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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Never have I owned such industrious, 

 strong and beautiful bees. It is true, 

 I occasionally was made cognizant of^^ 

 the fact that the Cyprian bees do not 

 belong to a stingless species, and that 

 they possess great expertness in the 

 application of formic acid plasters, 

 but during these two years I have fre- 

 quently busied myself during a whole 

 afternoon in my apiary, in company 

 with my assistants, without receiving 

 a single sting. I have during tliat 

 time acquainted myself fully and in 

 detail with the manner of treating the 

 Cyprian bees, having had opportuni- 

 ties sufficiently to learn all about 

 their natural proclivities, temper, 

 etc., and I now know how I have to 

 manipulate tlie former colonists of the 

 Island of Cyprus. 



If you are acquainted with the tem- 

 per of a human being, with wliom you 

 stand in close relationship, then you 

 very soon will know how to act 

 towards him, so as to retain the 

 friendly relation. According to my 

 experience, the Cyprian bees possess 

 a choleric temper. They are, conse- 

 quently, very irritable and easy be- 

 come violently angry, and, therefore, 

 they require a treatment which must 

 be compatible with their temper. 



But psychology teaches us that man, 

 when in the possession of a choleric 

 temper, will easily fly into a violent 

 passion, when deeply insulted, and if 

 you continue to provoke him wliile 

 he is in tliis violent state, he will grow 

 still more violent ; on the other hand, 

 though, if you yield to him, or you 

 clear his path, he will be, after a while 

 when liis anger has cooled down, one 

 of the best of men. The same it is 

 with tlie Cyprian bees. For animals, 

 too, have various tempers. 



If you Giirefully avoid everything 

 which would also irritate bees of 

 another race, viz : all sudden opening 

 of doors, all opening of the hives 

 when the wind is blowing, or rain is 

 coming down, all noise near an open 

 hive, every violent shaking of the 

 combs, every hasty manipulation in 

 the hive itself, then they will allow 

 themselves to be handled the same as 

 the Italians. But if you irritate them, 

 or offend them seriously though what- 

 ever it may be, tliey will easily grow 

 very wrathful, particularly when a 

 strong colony has not been opened for 

 a long time and they are not accus- 

 tomed to the opening any more, they 

 will turn their eyes upon the bee- 

 keeper with a very hard look in them. 

 If you leave such an excited colony to 

 themselves for a while, so as to give 

 time to their anger to cool, you can 

 continue to work near them after a 

 lapse of about two hours with perfect 

 safety. This precautionary measure 

 I have closely followed. 



But many bee-keepers increase this 



Eroclivity to sting among their bees, 

 ecause when they see them angry 

 they try to subdue tlieni by force, 

 using smoke or water to accomplish 

 this, instead of yielding to them or 

 giving them time in which to recover 

 from their rage. 



I endeavor to avoid everything 

 which miglit seriously offend the bees. 

 But when it did happen that I had of- 

 fended through carelessness some 



strong colony, and I noticed that they 

 intended to make war upon iiie and 

 had even then already pressed into 

 my hand or face a pointed ultimatum, 

 tljen I did not attempt again to gain 

 the upper hand by the use of smoke 

 or water ; I played the role of the 

 prudent, i. e., I yielded, closed the 

 hive and departel, paying, in the 

 meanwhile, a visit to some other col- 

 ony ; when after an absence of about 

 two hours, I returned in humility to 

 the hive containing the warlike col- 

 ony, and began to work quietly and 

 cautious, we were again the best of 

 friends. If this had not been my own 

 personal experience, I would be slow 

 to believe that a colony whicli had 

 been full of rage in the forenoon, 

 could be as meek as a lamb in the af- 

 ternoon. Here the Frencli proverb 

 is well applied : Tout par douceur et 

 rien par force. 



Further, I must remark that I have 

 done my apistic work during daytime 

 mostly at such hours when the older 

 bees (being more inclined to sting) 

 were out upon the pasture, so as not 

 to irritate them unnecessarily, for 

 then I had nothing to fear from the 

 young ones ; near very strong colo- 

 nies I worked during the late lionrsof 

 the afternoon, the old bees were then 

 at home it is true. Init they were tired 

 out from their day's labor, and were 

 not so quarrelson)e. 



But, althougli tlie Cyprian bees are 

 somewhat more quarrelsome than the 

 Italians, I nevertheless prefer the 

 Cyprians, when comparing the quali- 

 ties of both races with each other. 

 And even if the Cyprian bees did not 

 offer anything preferable to the Ital- 

 ians, I like them better than any 

 other bee for the only reason, that 

 they very soon grow strong in the 

 spring and remain strong in the fall, 

 for, as everyone knows, strong colo- 

 nies are profitable. 



Even if the principal motive of 

 most people in keeping bees is to de- 

 rive i)rotit from it, the beauty of the 

 bees is nevertheless highly valued by 

 such people, and the beautiful and at 

 the same time more profitable bees 

 are better esteemed by them, than 

 those that are black {Omne tulit punc- 

 ium q}d miscuit utile child. This is my 

 opinion of Cyprian bees. 



In expressing my opinion in only a 

 few words, it is as follows : 



Count Kolowrat— whom nobody can 

 charge with mercantile speculations 

 — spoke the truth when he told me 

 last year that he considered the Cyp- 

 rian bee, according to his best knowl- 

 edge and conscientiousness, as pos- 

 sessing the greatest performing abil- 

 ity. I fully agree with his statement, 

 for, as I have just as large an apiary 

 —although not such a handsome one 

 — as Count Kolowrat, I was enabled 

 to convince myself of the truth of his 

 .statement. Therefore, my opinion 

 agrees entirely with the opinion of 

 this esteemed gentleman. 



In conclusion I will yet say : Count 

 Kolowrat deserves the thanks of all 

 apiculturists who have Cyprian bees 

 in their apiaries, or who intend to pro- 

 cure them, on account of his intro- 

 ducing the Cyprian bees into our 

 counti'V ! » 



I, for myself, as well as in the name 

 of all such bee-keepers, herewith ex- 

 press to him this gratitude for his 

 great sacrifices, for his disinterested- 

 ness and his kind efforts to render 

 service to others. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Care of Comb Honey— No. 3. 



G. M. DOOLITTLB. 



Having the honey all glassed and 

 graded as I told you I did in my last, 

 the next thing we wish is crates or 

 cases for I believe the putting of 

 honey upon any market in bulk is a 

 bad practice, and for shipping honey 

 to a distant market crates are a 

 necessity. A difference of two cents 

 per pound is generally made between 

 honey in bulk and honey nicely 

 crated, while the crates and crating 

 should not cost one-half of that 

 amount. I get out my crate stuff in 

 the winter all ready to nail together, 

 so as to be as near ready as possible 

 for all things coiuiected with the 

 honey harvest. If I purchased my 

 crates of a supply dealer I should do 

 so in the winter, so as to have all in 

 readiness, for it is much better to 

 have a few crates left over than to be 

 obliged to wait, and perhaps lose a 

 good chance of selling our honey be- 

 cause our order is sent at the last 

 moment, when some unexpected de- 

 lay is almost sure to happen. 



For the 2-lb. or prize box there is 

 nothing better than the prize crate, 

 which holds 12 boxes or sections ; but 

 for the l)'2-lb. box 1 prefer a crate 

 holding only 9. The demand for 

 small sections seems to be in small 

 quantities, for these small crates are 

 frequently bought by one person, and 

 thus the retailer never opens them, 

 but sells by the crate instead of by 

 the section. Having concluded how 

 many sections I wish in a crate, I 

 pack them together the way I wish 

 tliem to stand in the crate, and then 

 measure them, which gives me the 

 exact size I want the crate, inside 

 measure, and no guess work about it. 

 Much of the annoyance to supply 

 dealers would be saved if all would 

 adopt this plan. In the making of 

 crates there is one item I wish to 

 speak of. In handling and shipping 

 comb honey, it will always leak more 

 or less from the many accidents it is 

 exposed to, and if the crate allows 

 this leakage to run out at the bottom 

 down on the next crate, the floor, etc., 

 it tends to lower the price of our pro- 

 duction. To prevent this, some of 

 our apiarists have the bottom of their 

 crates halved into the ends and 

 nailed both ways, to secure as nearly 

 as possible a tight joint, but for all 

 this the joints get wrenched apart 

 more or less in shipping and leaky 

 crates are the result. To obviate this 

 leakage of crates, I adopted the fol- 

 lowing plan last fall, which proved 

 entirely satisfactory ; 



Take good strong manilla paper 

 and cut it two inches larger each way 

 than the bottom of your crate is, in- 

 side measure. Now get out an inch 

 board large enough so it will just go 



