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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 26, 



" Importance of Longevity in Bees ;" and I know of no better 

 way to class it than to say it is common sense boiled down. 



I have been an occasional contributor to the Bee Journal 

 for more than one-fourth of a century, and although I never 

 could claim for myself the name of being a diffident or back- 

 ward man, it was always with much hesitation that I at- 

 tempted to open up a new question for discussion among my 

 fellow bee-keepers, and here comes in the question of theory 

 vs. practice. Pardon me for here charging that we have had 

 too much of the former, and quite too little of the latter. 



How well do I remember that in the early '70's, when our 

 " old favorite " had not attained the distinction of a " weekly 

 journal," and after I had bred the Italian bee for four or five 

 years, I wrote an article asserting that I could procure more 

 honey from the /irst ero.ss of the Italian with the German bee 

 (eicher the Italian drone with the German queen, or the Ger- 

 man drone with the Italian queen, preferring the latter) than I 

 could obtain from a pure colony of either variety. I said to 

 my wife that I would surely arouse the displeasure of queen- 

 breeders, and thus get my hands full of trouble. But how 

 glad was I to see in the next monthly, where my notes ap- 

 peared, a splendid article from one of our best honey-pro- 

 ducers, taking nearly the precise position I had ; and how 

 much more glad was I to see in the succeeding monthly, an 

 article from a prominent queen-breeder, candidly admitting 

 that his experience had led to the same conclusions. Then I 

 felt safe, and glad, because my observations had been care- 

 fully and honestly made. 



So, as regards the article of Mr. VandeVord, let me here 

 say that if I was asked what is your first requisite in the 

 breeding of the queen-bee, my reply would be : " Longevity 

 in her worker progeny." One point in relation to this will, I 

 presume, scarcely be controverted. Of all the points in the 

 breeding of bees this one is the most difficult to arrive at a 

 satisfactory conclusion upon, for the reason that it requires 

 the closest, longest, and most difficult observation. 



I had not long practiced the crossing of different varie- 

 ties of bees until I noticed the prominent fact observed by Mr. 

 v., viz.: "That the colony having a small space of brood, 

 regularly kept up, stored more honey than those crowded with 

 brood ;" but I was a long, long time in learning why such was 

 the case, but observing that the honey was still accumulating 

 rapidly, I did not conclude as did Mr. V., to remove the queen. 

 What lead to the discovery of the facts in the case was this: 

 How many of us who worked bees in supers and sections for 

 comb honey, have anxiously watched colonies thus prepared, 

 and which appeared to be extremely industrious, only to be 

 disappointed upon looking at our sections, only to find that 

 little progress had been made. Instead now of watching the 

 sections, I make my observations at the entrance of thclivve; 

 if indications there do not lead me further, I have no need to 

 examine the sections. 



A few reflections on the habits of bees at work, led to the 

 following conclusions : We all know that bees (some say 

 young bees), in almost all colonies, sport before their hives. 

 Years ago the question arose in my mind, " Is it 07ily young 

 bees which do this ?" and "Do they all only do it at this 

 time ?" Observe two colonies of equal strength within a few 

 feet of each other — while one appears full of excitement and 

 very industrious, the other works quietly and steadily along, 

 and without any excitement. But if you have an alighting- 

 board (as you should have), observe that in the steady-working 

 colony many of the bees are strewed away down the board so 

 heavily laden with honey that they could not reach the en- 

 trance. Go to the active colony and you find scarcely one- 

 third their force heavily honey-laden, and the rest merely 

 sporting before their hive. Query : Why should not some 

 varieties of bees be given more to sport than to work ? Again 

 Task: Do all bees only sport at a certain time, and only at 

 that time? Closest observation teaches me to say no ; most 

 emphatically no ! 



Although I feel I could enlarge with profit upon the im- 

 portant questions opened by Mr. VandeVord, I will only say 

 further to those who are willing to investigate it: In exam- 

 ining the amount of brood, be sure that numbers do not de- 

 crease, and do not dethrone a queen which may be the most 

 valuable in your apiary, without just and sufficient cause. 



I feel like saying that if we ever reach that apparently 

 much wished for object — " the prevention of swarming" — it 

 will be upon the line of investigation suggested by Mr. Vande- 

 Vord. 



In closing I may say that after an experience of 30 years 

 I have no reason to change my opinion in relation to the first 

 cross of the Italian and German bee, but all has been in con- 

 firmation of the assertion then made. I am in doubt, how- 

 ever, as to whether it would hold good in the first cross of 

 either of the yellow varieties, but have reason to assert that a 



first cross of the German with either of the yellow varieties 

 (the Syrian, Cyprian or Holy Land) will produce the same re- 

 sult. May I go still further and say that this gives just cause 

 for the assertion that in the production of the future "Apis 

 Americana," it will be necessary to have at least a touch of 

 German blood? Upon this point, as well as a comparison of 

 the dark or leather-colored Italian, with the golden and 5- 

 banded Italians, I hope to have a word to say in the early future. 



Beaver, Pa. 



Do Bees Reason, or Do They Not ? 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



This is a nut for some of the smart ones to crack. Years 

 ago, when I lived in Wisconsin, I had a swarm of bees leave 

 me and start east. The following March I went with my 

 team to cut up a large limb of a burr oak, and haul it home 

 for firewood. I found a few bees on the snow, and knowing 

 that they could not have dome from home, I looked around 

 for them. I saw what looked like a sheetof white comb, about 

 30 feet high, where the large limb split out of the tree. Now 

 here was my swarm of Italians. They had built their combs 

 from rear to front, and the hole that the limb made was in the 

 form of a V, about 10 inches deep, and 6 or 8 inches wide at 

 the top. To protect themselves from the west wind they had 

 built a sheet of drone-comb across the entrance, with cells on 

 the inside of the comb, but none on the outside, and the out- 

 side of this door or curtain was glazed over. This could not 

 have been built in winter. 



I built a substantial platform, or staging, sawed off the 

 top of the tree, and let it fall. Then I sawed off the log about 

 4 feet long that contained the bees, lowered it with ropes onto 

 the sled, and hauled it home, and of course transferred them 

 in the spring. Back of where this branch had split out, there 

 was quite a cavity for the hive. 



Again, in California I found a swarm or colony in a clump 

 of willows, within one mile of the ocean, nothing intervening 

 to break the force of the cool west wind directly from the 

 ocean. They had evidently been there three or more years. 

 The combs were attached to a limb about 1 J™ inches in diam- 

 eter; the first or center comb attached to the under side of 

 the limb, the next two were attached to the sides and built 

 out over the center comb with brace-combs on the under side 

 to keep them from settling on the center comb ; the next two 

 — one.on each side — were attached to the same limb, and built 

 out nearly horizontal, with brace-combs underneath, until 

 they were out far enough to extend them perpendicularly. 

 Now here were five combs, the center one about 12 inches 

 wide and IS inches deep, the next two a little narrower and 

 shorter, and the outside ones still smaller. Then there were 

 two drone-combs attached to the limb at each edge of those 

 combs, built concave next to the combs, and convex on the 

 outside, and thoroughly attached to the edges of the other 

 combs with braces. 



Now, the wind would teeter the mass of combs, both up 

 and down, and sidewise, but they were braced so that all 

 moved together. The outside drone-combs had no cells on 

 the outside, and neither did the side or worker-combs have 

 any cells at the top, and all was thoroughly glazed with pro- 

 polis on the outside except the two worker side-combs where 

 they had cells on the outside. 



You can readily see that those bees had solved the win- 

 tering problem for themselves, and were thoroughly protected 

 from rain and wind. All those combs were built extra strong 

 at the top. Of course, if we had some of our extra-hot East- 

 ern weather they would have been apt to have melted, as they 

 were right in the sun except for about three hours in the mid- 

 dle of the day. When the leaves were off they had the full 

 benefit of the warm sun in winter. 



Those two cases, to me, look awfully like " reasoning." I 

 could cite similar cases, but the above will answer to begin 

 with. Santa Ana, Calif. 



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jB 



