742 



THE AMERICANS BEE JOURNAL. 



The frames run crosswise of tlie 

 hive and tlie bees go in at the side in- 

 stead of tlie ends of the frames ; tliis 

 I tliink better for several reasons. I 

 will mention one: We find in all good 

 colonies when the honey season closes, 

 a quantity of brood in the centre of 

 the hive, and as this brood hatches out, 

 the bees bring the lioney fartherest 

 from the centre to fill np'lhe combs ; 

 in my hives they generally empty the 

 front and back combs entirely, so that, 

 when I pack up, I can remove them, 

 but in long frames, and where they go 

 in at ends of short ones, they will re- 

 move the honey from the ends of the 

 frames to the centre, so that we can- 

 not remove the frames without remov- 

 ing the honey they need for winter, 

 and consequently have a quantity of 

 unoccupied room at the ends of the 

 frames, which I very much dislike in 

 packing. 



This is my plan for fixing them up 

 for winter. I wait three or four weeks 

 after the bees have stopped gathering 

 honey, and then I commence by tak- 

 ing out all the combs and putting in 

 front a cushion, 2^i inches thick ; this 

 closes all the outlets for the bees, ex- 

 cept one, 2 inches by % inches, through 

 which the bees can pass under the 

 cushions to the frames. I then select 

 from three to live combs (according to 

 the size of the colony) well filled with 

 honey, and put them in front next to 

 the cushion, and if there are more of 

 such, I brush off the bees and put 

 them away for other colonies or for 

 spring use. I then put in those partly 

 filled, the heaviest first, until all are 

 in that have any honey in, then put 

 in the end board and cover up tlie 

 hive. I let them remain two or three 

 weeks longer, then open the hive ; and 

 if the weather has been warm, I will 

 find that the bees have carried most 

 of the honey from back combs to those 

 partly filled near the center. I then 

 remove all the combs except five to 

 eight in front, put in a cushion like the 

 front one, behind these, and put in the 

 end board, put cloth over the frame, 

 put on the surplus honey case or up- 

 per story, and in this place a thick 

 cushion, tuck it down all round, put 

 on the top and it is done. The cush- 

 ion should not reach to the top into an 

 inch or more. 



Kow for the unpacking. As we 

 cannot tell what the weather will be in 

 the spring, we cannot set any day to 

 commence, but when I see the "oak 

 leaves begin to grow, I take off the 

 front cushion, and when the corn be- 

 gins to grow rapidly, I take off the 

 back cushions, but I generally leave 

 on the top one until I want the room 

 for the sections. 



Allow me to give an opinion or two 

 of my own. I know that such are 

 worthless without pi'oof, but some- 

 body else may prove them. Feeding 

 to produce breeding I think is entire- 

 ly wrong ; for breeding out of season, 

 in my opinion, uses up more bees than 

 it produces, and those reared late in 

 the season are not worth as much in 

 the spring as those that reared them 

 would have been, had they not reared 

 them. Karly breeding amounts to the 

 same, and both are productive of 

 spring dwindling. 



The convention at Chicago was a 

 good one. just such as I like ioattend. 

 where I can exchange thoughts and 

 ideas, which are always useful. Some 

 one there said Mr. Ileddon had 

 changed. Well, really ! When you 

 show me a man that never changes. I 

 will show you a god or a fool, 'riiere 

 is nothing more admirable in a man 

 than for him to as publicly admit that 

 he is wrong, if convinced, as he pre- 

 viously advocated it. I think Mr. 

 Ileddon belongs to that society, the 

 first tenet of which is, "Do right be- 

 cause it is right, and not for love, fear 

 or policy.'' Such being the case, we 

 shall always expect an honest opinion 

 from him whether it agrees with his 

 previous assertions or not. 



Mendon, Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Syrian or Holy Land Bees. 



KEV. M. MAHIN, D. D. 



It has been well said that the new 

 races of bees are on trial ; and, the 

 only way to try them and ascertain 

 their merits and demerits, is to place 

 them side by side with the Italians, 

 give them precisely the same treat- 

 ment, and note the results. I have 

 had one of them, the Syrian, on trial 

 for more than a year past, and it will 

 take me another year, at least, to de- 

 cide whether I will supplant my Ital- 

 ians with them or not. I have never 

 seen a Cyprian bee, and I have not 

 much curiosity to try them, owing to 

 their bad reputation forstingiug qual- 

 ities ; but I have 22 colonies of Syrian 

 or Holy Land bees, and I wish to re- 

 port the results of my trial of them, so 

 far. The most of those I had last 

 summer were half-bloods, the queens 

 having mated with Italian drones. In 

 the latter part of the summer I had 

 colonies that were pure. 



They have more than sustained their 

 reputation for prolificness ; I have 

 never before seen anything like it. I 

 have not fully decided whether their 

 prolificness may not be an objection 

 to them. It is, unless precaution is 

 taken to give them very large hives, 

 or to remove combs of brood frequent- 

 ly and give empty combs or frames to 

 make room for the queen to lay. Un- 

 less this is done, the surplus apartment 

 is sure to be filled with brood in the 

 midst of the honey harvest. 



Taking the season through, I found 

 the Syrians ahead of the Italians in 

 the amount of honey gathered, with 

 the exception of one or two extra Ital- 

 ian colonies, which equaled, but did 

 not excel the Syrians. I found the 

 half-blood Syrians to be wonderfully 

 productive. Their comb building and 

 honey gathering were marvelous dur- 

 ing the time of the greatest yield. 



What about their temper V Last 

 fall I found them no more inclined to 

 sting than the Italians. Last spring, 

 while the weather was cool and little 

 or no honey was being gathered, they 

 were very cross, and it was exceedingly 

 difficult to do anything with them ; 

 but when the flowers began to yield 

 honey they were as gentle as conld be | 



desired ; and this fall, while preparing 

 them for winter, in which process I 

 handled every comb in every hive, I 

 found them quite as manageable as 

 my Italians. In fact I got more stings 

 from the Italians than from the Syri- 

 ans. I am of opinion that thev learn 

 gentleness from careful handling, 

 more readily than either blacks or 

 Italians. 



I cannot express any very positive 

 opinion in regard to their wintering 

 qualities. I will probably know more 

 on that subject in four or five months 

 from now; but my observation is very 

 different from Mr. Doolittle's. He 

 represents the Syrians as being more 

 restless than Italians ; on the contrary, 

 the most remarkable characteristic or 

 mine last winter was their unusual 

 quietness. 



In the fall, after the (lowers were all 

 gone, we had many days of warm sun- 

 shine ; and while the Italians were 

 out in full force every day, very few 

 Syrians were seen about the entrances 

 of the hives, except once in several 

 days when they would take a good fly. 

 And what was true of them in the fall, 

 was true during all of the warm weath- 

 er last winter. While the Italians 

 could fly the whole of every warm day, 

 the Syrians would only fly for an hour 

 or two, once in several days ; no mat- 

 ter how warm the weather might be. 

 I have not noticed much, if any, dif- 

 ference between the two races, in tliis 

 particular, this fall ; for we have had 

 no warm weather when they could 

 not find somethiu"- to work on. They 

 were carrying pollen on Nov. 11, and 

 seemed to be loaded with honey also. 



It may be that, in a locality in 

 which there is very little honey to be 

 gathered after basswood, the Syrians 

 may not be desirable ; but up to the 

 present time I am inclined to give 

 them the preference over all others. 



Huntington, Ind., Nov. 14, 1882. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Bees for Business — A Report. 



S. A. SHUCK. 



Enormous reports from single colo- 

 nies have been given from all parts of 

 the country, and great claims are be- 

 ing made for the various races of bees, 

 especially the Cyprians and Syrians. 

 The reports given were from entire 

 apiaries and a few select or single col- 

 onies; and, in most cases, where large 

 yields are reported from a few select ,, 

 colonies, the average for the entire | 

 apiary was only ordinary, and, in some I 

 instances, the average was small. 



Mr. Carroll, of Texas, reports 1,000 

 pounds from one colony and its in- 

 crease, and 800 lbs. from a single col- 

 ony, yet this 1,800 lbs. is nearly one- 

 third of the entire product of 36 

 colonies. 



Mr. Heddon and Mr. Doolittle both 

 claim to have superior strains of bees, 

 yet they both complain, more or less, 

 of the frequent occurrence of inferior 

 queens. Mr. Doolittle reports having 

 destroyed fifty or sixty queens, a year 

 ago, on account of their inferiority. 



I wish to submit a report of my lit- 

 tle apiary for the past season, and 



