420 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



that bees were sometimes in an irri- 

 table condition without obvious cause. 

 The tliird Cyprian queen that he got 

 was sent by Mr. Alibott, who had 

 written to say that she was not a pure 

 Cyprian, thougli he (the speaker) was 

 absolutely certain it was tlie same 

 queen, because she was constantly be- 

 fore his eyes ; she was the same queen 

 that was brought to the Horticul- 

 tural Gardens, and Mr. Abbott must 

 have been mistaken in his judgment. 

 He should like to ask Mr. Blow 

 whether he saw in Cyprus any diverg- 

 ence or variety in color in the bees 

 in one hive. Among the Lignrians 

 there was certainly variety ; at any 

 rate, there was a great amount of 

 difference between the color of the 

 bees with his own queen. Slie did 

 not breed evenly colored bees like the 

 majority of Ligurians ; they shaded 

 in perceptible gradation, and he was 

 inclined to think that they had not 

 the pure species that some people im- 

 agined. 



Mr. Walker said that he had read 

 something on the subject of the size 

 of bees, and it was a question that 

 should be sifted out. Mr. Cheshire 

 had said that those who knew mathe- 

 matics would concur with the remark 

 that they ought to be careful in in- 

 creasing the size of the bee in order to 

 get additional profit. If they increased 

 the hight of a horse to ten feet they 

 might not get more strength, but if 

 they increased the horse to the same 



Eroportions as Jumbo, they would 

 ave more strength. He should like 

 to see the subject pursued and thought 

 out. 



Mr. Walker, having to fulfil an- 

 other engagement, vacated the chair, 

 which was thereafter filled by the 

 Bev. E. Bartrum, who proceeded to 

 say that with regard to the greater 

 fecundity of the Syrian queen there 

 was of course a tendency to extol the 

 virtues of all new races. He did not 

 think that they could arrive at any re- 

 liable information on the subject 

 until they had tried repeated experi- 

 ments, sucl) as those Mr. Cowan had 

 conducted, who kept a large number 

 of his reserved queens and bred from 

 queens not more than two years old, 

 and the results were satisfactory. 

 The moment it was found that a 

 queen was not prolific, it was re- 

 moved. It was only by carefully test- 

 ing them in that way that they could 

 arrive at any conclusion as to the 

 prolificness or fecundity of the Jjignr- 

 lan or Cyprian bee. 



Mr. Blow siiid with regard to those 

 bees which had been brought from 

 the north of the island of Cyprus, he 

 miglit say tliat the bees he got from a 

 village (in the mountains at the north 

 of the island were very much darker 

 than any others he saw. He nuide a 

 remark to Mr. Benton that lie had 

 some bees darker than the average of 

 his Cyprian bees, but he (Mr. Blow) 

 thought in all cases they were bred 

 evenly. He did not find any bees 

 that were very yellow with bees that 

 were very dark ; they were all dark. 

 It was curious to note that the bees 

 obtained at this village, which was 

 nearly 2,000 feet above the level of the 

 sea, were darker than those which he 



obtained at another village, which 

 was at a much lower level, being only 

 a few miles from the sea. There was 

 one more point he should have 

 touched upon, that was, that the 

 Cyprian and Syrian bees, especially 

 tlie Cyprian bees, were much in- 

 fested' with a bee parasite [Brmda 

 cfpca). One or two persons had writ- 

 ten to know what was the matter ; 

 one remarked that the queen had 

 three bumps on her. Mr. Cowan had 

 said he took twenty-three specimens 

 of the parasite from a queen. With 

 regard to what had been said about 

 meuvi and tuum, the Syrian bees were 

 much more courageous in defense of 

 their hives ; they did not allow the 

 black bees to alight on the hive, and 

 they fly at them on the alighting 

 board. Anyone alighting there was 

 seized at once, and on all sides the 

 black bees got worsted. 



Mr. Cheshire said that the variety 

 or variation in color of which he had 

 spoken seemed to illustrate Mr. Blow's 

 experience. Those bees which came 

 from the north of the island were 

 darker than the bees bred from the 

 queens hailing from further east. 

 That circumstance showed that they 

 should not be too hasty in judging as 

 to what were pure and not pure 

 Cvprian bees. 



'The Chairman said that he bought 

 some bees in the autunni from a dis- 

 tance of about five miles from his 

 house. He found that they were as 

 black as they could be, yet every bee 

 in his immediate neigliborhood had 

 evidently some Ligurian blood. 

 Therefore, if they had perfectly black 

 bees about five iuiles from his house, 

 surely in Cyprus there would be some 

 diversity of color. 



The Rev. T. Sissons said his experi- 

 ence was that the Cyprian queens 

 were snuill, but what they lacked in 

 size they made up in spirit. There 

 was a m'an going to prove that all the 

 great things iii this earth were done 

 bv little men. While the Cyprian 

 bees were small, they were wonder- 

 fully vivacious and prolific. 



In answer to Mr. Peel (tlie Secre- 

 tary), Mr. Blow said that when the 

 queens arrived in England, at first 

 thev were a little smaller, but no 

 sooner did thev arrive than they be- 

 gan to raise bniod. He believed in 

 one or two cases they bred in the 

 hive on the voyage, the bees traveling 

 in the wooden boxes. 



Mr. Cheshire having asked a ques- 

 tion in reference to the Syrian and 

 English queens depositing their brood 

 in patches in combs, Mr. Blow re- 

 plied that he thought in the case of 

 the Cyprians and Syrians, the bees 

 removed the pollen. He thought that 

 was one point brought out by their 

 gnawing powers, being able to remove 

 the pollen readily. They found large 

 patches, not a single cell being with- 

 out brood, while in the case of the 

 English bees they found that pollen 

 was left in some of the cells. He 

 thought, however, in the case of the 

 Cyprians and Syrians, the pollen was 

 removed also. 



Mr. Cowan said they were much 

 obliged to Mr. Blow for his excellent 

 paper. It was very plucky of Mr. 



Blow to go out to Cyprus, and he was 

 glad he had done so for the credit of 

 England and English bee-keepers. 

 He (Mr. Cowan) did not think it was 

 quite right for tlie Americans to have 

 everything their own way. He had 

 begun rather to doubt the existence 

 of the Cyprian apiary. But he was 

 glad to hear that Mr. Blow had met 

 Mr. Benton, and that he was all right 

 over there. With regard to the size 

 of the Cyprian bees, they would re- 

 member some years ago he tried ta 

 get a larger breed of bees ; and had 

 foundation from America, with four 

 and a half cells to the inch, and the 

 bees certainly got larger ; but he did 

 not find that they were better than 

 the ordinary-sized bee, in fact it made 

 good what Mr. Cheshire had stated, 

 that it was not the larger-sized bee 

 which was the most productive. With 

 regard to the Cyprian queens he had 

 a few from Mr. "Blow, and his (Mr. 

 Cowan's) experience was rather 

 curious with them. Wishing to test 

 the prolificness of the queens, he took 

 away comb after comb and gave them 

 empty combs, and he found as fast as 

 he put in the combs, they were filled 

 with eggs ; they seemed most prolific. 

 He noticed that the bees were much 

 smaller than our English bees. Last 

 week he had a very curious accident 

 to one of the hives. Every comb wa» 

 well filled with brood, and the queen 

 was laying beautifully. On Friday 

 morning he found the queen dead on 

 the alighting-board. He opened the 

 hive and found queen-cells on almost 

 every frame. That was his experi- 

 ence with Cyprians in raising queen- 

 cells ; he could not account at all for 

 the destruction of the queen as she 

 appeared most prolific, but there was 

 no doubt she was destroyed. The 

 queens were very lively, and lie found • 

 some ditticulty in dealing with them : 

 they were small, and run about all 

 over the place, and it was difficult to 

 find them. If you had got them on a 

 frame they would perhaps drop off on 

 to the frames below ; so that those 

 who had Cyprian queens he would ad- 

 vise to carefully watch them. He 

 wrote to Mr. Blow asking if he had 

 noticed that the bees were covered 

 with Brmda creca. Three out of four 

 queens had them ; one of them had 

 twenty-three. He found that the 

 Peet cage, which he had been lately 

 using, was most suitable for the work 

 of introducing. He had himself not 

 had one failure in introducing them. 

 You merely put the queen and a few 

 workers into the cage and place the 

 cage on the comb, not pressing it into 

 the comb, but merely puttiftg it on 

 over some honey. The bees make 

 their way into it in twenty-four hours, 

 liberating the queen themselves. He 

 was snfiiciently sanguine as to suc- 

 cess, or else he should not have tried 

 them with such valuable queens. 



A member having asked how long 

 the work took after the colony was 

 deprived of the old queen, Mr. Cowan 

 said that he deprived the colony of 

 tlie old queen and examined them 

 next day, and he found in every case 

 the queen was liberated by the next 

 day. There was some candy in the 

 cage, for the queen and bees to eat if 



