168 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



take to be in the color, but the over- 

 sight or neglect of other qualities. 

 The testimony of thousands of bee- 

 keepers from all parts of the country, 

 concerning the better qualities of the 

 two races, stands more than ten to 

 one in favor of that possessing the 

 yellow bands. 



Judging from this and the experi- 

 ence of those engaged in the produc- 

 tion of tine stock, liorses, cattle, hogs, 

 sheep, and poultry of all descriptions, 

 it is reasonable to expect a greater 

 improvement by breeding the best of 

 the superior race, rather tlian that of 

 the inferior. Nor does it look reason- 

 able that the superior can be improved 

 by the inferior. 



Bryant, 111. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Pastiirage in Louisiana. 



EDWARD NOTLEE. 



Wintering bees, and the almost end- 

 less variety of life-saving apparatus, 

 is of no interest or value whatever 

 down South, as there is nothing of the 

 sort required here. As to your vast 

 array of honey-producing plants, trees 

 and flowers, we have almost notliing 

 of the same kind here, we have plenty 

 of clover, but it is worth nothing for 

 honey, the hot weather is said to make 

 it too dry. Strange to say, we have 

 no honey-producing material to any 

 great extent for white marketable 

 honey near New Orleans ; only from 

 the maple, in February, and the 

 abundant willow, which continue to 

 bloom for 6 weeks from the tirst of 

 March to the middle of April. All 

 honey made after that is too dark for 

 the market. Hut this grand bloom- 

 ing willow we have in splendid abund- 

 ance. And the bushes, which are not 

 very higli generally, and the luxurious 

 feathery bloom in its drooping beauty, 

 with the busy bees on them, are seen to 

 great advantage. Mr. Grabbe says 

 the Louisiana willow is far superior 

 to any willow in your Northern or 

 Western States. Tliere are a variety 

 of species here which continue to 

 bloom in fine rotation in the most 

 splendid order for bee accommodation, 

 although this willow honey comes 

 early, and is white and beautiful to 

 look at, but I regret to say it is not in 

 taste and quality equal to very much 

 which your bees produce in the West- 

 ern States. It has a very perceptible 

 willow bitter, and consequently will 

 never be a choice article of much de- 

 mand here. But Louisiana can well 

 boast of her sugar-growing capacity. 

 Those who do not know enough of bee 

 management to have their bees strong 

 and rushing by the lirst of March, in 

 Louisiana, will never make a fortune 

 in this line, or enougli to pay off tlie 

 national debt. If we could produce 

 anything equal to your Spanish needle 

 honey it would be in great demand, 

 and very generally used. Mr. Perrine's 

 bees supplied us some tine specimens 

 of this rare quality when theyreturned 

 .from their celebrated trip of " floating 

 apiary " renown. 



In the long ago when I first changed 

 my bees from the old box to frames. 



and could examine their condition, 

 generally in October there would not 

 be moi'e than 3 or 4 lbs. of honey to 

 the colony and sometimes less ; for one 

 or two years I was greatly afraid they 

 would "starve, but by the middle of 

 December they had always gatliered 

 plenty for winter. I suppose they get 

 this late supply from the large amount 

 of sugar everywhere coming in by 

 rail and boat. I found Mr. Perrine's 

 laees in the same condition in October, 

 two years ago, and wrote to him about 

 it; he sent a large quantity of honey 

 from Chicago to feed tliem. 



With the lights of the past and 

 after twenty years experience here, I 

 find that Louisiana,as a rule, produces 

 an almost illimitable amount of wil- 

 low honey during March and April ; 

 from June the yield is much less in 

 quantity and quality up to August, 

 and then almost nothing on to Novem- 

 ber. But iu the next six weeks, to 

 the middle of December, they never 

 fail iu gathering a full supply for 

 winter. I liave found a large quantity 

 of honey even in October, but this is 

 a rare exception, and does not happen 

 oftener than one vear in five. 



New Orleans, La. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keeping in Australia. 



S. MACDONNELL. 



Since the advent of the Italian bees 

 imported by me last July from Mr. A. 

 II. Newman, of Chicago, I have been 

 devoting my attention to queen rear- 

 ing, expecting that this season, owing 

 to the prevalence of black drones, I 

 should get my queens cross-fertilized 

 and that; next year I should have none 

 but Italian drones about my hives, 

 which condition, combined with the 

 absence of other bees in the vicinity, 

 would give me a fair chance of having 

 a second batch of queens from my im- 

 ported stock purely fertilized, or 

 rather, a certainty of having them 

 purely fertilized if they met the drone 

 offspring of their elder sisters. The 

 interesting Dzierzon theory, which 

 most bee-keepers have accepted as 

 infallible, was, of course, the stan- 

 dard to which I attached my pro- 

 gramme, on the good faith of the 

 wide reception of the theory and the 

 recommendation by the American 

 bee papers of the course planned for 

 my operations. In the American 

 Bee Journal, 1S81, page 299, 1 tind 

 that Dr. Tinker has the temerity to 

 attempt to undermine one of my house- 

 hold gods, the Dzierzon theory, as he 

 holds that an Italian queen impreg- 

 nated by a black drone does produce 

 other than inire Italian drones. Dr. 

 Tinker liandles the matter in hand so 

 well, and shows such clear insiaht 

 and observation, that I fear a very 

 troublesome antagonist has entered 

 the arena, and if he substantiates his 

 case, many wlio have depended on 

 the drone progeny of an Italian queen, 

 fertilized by a black drone, for rear- 

 ing pure Italians, will have necessity 

 for a great deal of faith to eliminate 

 the black blood from their stock. 

 Although I might have sufficient faitli 



to counteract the black blood in one 

 or two colonies, it certainly would 

 fall short for twenty colonies, and 

 when the time comes on for rearing a 

 second batch of queens, I shall take 

 pains to have them fertilized by drones 

 from my imported stock, and shall 

 risk the evils attending in-and-in 

 breeding. 1 may here mention that 

 the one experiment of pure impregna- 

 tion which I tried resulted success- 

 fully. The process was a modilica- 

 tion given in the Brilish Bee Journal, 

 of the Kohler process. It consists 

 virtually in securing the entire popu- 

 lation in the hives containing the 

 virgin queens and the selected drones 

 and in letting the inmates have a fly 

 as soon as the drones in other hives 

 have gone to roost. For this experi- 

 ment the Langstroth hive, with por- 

 tico is useful, as a frame covered with 

 wire netting can easily be attached to 

 the portico, providing adequate venti- 

 lation and yet confining the bees. 



In my last report I noted that a 

 German bee-farmer had arrived liere 

 to establish the industry of bee-farm- 

 ing. At that time I "saw hut little 

 chance of his obtaining an opening, 

 on account of the serious total of tlie 

 expenditure necessary. I was, how- 

 ever, very loth to lose the services 

 of a l3ee-keeper who had matriculated 

 under the late Dathe, and on repre- 

 senting the matter to a few friends, I 

 found no difficulty iu forming a com- 

 pany of six, each subscribing £7<j, to 

 give bee culture on a commercial 

 scale a trial in this winterless land. 

 Our capital £450 (12,250), under the 

 management of Mr. Abrain, the Ger- 

 man referred to, and who is one of 

 the capitalists, will enable us to oper- 

 ate on a sufficiently large scale to give 

 the venture a fair test. Our company 

 is styled " The Italian Bee Com- 

 pany." I shall report our doings 

 from time to time. This company, 

 for the present will supersede the 

 Langstroth farm mentioned in my 

 last. 



While Italianizing,twoof my young 

 impregnated queens flew from the 

 frames, on examination of hives. At 

 the time that one flew a small swarm 

 of bees was in the air, and in due 

 course they settled on a vine close to 

 the hives. Mr. Abram, who was as- 

 sisting me at tlie time, or rather, who 

 was doing all the work while I looked 

 on, pointed to a small ball of bees at 

 the foot of the vine, and in the midst 

 of the ball we found our truant queen 

 uninjured. The other queen did not 

 return and had to be replaced. 



A gentleman iu Sydney received 

 from California a colony of Italian 

 bees. As soon a,^ I heard thereof I 

 placed myself in communication with 

 the owner and inspected his bees. I 

 found them in an American liive 

 (square frames) literally crammed full 

 of comb and bees, an immense swarm 

 with a splendid queen. The frames 

 had been, misplaced and the comb 

 generally was in very bad order. The 

 liive was so tuU of bees that there 

 was no alternative but to swarm. I 

 ti;ansterred them, comb included, to a 

 double story Langstroth hive, and 

 ultimately divided them, setting my 

 friend, who has now a strong attack 



