92 



THE AMERICAN APICVLTURIST. 



color, and filled with the most vigorous 

 Italians. It will require some reading 

 and close attention at first, to run the 

 colony successfully, but in due time it 

 will pay, and finally it will constitute 

 one of the charms of the household lot. 

 There is money in this business, at times, 

 and there is always good recreation and 

 good company. Careful and kind 

 treatment will secure their good nature, 

 as among men. Next to man for in- 

 telligence, they always furnish good so- 

 ciety, und inculcate good morals. And 

 then, to make the home happy at the 

 family table, they gather the nectar of 

 flowers and sweeten the household 

 meal. 



My bees last year averaged me about 

 50 pounds of surplus comb honey to the 

 colony, thus earning me $12.50 to each 

 hive, or 150 per cent on their spring 

 value. Besides this, they furnished 

 themselves with abundant stores for 

 winter. One colony gave me 1 20 pounds 

 of nice comb honey, worth, as I sold it, 

 $30, or more than 350 per cent, and 

 the same colony laid in half as much 

 more for winter. 



We had a great harvest last year from 

 the white clover, and thus we find that 

 the honey crop is very much like the 

 ice crop — uncertain. Of late, the years 

 of "famine," have been more than the 

 years of "plenty," but now, we trust, the . 

 "good time" is coming. 



Brunswick, Me. C. M. Herring. 



REPORT OF THE FUNICS. 



Friend Alley : — I promised a spring 

 report of the Funics. 



I had drones of this race flying Feb. 

 14th, when they were only one week 

 old, and about three weeks earlier than 

 the Italians, consequently I got several 

 voung Punic queens mated in February, 

 ^ly old Punic queen swarmed out March 

 1 7 th, and one of her daughters on March 

 1 8th. 



Now I will relate a circumstance in 

 regard to the Funics that may be dis- 



credited by old bee men, yet it is true 

 notwithstanding, and something that I 

 never heard of, or read of, in any bee 

 journal. 



A swarm issued from a hive of Funics 

 on March i8th. I caught the queen in 

 the Alley queen trap ; removed the old 

 hive and put a new one in its place, and 

 they came back and were hived success- 

 fully. On April 3rd another swarm is- 

 sued from the same hive, which hive I 

 examined at once and found that the 

 young queen had been laying before she 

 swarmed, and that there were queen 

 cells in various stages of development, 

 from just starting to sealed ones. I then 

 examined the first swarm to see if the 

 old queen had not got back into the old 

 hive, but she had not, so I went to one 

 of my neighbors to whom I had given 

 a Punic queen last September and re- 

 lated the circumstance to him, and lo ! 

 his bees had done the same thing as 

 mine, and he had thought, as I did, that 

 the old queen had got back into the old 

 hive, but we examined and she had not. 



The Funics have other peculiarities ; 

 for instance, they build a great many 

 queen cells before swarming. I counted 

 those in one hive as soon as the swarm 

 issued, and tliere were fifty nine, and I 

 think they started many more, from the 

 eggs that were left in the hive. They 

 build up and fill the hives much more 

 quickly than the Italians. They are 

 more prolific and their brood is more 

 compact than any other race ; tliey put 

 their brood within one half inch of top 

 bar, and when mated to pure Funic 

 drones they are the gentlest bees I ever 

 saw. They work in all kinds of weather, 

 and the drones will fly in the rain. 

 Visalia, Cal. J. Gregg. 



A COMBIXATIOX QUEEN-TRAP AND 

 SELF-HIVER. 



Herewith I give a brief description of 

 a device for self-hiving swarms and for 

 catching drone bees. The arrangement 

 is merely a large drone-andqueen-irip. 

 It is the same in all respects as the one 



