THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



359 



workers, but cross, easily disturbed, 

 nervous and hard to manage. For 

 practical purposes, at least for the 

 present, I would not advise an exten- 

 sive cultivation of them. The light- 

 colored Italians, with three yellow 

 bands, clearly marked, are certainly 

 the purer stock. The dark-colored 

 Italians with the yellow bands nar- 

 rower and not so clearly marked, 

 undoubtedly have been tinctured 

 with the black blood. This probably 

 comes from contact with the German 

 bee. The cjuestion whether this taint 

 of black blood has not produced a 

 superior bee for practical purposes is 

 still an open question. My experience 

 with the dark-colored Italian bees, 

 gave me a very high opinion of their 

 merits. I had a dark-colored im- 

 ported queen, whose progeny were 

 the most docile and the best workers 

 lever had. They were certainly not 

 pure, for while they generally were 

 all marked with the three bands, 

 occasionally there was among them a 

 sport, pointing look to the black 

 blood. Undoubtedly tlie light-colored 

 clearly-marked three-banded Italians 

 are the pure stock, and the ones we 

 should breed from. If a tincture of 

 black blood is desirable, it can easily 

 be obtained. 



As to the question which is the best 

 bee for practical purposes, I answer, 

 so far as has yet been demonstrated, 

 the Italian. They may probably be 

 improved, and "the coming bee " may 

 not yet be developed. Lmdoubtedly 

 the bee, to some extent at least, is 

 subject to the same laws which gov- 

 ern tlie whole animal world. By 

 selecting the higher grades, and 

 breeding up, we may reach a degree 

 of perfection not yet obtained. 



I would recommend the light-col- 

 ored bee to breed from, until "the 

 coming bee " has arrived, and when a 

 greater degree of perfection has been 

 reached, we can then take the liigher 

 grade and keep it up to the degree of 

 perfection already obtained. 



As tlie question is. Which will pay 

 best, this or that, and all thinijs con- 

 sidered y I can make tlie Italian pay 

 best. I select it in preference to any 

 already in the field. Nor have I yet 

 seen any improvements which very 

 materially beats the original Italian. 

 I think I iiave seen homebred queens 

 which fully equaled any of the im- 

 ported, but I have never seen any 

 mingling: of blood, thence I am very 

 much disposed to stick to tlie pure 

 Italian, unadulterated. 



Marshall, Texas. 



For tli« American Bee JounuU. 



Securing Straight Combs. 



C. HARROLD. 



In answer to the inquiry of J. Hurst, 

 on page 338 of the Bee Journal, I 

 would say: Take a long-bladed knife 

 and pass it down between two of the 

 outside combs, as best you can, re- 

 moving one comb ; tliis gives you 

 room. Now if the next frame lias a 

 comb partially extending across 3 or 4 

 others, gently pass the knife between 

 the comb and bottom bars, then along 



up the end, to the top bars, then back 

 to the second frame again, holding the 

 comb up with the hand ; now press 

 the comb straight, and if it is too long 

 for the frame, pass the knife through 

 the comb, leaving it long enough for 

 the frame ; press it in the frame, and 

 fasten it to the top bar by pressing it 

 with the thumb. If the comb contains 

 honey, cut out the ill-shaped end and 

 extract it ; then place it in the frame 

 as before described. The knife should 

 be wet in clean soap-suds directly be- 

 fore using each time, and so continue 

 until the combs are all straight. 



First plumb your hive (it does no 

 harm to pitch them a little to the 

 front, so that the bees may drag out 

 the cappings while at work). If foun- 

 dation is not used, you can take small 

 bits of comb, and wax them to the top 

 bar with tlie thumb, 3 or 4 bits on 

 every frame. Whenever the bees 

 commence building their combs 

 crooked, straighten them and change 

 the frames, so that the bees are com- 

 pelled to build it straight. You can 

 probably turn the frame, end for end. 

 with less work, and it may answer all 

 purposes. I think, if you turn your 

 frames every 3 or 4 days, you will have 

 no trouble. 



Onawa, Iowa. 



Translated from Blenenfreund by A. R. Kohnke. 



Dzierzon's Theory of Wintering Bees. 



N. N. 



At last Dr. Dzierzon has written an 

 extensive article in defence of his 

 theory that " bees during their winter 

 rest could not be housed too warm, 

 and if it were po.ssible, they would be 

 much better off in a temperature 

 ranging from 7.5 to 95 degrees F., than 

 anything below that." 



All bee-keepers are agreed that suc- 

 cess in wintering is the foundation of 

 success in bee-keeping, and a further 

 discussion of this question would ad- 

 vance the interest in bee-keeping 

 largely, by showing that well and 

 warmly-protected bees should winter 

 better, and also to show the fallacy 

 of those bee-keepers who, contrary to 

 this theory, have found it more ad- 

 vantageous to their bees and them- 

 selves to give them less protective 

 and more ventilation. * 



It may be quite interesting to hear 

 of the experience of a bee-keeper from 

 the North (58 lat.) who casts his vote 

 in favor of "cold" wintering (little 



Protection), and why the reasons Dr. 

 izierzon advances to support his 

 theory, have not been acceptable 

 to him. A "cold" wintering would 

 certainly show its disadvantages, if it 

 were such, in a cold climate, much 

 colder than Germany. The writer of 

 this article has now for 4 years win- 

 tered his bees with little protection 

 from cold (which last winter lasted 

 (i}4 months), and never lost a single 

 colony. No dysentery, no moldy 

 combs, few dead bees, and the excre- 

 ments and other dirt on the bottom 

 board as dry as powder. Most, or at 

 least very many of the bee-keeperg, in 

 Germany follow the teaching of their 

 master, and, according to his theory, 



have their bees well housed and pro- 

 tected. In spite of this I noticed : 



1. Poor wintering in Germany and 

 other countries during hard winters. 



2. Continual complaints about poor 

 wintering, in bee papers. 



3. The complaint that colonies in 

 frame hives winter much poorer than 

 those in box hives, gums, or straw 

 hives, contrary to Krasicki's assertion 

 of the opposite being the fact. 



4. That even Dr. Dzierzon and Ber- 

 lepsch corroborated them as being' 

 disadvantages of the frame hive. 



5. That the writer of this article ha» 

 had the very best of success by adopt- 

 ing the opposite course. 



6. That the bees in the Northern 

 and Eastern part of Russia, being con- 

 tined 8 months to their hives winter 

 very successfully. 



7. Hubert's opinion, that " though 

 we owe Berlepsch very much, his win- 

 tering theory has caused bee-keepers- 

 great losses," especially by two of his 

 doctrines, that 1st, bees n^ed very lit- 

 tle air during wintering, and 2nd, 

 should " be most carefully guarded 

 against ventilation." 



And finally, 8th, on seeing bees win- 

 tered in his neighborhood by a lady- 

 bee-keeper, after the old style, in 

 gums standing in the garden in a very 

 exposed position and expressing hi» 

 surprise about it, she smilingly re- 

 plied : " These animals are notafraid 

 of any cold." The wallsof these gums 

 are no thicker than 1}4 inches. She 

 only once lost one colony on account 

 of cold, because the walls of the gum 

 were very thin. It has also been ob- 

 served tliat bees packed or housed al- 

 ways winter poorly, and the knowing 

 ones never protect them in this coun- 



Dr. Dzierzon uses repeatedly the 

 expression : " A bee is no ice bear 

 (white bear)." Certainly not; lor 

 within the Arctic zone we find no 

 bees; a single bee is a helpless, deli- 

 cate creature. But a colony of bees 

 is like a bear, and where a bear win- 

 ters, there a colony of bees will. 

 This is proven many times over, but 

 it requires a strong colony, and only 

 strong colonies should be considered 

 in discussing theory of wintering. 

 Weak colonies are diseased colonies, 

 and must necessarily be treated as a 

 patient, wrapped up well in cotton, 

 and belong more appropriately to 

 apistical pathology than in the winter- 

 ing question. 



It seems to me that Dr. Dzierzon 

 reasons in a question, requiring prac- 

 tical experience, from assumed but 

 not proven facts. This reasoning 

 from such has led him into error, as 

 is proven by the experience of many 

 other bee-keepers, whose observation 

 corroborate the contrary of his asser- 

 tions. The writer has wintered his- 

 bees successfully without any protec- 

 tion, with two openings in the hive ; 

 one at the bottom and another half 

 way up the hive, and that in a tem- 

 perature of from 30^ to 40*3 below zero, 

 and the bees having wholly been con- 

 fined to their hives in different years 

 for 6, 7 and 8 months. It would be 

 an easy matter for any bee-keeper to- 

 try to winter a colony in a tempera- 

 ture of say 70° or 80° by putting an 



