young 

 3ueers that meet drones of other races pro- 

 uce bees that are remarkably gentle. 



Now, friends, how much time and money 

 would it save the average bee-keeper if he 

 could dispense with his smoker entirely, to 

 say nothing about veils, gloves, and other 

 fixings? My Caucasians never had a puff 



of smoke, and the hive was opened one 

 to four or five times a day. Every visitor 

 who came to the island had to see the new 

 bees that did not sting. 



Perhaps it would not be practicable to ex- 

 pect to get an apiary of forty or fifty colo- 

 nies that would never need a smoker at all; 

 but I am pretty sanguine in regard to the 

 matter. 



Then, again, aside from the time saved to 

 the owner of the bees, I am sure a race of 

 bees that goes right on gathering honey 

 when the hive is opened will accomplish 

 more than those ' ' idiots ' ' that stand on 

 their heads, st'ck up their stings, and buzz 

 around your face every time you try to han- 

 dle them. 



Caucasians will rob like other bees; but I 

 do not think they are disposed to learn to 

 rob. In one case when I took some frames 

 covered with bees to start a nucleus they 

 found their way home and learned the trick 

 of all joining in to carry the honey back to 

 their old hive where it camv from. They 

 worked at this early and late with a wonder- 

 ful alacrity just like any other bees that are 

 robbing. But while robbing they manifest- 

 ed no disposition to buzz about your ears 

 and threaten to sting. 



At present we have no Caucasian queens 

 for sale; and as you can tell nothing or 

 practically nothing about their purity from 

 the markings of their worker-bees, I would 

 suggest that a queen never be called " test- 

 ed " until her progeny is old enough to be 

 tested for gentleness. If somebody should 

 send for a Caucasian queen after what I 

 have said in the above, and find her bees are 

 as vicious as other bees, he would have good 

 ground to conclude she was not Caucasian at 

 all; and, therefore, instead of testing the 

 bees as they batch out we should, in my 

 opinion, wait till the workers are old enough 

 to show their gentleness as well a=i their 

 ability to gather honey. Such a tested 

 queen ought to be worth a good deal more 

 than common queens; fcr she would in reali- 

 ty be a queen that might be used for breed- 

 ing—a tested breeder, for instance. 



Let those who are in the queen business 

 decide what such a queen ought to be worth. 

 If I ever start another apiary I want a 

 daughter of the queen I have been describ- 

 ing; and I think I should be justified in pay- 

 ing a good big price for a queen equal to 

 the one I have been working with for the 

 past four months. 



STILL MORE ABOUT THE CHICKENS ON OUR 

 ROBINSON CRUSOE ISLAND. 



After neighbor Shumard fenced the chick- 

 ens away from around the house they went 

 off into the woods, laid eggs, and hatched 

 ch ckens ' ' worse than ever. ' ' One hen came 

 out with 16 that she hatched "all her own 

 self;" and when I came away they were so 

 well feathered out there was very little dan- 

 ger of any being lost. They had no care 

 whatever except to see that both wheat and 

 water were kept in a place where the older 

 fowls could not get access to it and take it 



