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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July lA, 



bpe-kopppr with an eye to profit will allow unlimited swarm- 

 ing : in fact, he will endeavor to prevent swarming altogether, 

 nor will he allow the over-production of drones. The drones 

 have apparently only one object in life, and short work is 

 made of them by the workers at the close of the honey-fiow, or 

 when there is, through bad weather, a probability of stores 

 running short. They are then turned out to die, so that the 

 remaining part of the community may remain alive and con- 

 tinue the life of the colony. The length of life of the drones 

 is very uncertain, but it really only extends through the sea- 

 son of plenty. The presence of drones in any hive after the 

 honey-flow has closed, while those of other colonies have been 

 massacred, is usually a sign of queenlessness. If a fertile 

 queen be introduced, the bees quickly settle down to the work 

 of turning out of the hive the drones that are then left. 



THE WORKER. 



Workers, the smallest of the three kinds of bees found in 

 the hive, are, as their name indicates, the bees that do the 

 work of the hive. They act as iturse-bees in preparing and 

 administering food to the queen and grubs ; then they gather 

 honey and pollen, sec-reto wax, build combs, and carry on all 

 the other little duties that fall to work(>rs in such a well- 

 arranged hive of industry, until worn out, as they usually are 

 at the end of a few weeks' work. If it were not that the life 

 of a worker-bee was short, there would be enormous popula- 

 tions, far beyond the capacity of modern hives. The length 

 of life of a worker-bee is determined by the amount of 

 work it performs. Those brought into existence, say in 

 May, have before them a period of the greatest activity, and 

 consequently their lives are short, only six weeks at the most ; 

 while those hatcht in .September, having little work to do, 

 may get through the winter, only to be quickly worn out with 

 the hard work that then falls to their lot. The average 

 length of life of a worker-bee is said to be -46 days. Quite 

 recently a noted American bee-keeper, who has been carefully 

 testing the matter, finds the average length of life to be 47 

 days. This shows that those who gave the former number 

 evidently gave considerable and painstaking attention to the 

 solving of such an interesting question. 



LAYING WORKERS. 



Occasionally when a queen is lost or killed a worker de- 

 velops the power of egg-laying, but the eggs only produce 

 drones. The presence of a laying worker is known by the 

 irregular manner in which the eggs are deposited, and later 

 on by the bulky and protruding cappings which are the char- 

 acteristic covering of drone-brood. 



As laying workers are not only useless, but a nuisance in 

 an apiary, they should be got rid of as soon as their presence 

 in the hive is known. The introduction of a fertile queen will 

 have the desired effect, as bees do nottoh-rate a laying w<irki'r 

 when they have a fertile or ordinary laying queen : or without 

 the introduction of a queen, the hive may be freed of the lay- 

 ing worker by taking it some distance from its stand and 

 shaking all the bees off the combs. A laying worker only be- 

 ing found in queenless colonies, the bees would be all adults, 

 and would therefore at once fly to their own stand : but not so 

 the laying worker, as it is supposed that she obtains this ex- 

 traordinary power through having been bred near the queen- 

 cells, and received some of the royal .lelly. Be this as it may, 

 this bee is not accustomed to flying abroad, and consequently 

 will not return to the hive on the old stand ; and if should 

 endeavor to enter another hive it will at once be killed. 



VARIETIES. 



In addition to the well-known English bee there are other 

 races that have been imported with a view to improving our 

 own bee and establishing a better strain for general purposes. 

 The foreign races that have most generally been imported are 

 Ligurian, Carniolan and Cyprian. 



The Ligurian, or Italian bee. is a handsome bee, having 

 yellow bands across the abdomen, three being distinctly markt. 

 In America many bee-masters have produced by selection and 

 propogated a strain of Ligurian showing five yellow bands, but 

 the majority of reports on this production are by no means in 

 its favor. In England the Ligurian is favored, but tho the 

 queens arc more prolific than the English, and the bees better 

 workers, this race can only be used for the production of ex- 

 tracted honey, as the workers cap the honey-cells so that the 

 comb presents a damp and unattractive appearance. 



The Carniolan. from southwest Austria, is a silver-banded 

 bee, and in appearance most nearly approaches the English. 

 but the queens arc wonderfully prolific, and the bees good 

 workers. Still, tlio such bees on account of these two quali- 

 ties, are apparently desirable, they are inveterate swarmers. a 

 colony sending out snmetinies swarm after swarm until it is 

 only the size of a small' cast itself. This swarming is a most 



undesirable trait, and one that bee-keepers are anxious to 

 control : therefore, the keeping of this race has by no means 

 become general. 



The Cyprian is the handsomest bee known, being a little 

 like an insect of gold. It is, as may be inferred from its name, 

 imported from the island of Cyprus. I have had these bees in 

 my apiary at a time when they were really golden bees, the 

 price of the queens being 22s., but their stay with me was of 

 short duration. At times they were as harmless as flies, and 

 could be manii)ulated without either veil or smoke, but on 

 other occasions they were veritable demons, and not to be sub- 

 dued. At stinging, these bees can, in the'words of " Brother 

 Jonathan," " lick creation." .Such vicious bees are best left 

 alone, or, at any rate, by any but the most expert in bee-man- 

 agement. It is stated that one colony of Cyprians owned by 

 an American bee-keeper stored in one season 1,000 pounds of 

 honey. It is, however, certain that if the wonderful egg-lay- 

 ing power of the queen be properly directed, a truly immense 

 population might be obtained for the honey-flow, and an 

 abnormal quantity of honey stored. One colony of Cyprians, 

 in my apiary several years ago, was expected to give over a 

 hundred pounds of honey, but when it was taken to pieces (a 

 task I never desire to repeat) only about a dozen pounds of 

 honey were taken. The honey gathered by this colony had 

 been used in feeding the grubs, and to such an extent was 

 breeding carried that when this examination was made the 31 

 standard frames in the three stories of which the hive was 

 composed, were almost entirely sheets of brood. Other colo- 

 nies then had little brood, and many full supers. 



The Syrian and other Eastern races bear much the same 

 character as the Cyprian, and have found little favor in this 

 country. If any imported race is introduced into any apiary, 

 it should be pure specimens of either the Ligurian or Carnio- 

 lan, but as an all-round bee our English bee is not to be beaten. 

 LContiQued next week] 



Prevention of Swarming and Grass Growing. 



BT MRS. EPFIE BROWN. 



Of late we see a great deal in the bee-papers about pre- 

 vention of swarming and hive ventilation. Every one seems 

 interested in the subject from the " Marengo medicioe man '* 

 to the beginner, and as so many are talking about it I will 

 tell how I manage my bees. I am not quite certain, but I 

 think the Roots follow the same plan, to some extent. Prob- 

 ably many others do also. 



Five years ago I partially gave np comb honey producing- 

 and began extracting, and from that time until now I have 

 had but very few swarms that I did not expect and want. My 

 hives are all lO-frame, and nearly all have cleats. I agree 

 with Dr. Miller on the cleat question, and even if they are 

 going out-of-date, I like them better than those havinff 

 hand-holes. I am also a very "strong lO-frame man." I 

 would rather have a 12 than an 8 frame hive. 



Our last Important honey-flow is from buckwheat, and 

 when this begins to fail I see that every hive contains at least 

 6 frames sealed to the bottom-bar. Of course there will be 

 some honey in the center combs also, and the more the better; 

 but if the required 6 is not in each hive, I exchange the 

 partly-filled combs for full ones from an extracting story. By 

 doing this I never have to feed In the spring, and the colonies 

 all build up very rapidly. 



When there is brood in 8 frames, I raise the 2 middle 

 ones to the upper story and fill both up with extracting-combs. 

 As soon as the combs begin to look " frosty," I either put ott 

 another story or extract. Some colonies are used to build 

 comb, and these are sometimes tiered up to five stories. 



When the bees begin to get interested in clover, I raise 

 the cover of the hive about M of an inch at the back end, and 

 put a stick under so as to keep it so. The cloth over the 

 frames is also taken away at the same time. About the mid- 

 dle of July I raise it np a good inch, and tho some may doubt 

 it, I can say I have never had any trouble with robber-bees 

 except in case of queenless colonies. This is better, I think, 

 than raising the hive on blocks, for it insures a freer circula- 

 tion of air. I wouldn't think of opening my front door for 

 cool air without opening the back door also. I have an idea 

 that the bees can ripen their honey faster with both " doors '* 

 open. I know that my kitchen floor, that has just been 

 scrubbed, dries faster with the wind blowing through the 

 room. Then with plenty of ventilation the bees never cluster 

 outside unless I forget to leave the cover up, and, when I do, 

 I can send them all In to work again by raising it and puffing 

 a little smoke among them. 



