274 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



early spring to this date. Excessive 

 rainfall, with cloudy, cool weather, with 

 short intervals of excessive heat, char- 

 acterized the season covering our early 

 honey harvest. 



What little honey we got was stored 

 between June 15 and the 25th, and for 

 several days during that short harvest 

 the weather was so abnormally hot and 

 sultry, that the bees deserted the brood- 

 chambers and surplus cases, to hang on 

 the sides and under parts of the hives. 

 The temperature went up to 100° in the 

 shade on June 23, 24 and 25, and there 

 were terrific electric storms such as do 

 not occur twice in an ordinary life-time. 

 Under these conditions, what little honey 

 we were able to take was injured in 

 flavor, and is a poor article at best. 



We have been told that the bees digest 

 the nectar in their honey-sacs, and con- 

 vert the raw nectar into the genuine 

 article — honey. I never believed this 

 monstrous theory for a .moment. All my 

 experience goes to show that good 

 weather is essential to good honey ; that 

 all nectar handled by the bees must fer- 

 ment slightly to convert the sugar it 

 contains, in the process of curing ; and 

 if the weather chances to be the reverse 

 of good — as it was in 1882, and now in 

 1892 — the fermentation may go too far, 

 and result in slightly sour, twanggy 

 honey. 



KENTUCKY WORLD'S FAIR HONEY EXHIBIT. 



Kentucky, so far as my rather ex- 

 tended correspondence has informed me, 

 has procured no comb honey worthy to 

 represent our State at the World's Fair 

 next year. We have only now to try 

 and arrange with our State Agricultural 

 Commissioners to make an exhibit of the 

 next year's crop, during the latter part 

 of the Fair. We can put of our early 

 white honey, in position at the Fair, by 

 July 15, or about two months before the 

 Fair is closed. 



UNFAVORABLE SEASON FOR EXPERIMENTS. 



The season has been so utterly out of 

 line with what we habitually expect to 

 see, that I did not pursue my usual ex- 

 periments this summer. To succeed 

 with anything, I must feel a live inter- 

 est in it, and as my bees could do noth- 

 ing, I was powerless also to do anything 

 with them. 



But a poor season — a real failure of a 

 season— is not without some advantages. 

 If you can feel interest enough to ob- 

 serve closely, you may discover your best 

 bees, and be able to improve your stock 

 by breeding from the best next season. 



My apiary is Italian — with half dozen 

 colonies of Carniolans on trial — one col- 

 ony of pure native black bees as a curi- 

 osity, and one colony of so-called Punic 

 bees. It was a close fight against ad- 

 versity between the best of my Italians 

 and the best of the Carniolans. But I 

 presume that the Carniolans have gained 

 strength from the yellow blood that they 

 have borrowed from the Italians. 



The native black bees have, as usual, 

 showed their weakness under adversity. 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE PUNICS. 



How about the little, black Tunisian 

 bees ? There is tender ground here, my 

 friend, and we must speak tenderly. 

 The latter part of last season I procured 

 a Punic queen and introduced her to an 

 Italian colony. She laid well, and reared 

 plenty of bees for winter, and the colony 

 was well stocked with bees in the early 

 spring. Her bees were darker than any 

 colony of native black bees I have seen, 

 but were not "black," as they have 

 been described. 



A majority of persons who were shown 

 this colony of bees, failed to discover 

 any difference between their general ap- 

 pearance and that of some very black 

 colonies of native bees ; but when their 

 attention was called to their inky ap- 

 pearance, they would readily admit that 

 these bees might be distinguished from 

 the native bees if one thought to make 

 the discrimination. 



In the early spring I was clipping the 

 wings of some queens, and undertook to 

 clip the black African — but I didn't. 

 They were in some respects the most un- 

 manageable colony of bees I ever tried 

 to handle. They did not sting as vi- 

 ciously as some bees I have handled, but 

 when the tops of the frames were un- 

 covered, they would boil up and cover 

 the tops of the frames, and spread out 

 over the edges of the hive in a way that 

 made handling of the frames a most un- 

 pleasant job. I could drive them with 

 smoke, but they would rush back before 

 I could set down the smoker and touch a 

 frame. 



The best I could do was to put on the 

 surplus cases, and give them a wide 

 berth. The result was, they gathered 

 no surplus, but it is a fact that 25 per 

 cent, of my Italians did no better this 

 worst of all seasons. At the end of the 

 season, I gave the colony an Italian 

 queen, and this is the end of " Punics " 

 in my apiary. 



The prospects for fall honey are very 

 good, and our bees must have this, or bo 

 fed. 



Christiansburg, Ky., Aug. 15, 18 ( J2. 



