AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



IT 



use the frame reversible by notions of 

 my own. I like them after five years' 

 experience. 



How does the trap fasten to the bot- 

 tom-board ? A small strip of tin nailed 

 across the trap slides behind one like it 

 nailed on the bottom-board. With these, 

 one can put on or take off 100 in half 

 an hour. 



Where does the queen get into the 

 trap ? Cut off the strip on the bottom- 

 board, 2 inches; slot in the trap to 

 correspond ; and also the top of the 

 trap connects with the upper hive in 

 the same way. There are two cones in 

 the trap, so arranged they will not clog. 

 The trap furnishes a cavity for dead 

 drones and bees, bees having free access 

 to the trap by the queen-slide, as shown 

 in the picture. 



The next article will be a continuation 

 of self-hivers hived at the side ; size of 

 swarms, etc. — Gleanings. 



A Boy's Experience in Bee-Keeping, 



ED. CLARK. 



I caught the " bee-fever " in the sum- 

 mer of 1887, when only eight years old, 

 from reading an article on bees and 

 honey in an agricultural paper. At 

 that time my parents kept a few bees, 

 and during the summer they gave me a 

 colony for my own. The next summer I 

 got another colony, both of which were 

 in box-hives. 



I began gathering up all the knowledge 

 that I could pertaining to bees and their 

 management when I first became in- 

 terested in them, and by the time I had 

 my second colony I knew about the 

 frame hive. I thought I would like to 

 try one of them, so I had one made, and 

 transferred one of my colonies into it. I 

 then had a colony of bees in a frame 

 hive, but knew very little about how to 

 manage them. 



I then decided that I needed a bee- 

 paper, and sent for sample copies of 

 several, among them being the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. When I received 

 them I examined them carefully, and 

 subscribed for the Bee Journal, which 

 was a great help to me. From reading 

 it I found that most bee-keepers pre- 

 ferred the Italian bees instead of the 

 common blacks ; so I procured a queen 

 that was warranted to produce bees with 

 three yellow bands, and in due time she 

 arrived all right. The next thing was 

 to introduce her ; but when it came to 

 this I began to get nervous, for I was 



afraid that the bees would not like this 

 yellow queen for a mother, when they 

 had been used to a black one. But I 

 guess they must have liked her a little 

 too well, for after waiting a few days 

 after she had been introduced, I looked 

 at her, and found a large part of one 

 wing missing, which I think the bees bit 

 off. 



I have increased my bees to 8 colo- 

 nies, which are in Simplicity hives, and 

 I have Italianized 3 colonies. I do not 

 have the advantage that some beginners 

 have, of talking to an experienced api- 

 arist, for there are none such near me. 



So far this has been a rather poor year 

 for bees. I have had no swarms yet. 



Nat, Ala., June 18, 1892. 



Tie Races of Honey-Bees, 



G. W. DEMAREE. 



It is really more difficult to be practi- 

 cal than it is to be learned and precise. 



It is generally conceded that all honey 

 bees, Apis mellifica, most likely, had 

 their origin in one common parentage. 

 But this does not settle the question of 

 races. Now, I say it is most probable 

 that at a very early period in the history 

 of the world, the race of honey-bees was 

 divided by some cause, no more myster- 

 ious than mauy other things we see in 

 nature, into two distinct races — black 

 and yellow. The intermediate colors 

 so common in varieties of bees indicate 

 this, besides we see the same thing in 

 the wasps and ants. I believe, and 1 

 think my belief is based on substantial 

 reasoning and observations, that there 

 are two distinct races of bees, from 

 which all the intermediate strains or 

 types of bees had their origin, and this 

 accounts for the tendency of the differ- 

 ent types of bees to sport in breeding. 



It is the most reasonable thing in the 

 world that the striped types of bees 

 should sport most in their breeding, be- 

 cause everything pertaining to their his- 

 tory goes to show that they are a more 

 recent type than the more solid colored 

 types are. Many persons contend that 

 the Carniolan bees belong to the dark or 

 black race of bees. Of course this is a 

 mistake, brought about by the common 

 weakness of "jumping at a conclusion," 

 rather than by the slow process of care- 

 ful investigation. The Carniolan bee 

 does not belong to the " black race" of 

 bees. They are an intermediate type of 

 bees with a strong tendency to the yel- 

 low. I have never seen a colony of 



