1180 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



in fact, a little of every thing of a waxy na- 

 ture. Now, we know positively that the 

 man who sent this barrel is absolutely hon- 

 est, for he would not knowingly send us 

 adulterated wax. In buying up wax, bee- 

 keepers ought always to be careful of whom 

 they buy, and then examine every cake. 

 Wax containing tallow will smell like old 

 grease, and it will feel greasy on the out- 

 side. That which contains paraffine is quite 

 liable to escape detection. It is usually of a 

 very bright and partly transparent color; 

 looks very nice— nice enough, in fact, to 

 pass for first grade; but if it be. chewed, in- 

 stead of crumbling up in a few minutes it 

 will act like chewing-gum. 



CAUCASIAN bees; IF GENTLENESS WERE 

 THEIR ONLY REDEEMING QUALITY WOULD 

 THAT BE SUFFICIENT REASON FOR IN- 

 TRODUCING THKM INTO THIS ' 

 COUNTRY? 



I BELIEVE it is generally admitted that 

 Caucasian bees are gentle; but how much 

 more amiable they may be than the average 

 Italians is not yet made clear. As a matter 

 of fact there are some strains of yellow bees 

 that are as gentle as one ought to desire; 

 that is, they will offer attack only when the 

 hive is bungUngly or roughly opened or the 

 frames unnecessarily bumped or dropped. If 

 a colony of bees is gentle enough with ordi- 

 narily decent intelligent management, what 

 more do we want? If a hive of Caucasians will 

 stand all kinds of rough treatment— a treat- 

 ment that no reasonable person would say 

 was necessary, and yet lack good wintering 

 and honey-gathering qualities, wouldn't we 

 say that we prefer to have bees that are a 

 little crosser, and yet which will be perfect- 

 ly gentle with proper handhng? Admitting 

 that the Caucasians are gentler than the 

 average strains of Italians (and I do not 

 know that that claim is proved yet) , there is 

 one serious objection to these bees; namely, 

 that they look so much like the common 

 black bees of this country (at least those 

 have that I have seen) it would be simply 

 impossible to distinguish between the two 

 races by the markings only. Then how 

 could we distinguish the common hybrid 

 (Italian and black) from a crossing of Ital- 

 ians and Caucasians? 



It is to be presumed that the average 

 queen- breeder is honest; but not all of them 

 are disposed to be liberal in their treatment 

 of customers. Let us assume, for example, 

 that Jones is rearing Caucasians in a locali- 

 ty where there are some blacks in the woods 

 and among his neighbors' bees. How can he 

 guarantee pure tested queens of Caucasians 

 to his customers? If he were not strictly 

 honest would he try to palm off half-bloods 

 for pure? Breeders of this race should be 

 located in an isolated place or on some is- 

 land. In addition the customer should have 

 some assurance that the man or the firm 

 will sell only pure blood. 



I am well aware that the same objection 

 might apply to Carniolans (though to a less- 



er extent) , and I may say this has been a 

 very serious one. But pure Carniolans are 

 easily distinguished from pure blacks; and 

 it may be that Caucasians are, but those I 

 have seen are not. 



Now, having said this much I am not dis- 

 posed to say we should make no effort to 

 propagate this race in this country. Even 

 if they had only the one redeeming quality 

 (gentleness) there would be a demand for 

 them from beginners and city people. There 

 are not enough of these bees here yet to 

 warrant positive conclusions; but I say this: 

 //"Caucasian bees look so nearly like the 

 German or black bee that even experts will 

 be puzzled to tell one from the other, it will 

 be a serious drawback. On the other hand, 

 ItaHans have certain definite and distinctive 

 markings (I do not quite agree with our 

 friend Doolittle on this point) , and any vari- 

 ation in the average type showing more or n 

 less than the three yellow bands can be rec- I 

 ognized on sight. * 



TOO MUCH vs. LITTLE OR NO VENTILATION 

 IN BEE-CELLARS. 



The editor of the Review is inclined to be- 

 lieve that bees do not need very much ven- 

 tilation in the cellar, and cites various in- 

 stances to show how colonies have been win- 

 tered with closed entrances, and in buried 

 clamps where little or no air could get to the 

 bees. Some men can drink to excess all 

 their lives, and yet not seem to suffer much 

 from it. But these cases do not prove that 

 drinking to excess is harmless. 



While there are some cellars and some 

 conditions where little ventilation may be 

 required, I believe the average bee-keeper 

 would lose more bees with little or no ven- 

 tilation than with too much. Bees are 

 warm-blooded animals like ourselves, and 

 vitiate enormous quantities of air in a com- 

 paratively short time. Why, the bees in our 

 shop cellar get so uneasy without fresh air 

 that I verily believe they would crawl over 

 the cellar bottom and die by the tens of 

 thousands. We keep that inner compart- 

 ment ventilated all the time, and the num- 

 ber of bees on the floor are so few that one 

 can walk through between the hives clear 

 up into February and yet step on hardly 

 a bee. We have tried to shut up the cellar 

 for a day or two, but it was always attend- 

 ed by bad air and an uneasy roar. In a 

 word, I believe it would be safer for the 

 average person to err on the side of plenty 

 of ventilation than not enough of it. More 

 people suffer from hard colds because of a 

 lack of good air than because of too much of 

 it. Bad air is always a foe to good health. 



The fact that some colonies have wintered 

 successfully with absolutely closed en- 

 trances, as cited by Mr. Hutchinson, does 

 not prove that this would be good practice 

 generally. Last year some fifty of our out- 

 door colonies accidentally got their entrances 

 closed with ice for only a month. Result, 

 nearly all of them died, while all those with 

 free entrances came through in good shape. 



