468 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Had Enough of the Cypriau Bees.— 

 The editor of the Bee- Keepers" Instruc- 

 tor lemurks as follows about his 

 Cyprian bees : 



We had one nucleus of Cyprians 

 last season, and as our readers will 

 ■perhaps remember, stated that we 

 handled them witliout difficulty, and 

 thought they were not so cross as 

 mauy claimed them to be. But we 

 take it all back, for we have found, 

 since ours have bred up strong, that 

 they always have an end for business. 

 They are troublesome to handle, pay- 

 ing little or no attention to smoke, 

 and boil over the hive whenever it is 

 opened. They sting most unmerci- 

 fully on tlie" slightest provocation, 

 -while the mashing of a bee seems to 

 set them wild. Strains of these bees 

 may differ, but so far as our expe- 

 rience goes we want nothing more to 

 4o with them. From the limited ex- 

 perience we have had with them we 

 fail to see that they possess any 

 superiority over the most gentle Ital- 

 ians. True, they are very prolific, 

 tout so are many of our Italians. We 

 have decapitated the Cyprian queens 

 (we now have two colonies), and have 

 requeened with virgin Italians, pre- 

 ferring to run the risk of getting 

 ■Jiybrids rather than keep the Cjip- 

 rians. Ours may be hybrids, and for 

 that reason wa do not wish it under- 

 stood that we speak for the Cyprians 

 in general, but only so far as our ex- 

 perience goes ; although we believe 

 it corresponds very closely with tliat 

 ■of the majority of those who have 

 tried the Cyprians. At any rate we 

 ■will rest satisfied for awhile with our 

 ■experience, not so much for our dis- 

 aike of stings (as they effect us but 

 very little) as the fact that they are 

 too" much like " Banquo's gliosf— 

 they will not " down " when we wish 

 to close the hive, no matter how much 

 smoke we pour into them. 



Fumigating Bees. — Mr A. Petti- 

 ■grew, in the London Journal of Horti- 

 ■cullurei remarks thus on the above 

 named subject : 



Doubtless Mr. Raynor is correct in 

 .stating that fumigating bees with the 

 smoke of Thyme and othersubstances 

 is practiced in foreign countries, and 

 his quotations put the matter beyond 

 •question. For aught I know the prac- 

 tice of using smoke to fumigate bees 

 •may have been known at an early 

 -date in Great Britain. But James 

 ,Bonner, bee master, Auchencrow. 

 Berwickshire, who wrote and pub- 

 lished an able work on bees in the 

 Tear 1879, does not appear to have 

 ^iised smoke or known of it in his day. 

 Bonner's book fell into my hands for 

 •the first time a few weeks ago. After 

 JBonner's day my father was perhaps 

 •the most extensive bee-keeper m 

 •Great Britain for many years. Both 

 he and Bonner practiced artificial 

 swarming without using smoke of 

 any kind. How Bonuer proceeded 1 

 do not know, but my father simply 

 .fixed a cabbage blade in front of his 

 :face, turned up his hives and 

 •ilrummed and drove swarms from 



them in the manner we now do with 

 the use of smoke to prevent stinging. 

 One autumn when my father was in 

 Edinburgh selling his harvest of honey 

 he met an Irishman, who offered to 

 instruct him how to carry a hive of 

 bees fully exposed up and down the 

 streets without getting a sting, for a 

 gill of whisky. The barg.iin was 

 struck, and "the secret" thus ob- 

 tained was worth all the whisky in 

 the city to my father and to hundreds 

 of bee-keepers besides, and doubtless 

 to thousands of apiarists during the 

 last 10 years. The use of smoke from 

 fustian and corduroy rags makes bee- 

 keeping comparatively easy and 

 pleasant work ; and though I am 

 courageous enough amongst angry 

 bees with smoking rags in my hand, I 

 would not like to undertake to swarm 

 50 hives artificially without the use of 

 smoke. Witliout the leastdisposition 

 to question tlie truth of what Mr. 

 Raynor says about the use of smoke 

 being known long before tlie Irish- 

 man's day, the probability is great I 

 should never have known it, and 

 never have been a bee-keeper at all, 

 but for the Irishman and the gill of 

 whisky in Edinburgh. 



Equalizing Colonies.— The Indiana 

 Farmer remarks as follows : 



For the best results it Is necessary 

 that all colonies be made good and 

 strong by the time the honey harvest 

 begins. The frames of comb should 

 be well filled with brood, and the 

 hives full of bees. With only a few 

 colonies, all seemingly in the same 

 condition, we find some colonies will 

 far outstrip oihers in brood rearing 

 and be ready for the harvest before it 

 comes. Frames of brood should be 

 taken from the strongest and given 

 to the weakest and in this way equal- 

 ize the colonies before harvest com- 

 mences. It will not perceptibly jnjure 

 the strong colony, and will soon put 

 the weaker one in working condition. 

 In building up weak colonies by this 

 method, it is better to do the work in 

 the middle of the day, when the bees 

 adhering to the combs can also be 

 added as they will nearly all be young 

 bees and will stay where put. In all 

 manipulations of this kind first ascer- 

 tain the whereabouts of the queen, so 

 as not to transfer her with the combs. 



Bees Gathering Pollen.— The Grange 



Bulletin remarks as follows : 



A bee never gathers pollen from 

 more than one variety of flowers on 

 the same trip or visit. If so, why is 

 there such a perfect sameness of 

 color and appearance of both little 

 pellets carried by the bee. We do not 

 assert that all the bees gather and 

 bring in the same kind of pollen at the 

 same time, but that each bee gathers 

 only one kind the same trip, and may 

 collect various kinds during the day. 

 It is also a well established fact that 

 a bee never gathers pollen and honey 

 on the same trip to replenish their 

 stores with, but may gather pollen 

 one trip and then bring in honey the 

 next trip. How grand and wise has 



the Gi'eat Architect been in His dis- 

 tribution of knowledge to the little 

 honey bee in the visiting of the var- 

 ious flowers for pollen which is so use- 

 ful in the fertilization of the same in 

 its most perfect order, producing per- 

 fect fruits and seeds of their special 

 kinds in their seasons. Hence, we 

 say study well Nature's grand laws 

 as well as the habits of the little bees 

 and manage them accordingly. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1882. Time and Place of Meetino. 



July "2.5— Western Iowa, at Winterset. Iowa. 



Henry Wallace, Sec, Winterset, Iowa. 

 Auk. in— Maine State, at Harmony, Maine. 



Wm. Hoyt, Sec. 

 Sept. .^-N. W. III. and «• W^ Wis., at Rockton, 111. 

 Jonathan Stewart, Sec. 

 Oct. 3-t> -North American, at Cincinnati, O. 



Dr. Ehrick Parmly, Sec, New York City. 

 5— Kentucky Union, at Shelbyville, Ky. 



G. W. Demnree. Sec, Christiansburg, Ky, 



Tuscarawas Valley, at Newcomerstown, O. 



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



IW In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— ED. 



The National Couvention. 



The following is the official call of 

 tlw Secretary, Dr. Farmly, for the 

 Convention of the North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Society. We hope there 

 will be a large attendance : 



The North American Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Society will hold their 13th an- 

 nual meeting at Washington Park 

 Hall, Cincinnati, O., across Washing- 

 ton Park from the Exposition build- 

 ing. Time, Oct. 3rd to 5th, 1882. 

 First session Tuesday, 10 a. m., Oct. 

 3. We are encouraged to hope that 

 this will be a very profitable meeting, 

 as we are promised papers from, and 

 the presence of, a large number of 

 our most prominent bee-keepers both 

 in the United States and Canada, and 

 essays and implements of the apiary 

 are expected fnnu abroad to add to 

 the knowledge imparted by the re- 

 search and inventive skill and meth- 

 ods of our countrymen. 



EniucK Paumly, Sec. 



New York, July 12, 1882. 



1^ The bee-keepers of Boone Co., 

 Indiana, are invited to meet in Leba- 

 non, at Barton Iliggins' office, over 

 Jaskson's bee hive, on the west side 

 of the square, to organize an auxiliary 

 County Association, on Aug. 10, 1882. 



George J. Fuey, ) 



Oka Knowlton, \ Executive Com. 



Jas. H. Orear, J 



i^" The summer's meeting of the 

 Cortland Union Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, will be held in Cortland, N. 

 Y.. on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1882. 



M. C. Bean, Sec. 



