316 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 5, 



of feeding glucose for this and other 

 reasons, is unwise and impolitic. 4. 

 The statement that comb is made by 

 hand and tilled artificially, is indeed a 

 crusher. This never lias been done, 

 cannot be done, and indeed, I think I 

 hazard little when I say it never can 

 be done. True, a coarse foundation 

 is made which the bees are able to 

 draw out and utilize, either as brood 

 comb or store comb. But that man 

 can fabricate this delicate structure, 

 witli its cells only l-140th of an inch 

 thick, is claiming what is not only 

 untrue, but impossible. Men can, and 

 do adulterate liquid or extracted 

 honey with glucose, and make a beau- 

 tiful syrup, so Car as mere appearances 

 go; but nature, and we may well thank 

 her. has set at naught every effort to 

 counterfeit comb honey. That, so far 

 as the honey is concerned, is pure, 

 clean and wholesome. Let no one, be 

 he Professor or layman, ever dare to 

 defame it. 

 Mich. Ag'l Coll., Lansing. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



More About Fertile Workers. 



B. A. THOMAS. 



In the Bee Journal for Aug. 31, I 

 noticed a friendly criticism on my ar- 

 ticle published in the Bee Journal 

 Aug. 10, by Mr. W. II. Andrews. 



As Mr. Andrews has failed to com- 

 prehend my meaning, a few words of 

 explanation may not be out of place, 

 and may serve to make the matter 

 more clear. 



I am more than ever convinced that 

 there is a difference in colonies hav- 

 ing fertile workers, as I have just 

 treated a case where the bees refused 

 to rear a queen from brood given 

 them. Such cases may be very rare, 

 and, judging from Mr. Andrews' re- 

 marks upon this point, I think he 

 never had such a case. 



I remarked in my article, that I had 

 never had a full colony with a fertile 

 worker, and Mr. A. makes the follow- 

 ing comment upon it : 



" This implies at least one, and may 

 be two or three things : 1. That Mr. 

 Thomas never had a full colony. 2. 

 That full colonies never lose their 

 first queens. 3. That when they do 

 lose their first queens, they are never 

 without the, means of supplying their 

 loss." 



That Mr. A. should doubt my ever 

 having had a full colony, is the height 

 of absurdity. A man who has been 

 engaged exclusively in bee culture for 

 years, as I have been, could hardly 

 make the business profitable without 

 a "full colony." After having shipped 

 over 50 colonies during the last spring, 

 I now have more than I know what to 

 do with. 



Mr. A. will please remember that I 

 was speaking of my bees in my arti- 

 cle, and when he says, "3rd, that when 

 they do lose their first queens, they 

 are never without the means of sup- 

 plying their loss," he hits the nail 

 square on the head. My full colonies 

 are never without the means of rear- 

 ing a queen, as I always insert frames 

 of comb containing eggs into colo- 

 nies having young queens, every two 

 days, so that, should the queen be 

 lost, the bees have the means of sup- 

 plying her loss, and, so long as they 

 have the means to rear another queen, 

 there is no danger of their having a 

 fertile worker. 



If Mr. A. and all other apiarists will 

 take this pains with colonies having 

 young queens, they will never be 

 troubled with fertile workers. Having 

 a large number of nuclei to care for, 1 

 have not thought that it paid to in- 

 sert brood, so that, should the fust 

 queen be lost, there will lie no brood 

 of any kind in the hive, and a nucleus 

 in this condition soon becomes des- 

 perate. I raise my queen cells in full 

 colonies, and insert in, nuclei when 

 ready to hatch, so that they will have 

 no brood until the first queen begins 

 to lay, and it is my experience, that a 

 colony without any brood of any kind 

 will accept a fertile worker much 

 sooner than one having even sealed 



brood. Mr. Andrews says he never 

 saw the bees treat a fertile worker 

 with the respect and consideration due 

 a queen. I must conclude that he 

 never saw one of those rare cases 

 which I mentioned, and to which my 

 remarks had reference. 

 Coleraine, Mass. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Report of Honey Crop for 1881. 



CIIAS. DADANT & SON. 



We give the following detailed ac- 

 count of our five apiaries, to show how 

 much the crop can vary in apiaries not 

 very far distant from each other. Our 

 Champeau apiary is situated about 

 4 miles from here, yet the quantity of 

 honey is very different : 



No. of colonies last fall, about.425 



Lost about 53 



Sold about 100 



We had, therefore, about 272 colo- 

 nies, or a few more, to begin with. 



REPORT OF THE CROP. 



Colo- No. Crop in Crop in 

 nies. now. July. Sept. 



Apiary Baxter 70 85 1,800 1,300 



". Champeau. 50 65 2.200 1,250 



at Home . .80 80 2,000 180 



" Villemain .40 60 1,500 380 



" Jack 32 40 800 2,000 



272 330 8,300 5,110 



These 13,400 lbs. are all extracted, 

 except about 500 lbs. of comb honey. 

 Although we designate the 5,110 lbs. 

 as fall honey, it is mainly spring honey, 

 having been gathered mostly on white 

 clover in July and first of August. 



Our crop, especially at home and in 

 the Villemain apiary, was shortened 

 on account of the dry weather. We 

 have had no rain of any account for 

 more than two months, and very warm 

 weather all the time. The Jack apiary 

 is near the Mississippi bottoms, which 

 were covered with polygonacere as 

 soon as the water receded. Our busi- 

 ness of foundation making having in- 

 creased, we were unable, for lack of 

 time, to make as many swarms as 

 we had anticipated. 



Hamilton, 111. 



bition, but I had the pleasure of in- 

 specting a number of tine queens just 

 arrived from Mr. Frank Benton, all in 

 tine condition, having 2 combs 8 inches 

 square and about a quart of bees with 

 each. I would have obtained one of 

 them, but, as Mr. Jones was not there, 

 the men in charge would not part with 

 one, not having orders to do so, al- 

 though I offered three times the 

 amount I would have given for one at 

 this time of the season, for I desired 

 to see what they would do. 



Many mothers would not handle 

 babies with as much care as these 

 queens had. 



Dundas, Ont, Sept. 22, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Palestine or Holy Land Bees. 



W3I. J. WHITFIELD. 



We were fortunate in having 2 of 

 the Palestine queens come through 

 the past winter in good condition, to 

 start with in the spring, but as I had 

 Italians that seemed to be in quite as 

 good condition, I thought very little 

 of them at first. 



About June 1, I noticed they had 

 more than double the bees on the 

 wing than any other colony, and I 

 took a glance at the inside, which 

 showed 12 frames of brood in one, and 

 9 in the other, frames 1 foot square. 

 I now began to watch them with in- 

 terest. They gave just double the in- 

 crease, and each colony gave }£ more 

 honey than the best Italians, so I 

 thought I would try and rear a few 

 queens, re-queen all hybrids and those 

 having old Italian queens. I reared 

 the queens, but had no time to remove 

 the old queens to make room for the 

 young, till Saturday. Sept. 17. In 

 some of the hybrid Italians, I found 

 a few cells of brood just ready to 

 hatch, but not an egg or cell with un- 

 sealed larva' in any of them. The Pal- 

 estine queens I found laying without 

 exception, and all crowded with bees 

 and honey. I went to Mr. Jones on 

 Sept. 20, and procured one of his Is- 

 land-mated queens to start another 

 year with. I saw about 150 of his 

 hives opened; his 3 men were em- 

 ployed in fixing them up for winter. 

 There were Italians, Cyprians and 

 Palestines, about in equal numbers, 

 but only the Palestines were still lay- 

 ing. This decided me to take 2, in- 

 stead of 1 queen. I was not a little 

 disappointed to find that Mr. Jones 

 had gone to the London, Ont., Exhi- 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The First Movable-Frame Hive. 



c. J. ROBINSON. 



I have written to Chas. II. Lake, of 

 Baltimore, requesting him to take to 

 the National Convention at Lexington, 

 the first movable-comb frame hive 

 seen in America. The hive with a 

 colony of bees in it, was presented by 

 King Otto, of Greece, to the lamented 

 Richard Colvin, late of Baltimore. 



The Grecian hive is four stories, 

 that is four tiers of frames one above 

 the other. The frames are about 8 

 inches deep and 13 inches in length. 

 One side wall of the hive swings open 

 like a door and the comb-frames slide 

 in suspended on pendants and rabbets 

 like the Langstroth frame. The hive 

 proper is of double-walls — a hive 

 within a hive with a vacant or dead- 

 air space between the inner walls and 

 outside walls. There are 4 iron 

 staples or rings for suspending the 

 hive between trees. 



It was from an inspection of this 

 hive that Rev. Mr. Langstroth got the 

 idea of his movable-frame hive ; at 

 least I so understood it at that time, 

 and Mr. Colvin so reported it. Mr. 

 L. contrived a shallower liive than the 

 Grecian model, using only 2 tiers of 

 frames of greater depth and length, 

 and opening from the top, allowing 

 the frames to be lifted instead of be- 

 ing slid in from one side. I still use 

 a liive having the features of the 

 Grecian model except my hives open 

 from the top. The dead-air feature 

 of said hive brings in and utilizes a 

 principle that is or might be the salva- 

 tion of out-door wintering. The old 

 hive from Greece is far superior to 

 any chaff hive. Mr. Lake has a hive 

 that he styles "Old Reliable," which 

 is the result of years of remndling of 

 the Grecian hive, and the best liive 

 for both summer and winter in use. 



The old hive is a curiosity of great 

 interest, and I hope it will be on ex- 

 hibition by Mr. Lake. 



Richford, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Purity of Drones. 



W. H. ANDREWS. 



In the Manual of the Apiary, page 

 89, Prof. Cook says : 



" The fact that parthenogenesis pre- 

 vails in the production of drones, has 

 led to the theory that from a pure 

 queen, however mated, must ever 

 come a pure drone." 



Doctors widely differ as to the fact 

 that led to this theory, anil then ad- 

 mitting the fact, some of them dis- 

 pute the theory — "the deduction." If 

 this deduction cannot be sustained in 

 practice, then it is true that too much 

 theory has wrought hundreds of thous- 

 ands of dollars damages to the bee- 

 keepers of North America, since the 

 introduction of the Italian bee. The 

 practical, not theoretical, is what the 

 yeomanry of our fraternity most need, 

 and now demand, though they feel 

 great trepidation ; they would be 

 willing to shed their shoes when they 

 approach this field, if the paths over 

 it were cleared of thorns. 



Whether parthenogenesis prevails 

 in the production of drones or not, or 

 whether the theory said to rest upon 

 that assumption is sustained by sound 



logic or not, may never be settled 

 among the learned, but what is that to 

 the practical bee-keeper r We know 

 that an miniated queen can lay eggs 

 that will hatch out drones, and drones 

 only, and we also know that a mated 

 queen will not lay drone eggs into 

 worker comb, while we as well know 

 that an miniated queen will lay her 

 eggs into worker comb as readily as 

 into drone comb. Now it is quite as 

 easy for a bee-man who cannot read 

 Greek, to imagine that the mating of 

 a queen of one race with a drone of 

 another race, affects the blood of her 

 drone progeny, as it is for the sa- 

 vants to imagine that the fact of mat- 

 ing controls the queen in the dispo- 

 sition of her drone eggs in the comb, 

 and that the want of mating leaves 

 her reckless as to the welfare of her 

 offspring, and allows her to become 

 the mother of an innumerable host of 

 dwarfs. 



Let the doctors tell us in plain Eng- 

 lish, that an Italian queen mated with 

 a German drone will produce drones 

 uniform with those produced by her 

 sister, mated with a drone of her own 

 nationality. Then it will not be out 

 of order for him to inform us that a 

 black queen mated with a yellow 

 drone will not produce drones show- 

 ing plainly that they, too, have a par- 

 entage to be proud of. 



McKinney, Tex. 



Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association. 



The above named body held its an- 

 nual meeting on three successive eve- 

 nings, during the second week of the 

 Toronto Industrial Exhibition, Sept. 

 14, 15, Hi. A brief summary of the 

 proceedings, condensed from the re- 

 ports given by the Toronto Globe and 

 Mail, will show what our apicultural 

 friends over the border have been say- 

 ing and doing : 



The second annual convention of 

 the Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 commenced on Tuesday evening in the 

 executive room of the City Hall. 

 There was a large attendance. 



At 8 o'clock the President, Mr. D. 

 A. Jones, of Beeton, took the chair, 

 and in a few brief remarks stated the 

 object for which the meeting was 

 held, after which the Secretary, Mr. 

 R. McKnight, of Owen Sound, read 

 the minutes of the first annual Con- 

 vention, which was held in Toronto 

 during the Exhibition last year. The 

 minutes were adopted. 



The Secretary called the roll, after 

 which Messrs. Dougall and Sandford 

 were appointed a committee to audit 

 the books and accounts. 



The following gentlemen were ap- 

 pointed a committee to select subjects 

 for discussion at the meeting this 

 evening: Messrs. Hall, Wells, Clarke, 

 Phillips, Woodward, Drs. Duncan and 

 Nugent. 



The President in his address referred 

 to long speeches, either written or ex- 

 temporaneous, as an objectionable 

 feature of conventions, and suggested 

 that the speeches should be short and 

 pithy. Never was there such a severe 

 winter in the experience of bee-keep- 

 ers as last winter, in fact, many who 

 were considered the most scientific 

 bee-raisers in the country had lost all 

 they possessed in consequence of the 

 severe weather. The yield of honey 

 last season was small, but the season 

 was especially good for breeding. 

 The price of honey, however, will be 

 high, as butter is scarce and high in 

 price. He advised all who had honey 

 to sell, to hold back for a time, and a 

 remunerative price would be insured. 

 One gentleman had told him the pre- 

 vious day, that honey he would gladly 

 have accepted 10 cts. per lb. for a few 

 weeks ago he had since refused 15 cts. 

 for. The hives, he said, should be 

 carefully prepared for wintering, and 

 he would advise all present to make 



