214 



THE AMERICAlf BEE JOURNAL. 



prefer cniwliiig iij). to eruwiiiifj down 

 iiill, loaded nr unkiiided. (No Ijred- 

 in triii^, Iliey lii\d it wliPii I tirst ol)- 

 tained tliein). When one of tlieiii 

 would ivliji'ht just euougli below the 

 top of the slant of the:ilightin<,' bmird 

 so he could not see over, he woidd 

 puff a few times and rise on the wing 

 to see if lie was surely all right about 

 location. I shall waste no more time 

 beveling boards. 



One of my witnesses (the fellow who 

 obtained lui surplus from the" goldens 

 of the period, ") still enjoys the cheer- 

 ful habit of living in this world, and 

 writes that he is ready to be cross- 

 questioned upon Mr. Deinaree's wit- 

 ness stand. Ilis name is J. Vander- 

 vort, Laceyville, Pa. 



Dowagiiic, Mich. 



* For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Yellow, or Leather-Colored Bees. 



J. A. BUCHANAN. 



Quite an animated controversy con- 

 cerning the color of the Italian bee 

 has been vigorously conducted in the 

 Bee Journal of late, and I am 

 plea.sed to see it, since, by the dis- 

 cussion mucli valuable information, 

 and no little fun, has grown out of it. 

 Practical bee-keepers, of unlimited 

 experience, have long since become 

 awareof the fact that tlie dark. leather- 

 colored Italians are superior in nearly 

 all respects to the light-colored bees. 

 It is true tliat in selecting and breed- 

 ing to obtain a light color, an occa- 

 sional colony will prove to be very 

 good honey gatherers and comb build- 

 ers, but this is an exception, and not 

 the rule. 



Since the summer of 1S65, I have 

 been experimenting witli the Italian 

 bee. Prior to that time, I felt a great 

 anxiety to test that race of bees, but 

 serving in the army and bee-keeping 

 would not go well together. Since 

 that my specialty has been the culti- 

 vation of the Italian bee. For the 

 first ten years I spared neither time 

 nor expense in my efforts to produce 

 a strain of bees that would have no 

 superior as to lightness of color, and 

 at one time it was gratifying to mo to 

 have my visitors acknowledge I had 

 the finest colored Italians they luid 

 yet seen ; but they were a miserable 

 failure in almost all other respects. 

 They were poor comb-builders out- 

 side tlie brood department, were gen- 

 erally liglit in stores, weak in the 

 spring, and by no means equal to the 

 old black bees. I had my satisfaction 

 in color, but It became necessary in 

 my pase to get some profit, and I was 

 about to give up the business, when I 

 was advised by a friend to send for 

 leather-colored stock. This was done, 

 and I soon became satisfied that they 

 were greatly superior to any bee I had 

 yet seen. Here my views of the Ital- 

 ian bee changed again. The first im- 

 pression I had was that there must be 

 some blood of the German bee intro- 

 duced into their make-up, and am 

 still of opinion that this strain was 

 procured from districts in Italy where 

 still exists blood of the black race. 

 Although this dark strain of Italians 



has the appearance of a hybrid whose 

 blood of the yellow race predominates, 

 tliei» is in its nature nothing that 

 would lead luie to believe it a cross- 

 bred bee. Tl'iere is no disposition to 

 become alarmed and rush down off 

 the combs, and cpiarrel with the oper- 

 ator, as do the hybrids of this 

 country. 



For some years I have been experi- 

 menting in crossing the blood of the 

 German and Italian bees, and am 

 convinced that by a judicious system 

 of cross-mating the two races with a 

 view of correcting the defects found 

 in both, we can produce a strain of 

 bees having the good qualities of both 

 united in one, and but few, if any, of 

 the objectionable points retained. 

 The German bee possesses some val- 

 uable traits not found in the Italian 

 bee, and of course some very undesir- 

 able traits, prominent among whicli 

 is the disposition to allow the moth 

 worm to overcome them at times 

 when weak in numbers, and their 

 annoying habit of dropping from tlie 

 combs while being handled. Both 

 these, as well as other faults, may be 

 corrected by the introduction of some 

 blood of a, strain of Italians possess- 

 ing great perseverance and gentleness 

 of disposition. 



It is my firm belief that the "coming 

 bee " will not be of any pure bred 

 race. To those who aPe selecting and 

 breeding their very choicest yellow 

 Italians, expecting io produce a strain 

 that will outstrip all others, I want to 

 say, you may spend your whole life- 

 time'at this and then you will have no 

 better bee for profit than you can pro- 

 duce by crossing the German and 

 Italian races. 



To advocate the breeding of any- 

 thing other than the golden-colored 

 Italian, is to bring down upon our 

 heads anathemas, thick and heavy ; 

 but as I am an old and confirmed sin- 

 ner on this subject, and have plenty 

 of good company traveling in the 

 same boat, I have no need to feel 

 alarmed about my wayward condition. 



Ilolliday'sCove, W. Va. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Do Bees Excrete a Dry Powder 



WM. J. WHITriELD. 



In the Bee Journal of Jan. 11, 

 1882, page 26, Prof. A. J. Cook says : 

 "I liave never found any support of 

 the theory of the late Mr. Quinby, that 

 bees excrete a dry powder in winter." 

 What I wish to know is this, if bees 

 young or old, when in a perfectly 

 healthy condition, let it be summer or 

 winter, do not void their feces in a 

 dry powder, how then V I have 

 thought they did so for years. I have 

 had bees confined to the hive for over 

 .5 months, so they could not get out of 

 the hive, and when liberated in the 

 spring parted with nothing that I 

 could see, but would leave a large 

 quantity of dry powder on the bottom 

 board. This 1 always took for their 

 excrement. In my opinion, any plan 

 for wintering that does not look to 

 this end is at fault. I have gone to 

 quite a heavy expense with this end 



in view with my bee-house, and if it 

 should fail to bring about this result, 

 I shall consider ita failiu'e, for I know 

 I can accomplish it out-of-doors; but 

 with a number of hives it is a great 

 deal more trouble and expense. Now, 

 if Prof. Cook will agree to fix one or 

 more hives this fall as I shall direct, 



1 will give apian, and he to report the 

 result tlirough the Bek Journal, 

 tliat will keep bees confined to the 

 hive for 6 months, and at the end of 

 that time, when liberated, will void 

 nothing but a dry i)owder, and if he 

 wishes to see what they void through 

 the winter he can put a dish under the 

 hive and collect it. I shall put him to 

 some trouble, but not much expense. 



The plan is this : Take a bottom 

 boai'd 3 feet square, nail it down on a 

 3x4 scantling just at the two ends, put 

 this on 2 more pieces ; fix it to face 

 the south, the scantling to run east 

 and west in the center of tlie bottom 

 board ; cutout apiece 8 inches square, 

 cover this with wire-cloth as coarse as 

 you can get and not let the bees 

 through ; now, from the end of the 

 wire-cloth to the end of the bottom 

 cut out % inch deei) by 8 inches wide, 

 for an entrance. If you have not a 

 close-end frame hive, you had better 

 u.se a box hive, for you must not let 

 the bees get off the combs, as they 

 will surely do if you use any of the 

 hanging frames that I have seen ; the 

 hive must be not less than 1,800 square 

 inches; 2,000 would be better ; must 

 be filled with combs and bees, ;uid 

 have not less than 35 lbs. of good 

 honey. On the first of September set 

 the hi"e on the bottom board just' 

 over the wire clotli ; have it fit tight 

 down on it all around, put a piece of 

 board on over the entrance where the 

 ?8 was taken out, to come from the 

 iiive to within 1 inch of the front, put 

 a 3 foot square box on the bottom 

 board. This must be 3 feet high, well 

 made, so that it is tight; fill this in 

 with dry sawdust. It must be dry, 

 well packed down, and well covered. 

 The finer it is, the better. Put a piece 

 of board on under the wire-cloth ; have 

 it fit tigl<,t. It will be well to rub a 

 piece of tallow on the wiie-cloth, or 

 the bees might wax it over ; now 

 leave it entirely alone. Let the bees 

 wax it up tight all around the bottom, 

 top and sides ; let them carry in all 

 the pollen they wish to. About the 

 middle of October close up the en- 

 trance tight, and take away the board 

 under the wire cloth, to give tlie bees 

 air. Have another box ready to put 

 over the first, just 1 inch larger, made 

 tight and well covered ; let it come 

 down just 3 inches lower tlian the bot- 

 tom board and rest on the same pieces 

 that the 3x4 scantling does ; keep it up 



2 or 3 inches from the ground, to let 

 the air pass freely under all. Do not 

 touch it again till the yellow willow is 

 in bloom, then just at dark take away 

 tlie outside box, open the entrance 

 and let tlie bees out, clean all dead 

 bees or dirt there may be in the way, 

 so you are sure they are free to get 

 out, put on the board under, the wire- 

 cloth and get up the next morning to 

 see them fly out. Ithink you ha e got 

 the powder all right, and that he bees 

 will void nothing on flying out fisrt. 



