592 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



large colonies were much more apt to 

 leave a hive, than lighter colonies. 



I had only been watching them 

 about 5 minutes, when down came a 

 mass of bees (about a quart), making 

 quite a thump on the bottom-board, 

 which was hung to the lower end of 

 the box hive with wire hooks, and 

 open % an inch all around, similar to 

 the Oliver lleynolds Vermont hive. 

 As the bees struck the bottom-board 

 they came rushing out, and I thought 

 they would leave ; but they soon went 

 back andbecamequiet. I stood watch- 

 ing about 10 minutes longer, wneii 

 down came the whole colony at once, 

 and out they went with a perfect rush, 

 and tliis time they left none behind 

 except the queen, whose wings were 

 clipped at tlie time that I hived them ; 

 she came hopping around on tlie edge 

 of the bottom- board. I caught her 

 and held her about 5 minutes, while 

 the swarm were gone, quite out of my 

 sight and hearing. I began to think 

 that they had another queen, and had 

 gone to the woods for sure ; but they 

 missed tlieir queen, and back they 

 came, and entered the hive again. I 

 gave them their queen, and then all 

 went well. 



I began to study over the matter, 

 and came to the conclusion that it was 

 for the want of proper support, which 

 caused the bees to fall from the top of 

 the hive, and that the fall friglitened 

 them and made them leave. Only one 

 tier of bees could come in contact with 

 the top- board, and they must start the 

 first comb-building, and at the same 

 time, sustain the weight of the great 

 mass of bees that hung to them, and, 

 as it was very warm, the task was 

 more than they could endure ; and 

 when their strength was exhausted, 

 they let go, and all came down to- 

 gether. 



I made up my mind that if bees had 

 ample support until they had plenty 

 of combs to hold to. they would stay 

 in almost any kind of hive. 



I then got some green bushes, 

 stripped off the leaves and filled the 

 top half of the hive so full, that there 

 was no place but that the small twigs 

 came within 2 or 3 inches of each 

 other. I fastened the buts of the brush 

 to the sides of the hive with small 

 nails. 1 hived the next swarm in a 

 box thus rigged and all went well; 

 also, the next, and kept it up until I 

 had, in after years, thus hived over 

 300, and had no further trouble with 

 absconding swarms. 



When foundation came into use, I 

 obtained a mill and began using frame 

 hives. I gave full sheets of founda- 

 tion, and, as I had no trouble witli 

 swarms leaving, I concluded that 

 foundation answered the same pur- 

 pose in supporting the cluster, that 

 the brush did. 



Since I began writing this, I have 

 read a letter in the Gleanings for 

 August, by Mr.Doolittle, in which he 

 gives it as his opinion ; and also that 

 of Mr. Betsinger, that bees are more 

 apt to leave a hive having a card of 

 brood, than one having only founda- 

 tion. 



Before I used the brush, I had for 

 20 years lost a majority of my heaviest 

 swarms by absconding, and now, if 



the trouble is to come up again, it will 

 be rather a serious matter. Has any 

 one lost bees that were hived on a full 

 set of full slieets of foundation V Let 

 us hear from them. 

 Orion, Wis. 



For tile American Bee JournaL 



The!Improvement of Bees. 



L. C. JOHNSON, M. D. 



Previous to the introduction into 

 England of the Godolphin and Darley 

 Arabian horses, the breed of English 

 horses was as celebrated for its worth- 

 lessness as it has since become (by 

 judicious crossing and selecting) for 

 its splendid qualities. 



By breeding from that "rand horse. 

 Eclipse, who never was ijeaten, and 

 whose power of speed seemed un- 

 limited, the English brought up their 

 sluggish breed to be a race of "racers." 



By careful crossing, and selecting 

 frorii the hardy and strong, though 

 not large, Suffolk Pinich breed, they 

 have produced the monstrous draft 

 horses of London, which are the 

 wonder and admiration of lovers of 

 horses the world over. 



By a long course of careful selecting 

 and crossing from the old domestic 

 cattle of Europe, whose best steers 

 weighed but little more than 1,000 

 pounds, cattle men now rear steers 

 weighing 3,000 pounds and more. 

 And what is true of horses and cattle, 

 is equally true of other kinds of do- 

 mestic stbck. The magnificent Cochins, 

 the beautiful Spanish, and the tender, 

 luscious Dorking, attest the success 

 of intelligent skill in the crossing and 

 select breeding of the barn-yard fowls. 



Xo successful farmer could be in- 

 duced to feed for market the long- 

 legged, slim-nosed, slab-sided, elm- 

 peelers, formerly sold for hogs. 



Turning to our fruits and vegeta- 

 bles, we find that high culture, with 

 careful selecting and crossing, has 

 produced marvelous results. From 

 the Solaneum lycoperseeum, common 

 wild tomato, we have developed the 

 magnifieen': garden tomato which is 

 so justly regarded as one of our very 

 finest fruits. Likewise tlie potato has 

 been brought up from a worthless 

 hard-woody tuber, to be a food- staple 

 for millions of Earth's people to almost 

 live upon. The strawberry, from a 

 berry no larger than the end of a 

 finger, has developed the monstrous 

 Sharpless, and many other varieties, 

 measuring six inches and more in cir- 

 cumference. 



These results have been obtained, 

 not by opposing Nature's proeesses,but 

 by selecting and perpetuating her best 

 products. The very essence of im- 

 provement in either animals or plants, 

 is to develop the good points and 

 banish bad ones. 



There is neither animal or plant 

 tliat offers greater facilities for this 

 tlian does the honey bee ; for, if we 

 have a single choice queen, we may, 

 in a few short weeks, have the entire 

 apiary to consist of her offspring. To 

 accouiplish this, we have only to de- 

 stroy queens whose bees possess bad 

 qualities, and substitute queens reared 

 from our better strains. 



If we are to improve our bees, we 

 must first have clear conceptions of 

 the qualities to be desired, in our 

 ideal or perfect bee. Then, bearing 

 in mind tlie character and qualities of 

 the different races we have to begin 

 with, we are prepared to so manage 

 our apiaries as to produce a better 

 strain of bees than any we now possess. 



The " ideal queen " should be large, 

 strong, active, and very prolific, as it 

 depends upon her to keep up a popu- 

 lation of from 40,000 to 70,000 insects, 

 whose average life is less than two 

 months during the working season. 

 A strong colony sliould have at least 

 60,000 bees, during the June and July 

 honey harvest, and, if their average 

 life is two montlis, the queen must 

 lay 1,000 'eggs per day to keep up the 

 strength of the colony, to say nothing 

 of the thousands that are to "be reared 

 for swarming. 



The " ideal bee,"' that such a queen 

 should rear, must possess, in the 

 highest degree, the qualities of energy, 

 liardiness and gentleness. Energy 

 sufficient to induce it to gather and 

 store hoiiev, whenever and wherever 

 it is to be found. But some may ob- 

 ject, that if we g;et bees full of energy 

 and vim, they will pounce upon and 

 rob their wealier neighbors. I tell 

 you, nay ; for it is not the busy, ener- 

 getic colonies whose workers go to 

 the fields early and late, and wlio store 

 up for us 100 pounds and more of nice 

 comb honey who do the robbing. The 

 danger is from those colonies which 

 have thousands of idle bees, lying 

 around all day long. They, like idle 

 people, find some mischief still to do. 



Hardiness is an essential quality for 

 this typical bee ; its life is a life of 

 labor ; joyous and happy it may he, 

 flitting ifrom flower to flower, sipping 

 nectar, " the food of the Gods," from 

 the beauteous cups of Nature's own 

 laboratory, yet the labor is severe and 

 constant," taxing the powers of the 

 insect to the utmost, during the honey 

 harvest. Bees, weighing liut 114 

 grains, often carry hoine to the hive 

 2 grains of honey, dropping almost ex- 

 hausted at the portal of home, only tcf 

 rest for a moment, then to hasten in, 

 unload and again go to the fields to 

 renew the burden. 



Gentleness is a quality only neces- 

 sary for man's convenience ; it is true, 

 we can handle them in spite of their 

 crossness, but it is so much more 

 pleasant, and more conducive to a 

 serene frame of mind, to handle kind 

 and gentle bees. So much for our 

 "ideal bee." Let us now consider 

 some of the qualities possessed by the 

 different races of bees. 



There are now, in this country, at 

 least five distinct races of our common 

 hive bee, the Syrian, Italian, black or 

 German, Egyptian and Cyprian. The 

 Syrian queens are wonderfully fertile. 

 1 "have known them to lay nearly 6,000 

 eggs in 24 hours ; on one occasion, I 

 placed a frame of foundation in a 

 Syrian colony, at 9 a. m., and at 5 p. 

 m. of the same day, I found the cells 

 drawn out, but no eggs ; at 2 p. m. of 

 the next day, I removed it and placed 

 it in a queenless nucleus, where it 

 was proven to contain no less than 

 5,.500 eggs, all deposited by one queen 



