1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



371 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Three-Band Test Again. 



G. W. DEMAREE. 



sine him that lie is mistaken in his Let us put the matter in as simple a 

 ideas concerning my position relative .shape as possible. The two races are 

 to the several races of bees. I am the distinguished one from the other 

 enemy of no race or type of bees I chiefly by their color ; the one wye' 



miller the sin:. 1 can handleund make 



Mr. Doolitlle's article on page 2S5 

 AMERICAN Bee Journal. discussing 

 the subject, indicated by the above 

 caption, I think deserves more 

 than a passing notice. For, ifawritei 

 Of the absel'vatiou an I experience of 

 .Mr Dooliule, after discussing the sub- 

 ject at some leng h. apparently de- 

 cides to h ave the matter unsettled so 

 far as he is concerned. 



I presume the question is fairly an 

 open one. lie commences the dis 

 cussion by quoting language found in 

 a former article of mine bearing on 

 this subject, and gives Mr. A. I. R lot's 

 answer to it, viz : That " such is the 

 test that must be applied to the pro 

 geuy of some queens imported directly 

 from Italy in order to see the three 

 yellow bands." Why does not Mr. 

 Doolittle answer the question him- 

 self ? lie is as competent to do so as 

 Mr. Root is. I believe it is true that 

 he has not written a book as the latter 

 gentleman has done. Good old Job 

 expressed regret in pathetic language 

 that his adversary had not written a 

 book. 1 suppose Job thought that if 

 his adversary had written a book, he 

 would have' defined his views and 

 would therefore have been unable to 

 wriggle and twist about, when he had 

 him in a close place. Mr. Root has 

 written a book, and when lie gets into 

 trouble, he must abide by what is 

 found in his book. Mr. Doolittle is at 

 more liberty to shift grounds and wait 

 for something to turn tip. 



Mr. Root is doubtless correct when 

 he says •' that the progeny of some 

 queens directly from Italy must be 

 placed on a window in order to show 

 the three yellow bands." And he 

 might have gone further and told us 

 "that the whole of the progeny of 

 some queens imported from Italy do 

 not show the three-bands at all, for 

 the simple reason that they are not 

 there." I have seen at least one such 

 imported queen, and others can bear 

 testimony to the same fact. 



lint Mr. Root contends that just so a 

 queen hails from Italy, she is pure ex 

 necesitate ret. Of course if this view of 

 the case is accepted, we must have 

 some lest that can be adapted to the 

 bees, and I know of nothing better 

 than the window test. 



In the spring of 1880, I prepared a 

 small room so as to be made perfectly 

 dark, except a window 10 inches 

 square, and while my bees were work- 

 ing on the maple, "l tested a great 

 number of tlieni, and I found that the 

 meanest hybrids would show the third 

 baud in splotches, and broken lines, 

 and in some cases in mere specks. 

 Will gentlemen tell ns just how much 

 of the third band should be visible to 

 pass the bee as " pure?" 



Mr. Doolittle discusses the subject 

 logically and conservatively, but he 

 leaves it unsettled so far as his views 

 are concerned. It is true he says: 

 '• I claim every bee should show the 

 three-bands while standing on the 

 combs, to be such bees as I should 

 want to breed from." Right here I 

 agree with him to a dot. I meant no 

 more than that by the expression 

 " under all circumstances." If he had 

 stopped here, there would be little 

 doubt as to his position. Rut he con- 

 cludes by saying : " As far as my ex- 

 perience goes, I have yet to see the 

 queen whose progeny show the three- 

 bands under all circumstances." 



It may be obluseness in me, but I 

 am unable to reconcile the two state- 

 ments. Perhaps friend Doolittle can 

 do better with them than I can. At 

 any rate, it appears that he has never 

 bail the pleasure of seeing the linesl 

 specimens of ihe yellow race of bees. 

 Mr. Dadant thinks that I am eager to 

 make war on " dark Italians." I as- 



subscrvieut to niv Will any bees 1 ever 

 saw. lint there is room lor selection, 

 and I want the best that can be had. 

 It seems to me that any man looking 

 coolly at the language used by me, 

 when noticing thedeadly thrust aimed 

 by Mr. Dadant, at the untried stran- 

 gers from the Island of Cyprus can see 

 that my intention was to joke, and 

 worry him. Rut he asks me if it 

 ■• would have been more honest to 

 keep on selling them without saying a 

 word about their irrascibilily?" I an- 

 swer, certainly not ; and further, that 

 if he has been advertising and selling 

 to bis customers a worthless thing, 

 honesty demands that he should not 

 only give warning, but refund the 

 money in every case where he has 

 made a sale. What would yon think 

 of a man who would sell you an arti- 

 cle and then uotiliy you that the thing 

 was worthless, and that you had better 

 let it alone, and at the same time keep 

 your money? I am only supposing a 

 case, for Mr. Dadant has done no such 

 tiling. The Cyprian queens that he 

 has sold are worth the price he charged 

 for them. If pure, they are in no 

 sense, except the good trait of quiet- 

 ness, inferior to the Italians, and in 

 some respects they are superior to 

 them. 



Mr. Dadant seems to think because 

 I keep a small apiary, and have bought 

 no bees from him, I draw upon my 

 i i ii 



low, and the other dark or black. 

 Now, when we see bees of an inter- 

 mediate color, do we not reason from 

 cause to effect when we call them hy- 

 brids V 



I have felt a deep interest in this 

 subject, and while I may m a jocular 

 way say some tough things, I have 

 alT due respect for the opinions of 

 others. 



(Jhristiansburg. Ky. 



For the American Dee Journal. 



Pollen and Dysentery. 



A. K. KOIINKE. 



agination when I write on the sub 

 ject of bee-culture. This is a remark- 

 able conclusion. It is true, I keep a 

 small apiary, and keep it for observa- 

 tion and stiiily. Perhaps 1 can Hildas 

 much time when not engaged ill my 

 professional duties, to study the hah 

 its and natural history of the bee, as 

 Mr. Dadant can spare for the same 

 purpose from the labors necessary in 

 his line apiaries. I have heard ot Mr. 

 Dadant for a long time, and I owned 

 bees before I had any knowledge of 

 his existence. Rut time don't make 

 men. It is brains and close applica- 

 tion that lit men for the duties of life, 

 whatever those duties may be. I take 

 a broader view of the subject under 

 discussion that Mr. Dadant is able to 

 comprehend, at least it appears so. 



To talk about the" leather- colored'' 

 bees being a distinct type or strain of 

 Italians, is simply nonsense. I have 

 yet to see the queen whose royal pro- 

 geny do not show more or less the out- 

 cropping of the two so-called strains. 

 Mr. Dadant says that I don't " speak 

 from experience," because I have 

 never bought a queen from him. This 

 is the most remarkable of all the re- 

 markable things that he has said 

 while discussing this subject. Does 

 Mr. Dadant pretend to say that bees 

 of bis importation differ materially 

 from those imported by other persons 

 from the same place? Why, bless 

 his soul 1 With all my "eagerness" 

 for war on the "leather-colored Ital- 

 ians," I have never seen the time 

 since I commenced the culture of the 

 yellow race of bees that I did not have 

 the so-called leather-colored Italians 

 in my apiary. I have found it next to 

 impossible to suppress them. Nothing 

 less than the cruelty and craft of 

 Ileiod the Great, who slew all the 

 children from 2 years old and under, 

 could suppress them. 



If Mr. Dadant's customers had de- 

 manded of him pure yellow bees, in- 

 stead of ordering them under the 

 flexible nomenclature Italians, he 

 would not have been able to till one 

 order in a half dozen. This is why 

 ••some people" may suspect that the 

 wonderful power "called selfishness 

 may move the best of men. 



I hold that the hive bee ( Apia meli- 

 .fi'-(t), is divided into two distinct fam- 

 ilies or races, viz : the yellow and the 

 black races. That the yellow race is 

 superior to the black. Now it makes 

 but little difference where bees come 

 from, be it Italy, Cyprus, Palestine. 

 Egypt or anywhere else, if they are 

 black or ■' dark,"' if you please, ihey 

 cannot belong to the yellow race of bees 



Prof. Cook's statement in No. 41 of 

 the Bee JoUKNAI., page 32U, is as fol- 

 lows : '• That pollen was ill many cases 

 injurious to bees in winter, as it had a 

 tendency to unseasonable breeding, 

 and hence was the cause of much 

 springdwindling." Put theother way: 

 Spring dwindling is caused by unsea- 

 sonable breeding, and that is induced 

 by the consumption of pollen in mod- 

 erate or immoderate quantities, which- 

 ever way yon may choose to put it. 

 What [ especially Wish to emphasize 

 is, that the bees did not take to unsea- 

 sonable breeding on account of a mod- 

 erate or immoderate consumption of 

 pollen, and that the presence of pollen 

 is not and cannot be. the direct or in- 

 direct cause of springdwindling, espe- 

 cially not of dysentery. Unseasonable 

 breeding may be the cause, which in 

 turn is the effect of a problematical 

 cause. Even the expression, " unsea- 

 sonable breeding," 1 doubt very much 

 as correct. I have seen bees rear 

 brood by the middle of February in 

 the northeastern part of Germany. 

 the winters there being as severe as 

 in any partof Michigan or Wisconsin, 

 though not much spring dwindling or 

 dysentery is known in that part of the 

 country. 



Now, I will take a step in the oppo- 

 site direction, by saying that the ab- 

 sence or deficiency of pollen in winter 

 causes dwindling and dysentery in 

 spring, to prove which I will quote 

 lierlepscli, who says as follows: "In 

 186.5. for the sake of an experiment, 1 

 wintered a very strong colony without 

 any pollen, but plenty of honey, and 

 in the spring of 18(i6 it was the only 

 colony among 70 which showed signs 

 of restlessness and dysentery." 

 Youngstown.O. 



it growing from the seed saved this 

 season. 



Melilot is best sown in the fall, but 

 will grow any time or anywhere, ex- 

 cept on a flat rock. 



Motherwort, flgwort and catnip are 

 very easily eradicated when wanted 

 no longer; at least so as not to inter- 

 fere with any crop. Melilot will erad- 

 icate itself by not letting the seed 

 ripen. 



I have no seed of any kind to sell 

 this year, having sown them all for 

 my own bees. Next year I shall save 

 seed to sow in other locations. I sup- 

 pose some of Ihe dealers have uielih t 

 for sale, as it is the most useful 

 thing in the business. Ask A. II. 

 Newman, of Chicago. 111., for the 

 seed. If yon don't get Ihe seed, get a 

 few plants and raise your own seed ; 

 that is the way 1 done it. Set the 

 plants now, or in the spring either; 

 melilot does not do very weli to trans- 

 plant, unless very small. 



The bee man within hearing of the 

 bells of Eminence, that the Cyprians 

 whipped out, mentioned in American 

 Bee Journal of Nov. 2. is out on 

 duty. lie sent to D. II. Pike for some 

 Albino queens, and killed his Cyprians, 

 and I am right glad the thing hap- 

 pened before I got any of the blood 

 into my apiary, for it was only 3 miles 

 away. Peace is again restored on this 

 line about Eminence apiaries; only 

 one man has the Cyprians now. near 

 here, and the indications are that he 

 will be cured next spring. 



Eminence, Ky., Nov. 5, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Knowledge Possessed by Bees. 



T. C. STARlt. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Facts About Honey Plant Culture. 



W. T. STEWART. 



Having had many letters of inquiry 

 concerning the plants named in ui\ 

 article read at the Convention ai 

 Lexington, I think best to answer all 

 at once through our much loved 

 American Bee Journal ; by so do 

 ing, I can probably answer many que- 

 ries that will benetit bee-keepers gen- 

 erally. 



The Simpson Honey Plant (or fig- 

 wort) is very hard to propagate from 

 ihe seed ; the only successful way that 

 I know of is to sow the seed in a rich 

 plant bed early in the spring, and 

 when well up, or in the fall, trans- 

 plant in the field. 4 feet, apart one way 

 and 2 feet the other. It, will not do to 

 sow with wheat, etc. I have a fine 

 lot of young plants this season in plant 

 beds. 



Motherwort will come from the seed 

 sowed broadcast with wheat, or any 

 other way that is most convenient, 

 provided the ground is loosened a lit- 

 tle; nearly every seed will grow, too. 

 It is best to sow early in the fall, bin 

 it will do any time in the warm sea- 

 son. I have millions of it now, 4 

 inches high, sown last September; it 

 is quick and easy to propagate, any 

 where ; hence it is very valuable. 



Catnip bears the same treatment as 

 motherwort, in every particular as to 

 time and manner of growing. I have 



Do bees know what is going on 

 throughout their own hives, and can 

 they communicate with each other? 



Last April I had occasion to trans- 

 fer some bees from box hives to mov- 

 able frame hives ; the latter were ar- 

 ranged for two sets of frames, upper 

 and lower. In transferring, the combs 

 were placed in the lower story, and 

 the. upper space left vacant, no empty 

 frames being placed theiein. 



The bees were driven out of the old 

 hive into a box. until the combs were 

 transferred to the frames and placed 

 in the hive, when the top or movable 

 corner was removed from the hive, 

 and the bees shaken out of the box 

 into the hive on to the frames of honey 

 and brood ; the corner was then put on 

 the hive, and to all appearances the 

 bees were doing well. 



In about a week I examined the 

 frames (from a side door in the hive), 

 to see if the combs were fastened, in 

 order to remove the transferring wires, 

 when I was surprised to find many 

 bees clustered and hanging to the cor- 

 ner of the hive, and on examination 

 of the combs, I found no eggs theiein, 

 but some 15 queen cells already far 

 advanced towards capping. 



1 then examined the cluster of bees 

 hanging to the corner of the hive, and 

 found they had started combs, every 

 cell almost of which was occupied by 

 eggs and larva, proving that the queen 

 was in the corner ; that when shaken 

 into the hive, she had crawled up- 

 ward instead of going in among the 

 combs covered with honey at the 

 time. 



There was only the one entrance to 

 the hive, and every bee that went out 

 .if the hive from the place where the 

 queen was, had to go down through 

 the combs and also return through 

 them. If they can communicate with 

 each other, why did they not entice 

 the queen down among the combs? 

 or. why did the bees among the combs 

 rear queens, if they knew their queen 

 was only a few inches above them in 

 their hive. 



The queen of another colony got un- 

 der the hive, out side entirely; the 

 bees had commenced combs there, 

 and they were all tilled with eggs, 

 while on the inside of the hive they 

 had commenced to rear queens, when 

 on the third day I discovered Ihe state 

 of affairs,and put the queen in the hive. 



