.THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



349 



this business in the light of how many 

 fields they had better occupy, and 

 how much capital and labor it will 

 require to exhaust the Held, instead of 

 how much surplus honey a colony of 

 bees can gather, we shall be getting 

 down to business and to the solid 

 facts of apiculture. 



man bee, entirely free from this 

 little black blood, and straight 

 leather-colored Italians. 



Syrian Bees Crossed with Italians. 



Please explain more fully what has 

 already been explained (perliaps plain 

 enough for some), but 1 do not fully 

 understand it. On page 314, of the 

 Weekly Bee Journal, of the piesent 

 year, there is a question asked, "What 

 objection would there be to crossing 

 the Holy Land bees with the pure 

 Italians, etc.?" The answer is, " They 

 have not the valuable qualities pos- 

 sessed by the Italians," but the brown 

 Germans have. I tliink I have read 

 that wliat is commonly called the 

 black bee, is a German bee (of course 

 they are a brown bee). Am I right 

 in that y Is that the bee you mean i* 

 Do you consider the leather-colored 

 Italians better than the bright ones, 

 and the crossing you speak of better 

 still, best of all '{ Edward Mooke. 



Barrie, Out., June 27, 1883. 



Answer.— My answer regarding 

 crossing Syrian with Italian bees, is 

 not worded just as I meant to have 

 it. I think it should read : " They 

 have not the valuable qualities not 

 possessed by the Italians, and which 

 the honey-producer so much needs, 

 but which the brown Germans have." 

 The idea I meant to carry was this : 

 that the excellent qualification pos- 

 sessed in such an exalted degree by 

 the brown German bees, namely, 

 rapid and perfect comb building, and 

 white capping of the honey, is not, if 

 I am properly informed, possessed by 

 the Syrians. I have demonstrated 

 that hybrids produced by crossing 

 Germans and Italians may be as 

 amiable as any bees in the world, 

 but I doubt if such can be realized 

 by crossing the Italian and Syrians. 

 Kegarding tlie two varieties of German 

 bees, let it be understood, the brown 

 bee is by far the most common, and is 

 the bee possessed to a greater or less 

 extent by those who keep " black 

 bees." The little black bee is smaller 

 and a more shiney black, and is a 

 poor honey gatherer, exceedingly 

 irascible, and when crossed with the 

 Italian, especially the bright yellow 

 Italian, gives us the naughty hybrid. 

 Many black-bee apiaries (most, in 

 fact) are made up of bees which seem 

 to be a mixture of the brown and 

 black Germans. Those who propose 

 to breed crosses between the Ital- 

 ians and Germans, should see to it 

 that they start with the brown Ger- 



siki^€^^^ 



%URi^E 



0m>Q 



Discouraging Weatlier In New York. 



Wlien I last wrote we had been 

 having three days of fair weather, so 

 the bees were getting a little more 

 honey than they consumed. We had 

 one more tine day, then it commenced 

 to rain again, and it has now rained 

 three days. Farmers are nearly dis- 

 couraged. The ground had got dry 

 enough the four fair days, so they 

 had just begun to cultivate their 

 crops, and now it is soaked and water 

 stands on the driest ground. Clover 

 is likely to pass by without giving any 

 surplus honey. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., June 28, 1883. 



An Insect— Leaf Cntter. 



I enclose an insect, which I found 

 working in great numbers with my 

 bees, upon the Mammoth Russian 

 Suullower. Upon examination under 

 a common microscope, I found all of 

 the main points visible on a bee, but 

 on a coarser scale ; the head, wings 

 and legs seemed to be out of all pro- 

 portion to the rest of the body. They 

 possess stings which they know how 

 to use. I watched several of them for 

 some lime, but only saw them gather- 

 ing pollen, which they did in a similar 

 manner to the bee. Please inform me 

 through the Bee Journal. 1. Their 

 name. 2. IIow and where they build 

 their nests. 3. Whether they store 

 away honey or not. Bees are doing 

 very poorly. M. T. IIewes. 



False River, La., June 17, 1883. 



[The pretty little bee is a leaf cutter, 

 Megachile hrevis. Unlike the hive bee 

 and several other species, this one 

 does not live in colonies, but each 

 female makes and provides for her 

 own nest. The latter is made of bits 

 of leaves cut in circular shape, and 

 wonderously regular and workman- 

 like. The nest is placed in some 

 sheltered position, under balconies of 

 houses, rails of fences, limbs of trees, 

 etc. Xo honey is stored, the larvae 

 being fed on pollen. Set some of the 

 young folks to watching the curious 

 operations and interesting habits of 

 this busy worker. Look for circular 

 cuts from leaves, especially of rose 

 bushes.— T. J, Burrill, Champaign, 

 lU.l 



Honey Gathering in Connecticut. 



My 90 colonies and 40 nuclei keep 

 me busy. The first swarms here were 

 on May 18, about 10 days earlier than 

 usual. White and red clover bloom is 

 abundant ; I never before saw so 



much. Bees are working strongly on 

 both. There is a heavy basswood 

 and sumac budding. Honey is com- 

 ing in rapidly. The losses of the past 

 winter are more than repaired, and 

 swarms are issuing daily. Many of 

 the early swarms are casting swarms 

 and working in boxes too. 



TJ T r TT TJ" F I-i W V 



Washington Depot,Ct., June 30,1883. 



Rolling in the Honey. 



Times have changed greatly since 

 the 19th. We have had no rain for 12 

 days. My bees are just rolling in the 

 honey, and in spite of all the sections 

 one can pile on, they will swarm. 



S. L. Vail. 



Coal Creek, Iowa, June 30, 1883. 



Honey Crop a Failure in Texas. 



Our honey crop, so far, is a failure. 

 I have had bees in such condition as 

 to surplus but once in 4 years. It will 

 not make half a crop this season. 

 Horsemint is in bloom, and there is 

 plenty of it, but tlie weather has been 

 so unfavorable that the flowers secreted 

 no nectar. Every hive is full of bees, 

 but we have no swarms (not over 5 per 

 cent.) and no honey. 



Wm. R. Howard. 



Kingston, Tex., June 29, 1883. 



A Bee Killer— and a Flower. 



I enclose an insect upon which I 

 should be glad to have you give me 

 some information. I find a great 

 many of them, late in the evening, in 

 my apiary, and have just discovered 

 that they catch bees. This insect, as 

 you see, has one in its mouth, partly 

 eaten, and it held another in its claws, 

 when I killed it. I also send you a 

 bunch of flowers, with a twig from a 

 bush that grows in my yard. The 

 bees swarm on it all day. My bees 

 have not swarmed much, but they 

 have gathered a great deal of honey, 

 filling up the combs every two or 

 three days since April 15. It is all 

 that I can do to take the honey from 

 them. All the bee-keepers in this 

 vicinity report a bountiful harvest. 

 W. G. McLendon. 



Lake Village, Ark., June 20, 1883. 



[The bee-killer is what is very com- 

 monly called a dragon fly, sometimes 

 darning needle, mosquito hawk or 

 snake feeder. The scientific name is 

 Eschna heros. This is by no means 

 the first time the large insect has been 

 known to catch bees, though they 

 more often capture other, and es- 

 pecially smaller prey. They are ap- 

 propriately called mosquito hawks. 

 In the larval or young condition the 

 wingless, strange looking things are 

 called water tigers. They live in the 

 water and catch living prey in their 

 powerful sharp-pointed jaws, which 

 they can thrust out, by a peculiar 

 appendage, with the rapidity and 

 effectiveness of a steel trap. They 

 live about a year in the water, then 

 transform into the winged insect 



