1184 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



ITALIAN BEES. 



Meaning of the Term " Thoroughbred; " a Re- 

 ply to Doolittle's Statement, Page 1025. 



BY JAMES M. PULLEY. 



Regarding the use of the word ' ' thorough- 

 bred " in connection with breeding, breeders 

 of fancy stock apply it generally to stock 

 that is of the same breed for three or more 

 generations; for instance, the American 

 Kennel Club admit for registration dogs that 

 can show a clean pedigree of three or more 

 generations — that is, without a foreign 

 cross. Breeders of other stock are govern- 

 ed in a somewhat similar manner, except 

 when the register is first started — as. for 

 instance, when the American Hackney 

 Stud-book was started, I think half-bred 

 mares were eligible (I write from memory), 

 such mares being registered as "half- 

 breds." 



Without considering the Standard or any 

 other dictionary, a breeder generally consid- 

 ers a thoroughijred as one having no blood 

 of another race, or no traceable blood of 

 another race. Going on this ground I should 

 hardly agree with Mr. Doolittle's expression, 

 page 1025, lines 54, 55, 56, ' ' that the Italian 

 was not a pure race of bees, but a mongrel 

 or thoroughbred." I fancy brother Doolit- 

 tle has warmed up the breeders of all kinds 

 of fancy stock by coupling these two words 

 as though they meant one and the same 

 thing. 



In breeding parlance, a mongrel, as I un- 

 derstand it, is the combination of two varie- 

 ties, while a thoroughbred is the careful se- 

 lection, mating, and production from one va- 

 riety. It therefore follows that, as long as 

 pure Italians were used, the product would 

 remain of the Italian variety, whether they 

 were men or bees or any other genus. 



WHAT IS RED-CLOVER STOCK? 



Page 1028 Mr. R. Stuehck asks, "Red-clo- 

 ver stock — what is it? " My experience is 

 that it is the gentlest of all the varieties of 

 honey-bees that have come under my notice. 

 I requeened from a premium red-clover 

 queen I got with my renewal of Gleanings 

 in 1904. The queens were a dark lot, and I 

 thought I had made a mistake in a frame of 

 brood; but it was the middle of September, 

 1904, and too late to raise a fresh lot with 

 any degree of certainty of their mating, so 

 I let them stay. The severe winter killed a 

 number of colonies, but it left me practical- 

 ly all red-clovers, which proved their hardi- 

 ness. Then I began to find out I could han- 

 dle them differently, almost without smoke. 

 They went into supers readily when there 

 was a good force behind them, while some 

 others near, with more bees, swarmed, and 

 I have had but one swarm with eight hives, 

 spring count, left after the severe winter. 

 From one of these queens I got an artificial 

 increase of one colony, three 24-lb. sections 

 of honey, and one section on the increase. 

 This was a city lot in a city of 15,000, and a 

 25 acre pond near by. 



NON-SWARMING. 



The red- clover bees are evidently strong 

 as non-swarmers. On all colonies of fair to 

 medium strength in May, 1905, I put extra 

 hive- bodies, having full combs, over the reg- 

 ular hive-body. This kept queens busy, and 

 prevented swarming. After raising queens 

 I divided and put a new queen on the old 

 stand and a super on top of the old stand. 



FORMATION OF NUCLEI. 



I formed these by adopting a regular su- 

 per so that 13 small frames would fit in it 

 crosswise, with a syrup-feeder running 

 lengthwise (in case of necessity, but did not 

 use it this season) . This super was put in 

 between two hive-bodies (eight- frame), full 

 sheets of foundation on super- frames, which 

 latter were made from the shallow extract- 

 ing-frames. When these small frames were 

 full of brood the upper story and old queen 

 were removed. The remaining body and su- 

 per of small frames stayed on the old stand, 

 and in ten days they were ready to make 

 nuclei of with ripe queen- cells ready to 

 hatch. The entrance was smoked, and the 

 frames with bees (plenty of them) were put 

 three to a nucleus. There were bees of all 

 ages, and they stayed on their respective 

 new stands most successfully, and in every 

 instance a queen hatched. In two cases two 

 apparently hatched in each, and both were 

 missing. Eighty per cent of the remaining 

 queens mated successfully, and successive 

 brood laid by them hatched out nearly equal 

 to full colonies where the queen stayed a 

 few days. With one exception there was 

 plenty of honey in each nucleus all the time, 

 the exception being one that was robbed out. 

 If another queen or queen- cell was not add- 

 ed to a nucleus after taking a laying queen 

 away, the queen-cells started always failed 

 of hatching, evidently lacking heat. I am 

 trying to winter a couple of extra queens by 

 gathering the small nuclei-frames together 

 into supers — bees, honey, and all; and by 

 having a regular box feeder inside I can add 

 to their store by feeding syrup if necessary. 



Melrose, Mass., Oct. 5. 



[Our old friend Doolittle, I fear, is hardly 

 orthodox in his designation of thoroughbreds 

 and what constitutes pure Italians. See 

 answer to a Straw on this subject in this 

 issue.— Ed.] 



A PLAN TO PREVENT SWARMING, AND 

 TO RUN FOR COMB HONEY. 



Produ;ing Comb and Extracted Honey at the 

 Same Time. 



BY J. G. BAUMGAERTNER. 



Mr. Root:— I wish to submit to you for 

 criticism the following plan for handling 

 eight- frame Langstroth hives : 



I will first describe my situation, " so you 

 may the better judge." I am located in 

 Clinton Co., 111. The chief- honey bearing 

 flora here are white clover during spring 

 and summer months; during fall, Spanish 



