THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



441 



The reading of this paper was fol- 

 lowefl by a (liscussioii, during wliich 

 Mr. F. Lancia de Broto, of Palermo, 

 mentioned that the Sicilian bees, 

 being a cross between the Ligurian 

 and Egyptian races, deserve particu- 

 lar notice on account of their many 

 good cnialities. 



Dr. Dubini spoke on the subject of 

 hives with movable and immovable 

 crownboards, and came to the con- 

 clusion that bees are quite as com- 

 fortable in the former as in tlie latter, 

 in proof of which he referred to the 

 American, English and Swiss bee- 

 keepers, who use chiefly liives with 

 movable crownboard. In Italy, he 

 said, the majority of hives were cer- 

 tainly made after tlie model of Baron 

 von Berlei)sch ; still Dubini hives 

 with immovable crownboard were 

 also very much used. 



Count Barbo reminded the meeting 

 that the German bee-keepers had al- 

 most entirely discontinued using 

 liives with movable crownboard, be- 

 cause tliey founrt that these hives did 

 not retain the heat so well as hives 

 with fixed crownboard, and that 

 breeding in them did not progress so 

 rapidly. 



Dr. Bianchetti recommended a hive 

 of his own construction with movable 

 floorboard and crownboard. 



Several speakers e.xpressed them- 

 selves agaiust hives with movable 

 crownboard, chiefly because they were 

 of opinion that the chilling of the 

 brood, especially in spring, miglit 

 easily cause foul brood. 



Mr. Marengi, of Bergamo, intro- 

 duced tiie question, " Is it possible 

 that combs which have been subjec- 

 ted to the fumes of brimstone may 

 originate foul brood V" He related it 

 had been observed in different 

 apiaries tliat combs which had been 

 exposed to the fumes of brimstone, 

 and were afterwards given to healthy 

 colonies, had. later in the season, con- 

 tained cells infected with foul brood, 

 ■while the brood in other combs not 

 subjected to fumigation by brimstone 

 which were inserted at the same time 

 had remained in a healthy state, ilr. 

 Locatelli, pliarmaceutical chemist, 

 did not tliink that exposure of the 

 combs to the fumes of sulphur would 

 cause foul brood, sulphurous acid 

 being a disinfectant. He stated that 

 he was in the habit of subjecting all 

 his combs to tlie fumes of sulphur, 

 and had never found it do any harm. 



Before the meeting separated a 

 committee w;is appointed to draw up 

 a report as to the best means of im- 

 proving the management of bees in 

 Italy, and cif gradually putting an end 

 to the objectionable practice i^f killing 

 bees by brimstone. The next Italian 

 congress is to be held at Bologna in 

 1884. 



Germany. 



^" Our new location, Ko. 92.5 West 

 Madison St., is only a few doors from 

 the new branch postoftice. We have 

 a telephone and any one in the city 

 wishing to talk to us through it will 

 please call for No. 7087— that being 

 our telephone number. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1882. Time anit Place 0/ Meeting. 



July 25— Western Iciwii, at Winterset. Iowa. 



Henrv WiiUace. Sec. Wiutorset. Iowa. 

 Aug. 10— Maine State, at Harmony. Maine. 



Wra. Uoyt, Sec. 

 Sept. 5-N. W. 111. an.l S. W. Wis., at Rocliton. 111. 

 Jnnatlian Stewart, Sec. 

 Oct. 3-fi -North American, at Cincinnati. O. 



Dr. Eliricit l^aniily. Sec. New Yorit City. 

 5— Kentuclty rui'in, at Shelbyville, Ky. 



G. W. Deni:iri-c. Sec, Christiansbury, Ky. 



Tuscarawas Valley, at Newcomerstown, O. 



J. A. Bucklew, Sec. Clarks, O. 



fW In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetinKs.— ED. 



Aisaclan Bienen Zeuchter. 



Italian Bees as Robbers. 



The following discussion on this 

 subject took place at the late meeting 

 of the " Societe d'Apiculteurd'Alsace- 

 Lorrain :" 



Mr. Bauer said : Heretofore I have 

 not kept Italian bees, owing to their 

 propensity for robbing, but as I am 

 now the only apiarist in our village, 

 and consequently no one else would 

 suffer from them, I shall commence 

 Italianizing my apiary next spring. 

 Will I have trouble with them, for 

 the reason I have mentioned V 



Mr. Z willing— The instinct to gather 

 honey, which the Creator has given 

 every race of bees, induces them to 

 nibble and rob whenever they And an 

 opportunitv either by tlie neglect of 

 the apiculturist, irregular feeding, 

 or queenless colonies. The Italian 

 bee possesses a greater instinct to 

 gather honey than the inferior races 

 of bees, and consequently an in- 

 creased desire to rob. But it does 

 not follow that no other race of bees 

 could existintheirimmediate vicinity 

 without being robbed by them. For 

 more than 10 years I have kept Ital- 

 ian and black bees in the same apiary, 

 and liave never discovered the Italians 

 robbing their neighbors. 



Mr. Bauer— Aside from the desire 

 to rob, the Italian bee is said to 

 possess other bad qualities, and in 

 spring the superseding of queens be- 

 comes an epidemic. 



Mr. Zwilling— 1 have discovered no 

 greater mortality among my Italian 

 queens than aiiy others. We often 

 liear the comiilaints of beginners, 

 that their yellow queens are dead, and 

 that they will liereafter keep only the 

 CJermaiis. This usually happens 

 through mismanagement of the 

 apiarist, and is not the fault of the 

 bees. It is a fact that some beginners 

 open tlieir hives as early as February, 

 and pull out coml) after comb for the 

 purpose of investigation, and by this 

 careless exposure the queens are 

 often destroyed, or the worker bees 

 may have too closely surrounded the 

 queen and smothered her. 



Mr. ]5auer— Is it true that the Ital- 

 ians get foul brood easier than other 

 races V 



Mr. Zwilling— It is very often said 

 that foul brood does not exist in Italy 

 at all. Foul brood germinates in weak 

 colonies, where the numliers are in- 

 suthcient to keep the brooil warm. 

 This happens frequently among the 

 Italian bees, where the apiarist de- 

 votes his attention to the rearing of 

 queens instead of worker brood. 



Mr. Bauer— Does the Italian go into 

 winter quarters in a weaker condition, 

 and therefore sustains greater loss 

 tlian any other race V 



Mr. Zwilling— In countries where 

 tlie autumn bloom is very limited, 

 tliey will stop breeding earlier than 

 the Germans, and, consequently, will 

 not be as strong, but wliere there is 

 plenty of late bloom, tliey winter 

 equally well with any other race of 

 bees. To those who keep bees for in- 

 crease, 1 would recommend the 

 Krainer bees. These queens are very 

 proliflc, and will continue breeding 

 even during a scarcity of bloom, but 

 the stores of honey suffer iu conse- 

 quence. ' 



stiJorms^^M 



'wm'Fim^^mxi 



A Bee House.— Our bees came out 

 all right tliis spring. We have had 

 one new swarm up to this time. One 

 came out and settled in a large tree ; 

 we got them down and hived them, 

 and when putting them in their place 

 they all came out and went back to 

 the old hive. Do not know the rea- 

 son, unless they did not have a queeu. 

 Thev have just begun to work in the 

 boxes, and are very strong. I think 

 it is owing to the weather, which has 

 been muggy and rainy that they do 

 not swarm. We had a heavy rain 

 last week wliich spoiled all the corn 

 on the bottom lands ; with that ex- 

 ception the crops are looking Une. 

 Clover is abundant here, and lots of 

 basswood, and I cannot see why the 

 honey harvest will not be good this 

 year. Xo bees around here only my 

 14 colonies. The following is a de- 

 scription of our bee liouses summer 

 and winter. Our winter house is 16 

 feet long by 9 wide and 8 high, frame, 

 like any house, only ceiled up inside 

 with 1 inch matched boards, under 

 that building-paper and then the sid- 

 ing, which leaves an almost deail-air 

 space. The floor is of common boards, 

 then paper, then flooring ; the top is 

 ceiled, [iaiiered, and roofed, leaving a 

 ventilator. Our summer bee house 

 is simply a long shed .5 feet in front, 

 4 behiiul, and boarded up and lathed, 

 with a row of grape vines -5 feet high 

 in front, running on wires. We use 

 our winter bee house for a shop. 



S. T. WOOLWORTH. 



Gratiot, Wis., June 30, 1882. 



Honey from Red Clover.— My bees 



are now gathering honey from white 

 and red clover. From appearances, 

 they are doing as well on the latter as 

 on the former. O. II. Townsend. 

 Kalamazoo, Mich., July 3, 1882. 



