THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



13 



article from T. W. Cowan, in the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal oi a. recent issue, Mr. 

 Cowan fairly slays Pirother E. L. Pratt. 

 Well, do not be in haste to form an 

 opinion on what T. W. Cowan says and 

 don't you believe E. L. P. is knocked 

 out. The Api will show, by and by, 

 facts that will convince all fair-minded 

 persons that there are such bees as the 

 Panics. This is all that can be told the 

 reader at present on tliis point. 



THK WEATHER. 



The weather since November came 

 in has been beautiful. Bees sporting in 

 the warm sunshine nearly every day, 

 while the temperature at night is hardly 

 down to the freezing point. For a good 

 many years, winter has not set in here 

 in southern New England till about 

 Christmas time. 



DABK OR STKEL COLORED CARNIOLAXS. 



Has anyone in this country a pure 

 dark Carniolan queen for sale? If 

 so, address Apiculturist, Wenham, 

 INIass. 



If such a queen can be found the ex- 

 periment will l)e tried to see how many 

 queens will have to be reared from her 

 before her daughters and workers will 

 be a golden yellow. 



The method that will be used is this : 

 A dozen or more queens will be reared. 

 Two, pos-ibly three, of the lightest 

 bronze-colored will be selected for a 

 mother queen. The young queens will 

 be fertilized bydronesfrom the yellowest 

 mother. Queens will be reared from the 

 young queens, and by the time this can 

 be done, drones will be reared from many 

 of the young queens. The drones from 

 the yellow queens will be used to fertilize 

 any young queens reared from the orig- 

 inal or her progeny. As in the first 

 selection, the young queens must be of 

 the lightest in color and when tlie fourth 

 generation is reached, the progeny, 

 drones and worker bees will be golden 

 yellow. Now is there not someone in- 

 terested in this subject who will try this 

 same experiment? 



It has been stated in these columns 



that pure dark Carniolan bees cannot 

 be reared in this country. For this rea- 

 son no one may be able to furnish the 

 debired queens. 



PL'XIC 15EK ITKMS. 



I am a honey producer, and not a queen 

 breeder, and would take to any bees as 

 soon as it -would pay to keep them — even 

 the wonderful Funic bees which I liave in 

 my apiary, and have worked in their own 

 Punic homes, without discovering the 

 marvelous qualities described in the Bee 

 Journal of May 23, 1891— [ a D. J. 



This seems to indicate that there are 

 Punic bees. Brother Cowan should 

 hunt up the writer of the above (Ph. G. 

 Baldensperger, Jaffa, Palestine) and 

 make him explain what is meant by 

 "Punic" bees. 



As other proof of the existence of 

 such bees as the Funics, the following 

 extract from the same writer will show. 



The Cyprian, Syrian, Palestine and 

 Egyptian bees all sting. Do not the Al- 

 binos and "niggars?" I suppose very 

 much depends on the climate in Avhich 

 they are bred, and how they are managed. 

 For instance, Mr. Benton, some years ago, 

 exchanged some Punic bees for Pales- 

 tines, aiKl he said: "Mrs. Benton says she 

 would rather manipulate the 'ugly Pales- 

 tines' than those ' Tunisians, ' while I 

 thought to the contrary. I find the 'Tuni- 

 sians less liable to sting than the Pales- 

 tines." 



Here is a chance for Mr. Benton to 

 put in a word. Mr. Benton seems to 

 keep out this Punic controversy. He 

 may come in later on and make things 

 crack. The Api is ready for the report 

 of Mr. Benton, or any one who has any 

 positive knowledge of Punic bees. It 

 seems that Mrs. Benton found the Punic 

 bees hard to manipulate, while M|^ 

 Baklensperger had rather handle them 

 than Palestines. As before stated in the 

 Api, Punic bees will sting, though the 

 writer has never been stung by them. 



One person may be terribly stung in 

 handling a colony of bees, yet an ex- 

 perienced beekeeper will handle the 



