February, 1909. 



American ~Ree Journal 



If one of that kind is not at hand, don't 

 make the mistake and use a brad-avvl, 

 for it will not work as well as the 

 former, on account of its spread-out 

 edge. It cannot be withdrawn as read- 

 ily as a straight, dagger-shaped, pointed 

 tool, that has no enlargement of any 

 kind from handle to point. 



The objections of our friends, that a 

 punched hole will close up in damp 

 weather, do not corroborate my ex- 

 perience, at least not to that degree that 

 it would in .any way interfere with 

 threading the wire. I have punched 

 end-bars in the winter and not worked 

 them up until swarming time, but I 

 never had any trouble in that direction. 



If we use a threading machine, it is 

 necessary (and it would be better if we 

 don't use one) that the end-bars are 

 punched in a uniform w-ay. To ac- 

 complish this, I have used for years a 

 marker, which seemed to me the 

 simplest and quickest way of doing the 

 work. This is one of the end-bars 

 punched according to the number and 

 places of wires described, and finishmg 

 nails of the right size, driven into the 

 holes, until their points project a very 

 little on the other side. (See Fig. i.) 



Fig. 1. 



By laying the marker on the end-bar 

 even all around, a very slight pressure 

 will leave the impression where every 

 hole has to be punched. 



A pattern made of a piece of tin the 

 size of the end-bars, with holes punched 

 in their proper places, can also be made 

 to answer the purpose, but it will not 

 give better satisfaction than either of 

 the plans represented by the drawings. 



It will be noticed that in using the 

 marker, every end-bar has to be 

 handled twice, first to mark and then 

 to punch it. To simplify the matter, I 

 have used lately, a punching block. 

 (See Fig. 2.) It is made of a piece of 

 hardwood board. Two end-bars are 



Fig. 2. 



nailed on this, one on each side, and 

 a little block on the end between the 

 two, forming a groove the size of the 

 end-bar. A piece of tin, with holes 

 punched to correspond with the holes 

 described in the end-bars, is nailed on 

 top. and the tool is ready for action. 



The end-bar is slipped endwise into 

 the groove until it strikes the end- 

 block, and the holes punched through 

 the holes in the tin cover. This saves 

 one handling of the' end-bars, and may 

 possibly do the work a little faster than 

 the use of the marker, and punching 

 .afterwards. 



The tin cover should not reach clear 

 to the end of the block, but leave a 

 little notch or entrance for the end of 



the bar to drop into. The drawing 

 makes this plain. It is also an advant- 

 age to have the block fastened to the 

 bench when in use. 



In regard to the proper way of wir- 

 ing frames, we do not all have the 

 same views. I always claimed that 

 wires should be drawn as tight as they- 

 would reasonably bear, while others, 

 and e.xperienced men, too, claim that 

 tight wires have a tendency to cause 

 foundation to bulge or buckle. I have 

 never found it so, when using medium 

 brood-foundation (and I would use no 

 other), although I have always wired 

 my frames as mentioned. The little 

 experience I have had with light brood- 

 foundation convinced me conclusively 

 that it is not in the wiring that makes 

 the difference, but that the light kind 

 of foundation has that unpleasant notion 

 with any wire, loose or tight. Even 

 when no wires are used, and before it is 

 ever put in the frames, it is inclined 

 to get out of shape. But be this as it 

 may, if I am all wrong on this question, 

 I am sure of one thing: The embed- 

 ding of a straight, tight wire can be 

 done much faster than the following up 

 of a crooked, loose one. The embedder 

 is not so liable to leave the former as 

 the latter. 

 La Salle, N. Y. 



Difference in Races of Bees 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes thus : "I won- 

 der if Mr. Doolittle would tell us in the 

 columns of the American Bee Journal 

 something about the different races of 

 bees, which he considers the best, and 

 about their working qualities. I think 

 this would be interesting to the majority 

 of the readers, as I know it would be to 

 me. 



I realize that the older bee-keepers are 

 quite apt to forget how eager they were 

 in the beginning to know all about things 

 which have long ago become established 

 facts with them, and for this reason 

 often "soar so high" that those just en- 

 tering the ranks feel that they are left 

 out in the cold because but very little of 

 the "first principles" of things pertain- 

 ing to bee-culture finds its way into our 

 yearly periodicals of the present time. 



My first experience was with the Ger- 

 man, or what is more commonly known 

 as the black bee, and where or when 

 I could find anything telling about the 

 peculiarities of these bees, I was all 

 "eyes and ears" to learn whatever new 

 I could of them. ^When the Italian bees 

 were first introduced into this country, 

 they were compared with the black bee, 

 and Jn this comparison much was 

 brought out that had never seen the 

 "light of day" before, I finding out that 

 the knowledge of these which I supposed 

 was very nearly perfect, was, in fact, 

 only in its infancy. The black bees had 

 been described as very industrious, quite 

 gentle to handle, good comb-builders, 

 hardy to stand the winters and moderate 

 swarmers, when their early and prolific 

 brood-rearing was taken into considera- 

 tion. And before the advent of the Ital- 

 ians we thought that came very near per- 

 fection. But the Italians proved that 



the claim of industriousness for these 

 black bees was only comparative, for the 

 Italians would toil all day long with only 

 "pennies" in sight, while the blacks would 

 not work unless there were dollars 

 halves, quarters, or at least dimes lying 

 around to be gathered. To illustrate 

 this : 



When I had my first Italians, I came 

 through with 3 colonies in the spring, 

 with something over 20 colonies of black 

 bees. I tapped a few maple trees, and 

 made the sap about twice as sweet as it 

 came from the buckets by stirring sugar 

 in it. This sweetened water was placed 

 in outdoor feeders, and to start the bees 

 to work, somewhat thinned honey was 

 used. I soon had bees swarming over 

 the feed, and they came in about the 

 proportion of colonies I had, or about 

 one Italian bee to seven black bees. As 

 soon as the thinned honey was gone the 

 black bees began to diminish, while the 

 Italians increased, when, two hours from 

 the time of starting there was not a 

 black bee around the feed, but the Ital- 

 ians kept on working till the feeders 

 were licked up clean. 



This experiment proved it was true that 

 the Italians would store enough for win- 

 tering, and often give a small surplus in 

 years so poor that the black bees had to 

 be fed to keep them from starving dur- 

 ing the winter months. In a really good 

 year, when nectar was abundantj there 

 was little difference in favor of either 

 along this line of gathering sweets. 



When it came to gentleness, there was 

 a great difference in regard to their ma- 

 nipulation while in their hives, the Ital- 

 ians keeping steadily along with their 

 work as a rule, while the black bees 

 would run wildly about, take wing and 

 sting, if as little smoke was used as with 

 the Italians; while if smoke enough to 

 subdue them was used they would often 

 stampede off their combs and clear out 

 of the hive. If you held a comb up to 

 the sun or light for a prolonged exami- 

 nation, tht bees would collect in little 

 knots at the lower corners of the frame, 

 and drop off on the ground elsewhere, 

 thus endangering the life of the queen, 

 should she happen to be on the frame of 

 comb you were inspecting. This almost 

 prohibited the finding of black queens, 

 where the necessary amount of smoke 

 was used to quiet (?) the bees, while 

 without such an amount of smoke the 

 "hunter" was almost sure to get severely 

 punished with stings. 



Now while this was true as regards 

 handling combs and hives, yet, from 

 years of experience, I found that with 

 swarms hanging out on limbs and else- 

 where, after clustering during swarming 

 time, the blacks would resent being in- 

 terfered with for hiving, far less than 

 did the Italians; and as about all the 

 handling of bees which was done be- 

 fore the advent of the Italians was that 

 of hiving or handling clustered swarms, 

 by the great mass of those having bees, 

 this gave rise to the idea that the blacks 

 were really a gentle race of bees. 



As to comb-building qualities, there is 

 probably no race of bees known which 

 will give more or whiter combs than the 

 blacks when there is a "down pour" of 

 nectar, lasting for two or three weeks, 

 but with a poor or intermittent flow of 

 nectar, the Italians will go steadily on 



