THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



199 



the snow in their flights, and many of 

 their bodies were so distended with 

 the foul stuff on issuing from their 

 hives that they were unable to take 

 wing, and consequently perished at 

 the mouth of their hive. 



Neither can bees live upon pollen 

 alone ; for this is not their natural 

 food. But bees can and do suljsiston 

 honey and pollen together. This is 

 their natural and liealthful diet, wlien 

 they can mix it to suittlieir own taste. 

 If the pollen or honey is fermented or 

 turned sour, then it becomes un- 

 natural, and consequently unhealthy. 



Long continued and intensely cold 

 weather, may shut them in to the 

 limits of their brood nest, and after 

 consuming all tlie honey therein, as a 

 last resort, they try to appease their 

 hunger on pollen, and, of course, be- 

 ing unnatural food, diarrhea results, 

 and the colony perishes. One man 

 says: "Diarrhea resulted from starva- 

 tion." So it did ! Another says : " It 

 resulted from the consumption of 

 pollen." So it did! Another says : 



It resulted from long continued cold 

 and dampness." This is true, too! 

 But the "cold and dampness" kept 

 them away from a supply of pure 

 honey; hunger and starvation drove 

 them to pollen as the only resort ; this 

 insufficient and unnatural food, pro- 

 duced enormous distension of the 

 abdomen, and diarrhea ; and all these 

 causes resulted in death. 



The truth in a nutshell is this : Bees 

 in order to winter well, must have 

 access at all times to pure honey, or 

 some substance equally healthy to 

 the bee, as food. 



They may liave access to impure 

 honey, glucose, grape juice, cider, 

 sorghum juice, West India molasses, 

 or even pollen, or to Ileddon's brick, 

 in a good warm cellar, and unless they 

 can fly out often to void their feces 

 they will perish. 



Colonies in the same yard will 

 gather some such impure substance in 

 the fall, perhaps many pounds of it, 

 while others will gather none. The 

 former may all die, wliile the others 

 all do well. 



Four frames, three-fourths filled 

 with honey gathered from white 

 clover, linden, or buckwheat, early in 

 the season, put one inch apart into 

 the middle of the hive, with a division 

 board each side, and the vacant space 

 filled with chaff, shavings, or old rags, 

 with lioles through the middle of each 

 comb, for the tree passage of the bees, 

 will winter any colony safely. Set a 

 box, with a cloth bottom, three Indies 

 deep, filled with chaff, on top of the 

 frames, if wintered in the cellar ; or, 

 if wintered on their summer stands, 

 surround the whole hive, sides, bot- 

 tom, top, back, and front, with chaff 

 4 inches thick ; with a fly-hole \i by 1 

 inch through the chaff and front part 

 of box, to give them air, and egress, 

 as they may clioose, every fair day. If 

 any one wishes to try the experiment, 

 one of these middle frames may be 

 packed full of good fresh pollen, cells 

 covered with honey and sealed over 

 as they usually are ; and if tlie bees do 

 not winter well I will pay all damages. 

 Wintering bees is as simple as winter- 

 ing stock of any other kind. 



1. Keep them comfortably warm 

 and dry. 



2. Give them plenty of pure sealed 

 honey, or pure sugar syrup, with 

 plenty of pollen, where they can have 

 access to it at all times. They will 

 mix to suit themselves. 



3. Let them remain in entire quiet- 

 ness until warm weather ; and they 

 are no more subject to disease than 

 cattle, liorses, sheep, or men. 



Wilton Junction, Iowa. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Albino Bees— Why So Called. 



S. VALENTINE. 



Mil. Editor: Frequent reference 

 has been made by different parties to 

 the word albino, as an improper name 

 for the bee which is so called. In the 

 Ameritan Bee-Keeper, for November, 

 1881, Mr. Taylor says : " If they have 

 no black blood in them, tlie name al- 

 bino does not sound well, as I under- 

 stand it to mean white coming from 

 black." Mr. Harrison, editor of the 

 Avierican Bee-Keeper, and others, have 

 advanced such an idea. 



What does the word albino mean ? 

 Webster says that the term is of Latin 

 origin ; that it comes from albus, 

 which means white. If you will fol- 

 low the term, from its origin through 

 all its combinations, you will find that 

 the word albus gives its signification 

 to all of its forms. Sometimes, owing 

 to a freak of nature, black parents 

 have had offspring which possessed 

 an unnatural wliiteness, suchaswliite 

 negroes; but this peculiarity is not 

 confined to any color or nationality. 



White parents are known to have 

 children of this peculiar whiteness, 

 with white skin, hair, and pink eyes. 

 I could give tlie names of 3 or 4 per- 

 sons, some male, others female, pos- 

 sessing this peculiar whiteness, com- 

 monly called albino. Now why they 

 are so called is evidently because of 

 the whiteness. Refer to the " Ency- 

 clopedia Americana," and you will 

 learn that white rabbits and white 

 mice are known to have a similar 

 origin. 



I need not dwell longer upon this 

 subject, for any physiologist or scholar 

 knows that while white offspring, 

 coming from black parents, are 

 called albinos, it is not because the 

 term signifies coming from black, but 

 because the word albino signifies a 

 peculiar whiteness. The bees which 

 we call albino are the whitest bees 

 that are known ; therefore while they 

 are not perfectly white, albinoes is a 

 proper name for them, until one can 

 be found that is yet whiter. 



The albino bee is of American 

 origin. Mr. Pike, I believe, was the 

 first to bring them to the public 

 notice. In the spring of 1874, he 

 noticed one of his Italian queens 

 breeding about one-half of her pro- 

 geny with albino markings. He at 

 once bred them in, and claims that he 

 succeeded. 



In July, 187(), I bouglit an imported 

 queen from Mr. Wilhnan, of Pennsyl- 

 vania, from which I produced albino 

 bees, as may be seen in an article, 



" Origin of the Albino Bees," in the 

 Bee Journal for December, 1880, 

 page 5.57. In June, 1879, 1 succeeded 

 in breeding them to a high standard 

 of purity, breeding albino markings 

 to every bee, which to-day stands 

 forth as the standard for the albino 

 bee. 



Before Mr. Pike called attention to 

 the albino bee, we occasionally heard 

 some one here and there speaking of 

 albino as a term. They applied to 

 some few bees developed in their 

 apiaries, but no especial attention, as 

 far as we can learn, vras given to this 

 variety or name, until Mr. Pike 

 brought them more prominently be- 

 fore the public. 



Mr. Pike is evidently entitled to the 

 credit of first producing and calling 

 public attention to the albino bee, but 

 I claim that of giving the albino bee 

 first to the public in its purity ; i. e., 

 with albino markings. Having ac- 

 complished this, Mr. Pike or myself, 

 or both of us, surely have the right to 

 name the bee, as much so as tlie in- 

 ventor has to name his invention, or 

 the parent to name his child. Apis 

 Americana would be a very good 

 name, but it would only signify its 

 American origin, while albino signi- 

 fies its shade of color by which the eye 

 may readily recognize it; hence, we 

 have named our bee — the result of our 

 experiments or discovery — albino, and 

 we feel no little pride m the appropri- 

 ateness of the name. We call our bee 

 albino, not because it comes from 

 green, red, blue or black blood, but 

 because it is a whitish bee — the whitest 

 known. 



Double Pipe Creek, Md. 



For tbe American Bee JournaL 



About Rearing Queens. 



HENRY ALLEY. 



After reading Mr. Butler's article 

 in the Bee Journal, I am prompted 

 to write on the above subject again. 

 How to rear strong, healthy, hardy, 

 and prolific queens, has been my 

 study for the past 20 years. My ex- 

 perience teaches me that the more 

 queens a colony of bees rear, the 

 shorter-lived and poorer in every way 

 will the young queens be. 



Now, if one will examine the in- 

 terior of a hive after a swarm has 

 issued they will find from 6 to 12 queen 

 cells. Seldom less than 6 or over 12. 

 Now, these cells are generally aU 

 sealed before the new swarm "comes 

 off." Why is this? It is merely to 

 liave a large number of bees to feed, 

 keep warm, and nurse the coming 

 queen while in the larval state. It will 

 also be found that a larva 3 or more 

 days old will not be selected by the 

 bees from which to rear a queen dur- 

 ing the preparation for natural swarm- 

 ing. If the queen is removed from a 

 full colony, the bees will select eggs 

 and larvoe quite old to rear queens 

 from. They seem to understand the 

 need of a queen as soon as possible ; 

 but in natural swarming, the egg is 

 selected for the young queens, and 

 the bees seem to know that they have 

 plenty of time in which to build the 



