1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTURE. 



337 



The popularity of Scottish heather honey 

 is very great, yet there are people who dis- 

 like it, and more, among whom I myself 

 take rank, who like it at first, but soon tire 

 of the flavor. To enable you to judge for 

 yourself, or to renew your acquaintance 

 with it, I have the pleasure to send you a 

 sample section of the real thing from over 

 the border. If your bee-keepers can match 

 it from any source, they may succeed in ob- 

 taining something like the high price joxi 

 seem inclined to expect ; otherwise I "feel 

 sure that the expectation of finding so good 

 a market, even in the prevailing absence of 

 tariff obstacles, will meet with disappoint- 

 ment. 



The section of honey was posted this day, 

 Jan. 19 — parcel post — in a tin box, and I 

 hope it will travel safely and not granulate, 

 although it may do so, as the season is ad- 

 vanced. I do not send it to you as a pat- 

 tern section. It was the last I had of some 

 that a friend had sent me — a good bee-keep- 

 er. The quality of the others was very 

 good, and this should be the same. 



Leeford, Budleigh Salterton, England. 



[Perhaps the impression that we convey- 

 ed in regard to the price of heather honey 

 was a little high; but we based our informa- 

 tion on a controversy that appeared from 

 time to time on this subject in the British 

 Bee Joiirnal, in which it was shown that the 

 best lots of heather honey were selling all 

 the way from 1 shilling 6 pence (36 cents) 

 to 2 shillings (48 cents). 



The sample of honey came duly to hand 

 and in remarkably good order. This may be 

 accounted for by the fact that the honey it- 

 self is very thick and the comb well filled. 

 Before sampling it we had a photo taken, 

 and the same will be reproduced at another 

 time. It appears to be put up a good deal 

 like much of the so-called British honey- 

 that is, in cartons. If glassed in this shape, 

 of course it will bring more money. On hold- 

 ing the section up to the light it seems to be 

 of a light purple color. The flavor, while a 

 little peculiar, is very pleasant. It is like 

 some other honeys, which, when their flavors 

 are well known, no other honey will be taken. 

 —Ed.] 



«t»» 



CAUCASIAN BEES. 



Bad Propolizers: Very Irritable when 



Crossed with Italians : a Laughable 



Case in Point. 



BY J. G. BAUMGAEKTNER. 



Seeing your account of Mr. Frank Rauch- 

 fuss' experience with Caucasians, in Glean- 

 ings for Dec. 15, I am prompted to say some- 

 thing about these bees again. I sang their 

 praise in one of the issues of Gleanings in 

 1906, after having had one colony of them 

 during the summer of 1905, headed by a 

 queen from the United States Department. 

 I handled a number of Caucasian qtueens the 

 past season, reared from imported mothers 



by a Southern breeder, selling some and 

 keeping the rest for my own use. Several 

 of these queens produced bees quite as gentle 

 as those from the queen mentioned above; 

 but there were a few which, I think, had 

 mated with Italian drones, as the majority 

 of their bees had three yellow bands, which 

 were worse stingers than any hybrids I ever 

 came in contact with. The fact is, several 

 times they came very near driving me out of 

 the yai*d, to the amusement of a deaf-and- 

 dumb man standing at a safe distance enjoy- 

 ing the sport. It was this way: I took it for 

 granted that Caucasians don't sting; and up 

 to that time they had never stung me; but 

 one day, while working over a colony of 

 them I pinched a bee, and it gave that pecul- 

 iar sound bees always give when in agony, 

 and that seemed to have been the signal tor 

 a general onslaught upon the intruder. 

 There I learned that Caucasians were not 

 stingless — at least not the first cross of Cau- 

 casians and Italians, which I think these 

 were. They crawled all over me, got under 

 my veil, crawled under my vest and up my 

 back, and even up my shirt-sleeves. Well, 

 we "had it out" together a few minutes, 

 when I pulled my veil-string tighter, resum- 

 ed my former dignity, started up my smok- 

 er, and proceeded to impress upon their lit- 

 tle minds that I still considered myself mas- 

 ter of the situation, and demanded submis- 

 sion. But, not they. I smoked and they — 

 peppered. It was something like a little Rus- 

 sian-Japanese war, judging from the gesticu- 

 lations of the deaf-and-dumb man when he re- 

 lated the incident to his father. The same 

 welcome I repeatedly received from them, 

 and there were three more colonies nearly 

 as bad. I noticed that the cry from a maim- 

 ed bee infuriated them instantly. It was so 

 noticeable that I once remarked to Mrs. 

 Baumgaertner that, if the size of ears were 

 determined by the manifested degree of the 

 development of the sense of heai'ing in bees, 

 I should be inclined to brand those Cauca- 

 sians the mules in beedom. 



From these experiences I conclude that the 

 introduction of Caucasian blood will not al- 

 ways tend to quiet the temper of other races 

 of bees, as some suppose, and my experience 

 is substantiated by that of others. For in- 

 stance, Mr. J. J. Wilder states in the A7neri- 

 can Bee Journal, "Their cross with the Ital- 

 ians is spiteful; but with the blacks their 

 temper remains about the same." 



I find them good Avorkers. but better pro- 

 polizers. In the fall they are equal to the 

 task of closing an entrance one inch deep by 

 the width of the hive. That, by the way, 

 seems to be their favorite place for deposit- 

 ing their glue. They also like to build 

 bridges from the bottom-board to the bottom- 

 bars of the frame, even if that space be a 

 full inch, as with some of my hives. 



New Memphis, 111. 



[That is right, friend B. Let us have the 

 truth come out about the Caucasians. As the 

 country has been pretty well Italianized it 

 will necessarily follow that Caucasians in- 



