AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



209 



Fiye-Banied Golden Italian Bees. Etc, 



O. FITZALWYN WILKINS. 



page 381 of the American Bee 

 ul for March 17, 1882, is the 



On 

 Journal 



following query : 



" Who was the originator of that strain of 

 Italians known as the 'five-banded golden 

 Italians?' " 



I presume no one has laid claim to 

 being the originator, because I have not, 

 as yet, seen any reply to my inquiry in 

 any bee-paper which I take. 



I have been "keeping bees" since 

 1866, and have nearly every year pur- 

 chased an Italian queen from some one 

 — more from a Massachusetts breeder 

 than any other, because his queens were 

 invariably as he represented them. I 

 have not obtained any queens from that 

 gentleman for several years, for the 

 reason that I am badly afflicted with 

 color-blindness, so far as bees are con- 

 cerned, and cannot see perfectly any- 

 thing that is not " golden-to-the-tip." 



However, I believe in "giving unto 

 Caesar the things that be Caesar's," or, in 

 other words, giving "honor to whom 

 honor is due ;" therefore, I will say just 

 here, that three years since, I procured 

 queens from several breeders, none of 

 which produced progeny equal to that of 

 the Massachusetts queen for gentleness 

 and industry. In the month of June, 

 1890, her "children" stored in one 

 hive 240 pounds of extracted honey, 

 being 100 pounds more than either of 

 the others, although I treated all im- 

 partially. 



Of course, there are many who keep 

 bees for profit, and have realized much 

 larger returns than the above. I re- 

 member, " some twenty years ago," one 

 case in which 600 pounds were extracted 

 from one hive ; at least it was so re- 

 ported in the American Bee Journal, 

 Vol. VII., No. 7, for January, 1872, 

 page 164, on the middle of the second 

 column. By the way, what has become 

 of Gallup, " Novice," "Amateur," and 

 a score more of the " old timers ?" 



Do you know I experience more real 

 pleasure in looking over the first vol- 

 umes of the American Bee Journal 

 than in any other occupation except 

 working among my yellow pets ? 



" Honor to whom honor is due," re- 

 minds me that I procured queens last 

 year from four "five-banded breeders " 

 who "satisfaction guaranteed ;" but all 

 of whose queens were not producers of 



even uniformly three-banded workers. 

 The queens were from breeders in New 

 York, Maryland, Illinois and Missouri, 

 and I expected to obtain some very fine 

 queens from them. Well, Missouri and 

 Maryland furnished queens to fill the 

 bill ; New York's was very poor — she 

 produced two and three banded bees for 

 a short time, and departed this life after 

 a ten weeks' sojourn in our grand 

 Dominion of Canada ! Like the "sum- 

 mer girls" generally, she was not ready 

 for annexation ! 



The Illinois queen was very prolific of 

 three-banded workers, and extremely 

 dark drones. The workers had cloudy 

 spots in the bands, also extremely vixen- 

 ish tempers. I rejoiced " with an ex- 

 ceeding great joy " at her early admis- 

 sion to the halls of Valhalla this spring, 

 where^if she be not sipping nectar from 

 the skulls of her rivals, she is doubtless 

 sharpening her death-dealing brand on 

 the thorax of some vanquished enemy. 



The other two queens — from Mary- 

 land and Missouri — each produced four 

 and five banded workers, gentle as 

 butterflies (almost), and as industrious 

 as our own Canadian beavers. 



The idea advanced in a New York bee- 

 paper, would have, I think, a beneficial 

 effect on those breeders who obtain 

 money under false pretences, viz. : that 

 each apiarian periodical throughout the 

 continent should publish a " black-list " 

 of all unscrupulous dealers in apiarian 

 supplies. 



International Bridge, Out., July 4. 



Swarming, Tie Season. Etc, 



JOHN M. SEILER. 



I had 9 colonies, spring count, mostly 

 in box-hives, so I worked them for in- 

 crease, and got it. One colony did not 

 swarm, but the other 8 cast 14 natural 

 swarms. I sold 2, and united the sec- 

 ond swarms. One second swarm I united 

 with a weak one that had comb built* 

 only on 6 of the 8 frames (I use the 8- 

 frame Wisconsin hive) ; on June 20 I 

 put a super on and they filled it, and on 

 July 14 they cast a large swarm. 



The first swarm I got on June 9, and 

 they filled their hive with honey, and 

 about 40 pounds in one-pound sections ; 

 I put a third super on, but not soon 

 enough, as on July 27, four days after 

 I put on the third super, it cast an 83^- 

 pound swarm — that was 48 days after 

 it was hived. 



