THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



373 



are mostly throuffli flying, in the lat- 

 ter part of tlie day. Also 2 or 3 can 

 be opened every two or tliiee hours, 

 even in the middle of the day ; but as 

 a rule, I open but few hives before 

 pollen is plenty. At this time I pro- 

 vide myself with two boxes made for 

 the purpose, one of which is to be 

 used to convey combs from the shop 

 to the bee yard and hold them secure 

 from tlie bees while I am at work, 

 and also hold all bits of comb wliicli 

 I have occasion to trim off. The 

 other is used to set tlie combs in 

 which are first removed from the 

 hive in order to give room to manipu- 

 late the rest, thus keeping all secure 

 from the outside bees ; it is also used 

 in carrying brood to strengtiien feeble 

 colonies, and for all purposes where 

 bees, brood and lioney are to be kept 

 outside the hive. 



By thus working I have no trouble, 

 as a robber bee is sure to be cauglit as 

 soon as he touches the top bars to the 

 frames occupied by Italian bees. If a 

 colony is weak in bees, the quilt is 

 left to cover ail the frames which do 

 not have bees enough on them to pro- 

 tect them. Another point is, do not 

 smoke the bees only just enough to 

 keep them quiet, for if you smoke 

 them enough to get them to running, 

 they will "dive" for tlie honey, and 

 also let the robbers " dive " for it, 

 too. By thus using care, I get along 

 nicely, while one careless move like 

 the above keeps me away from the 

 bees for nearly a week, only as I open 

 a hive or two at a time, and work 

 after the bees have mostly ceased to 



fly- 

 Borodino, N. Y . 



LiOndOD Journal of Horticulture. 



The Heath Bee aud the Caucasian Bee. 



G. DATHE. 



[The following paper was written 

 for the Cologne bee meeting, but in 

 consequence of the death of the 

 author was not delivered, and has 

 been published in the Bienenzeilung, 

 from which this translation has been 

 made.— Alfked Neighbouk.] 



I have no intention of drawing a 

 comparison between the Heath bee 

 and the Caucasian bee ; I only wish to 

 give a short account of my experience 

 as regards the two varieties of bees. 



To begin with the Heath bee. The 

 demand for Heath bees has been very 

 much on the increase lately, though 

 this is certainly not due to any special 

 recommendation, and it no doubt 

 proves that the good qualities of these 

 bees are becoming more appreciated. 

 It is a peculiarity of the Heath bees 

 that they increase largely and give ott 

 many swarms, for which reason they 

 are especially suitable for those bee- 

 keepers who are anxious to increase 

 their colonies, and therefore rejoice 

 to see their bees swarm frequently. 

 But the Heath bees do not only give 

 off many swarms, they also collect 

 large quantities of honey, as may be 

 seen in the Luneburg Heath district. 

 In no part of Germany is the honey 



harvest so large as it is there, for 

 while in other parts of the country 

 pots suffice to hold the honey which 

 the bees collect, the Luneburg Heath 

 bee-keepers are able to fill many 

 casks. People are therefore disposed 

 to look upon the J^uneburg Heath as 

 an " El Dorado " where honey is al- 

 ways flowing, but this is by no means 

 the case. While in some districts a 

 populous colony will collect 10 lbs. of 

 honey in one day when pasture is 

 plentiful, the outside maximum at 

 Luneburg is 48 per day. Nor does 

 the Heath yield honey uninterrup- 

 tedly all the time it is flowering. We 

 are satisfied with an average of 12 

 Ihie days for utilizing the Heath; if 

 there should be any lightning while 

 the Heath is tioweriug, it frequently 

 puts an end to the visits of bees. In 

 many a year tlie honey harvest from 

 the ileatli is next to nothing. The 

 Heath bee-masters know lioW to alter 

 their method according to circum- 

 stances, and this is the principal 

 cause of their harvesting such large 

 quantities of honey. This affords me 

 an opportunity of giving a few hints 

 as to the management of Heath bees 

 in case of their introduction into other 

 districts : 



They are particularly suitable 

 where the native bees do not swarm 

 sufficiently. By simply intermixing 

 the two races their hybrid offspring 

 show somewhat more inclination to 

 breed and to give off swarms. . The 

 bee-keepers' flrst and foremost en- 

 deavor should be to obtain swarms as 

 early and as large in population as 

 possible, and this he will be able to 

 accomplish if those hives from which 

 he intends tlie swavms to issue are 

 fed simultaneously with a quarter to 

 half pound of honey two to four times 

 a week, commencing four to five 

 weeks before the time of swarming, 

 continuing the feeding until the flrst 

 swarm has been given off. Should 

 unfavorable weather set in about the 

 time of swarming and continue, the 

 first swarm might be driven off. 



The first swarm will have sutlicient 

 population to form a separate colony, 

 but the swarms that follow— and the 

 size of which becomes smaller the 

 greater the number that leave the 

 parent hive — should be united so as to 

 form colonies weighing at least 3 lbs. 

 each. This is the more necessary in 

 districts where there is no autumn 

 pasture, but unfortunately this ad- 

 vice is very often not attended to. 

 Every swarm, however small it may 

 be, is frequently placed as a separate 

 colony, and if it iu'oves a failure peo- 

 ple get dissatisfied and blame the 

 Heath bees. When second swarms 

 are put into wooden hives and can be 

 assisted with a brood comb or two 

 from otlier hives, they ne^-d not of 

 course be made quite so large. Wiien 

 bees are found to make preparations 

 for swarming, the drone comb both 

 with and without brood and royal 

 cells should be removed until the bees 

 no longer show any inclination to 

 swarm. If Heath bees are treated in 

 this manner, it will be found not only 

 that they increase largely in popula- 

 tion, but also that they are able to 

 collect large quantities of houey. 



I will now proceed to make a few 

 remarks on the Caucasian bees. I 

 must frankly confess that I had lately 

 become somewhat prejudiced against 

 the introduction of new races of bees. 

 I always found them highly recom- 

 mended, but on close examination 

 they generally did not come up to my 

 expectation. For the same reason I 

 was prejudiced against the Caucasian 

 bees, and was doubtful whether 1 had 

 better [irocure some. While in this 

 state of uncertainty, I had a visit 

 from Dr. Butlerow, Councillor of 

 State of St. Petersburg, on his return 

 from France, who requested me to 

 give the Caucasian bee a trial, prom- 

 ising to send me two queens for this 

 purpose from the Caucasus in the fol- 

 lowing spring. The two queens, each 

 accompanied by a small colony and a 

 supply of honey comb, arrived here in 

 excellent condition last spring, and 

 were placed at the head of two popu- 

 lous colonies of German bees, the 

 Caucasian bees being allowed to unite 

 with the German. My first experience 

 with the Caucasian bees was that they 

 unite with the German bees without 

 exhibiting the least signs of hostility 

 towards each other. The attempt 

 made a few years ago to unite Cyprian 

 and German bees in the same way re- 

 sulted in the attack by the Cyprian on 

 the German bees, which, in spite of 

 all means of protecting the latter, 

 continued tor several weeks, until all 

 the German population had been 

 killed. My second experience was 

 that they are very prolific and quite 

 as fertile as the best colonies of Heath 

 bees and the Italian bees. 



The other qualities of the Caucasian 

 bees could not be determined with ac- 

 curacy until all the German bees had 

 died ofi, leaving only Caucasians in 

 the hive. With regard to their docil- 

 ity, which lias been praised so much, 

 I am able to state that they are very 

 docile indeed. They do not sting 

 when liandled as bees generally are. 

 I asked mv son to irritate them, which 

 he did, anil I saw them buzzing about 

 his face with the well-known angry 

 sound, indicating that they were ready 

 to sting, but they did not sting liim. 

 After several repetitions, one bee was 

 at last induced to sting. We may 

 therefore say, as a rule, the Caucasian, 

 bees do not sting, but if they are irri- 

 tated they are capable of doing so. 

 13ecause the Caucasian bees do not 

 sting they have been supposed to be 

 very phlegmatic bees, which would 

 neither defend themselves against 

 robbers nor collect much honey. But 

 they are not phlegmatic ; on the con- 

 trary, they are very (juick an 1 indus- 

 trious. As soon as they make their 

 appearance at the entrance of the 

 hive, they at once fly off to the fields, 

 and on their return are in as great a 

 hurry to enter the hive. On the out- 

 side, the entrance is guarded by but 

 few bees, but these are quite able to 

 keep robbers away. Nor are the Cau- 

 casians, like other bees, to be seen in 

 large numbers about the entrance of 

 the hive in very hot weather; as they 

 are very industrious, it is only natural 

 tliat they should collect a large quan- 

 tity of honey. As far as my own ex- 

 perience goes, I consider the Cauca- 



