768 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Junk 1 



were hatched out during September and Oc- 

 tober, and plenty of honey to last until fruit- 

 bloom. As this "is the exact condition of our 

 bees at this time we will not loosen a single 

 cover or remove the winter packing until it 

 is time to clip our queens. Spring tinkering 

 of bees more often results in harm to the col- 

 ony than otherwise; however, we would not 

 hesitate to feed a colony of bees at any time 

 if they were short of stores. 



If we wish to note the condition of a colo- 

 ny in early spring we always tip the hive up 

 on end and look up into the combs. This 

 tells us all that we wish to know at this time. 



Breaking the sealing of the cover in early 

 spring allows a great deal of heat to escape 

 from the cluster at a time when it is needed 

 to keep the brood warm. 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



black. The suggestion is made that our com- 

 mon bees of Europe must be descended from 

 those of Northern Africa; and Mr. Morrison, 

 the author of the article, says that the fact 

 that these two races of yellow bees of Africa 

 are separated by three thousand miles of 

 black bees is a conundrum worth studying. 



Mr. Bernard suggests that the yellow bees 

 of Egypt could easily spread westward south 

 of the desert until they reached the western 

 shores of Africa. But the desert was an in- 

 superable barrier to their spreading in a 

 northerly direction to the northern limits of 

 Africa. On the other hand, the bees of Al- 

 geria could reach Europe through the Strait 

 of Gibraltar. 



The same may be said concerning the bees 

 of Italy. A glance at a physical map of Eu- 

 rope will show that Italy is separated from 



FIG. 6. 



-MK. hand's apiary UF SECTIONAL HIVES IN AN Al'l'LE-OKCllAKO; THIS PLAN 

 ALLOWS A THREE-FOOT ALLEY BETWEEN THE BACKS OF THE HIVES. 



BEES OF NORTHERN AFRICA. 



Why there are Two Yellow Races So 



Widely Separated ; International 



Exchange of Ideas. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



I am in receipt of a letter from the treas- 

 urer of the Association of Algerian Bee-keep- 

 ers, Mr. Bernard, of Kouba, Algeria, who calls 

 my attention to a short article in Gleanings 

 for February 15, p. 240, concerning the bees 

 of Northern Africa. In this article mention 

 is made of the fact that the bees of Egypt 

 and of Senegal are yellow, while those of 

 Tunisia, Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco are 



the rest of Europe by the highest and most 

 uninterrupted chain of mountains on the 

 continent, almost uniformly snow-capped. 

 So in Africa, the heat and drouth of the des- 

 ert, and, in Europe, the cold and snows, have 

 acted as limits to confine the races which 

 have slowly drifted apart, in appearance as 

 well as in other qualities. 



I desire to take advantage of this oppor- 

 tunity to congratulate the bee-keepers gen- 

 erally upon the increase of international ex- 

 changes in bee literature. It is only a few 

 years since the apiarists of one country were 

 almost totally ignorant of what was done in 

 other countries in the same line. Mr. Sam- 

 uel Wagner and Mr. Langstroth were the 



