58 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 23, 



introduced into Germany. Madame 

 de Padua, of Mira, Italy, wrote to the 

 the celebrated Rev. Mr. Dzierzon, who 

 resided in Lower Sileria, for a model of 

 his bee hives, and she senthim a colony 

 of the yellow-barred race of bees, which 

 were the first ever seen in that part of 

 Europe. (The Italian hives were about 

 4 feet long by 1 foot broad and deep, 

 composed of half inch boards, and one 

 end entirely open for the entrance. 



In 1856 Mr. Samuel Wagner, of York, 

 Pa., attempted to import a few colonies 

 of Italian bees, but they all perished on 

 the voyage. Mr. Langstroth was in er- 

 ror when he wrote in his book that "Mr. 

 Wagner and Mr. Richard Colvin, of 

 Baltimore, imported bees in 1859.'' It 

 was in 1860 when Messrs. Wagner and 

 Colvin first succeeded in importing the 

 yellow-barred bees, and they were from 

 Mr. Dzierzon 's apiary. 



The history of the first successful im- 

 portation of those yellow bees into this 

 country dates back to the summer of 

 1859, when our Government was peti- 

 tioned, by a bill introduced in Congress, 

 to import camels and Cashmere goats 

 for domestication in the South. At that 

 time Mr. P. J. Mahan solicited an order 

 from the then Commissioner of the U. 

 S. Patent Office, to purchase a few col- 

 onies of the European bees for the De- 

 partment of Agriculture (then under 

 the jurisdiction of the said Commission- 

 er), and thus get that breed of honey 

 bees introduced into this country by the 

 fostering aid of our government. Mr. 

 Mahan was not a throne "stalwart," and 

 his petition was denied. Just at that 



tin,n fliQ OOirl Prtlll HI it'i;i rl 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Price of Success. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



time the said Commissioner sent Mr. T. 

 B. Parsons, of Flushing, N. Y., who 

 was a botanist and nurseryman, on a 

 professional tour through Europe for 

 the purpose of making a report to said 

 Department. (See its report for 1860 or 

 1861). Mr. Parsons.was not an apiarist, 

 but the Commissioner authorized him 

 to purchase ten colonies of Italian bees 

 on government account. Mr. Mahan 

 proceeded to import bees on his own ac- 

 count, and visited Europe with a view 

 of purchasing a few colonies of Dr. 

 Dzierzon, and attending to them during 

 the whole voyage. Mr. Parsons report- 

 ed that he experienced dangerous diffi- 

 culties in making his tour through Italy, 

 as war was then going on, but he claimed 

 to have purchased ten colonies on his 

 government order, and ten colonies on 

 his individual account. The sequel to 

 this enterprise clearly indicates the 

 character of public servants— service 

 and jobbery. Thus the bees purchased 

 by Mr. Parsons were all shipped on board 

 the same vessel with the bees purchas- 

 ed by Mr. Mahan, who attended to all 

 of the bees during their voyage across 

 the Atlantic. When the ship arrived in 

 the N. Y. harbor a strife sprung up, as 

 is usual, between the parties of New 

 York and the Philadelphians, the New 

 York party being anxious to gain the 

 honor of priority, and the Philadelphi- 

 ans ambitious to secure the same honor. 

 Both parties endeavored by stratagem, 

 to win their point, and a hive of thePar- 

 sons bees was put into the hands of a 

 stout stalwart New Yorker, and a hive 

 of Mahan's bees were put into the hands 

 of a strong active Philadelphian. The 

 point was to get priority of landing 

 those bees on American soil. Well, 

 when the boat from the steamer neared 

 the dock, the New Yorker swung and 

 threw the hive of Parson's bees on to the 

 wharf, where it was smashed by the col- 

 lision, and so won ; as the boat touched, 

 the Philadelphian ran with the bees he 

 had in charge and placed them safely on 

 land. Thus Mr. Mahan was the quas- 

 tatore or pioneer importer of Italianbees 

 into America. 



Now the reader is wanting to know 

 what became of the bees purchased for 

 and with the government funds. Well, 

 Parsons claimed and took all of the col- 

 onies that survived the voyage. Of 

 course it was the Government's bees 

 that died en route. 



Mr. Mahan got information that the 

 bees purchased by Parsons cost our gov- 

 ernment $1,800, but when I quizzed the 

 Commissioner on that matter, he said 

 the cost was not one-half that amount, 

 and he seemed to be entirely satisfied 

 with the case as it stood. 



At some future time I may write you 

 more on this subject. 

 Richford, N. Y., Jan. 23, 1881. 



Success is always more or less costly. 

 The example of a successful man always 

 tires the ambition of others, but few 

 count the cost of success. Just now, 

 we have, here in Canada, a large num- 

 ber of persons who aspire to be Joneses 

 in the line of bee-keeping, and the mis- 

 chief is, they fancy they can do it all at 

 once. They forget that this man has 

 kept bees from boyhood ; that he has la- 

 boriously and slowly plodded his way up 

 to his present eminence ; and that it is 

 only quite recently that he has attained 

 distinguished success. There is no 

 magic or charm about bee-keeping. 

 The "mysteries" are open secrets. But 

 there is a certain knack ; a species of 

 apicultural talent, a genius or ability, 

 resulting from a combination of natu- 

 ral qualities and long experience, which 

 makes one man succeed where others 

 fail. It is thus in every walk of life. 

 Statistics prove that only one merchant 

 in 27 succeeds in trade. Girards and 

 Stewarts are mighty scarce in the haunts 

 of commerce ; quite as much so as 

 Grimms and Hetheringtons are in the 

 realm of apiculture. There are numer- 

 ous instances of failure in every line of 

 human occupation. The man who wins 

 success, does so by dint of those facul- 

 ties and methods which command it. 

 Bee-keeping is no exception to this gen- 

 eral rule. There is no royal road to 

 apiarian success : rather there is only 

 the royal road, which is paved with in- 

 telligence, patience, and resolute deter- 

 mination. 



Listowell, Out., Feb. 15, 1881. 



port of all bee-keepers. Our bees had 

 a joyful time last week. Since the first 

 part of November they had been con- 

 fined to their hives without interrup- 

 tion, and we feared bad results ; but the 

 way they made the air buzz on Wednes- 

 day last, and their present condition, 

 does not indicate anything very serious 

 as yet. Of the 82 colonies at our home 

 apiary, we have lost so far but 1 ; the 

 rest seemed to be all right. We winter 

 on summer stands, and use a 4-inch 

 chaff cushion for protection on top, con- 

 tracting the brood-chamber with chaff 

 division boards. Greiner Bros. 



Naples, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1881. 



[The explanation above referred to is 

 in answer to an inquiry from Mr. C. 

 Wurster, in the Weekly Bee Journal 

 of Feb. 9th. Messrs. Greiner Bros, will 

 accept our thanks, as also congratula- 

 tions on the happy condition of the bees 

 in their home apiary.— Ed.] 



Referring to the article of Messrs. 

 Greiner Bros., " Prevention of Swarm- 

 ing," in American Bee Journal of 

 Jan. 19, 1881, I would like to inquire : 1. 

 What is the " shaking-off process" ? 2. 

 Does it mean the reduction of the num- 

 ber of bees of a colony likely to swarm 

 by shaking them off of the frames, add- 

 ing them to a nucleus or weak colony ? 

 3. If so, how is best to guard against 

 shaking the queen off into the hive of 

 the weak colony V I so far find it a 

 tedious job to find the queens. 



Beginner. 

 ' Grand Island, Neb., Feb. 7, 1881. 



[The process referred to is described 

 above. It will be economy to Italianize 

 your bees, if for no other purpose than 

 convenience in finding queens.— Ed.] 



The Season in Florida.— On Dec. 28, 

 I left home for a trip through Florida, 

 where I saw many things that were new 

 and interesting. Floiida is a country 

 peculiar to itself. There is no other 

 like it. The morning I left Charleston, 

 Dee. 30, the thermometer stood at 12 1 

 above zero, and when next day, I en- 

 tered the northern part of Florida, I 

 found the oranges all frozen, and grave 

 fears entertained for the trees, many of 

 which were killed. About Gainesville 

 the orange trees shed their leaves, and 

 the lemon trees were mostly killed. At 

 Ocala, I found the orange trees unhurt, 

 but in many places the lemon trees were 

 killed, and the lime and guava trees at 

 Gainesville were killed. From Ocala 

 south, as far as Fort Mead and Tampa, 

 the orange trees looked lovely. At 

 Fort Mead and Tampa not only the lem- 

 on, but the lime and guava were in 

 fruit and in bloom at the same time. 

 Tomatoes were in bloom and had ripe 

 fruit, of which I ate. Think of this, 

 Mr. Editor, while you were many de- 

 grees below zero. 



J. W. Hudson, M.D. 

 Mayesville, Fla., Feb. 6, 1881. 





Queen Rearing.— I see, on page 35 of 

 the weekly Bee Journal, that Mr. W. 

 Z. Hutchinson states that he has "made 

 $25 per colony this season rearing dol- 

 lar queens." He then says, "let us hear 

 from breeders of high-priced queens, if 

 they have made more." It would be 

 interesting, I think, to the readers of 

 the Journal, to know how many colo- 

 nies were made to yield this amount ; as 

 it would goto show'how many can be 

 made to yield so large a profit when un- 

 der the care of one man. Mr. Hutchinson 

 does not state whether or not the time 

 of the nuclei is counted, in which the 

 young queens must have been reared 

 and kept until sold. My own aim has 

 always been to sell that which was thor- 

 oughly tested and I knew to be good, 

 rather than that which is low priced and 

 doubtful. If Mr. H. can show that $25 

 per colony can be made from an unlim- 

 ited number of colonies, then he will 

 certainly be acknowledged as the most 

 successful of bee-keepers. 



Detroit, Mich. A. B. Weed. 



Had a fciood Flight.— We had a thaw 

 during last week, with fogs, mist, and a 

 heavy rain on the 12th, which carried 

 off most of the snow in a flood. Fri- 

 day, the 11th, was clear and warm— a 

 fine day for the bees to fly, and they im- 

 proved it. too ; every colony, and 4 that 

 were nothing but strong nuclei last fall, 

 carried out a good many dead bees du- 

 ring the day ; but there are many live 

 ones left yet. They appear all right. 

 This is the first flight since about the 

 middle of November. R. Downs. 



Naugatuck, Conn., Feb. 15, 1881. 



Bees doing Well.— I started to winter 

 30 colonies, all in chaff hives, and have 

 27 remaining at this date. Of those 

 which I have lost, 2 starved and the 

 other was diseased, I think. The per- 

 centage of loss among bee-keepers in 

 this section has been even less than 

 mine, where chaff hives were used ; in 

 single- walled hives it has been greater, 

 with a prospect of more loss. The re- 

 cent heavy thaw has enabled my bees 

 to take a good fly. They came out 

 largely for 3 days in successi'on, and but 

 few were lost. I am much pleased with 

 the Weeklv Journal. C. M. Bean. 



McGrawville, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1881. 



Bees Leaving their Hives.— I must 

 confess that I am very much pleased 

 with the Weekly Bee Journal, and 

 read each number carefully. Success 

 to it and its editor. Will some one in- 

 form me why my bees persist in coming 

 out of their hives when the weather is 

 so cold V Yesterday was a bright sun- 

 shiny day, but very cold all day, yet my 

 bees came out in great numbers, never 

 to return to their hives, as the weather 

 was so cold they would drop in the snow 

 and perish. I put my bees into winter 

 quarters the first of November, using 

 chaff division boards made after Mr. A. 

 I. Root's plan. For the top or cover of 

 my hives (after reducing the number of 

 frames to 5 or 6) I tacked heavy cloth 

 on the bottom of the cap or upper story, 

 then laid three sticks on top of the 

 frames in the hives, and put the cap or 

 upper story on, filling it with oats chaff, 

 and being careful to tuck it down tight 

 around the edges. The bees do . not 

 show any signs of dysentery as I can 

 see. They have not had a flight since 

 I packed them for winter. 



F. II. Seares. 



Girard, Pa., Feb. 4, 1881. 



[Your bees are uneasy from long con- 

 finement, and were lured out by the 

 bright sunshine. In similar cases it is 

 a good plan to shade the fronts of the 

 hives with slanting boards.— Ed.] 



The Shaking-Off Process.— In answer 

 to your request in the Weekly of the 9th 

 inst. we would say, that the article re- 

 ferred to is to be found on page 255, in- 

 stead of 355, 1879, under the heading, 

 "Management during June." As it 

 would only take time and space to repeat 

 Mr. Doolittle's plan in detail (for this 

 would be the best we could do) we will 

 only say that by the shaking-off process 

 we mean the artificial ncrease of one 

 swarm from every two old colonies, by 

 shaking the bees from the combs of the 

 first hive, and placing these combs with 

 a new queen on the stand of the second, 

 this latter being removed to a new loca- 

 tion. We have been successful to a 

 great measure in handling bees in this 

 way, and can recommendit as worthy 

 of trial. Like many others, we, too, can 

 help swell the chorus in favor of the 

 young Weekly. At first it did not seem 

 to fill the place of the attractive appear- 

 ance and convenient shape of the old 

 monthly; but after a month's trial we 

 find the weekly visits amply compen- 

 sate for all deficiencies in other respects, 

 especially since the new feature of its 

 being cut and pasted made its appear- 

 ance. The Weekly deserves the sup- 



Bees— Present Condition.— In looking 

 over 43 colonies to-day (all the hives at 

 the home apiary) I find them as follows : 

 4 dead, 6 weak, 12 fair, 13 prime, 8 extra, 

 and 7 with a little brood. Doubtless 

 more had brood, but I did not see any 

 more in the sweepings of the bottom 

 boards. Fair, prime and extra are my 

 marks for good, better, best. 



11. T. Collins. 



Jacksonville, 111., Feb. 8, 1881. 



The Dying and the Dead.— Many bees 

 have been lost hereabouts by the sever- 

 ity of the winter following a season of 

 very scant supply of honey in the flow- 

 ers. I increased to 25 from 8 colonies, 

 and although I fed a barrel of honey in 

 the autumn, 10 are now dead. All are 

 out-doors. J. T. Scofield. 



Barnesville, O. 



Bees all Alive.— The thermometer in- 

 dicates 15 J below zero this morning— the 

 coldest we have had this winter. My 

 bees are all alive yet. The bottom 

 boards of my Quinby chaff hives are 

 dry. I am in good hopes for the future. 

 W. Bolling. 



Dunkirk, N. Y., Feb. 3, 1881. 



"Cut and Paste."— That's the style ; 

 get down to it as soon as your usual en- 

 ergy can clear the way. From 40 stands 

 at the setting out time in April, down 

 to 24 by the middle of May, then up 

 again to 54, with about 1000 lbs. of sur- 

 plus, in 1 lb. sections, is the story of the 

 of the writer's apicultural experiences 

 for 1880. Bees in the cellar apparently 

 are doing well, save a few uneasy and 

 affected with dysentery. The tempera- 

 ture is from 30 to 40 indoors, during 

 the past 3 months ; while outside it has 

 ranged from freezing to 38- below zero. 

 There are fewer bees on the cellar 

 floor than common during warmer win- 

 ters. Not a day has been warm enough 

 for bees to fly since the middle of last 

 November. Success to the Weekly. 

 Remember the closing cadence, "cut 

 and paste." Geo. L. Scott. 



Wadena, Iowa, Feb. 15, 1881. 



Packed 



packing 1 

 feel safe 

 We had 



in Chafl. — Hurrah for chaff 

 It saved our bees and we 



now to whistle pretty loud, 

 a general thaw, some warm, 

 calm weather, afording the bees a good 

 fight, and us a chance to examine them. 

 We found them all in good condition, a 

 few wanting additional food, which we 

 supplied, and several had a little dysen- 

 tery. There was not a mouldy comb 

 among the lot. Brood in all stages of 

 development was found in a number of 

 hives ; in fact, in all the centre combs 

 there were some. Do bees need water 

 and pollen to rear brood ? We doubt it. 

 Being confined over 3 months where 

 could they have got the water 1 In the 

 fall, after all vegetation was dead, we 

 took up 7 colonies, (given us by a neigh- 

 bor who would have brimstoned them), 



