THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



G09 



To give a passage for air from out- 

 side, I bore two or more oiie-iiich 

 auger holes in front of the box, and 

 higli enough to prevent strong gusts 

 from blowing directly into the en- 

 trance of the hive. A board closes 

 the entrance to the box and completes 

 the process. 



« UPWAKD \'ENTILATION. 



Unless the colony is above medium 

 size, I give no ventilation over the 

 brood-nest. If below the medium, I 

 place a folded paper over the quilt, 

 before crowding the cap down. 

 When the colony is a large one, occu- 

 pying eight of ten American or Gal- 

 lup frames, I roll the quilt back, the 

 distance of the space between coml)s, 

 or bore three one-inch holes through 

 the honey-board, at the end of the 

 brood-chamber, opposite from the 

 cluster, and cover the openings with a 

 single thickness of burlap. To fecili- 

 tate the escape of moisture from the 

 caps, I have a 3| inch auger hole in 

 each end. As the processes described 

 in the foregoing embody the •' seven 

 requisites "' of a safe wintering, I can- 

 not make a better conclusion than by 

 stating that, having tried them five 

 winters, I have not " found them 

 wanting." 



Cumberland, Me., Nov. 12, 1883. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Different Varieties of Bees. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



The most exhaustive, and, to my 

 mind, the most impartial and best 

 article upon the comparative merits 

 of the Italian and German varieties 

 of bees, appeared in the April and 

 May numbers of Gleanings tor 1881. 

 It was from the pen of the Rev. L. L. 

 Langstroth. As many of the present 

 readers of the Bek "Jouknal prob- 

 ably have not seen the article in ques- 

 tion, I hope I may be pardoned for 

 quoting the decisions therein recorded: 



1. When late forage is scarce, the 

 Italians stop breeding much earlier 

 than the blacks. 



2. The Italians, unless stimulated 

 by judicious feeding, do not resume 

 breeding as early as ihe blacks. 



3. The Italians are much more in- 

 clined to build drone comb than the 

 blacks. 



4. The blacks are more ready than 

 the Italians to work in surplus honey 

 receptacles not closely connected with 

 the main hive. 



.5. The comb honey made by the 

 blacks from light-colored supplies, is 

 usually more attractive than that 

 stored from the same sources by the 

 Italians. 



6. With a queen of the current year, 

 the blacks will hardly ever sw^'arm, 

 while, long after the usual swarming 

 season, young Italian queens will 

 often lead off swarms. 



7. Black bees are much more sensi- 

 bly affected by the loss of their queen 

 than the Italians. 



8. In buildmg, an Italian colony 

 seldom begins as many combs as the 

 blacks, and, therefore, work them 



more compactly, squaring them out, 

 as it were, as they proceed. 



9. Black bees will readily build be- 

 tween guide frames, worker combs, 

 while it is very difficult to get any 

 satifactory result, in this line, from 

 Italians. 



10. The Italians, both young and 

 old, adhere with much tenacity to 

 their combs when they are lifted from 

 the hive, while the blacks, more es- 

 pecially those newly hatched, tumble 

 off so readily as to annoy the operator 

 by crawling up his clothes, or expos- 

 ing themselves to be trodden upon. 



11. When the hive is opened, the 

 Italian queen and workers are dis- 

 posed to remain quiet, and when they 

 are lifted out, the workers spread 

 themselves over the combs. 



12. Under adverse circumstances, 

 the blacks are far more easily discour- 

 aged than the Italians. 



13. The Italians, will, in some sea- 

 sons, from the second crop of red 

 clover, build new combs, and store 

 them with honey, when black colonies, 

 in the same apiary, are losing weight. 



1-1. Italians suffer little, wlien com- 

 pared with the blacks, from the rav- 

 ages of the bee moth. 



1.5. Italians are far less likely than 

 the blacks to rob or be robbed. 



16. The Italians, by their superior 

 energy and greater length of proboscis, 

 will, on an average of seasons, gather 

 much larger stores of honey thiin the 

 blacks. 



After each of the above propositions 

 Mr. Langstroth proceeded to enlarge, 

 illustrate, explain, and go into details 

 as only Mr. Langstroth can, and any 

 one who cares a fig about the matter 

 should send for the papers containing 

 the article. 



It will be seen that each of the 

 above varieties possess superior quali- 

 ties not possessed by the other, and 

 that, upon a summing up, the Italians 

 come out ahead, and for the produc- 

 tion of extracted honey, they have no 

 superior. It will also be seen that, for 

 the production of comb honey, the 

 German variety has some character- 

 istics that cannot be successfully ig- 

 nored. Now, if we can have a strain 

 of bees possessing the good qualities 

 of both races, with the undesirable 

 traits left out, would it not be an up- 

 ward step ? Mr. Heddon asserts that 

 by a judicious crossing of these two 

 varieties, and a careful selection in 

 breeding, he has obtained such a 

 strain ; and so well satisfied am I of 

 the truthfulness of this assertion that 

 I commenced, the past season, to 

 stock my apiary with the " Ileddon 

 strain." I arrived at this conclusion 

 from an actual trial of the bees. I am 

 well aware that all over this broad 

 land there is a genuine and worthy 

 love for the Italians. I have felt this 

 love, and know what it is, and only 

 those who have " been there " know 

 with what reluctance and real " heart 

 aches " I give up the pure Italians,but 

 self-interest compels me to. 



With the Syrians my experience has 

 been short and bitter— they are so 

 irritable. It will be rememliered that 

 at the Northwestern Convention, a 

 gathering that " represented the 

 largest number of large, practical, 



successful honey-producers,'" that Mr. 

 Langstroth had ever seen, the in- 

 quiry was twice repeated Ijefore any 

 one could be found who had gi^ntle 

 Syrians, and then only one person was 

 found, and he only knew that he had 

 bought a selected, tested queen of a 

 reliable dealer ; the bees had the same 

 appearance as the Italians. Somebody 

 at the Northwestern Convention re- 

 marked that the Syrians had no good 

 qualities not possessed by the Italians, 

 while they had the unpleasant one of 

 extreme irritability. But their ad- 

 mirers tell us that, if we will handle 

 them properly, they will be gentle, 

 and I presume they tell the truth, but 

 who wishes to be obliged to approach 

 the hive upon tip-toe, very slowly re- 

 move the cover, then sit down and 

 wait for the bees to become accus- 

 tomed to admission of the light, and 

 then handle the frames so carefully 

 that there is not the least jar V I will 

 tell you who it is ; it is the man who 

 is not dependent upon bee-keeping 

 for his bread and butter, but not the 

 man who raises honey to support his 

 family, and to whom minutes, at some 

 times, may almost be dollars. I am 

 heartily sick of that old saw. " If you 

 will only handle them carefully, they 

 are all right." No doubt of it, but 

 we want bees that we do not have to 

 handle with care ; there are times 

 when rapid manipulation, and a little 

 thumping of frames, is absolutely 

 necessary. The next count against 

 the Syrians is, that they do not prop- 

 erly ripen and seal their honey. They 

 are something like the Egyptian bees, 

 whose honey sometimes looks very 

 much like honey which has " sweated" 

 from being kept in a damp place. I 

 am aware that this complaint against 

 them is not universal, but some of our 

 largest producers have discarded the 

 Syrians, and this point was one of the 

 principal ones that influenced them in 

 their decision. " Yes," says one, "but 

 what have you to say to their wonder- 

 ful prolificriess, you do not doubt that 

 do you V" No, I do not doubt it, but 

 I dislike it ; in my estimation it is a 

 fault, and a very undesirable one at 

 that. As some one said, at the last 

 meeting of the Michigan State Asso- 

 ciation, •' They will rear brood as long 

 as a drop of honey remains in the 

 hive." Is this a desirable quality? 

 Their propensity to rear large quanti- 

 ties of brood at all times, and to build 

 large numbers of queen-cells, just 

 suits the queen breeder and the bees- 

 by-the-pound man, but does it please 

 the honey-producers ? It is quality 

 of bees that suits them, not quantity. 



As A. R. Kohnke says, on page 560, 

 " The proliflcness of queens and the 

 industry of colonies do not necessarily 

 go together." We prefer bees that 

 hll their hives with honey and then 

 stop breeding (if the honey flow stops), 

 to those that gather honey only to 

 rear more bees that these bees "may 

 gather more honey to rear more bees. 

 In other words, bees, not hqiiey, is the 

 great object aimed at by the Syrians ; 

 their philoprogenitiveness is greater 

 than their acquistiveness. 



But, says another, " If they breed 

 late in the season, they go into winter 

 with a hive full of yoiingbees." True, 



