THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



215 



in»s. There is, so far as color is con- 

 cerned, no real test for pure Italian 

 drones. 



Speaking of 3-banded worker bees, 

 reminds me of an opinion I have often 

 expressed, namely, that no Italian bees, 

 however handsome and pure they may 

 be, have over two bands. Sometimes a 

 customer has complained that queens 

 sent him were not pure, as the bees 

 had but two bands. I find that even at 

 this late day some well-posted apia- 

 rists agree with me in this same 

 opinion. Whether any one agrees with 

 me or not I still claim that pure Italian 

 bees have but two yellow-bands. 



Pure Syrian drones are nearly black, 

 or perhaps nearly the color of Carniolan 

 drones; the white hairs covering the 

 thorax gives them a color nearly a 

 steel-gray. The worker-pi'ogeny of 

 Syrian bees is very handsome, though 

 not even the purest Syrian queens 

 will produce all 2-baQded worker-bees. 



CARE OF BEES FOR 

 SEPTEMBER. 



G. H. Martin. 



The more we bandle bees the 

 more we are impressed with the 

 importance of getting our bees 

 ready for winter quarters at an 

 early date. We make it a point, 

 therefore, to get our bees ready 

 for winter, if possible, in Septem- 

 ber. We run our apiaries for ex- 

 tracted honey during the clover 

 and basswood flow ; two frames of 

 sealed honey are placed at one 

 side of the extracting super and 

 reserved for use in September. 



If we have not ah-eady super- 

 seded all old queens, we now re- 

 place them with young and vig- 

 orous ones. It pays to supersede 

 after a queen has given us three 

 years' service. A queen would 

 perhaps do well a portion of the 

 fourth year ; but, when queens are 

 induced to lay by inserting empty 

 combs every few days, the high 

 2:)ressure plan shortens their use- 

 fulness several months. 



From the middle to the last of 

 September our business is to ar- 

 range the brood-nest. Every comb 

 having a superabundance of bee 

 brood is removed. We are not 

 particular about removing all pol- 

 len, but place the combs having a 

 small amount to the sides of "the 

 hive. If there is not enough 

 honey in the brood-chamber, the 

 combs, one or more, that were 

 saved while extracting, are inserted 

 in the centre of the brood-cham- 

 ber. This is the most delightful 

 and rapid method of feeding any 

 one can possibly practise. The 

 food is beautiful, well ripened, 

 well-sealed clover or basswood 

 honey, upon which bees will winter 

 if they will winter upon anything. 

 We would resort to sugar feeding 

 only when there was no honey to 

 feed. At present prices of ex- 

 tracted honey and granulated sugar, 

 we would let the bees starve if they 

 cannot be wintered upon their own 

 best stores. We do not mean to 

 say we would let them starve be- 

 fore we would resort to sugar. If 

 bees could not gather enough nat- 

 ural stores it is then time to talk 

 about sugar feeding. 



At this time one comb is re- 

 moved from the brood-chamber 

 and the others spread a little. A 

 passage from comb to comb is 

 provided by either cutting a hole 

 in the centre of the comb or by 

 laying on sticks or a Hill device 

 across the tops of the frames. We 

 think a hole is a safe plan. 



All weak swarms should be 

 united. The beekeeper should, 

 however, make it a point to have 

 no weak swarms in his apiary ; 

 they are an unprofitable species of 

 stock to have around. 



We have successfully wintered 

 three-frame nuclei, but better suc- 

 cess attends the wintering if three 

 or four are united. 



There is much written about 

 late brood-rearing and that safe 



