308 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept'. 28, 



in your locality. Neither of which is 

 correct. In Quinby's new Bee-Keep- 

 ing, Mr. L. C. Boot says,"Italians store 

 the cells fuller, and cap them over di- 

 rectly against the honey, giving the 

 surface a watery appearance, while 

 the blacks leave a little unfilled space." 

 This I am satisfied was the true rea- 

 son, and I concluded a remedy must 

 be found, or else I must return to 

 blacks for salable surplus. 



The present season I have the same 

 serious trouble. I tried putting some 

 back on the hives ; the bees licked it 

 off very nicely, and removed a consid- 

 erable portion, and appeared much 

 obliged for my kindness. Now I see 

 you give Mrs. L. Harrison's remedy 

 for the same trouble. She says, "wrap 

 the boxes in newspapers and put them 

 on top of the cupboard in the kitchen.'' 

 If this is a remedy, it may do for a 

 small quantity of honey. I would like 

 to know if other honey producers have 

 the same difficulty to contend with, 

 and how they manage. 



Myersville, Md., Sept. 5, 1881. 



[ Will any one give the remedy found 

 to be the best in their experience ? — 

 Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Have Our Bees Degenerated? 



E. A. THOMAS. 



On page 178 of the Weekly Bee 

 Journal, Mr. G. M. Doolittle says : 



" On pages 145 and 147 of the Weekly 

 Bee Journal, are articles by E. A. 

 Thomas, and S. S. Butler, both saying 

 that all the losses of bees in winter, 

 prove that the losers have a weak race 

 of bees, or those which have degenera- 

 ted from their once hardy and pros- 

 perous condition." 



Now if Mr. Doolittle will read my 

 article on page 145 carefully, I think 

 he will fail to find anything in it that 

 will convey the above meaning. I 

 have not attributed all the losses of 

 the past winter to the weakness of the 

 race, or to any other one cause, for I 

 think there are a great many causes ; 

 but I do assert that some of the losses 

 can be accounted for in this way. 

 When I read reports of bee-keepers 

 who have lost }$, of % of their bees, I 

 always think the rest are of but little 

 value for that season, and why? Be- 

 cause in a majority of cases, the rest 

 are too weak to build up strongenough 

 for the honey harvest, mere nandfuls 

 of bees that can hardly live through 

 the spring. I do not wish to be rough 

 or to discourage any one, but facts are 

 facts, and I have gleaned enough from 

 my correspondence to give me good 

 ground for my assertions. 



Mr. Doolittle says: "When the 

 spring of 187.5 opened, I found I had 

 but 46 colonies left out of over 100 the 

 fall previous, and from those 46 colo- 

 nies I sold over 4,800 lbs. of box 

 honey." 



That is good ; but supposing Mr. D 

 had wintered his 100 colonies in excel- 

 lent condition, what then? Why, he 

 might perhaps have obtained the enor- 

 mous yield of 12,000 pounds. Probably 

 Mr. D. spent a great deal time and 

 money to get his 46 colonies in condi- 

 tion for the honey harvest. But he 

 must remember that all bee-keepers 

 have not the time and skill to do this, 

 and to such, weak puny colonies in the 

 spring are of but little value. 



If Mr. Doolittle thinks there is no 

 difference in bees, and that one strain 

 is as hardy as another, then why does 

 he take any pains in rearing his 

 queens, or why does he consider 

 queens reared from swarming cells 

 superior to all others '{ Why should 

 there not be as much difference in bees 

 as in other animals V 



I recall to mind the case of an apiar- 

 ist who several years ago lost all his 

 bees, and, wishing to secure a hardy 

 strain, re-stocked his apiary with bees 

 from 3 different sources, and kept a 

 record of each strain. I will designate 

 the three strains by numbers, 1, 2 and 

 3. They all had the same treatment, 

 and were prepared for winter in the 

 same way. They were wintered out- 

 doors, and well protected. They came 



through in spring with the following 

 result: No. 1. All came through 

 strong, with the exception of 2, one 

 having the dysenterv, and the other 

 being queenless. No. 2. All came 

 through very strong and vigorous, 

 with the exception of 4, one being 

 dead, and the other 3 being weak. 

 No. 3 sustained a loss of 89 per cent., 

 and the remainder were all very weak. 

 Now why did number 1 and 2 winter 

 in good condition while No. 3 nearly 

 all died V The only way that I can 

 account for it is that No. 3 was a weak, 

 puny race. Since then he has taken a 

 great deal of pains with his colonies, 

 and during the past severe winter sus- 

 tained a loss of only 5 per cent. I have 

 queens from strains No. 1 and 2 in my 

 apiary now which look very tough and 

 healthy. 



I know of another bee-keeper who 

 had practiced in-and-in-breeding un- 

 til his bees had nearly run out, half of 

 them dying every winter, and the rest 

 coming through in spring so weak that 

 they could not be built up strong 

 enough for the honey harvest. Two 

 years ago he re-queened his apiary 

 from the stock of a man who had taken 

 pains to breed a hardy strain of bees, 

 and since then his bees have wintered 

 well, being very strong when the honey 

 flow came, and so giving him 4 times 

 as large honey crops. Now, as the 

 bees were wintered in the same way, 

 why is it that his present strain came 

 through the past severe winter in good 

 condition, while his former strain 

 could hardly stand a mild one V 



I do not believe that the losses of 

 Messrs. Doolittle, Hetherington, Pal- 

 mer and others, can be attributed to 

 this cause, for they are all skillful and 

 careful apiarists, who would not let 

 their bees degenerate. But I do think 

 that there are many careless bee- 

 keepers, and I am afraid now and then 

 a queen -breeder who takes no pains to 

 keep up the stock of the country. The 

 importation of cheap, poor stock, may 

 tend to degenerate our bees, and I 

 hope this evil will correct itself in 

 time, and only the best importations 

 be tolerated into America. 



I will not say that the results of the 

 past winter indicate that our bees have 

 degenerated, but that they are not 

 what they should be, or what they 

 might be. The losses of the past 

 should incite apiarists to fresh exer- 

 tion, and no one should sit down con- 

 tented until the goal is won, and the 

 American strains of Italians have a 

 world-wide reputation. If we will all 

 do our part to attain this end, I ven- 

 ture to prophesy that the time will 

 come when America will be exporting 

 bees in large qualities instead of im- 

 porting. 



Coleraine, Mass. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Review of the Season. 



GREINER BROTHERS. 



When spring opened and the earlier 

 fruit-tree blossoms made their ap- 

 pearance, we found ourselves in pos- 

 session of 85 colonies of bees. We 

 sold at that time 15, leaving 70 out of 

 160 strong colonies last fall, which we 

 undertook to winter. With the ex- 

 ception of a very few fair ones, about 

 % of those were very weak, and the 

 balance not much better, so that the 

 prospect of a honey crop was decidedly 

 against us. 



A writer of the Bee Journal made 

 the remark that weak colonies that 

 just made out to live, might as well 

 have died. This was not very sooth- 

 ing for our already discouraged state 

 of mind, and if we had not been blessed 

 with a good portion of hope, together 

 with these encouraging words of the 

 editor : " But with the bee-keeper all 

 is not lost, though he lost all," we 

 should have undeubtedly have given 

 up in despair. We intended to 

 strengthen our weak colonies by doub- 

 ling up, but could get no chance to do 

 so in March and April, on account of 

 the steady cold weather; and, as the 

 season advanced and we wished to 

 save all the queens we could, we de- 



cided to leave our colonies separate, 

 and nurse them up as best we could. 



Time wore on; apple trees sent forth 

 their blossoms.but yielded little honey, 

 and our bees did not make as much 

 headway as we had hoped. The pre- 

 dictions were all in favor of an abund- 

 ance of white clover for this season, 

 and we wished to get our bees in good 

 condition as soon as possible ; we there- 

 fore concluded to try feeding. We 

 had about 70 beeless hives filled with 

 thick and partly granulated honey, so 

 that the extractor failed to do thorough 

 work. This we fed ; we kept from 2 

 to 4 hives setting exposed in our bee 

 yard for our bees to work on all the 

 time, and to make it accessible, we re- 

 moved one comb from each hive, 

 spread the remainder, and uncapped 

 all the honey. In this way we ac- 

 complished several objects : we fed 

 our bees ; we prevented the worms 

 from having all their own way ; we 

 made use of the honey, and we got 

 our combs in the best shape for trim- 

 ming and patching wherever it was 

 necessary. 



It is needless to say that our bees 

 availed themselves of the opportunity 

 to their hearts' content; by the time 

 basswood honey commenced they re- 

 fused to work at our hives any longer, 

 but nearly all of them were cleaned 

 out. At the same time we kept close 

 watch of our colonies ; we made it a 

 point to keep an empty comb in the 

 centre of each broodnest, so that every 

 queen had ample opportunity to exert 

 herself, according to her capability. 

 The result was astonishing ; about the 

 20th of June, our colonies liad as fair 

 a display of brood as could be desired, 

 though not quite as much so as Mr. 

 Doolittle says : " Even to the border- 

 ing cells ; " but what little space was 

 left without brood was tilled with 

 capped honey, and this, we think, is 

 just as effectual in regard to bees 

 working in boxes, as all brood. We 

 would say here, that we never suc- 

 ceeded yet in getting combs entirely 

 full of brood, hard as we have tried. 



White clover appeared early and 

 plenty this season, and we imagined 

 the tons of clover honey harvested, as 

 the fulfillment of the various prophe- 

 cies of the coming honey season. But 

 alas ! another disappointment came ; 

 wet and cold weather prevented bees 

 from gathering clover honey to any 

 amount ; what little they did gather, 

 together with our feeding, kept them 

 breeding nicely ; even preparations 

 for swarming were being made, but 

 yet no surplus honey. About this 

 time, June 22 to 24, some of our 

 young queens were getting ready for 

 use, and we began to divide ; we also 

 had some natural swarms, which were 

 hived on full sets of comb, and in 

 proper time all queenless colonies were 

 supplied with young, laying queens. 

 Thus, June passed and July came, and 

 with it a change in the weather ; our 

 bees worked less on the honey we of- 

 fered them, but went more and more 

 in search of nature's sweetest nectar, 

 until all at once, about July 8 or 10. 

 they left our hives entirely, and the 

 honey season commenced. 



The way our bees worked for about 

 2 weeks was almost incredible — far be- 

 yond anything we ever experienced ; 

 but the strangest feature of the season 

 was, that they did not stop work 

 from the close of the basswood bloom, 

 until buckwheat began. We always 

 had a lack of honey between basswood 

 and buckwheat of about 2 weeks, un- 

 til this season, and the only explana- 

 nation we can give, is that the less 

 important honey plants, such as Can- 

 ada thistle, catnip, etc., yielded more 

 honey than ever before. To be sure, 

 they did not work as rapidly as they 

 did in the height of basswood, but 

 they built comb and capped it at a per- 

 ceptible rate. 



Buckwheat began very promisingly; 

 bees worked well for about 8 or 10 

 days, but the drouth cut off the latter 

 part of the buckwheat yield, so that 

 we harvested only }£ a crop of buck- 

 wheat honey. Still we can report a 

 whole crop of honey, and if we take 

 into consideration that white clover 

 yielded no honey, and buciswheat ouly 



% a crop, the season has been cer- 

 tainly a remarkable one for produc- 

 tiveness in so short a time. 



In conclusion, we would invite the 

 more experienced bee-keepers who 

 have practiced uniting in the spring, 

 to give an explanation on the question: 

 Is it an advantage to unite weak colo- 

 nies in the spring, and why is it so ? 

 Whilst we are trying to investigate 

 the matter in our own minds, the 

 question presents itself in a mathe- 

 matical way. Supposing we had re- 

 duced our bees to one-half of their 

 number of colonies by doubling up, 

 would they then have been twice as 

 strong, and capable of producing twice 

 the number of pounds per colony, 

 which would have been necessary to 

 produce the same amount of honey 

 they did under the present circumstan- 

 ces ? Would it be reasonable to sup- 

 pose that our average yield of 130 

 pounds, and the yield of our best col- 

 onies of nearly 400 lbs. of comb honey, 

 could have been doubled in the sup- 

 posed case V 



These questions are worth discuss- 

 ing, and we would be pleased to hear 

 from others on the subject. 



Naples, N. Y., Sept. 19, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Farming and Pasturage. 



J. H. MARTIN. 



I was much interested in the edito- 

 rial in the Bee Journal in relation to 

 planting especially for honey. 



I own a farm of 100 acres, and it has 

 heretofore been cultivated for general 

 farm produce. As bee-keeping has 

 become more and more my occupation, 

 1 have seriously considered the project 

 of making it a bee-farm. A farm, or 

 a tract of land could be filled up for 

 the exclusive pasturage of bees. A 

 portion could be planted to forest 

 trees, and another portion could be 

 preserved for the sowing of honey pro- 

 ducing plants. A rotation of these 

 plants would be necessary, for, a cer- 

 tain plant for a number of years upon 

 the same field would soon exhaust it 

 from producing seeds or honey. Neg- 

 lect to plow the land frequently, would 

 give a chance for all manner of for- 

 eign and useless brush and weeds to 

 spring up. 



Now, the plan I am pursuing with 

 my farm in order to keep its fertility 

 up to the highest point, is to run iii 

 connection with my bees a dairy, of 

 as many cows as the land will admit 

 of. It would be less work for the bee- 

 keeper to past ure with sheep, but aside 

 from the sheep being of less profit at 

 present prices of wool, cheese and but- 

 ter, I find that the more sheep pas- 

 tured, the less white clover we have 

 for our bees. 



We well remember that during the 

 war when the price of wool went up to 

 SI a pound, every farmer, both great 

 and small, had his flock of sheep, and 

 sheep being such close feeders, white 

 clover was quite killed on all pasture 

 lands. But now the dairy interest is 

 in the ascendant, and our pastures are 

 again carpeted with white clover. I 

 guarantee you will find but little white 

 clover where sheep have been pas- 

 tured for a term of years. We have 

 therefore decided upon corn, for our 

 stock to keep up the fertility of the 

 soil. 



It is needless to recommend to the 

 bee-keeper who gets the best blood in 

 his hives, to also keep good blood in 

 his barn. Blood pays in all cases, and 

 if our farm will flow with " milk and 

 honey." we must adopt the best breeds 

 and best appliances. The prime ob- 

 ject in making a bee-farm, is to pro- 

 vide pasturage at a time when the 

 bees do not get honey from what is 

 termed, " natural sources." The first 

 thing our bees want in the spring is 

 pollen, and we can imagine with what 

 admiration, the first pollen-ladened 

 bee is greeted as it enters the hive. 



In my locality, what is commonly 

 known as " pussy willow," gives ah 

 abundance of pollen and a little honey 

 as early as the bees are able to fly. 

 This willow thrives upon marshy land, 

 and if it did not grow abundantly in a 



