294 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



obtain perfect control over tliem, un- 

 less they are in liives tliat have mova- 

 ble frames. As the combs ai'e built 

 in these frames, and tlie frame so 

 hung in the liive that the bees cannot 

 glue them fast with propolis, they can 

 be easily removed and every part of 

 the comb examined. Any frame hive 

 that will not admit often easy remo- 

 val of the frames when filled with 

 comb and bees is of no practical use 

 in the apiary. The neatest, mostcon- 

 venient, and most prolitable way to 

 secure surplus comb honey, is in 

 small frames or section boxes that 

 hold from 1 to 3 pounds. These sec- 

 tions are nested and placed eitlier 

 above the frames in the brood cham- 

 ber, or on their side. In our climate. 

 I prefer the former arrangement. The 

 introduction of comb foundation into 

 the apiary has been an event of as 

 great importance as the invention of 

 the honey extractor, to which I have 

 already referred. Comb foundation 

 consists of sheets of wax, passed 

 through a machine that stamps upon 

 it the lozenge-shaped bases of the cells 

 of the comb, and delines the bases of 

 the cell-walls by heavy lines of wax. 

 The bees have no new wax to make, 

 but only to draw out the wax in tlie 

 foundation given them into the com- 

 plete comb. This is a great saving of 

 time and material. By the use of this 

 foundation colonies can be increased 

 and built up into strong colonies with 

 astonishing rajiidity, and the comb 

 will be beautiful and straight, a great 

 desideratum in an apiai-y wliere it is 

 often necessary to exchange frames 

 of comb with other hives. If the 

 combs are crooked and irregular, this 

 exchange can only be done with great 

 difficulty. 



A few years ago an ignited roll of 

 old rags, or a smudge, was the favor- 

 ite appliance for generating smoke to 

 subdue or quiet bees. The breath 

 was used to blow the smoke upon the 

 bees, but usually more found its way 

 into your eyes and throat than any 

 where else. Now, we liave an instru- 

 ment called the " smoker," made ex- 

 IH'essly to blow and convey the smoke 

 to any desired part of the hive. This 

 instrument is indispensable to every 

 one who handles bees. For the pro- 

 tection of the face against stings, a 

 bee-veil is necessary. Rubber gloves 

 can be used to protect the hands, but 

 after one gets accustomed to handling 

 bees, the gloves are soon laid aside as 

 useless. 



In this paper I liave endeavored to 

 make plain to you tliat bee-keeping, 

 as one of the rural industries, can be 

 made profitable, and will pay a larger 

 dividend upon the capital invested 

 than any otiier farm pursuit. There 

 is not "a locality in Georgia where 

 bees cannot be kept with a profit to 

 their owner, if well managed ; and 

 when we take into consideration the- 

 extent of our State, and the small 

 number of colonies of bees kept, we 

 can safely conclude that there are 

 tons of honey, worth thousands of 

 dollars, lost annually. 



As an agricultural people, we are 



^ too extravagant and wasteful. Wlien 



we learn to take care of and econo- 



Piize these small blessings that God 



has showered around us, then will we 

 he on the road to prosperity.— SoiiWicrfi 

 Cultivator. 



For tlie American Bee JonmaU 



Characteristics of the Coming Bee. 



A. B. KOHNKE. 



Much has been said and written 

 about the "coming bee;" but as to 

 what it is to be, and to what an ex- 

 tent desirable points may be developed 

 there seems to be but a vague idea. 

 Hon. W. H.Andrews, of Texas, seems 

 to be contented with our present at- 

 tainments of Italians, wliilst Mr. T. 

 G. Newman wants further improve- 

 ments, judging by what is said in No. 

 -15 of tlie Bee Journal for 1881 . Mr. 

 Newman nientions three desirable 

 points, viz : 1st, a long tongue ; 2d, 

 prolificness ; od, amiability ; to this I 

 would add, 4th. industry. 



It should be borne in mind, that the 

 first and second points refer to the 

 body, and the third and fourth to tlie 

 character of the bee, and of all these 

 points No. 2 is to be a property of the 

 queen exclusively, whilst 1, 3 and 4 

 are qualities of the workers only. 



It will be conceded that there is a 

 vast difference not only between the 

 different races of bees with reference 

 to the above mentioned points, but 

 also between different colonies of the 

 same race, which may appear to such 

 an extent that black bees may do bet- 

 ter than Italians. This experience 

 probalily induced Von Berlepsch to 

 hold on to the German bee" against the 

 Italians, whicli latter he never seemed 

 to fancy much, and up to this very 

 day there are bee-keepers in this 

 country as well as in Germany, who 

 prefer the German bee. though as a 

 rule the Italians will do better. 



Before going into a discussion as to 

 the desirableness or posibility of a 

 further improvement of our best Ital- 

 ians, I beg leave to state some general 

 laws of nature : 



1. Nature preserves a certain sym- 

 metrical proportion of all the parts of 

 an individual of her production. 



2. Whenever such parts are clianged 

 or more developed by breeding or ac- 

 commodation to changed conditions, 

 so as to be out of proportion with re- 

 ference to the whole body, it takes 

 place at the expense of another part 

 of that body, or the deterioration of 

 the same part in a different direction. 

 Whenever such deterioration is de- 

 sirable conjointly with the develop- 

 ment of such parts, it may be very 

 profitable to not only develop but de- 

 teriorate by breeding as much as we 

 can ; but when the latter is a disad- 

 vantage, I think we had better stop 

 and count the cost first, before we 

 proceed. 



To illustrate : Here is a kangaroo, 

 large, powerful hind legs and tail, 



and insignificant fore legs and head ; 

 there is a giraffe, long fore legs and 

 neck, and small hind quarters ; here 

 is a hare, long ears, short tail, small 

 fore legs, long hind legs ; there is a 

 specimen of the bovine race from 

 Texas, long horns and little milk ; 

 here the short horn and polled cattle, 

 little or no horns, but ricli milk and 

 plenty of it. In pigs the large, heavy 

 bones are bred out to get increase of 

 flesh and muscle ; and so on. I hope, 

 the reader w-ill understand and ad- 

 mit the validity of reasoning from 

 these facts of nature, which go to 

 prove that there is a certain limit of 

 development of an aniniars body, be- 

 yond which it would not be prudent 

 to go, for it would not be practicable 

 to decrease, for instance, the bones 

 of a pig to such an extent that they 

 could not support the animal. 



Bees being no exception to this rule 

 we can easily draw conclusions as to 

 the coming bee. That they are no ex- 

 ception may be discovered by the fol- 

 lowing: Compare a worker and a 

 queen. Tiie latter has certain ijarts 

 of her body more developed than the 

 former, which development has taken 

 pUice at the expense of other parts; 

 for if we measure the length of a 

 workerandqueeii,the extended tongue 

 and sting included, we will find 

 both of the same length : but on com- 

 paring corresponding parts of both, 

 we find the worker has a longer tongue 

 and sting, but smaller body than 

 the queen, which, besides having a 

 larger body, has the generative or- 

 gans fully developed. Here is not 

 the place to enumerate all these differ- 

 ent developments of queen and 

 worker to show and prove where one 

 gained and the other suffered a cor- 

 responding loss, as enough has been 

 said to prove the rule, that we cannot 

 gain on one part of an animal's body 

 without losing somewhere else. 



Applying what has been said thus 

 far, to all the races of bees, we will 

 discuss now the desirable points. 



1. Length of tongue. Can the same 

 be increased V May be, it can ; but 

 are we willing to sacrifice the proper 

 development of some other part of 

 the bee's body? Will Prof. Cook, 

 who takes a special interest in this 

 part of the bee's body, please tell us 

 whether or not the tongue of a bee 

 gains, not only in length, but in 

 diameter also, or if an increase of 

 length is accompanied by a decrease 

 of diameter. I am inclined to believe 

 that the desirableness of a longer 

 tongue is overrated. It is true, that 

 if the bee had a tongue long enough 

 to get the nectar of red clover it 

 woiud certainly be an advantage ; but 

 red clover being the only plant for 

 which the use of a loiige"r tongue is 

 claimed, furnishing nectar in abun- 

 dance which at present blacks and 

 most Italians cannot reach, is it not a 

 mistaken notion to attempt to change 

 our beautiful, amiable Italians for the 

 sake of one honey plant ? Besides, I 

 think Alsike serves every purpose for 

 which red clover is raised, if we only 

 take the trouble to introduce its use 

 with the farmer, leaving out of con- 

 sideration that red clover may fail to 

 yield nectar as well as other honey 



