1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



205 



this queen in the drone cells built by 

 the colony of India u bees. If Mr. 

 Hewitt's practical experience had ex- 

 tended a little further than the con- 

 fines of an island about the size of 

 Alabama oir North Carolina, a kingdom 

 whose area is less than that of Michi- 

 gan, and but slightly larger than the 

 State of New York, he would have been 

 less ready to make such positive as- 

 sertions as to what could or could not 

 be done with other varieties and 

 species of bees in lands thousands of 

 miles away from his own country 

 where all conditions are radically dif- 

 ferent. He would, in fact, have been 

 less dogmatic. I will not venture to 

 assert that one can generally be suc- 

 cessful in introducing queens of the 

 species Apis mellifen'a to Apis indica, 

 as my experience is not extended 

 enough to enable me to do this. I mere- 

 ly state a fact and leave the general 

 law to be based on more numerous in- 

 stances. 



Mr. Hewitt states that Tunisian 

 queens "never attempt to mate until 

 ; about 20 days old." In certain of their 

 ; qualities I found the Tunisians to bear 

 I a resemblance to oriental races of bees, 

 and it may be laid down as a general 

 rule that all of these races defer mat- 

 ing longer than do the queens of 

 European races, so that it is a common 

 occurrence to find Cyprian, Syrian and 

 Palestine queens awaiting until the 

 tenth,the twelfth, or even the four- 

 teenth day before mating. It is, 

 however, exceedingly rare for them 

 to delay beyond this period, and 

 I have reason to believe that 

 the Tunisian bees are even less 

 inclined than the bees of more eastern 

 Mediterranean countries to delay in 

 mating. I seriously doubt the ac- 

 curacy of the statement made by Mr. 

 Hewitt to the effect that "they will 

 mate all I'ight at over three months 

 old,'' at least if he means thereby to 

 ■ indicate that they will mate and be 

 , valuable always after that period. I 

 am well aware that queens of the orien- 

 tal races stand confinement for a long- 

 er period than those of other races, 

 and will mate at a later date in their 

 existence, but I have not found it ad- 

 visable or practical to keep virgins 

 that I wished to have develop into 

 valuable queens caged longer than two 

 weeks. 



Mr. Hewitt, much to my surprise, in 

 closing his article, makes statement of 

 a fact regarding peculiarities of the 



Tunisians which would form sufficient 

 reason for many bee-keepers to utterly 

 reject the race. And, notwithstanding 

 his statement of the fact, it is neverthe- 

 less true. I refer to the following: 

 "If you remove a queen and then on 

 the tenth day cut out every queen cell, 

 fertile workers will at once fill all the 

 combs with eggs." Think of that! 

 Ten days after the removal of the 

 queen you get all the brood combs 

 of your hive filled with drone eggs laid 

 by workers! But I will go a step fur- 

 ther than Mr. Hewitt, and will state 

 that oftentimes, upon the removal 

 of the queen, before the ten days have 

 expired, and before any queen cells 

 have been removed, vast numbers of 

 eggs will be laid by workers in the 

 worker brood-combs. I have never 

 known them to rear a queen from any 

 of this brood. It is true they frequent- 

 ly start cells on such brood, but a dead 

 drone is found in the queen cell later. 



In referring to the introduction of 

 these bees into various climates, Mr. 

 Hewitt says: "They have made them- 

 selves at home in every country, no 

 matter how hot or how cold," and he 

 also conveys the idea that anyone who 

 has once tried them is sure to pro- 

 nounce them superior to any and all 

 other races. I also recall that Mr. 

 Henry Alley said of them, in 1891, as 

 quoted by Mr. E. L. Pratt on Page 810, 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture, for October 

 15, 1891: "They will supersede the 

 Italians." Notwithstanding all the ef- 

 forts to bring these bees forward 

 prominently, and get them established 

 in this country, does Mr. Alley still 

 hold to this view? Does Mr. Pratt 

 subscribe to it? Has anybody in this 

 country any pure Tunisian ("Punic") 

 bees at the present time? My own be- 

 lief is that we have far better bees, far 

 gentler bees, bees that are equally pro- 

 lific, that gather less propolis, that are 

 handsomer, that are less inclined to 

 make unprovoked attacks upon peo- 

 ple passing through or near the apiary, 

 and that in general may be manipulat- 

 ed and managed for profit with equally 

 as good or better results, and far more 

 comfort. I do not believe the introduc- 

 tion of bees from Tunis will be a bene- 

 fit to American apiculture. 



This whole subject, in my opinion, 

 as presented by Mr. Hewitt, is enlarg- 

 ed quite as much as the statements 

 which he once made in print concern- 

 ing the settlement of the problem of 

 mailing queen bees on long journeys. 



I 



