310 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



extensive fields of buckwheat, a j'ard of pure 

 blacks. F. Boomhower. 



Gallupvillc, Scho. Co., N. Y., April, 1883. 



We have had the same state of affairs in 

 our own ai)iary ; namely, Italians storing 

 white honey from red clover, and filling sec- 

 tions, while hybrids brought in nothing but 

 dark honey from buckwheat. In fact, I 

 have noticed this so many times, as well as 

 your remarks about more propolis from 

 blacks or hybrids, that I iiave decided this 

 one point alone to be a sufficient reason for 

 keeping the Italians instead of the common 

 bees. I have no doubt but this non-swarm- 

 ing trait you mention might be developed 

 without much trouble, by careful selection. 



-»■ 



PLENTY OF ROO.n. 



THK SYRIO-ITALIAN— THE KE\T RACE OF BEES. 



W^r^ERE I come, with a lot of bee talk. If you re" 

 J»|t| member, Chas. Dadant used to tell us that, 



to be successful in the management of bees 



for extracted honey, we must give them room, 

 plenty of room. Now, I think Mr. Dadant exactly 

 right about that. The time was when I used to 

 try to get the brood-chamber as full of bees as I 

 possibly could before I put on the second storj', con- 

 taining store combs (and probably I had my bees 

 just ready to swarm then); but it was advised by 

 older heads, and of course it had to bo done, and I 

 used to manage my bees in a small brood-chamber 

 (such a one as one of our Syrio-Italians would fill in 

 the morning before breakfast). Now, in this climate, 

 in the spring, when the queen has really got herself 

 down to work, depositing eggs, and the hive is ?i 

 full of bees and brood, I put store combs on; and 1 

 find that, if honey is coming in, by the time the 

 brood-chamber is full of brood the bees have the 

 store combs cleaned up, and have commenced stor- 

 ing. I let them fill 3 or 4 combs; then on goes an- 

 other set of combs on top of the first; don't say I 

 have made a mistake, and that the first set should 

 have been raised up, and empty ones put under 

 them; not much; I have tried the plan of raising 

 the partly filled story, and putting empty combs un- 

 der, but I invariably find that the bees use this 

 middle room as a sort of loaflng-place, a kind of 

 " corner grocery " where they can talk over the sub- 

 ject of swarming, while those bringing in honey 

 march right througn this second set of combs, and 

 store their honey in the top box, every time. 



Now, is it not nature for them to do it? James 

 Heddou once said, " Bees hive much easier upward 

 than they do downward;" and about that, Mr. H. is 

 right. I put my second set of store-combs on top of 

 those partly filled, the heat of the hive rises to the 

 top, warms these combs, making them soft and 

 pliable; the bees go to work on them, and there is 

 no stop or hitch in their work. I have had bees 

 swarm, lots of times, when there was not one pound 

 of honey in the lower set of combs, while the upper 

 ones would be full. But I do not have much trouble 

 in swarming, if 1 put the empty combs on top, if I 

 put them on in time. Sometimes I neglect it, and 

 then they swarm. I tier up sometimes as high as 

 the third set of combs above the brood-chamber, 

 and the Syrio-ltalians find no trouble in getting to 

 the top. This is the 20th day of April, and I have, 

 standing right before me, Syrio-ltalians working in 



the 3d set of combs above the brood; but only one is 

 doing this. The watchword of the Syrio-Italian is 

 "onward and iipward." This is my 3d year's ex- 

 perience with this strain of bees, and (for this cli- 

 mate) I consider them as much superior to the pure 

 Italians as the pure Italians are superior to the 

 blacks. (I have no queens to sell.) 



It is very easy to see why bees swarm when in a 

 normal condition. I think that, in 19 cases out of 

 every 20, it is because they have not plenty of room. 

 It is my opinion, that the queen has "nothing to say " 

 about this swarming business; if the hive is too small 

 to accommodate the bees, they must hunt new quar- 

 ters; and as all know that, when they once get the 

 swarming fever, 'tis hard to get that notion out of 

 their heads, I say give them room, and before they 

 are crowded, and give it to them in a shape that 

 thay will use it. Again, it is my opinion that this 

 tiering-up system is the correct way to manage bees 

 while running for extracted honey; for 'tis easy to 

 see that, in 3 or i boxes, we have more bees than in 

 one or two boxes; and the more bees we can keep 

 together in one body, the more honey we shall get. 

 And the great advantage of having the honey fully 

 ripened in the hive fully pays for the extra amount 

 of labor spent in uncapping the full comb. 



A. W. OSBURN. 



El Monte, California, April 20, 1883. 



Friend O., I am right with you in your 

 plan of tiering up hives of empty combs. I 

 have tried it, and I know it is good for ex- 

 ti'acted honey, or honey in frames, and I 

 don't know but it will work well also for 

 honey in section boxes. I am inclined to 

 think that your new race of bees, a cross be- 

 tween the Syrians or Cyprians, and Italians, 

 are going to be grand bees for collecting 

 large quantities of honey, especially if you 

 give them room. 



THE HONEY-BEE. 



ITS FOOD, GROWTH, AND HABITS. 



fHE first 21 days from the time the egg is laid is 

 spent in the cell, at the end of which a perfect 

 — ' worker bee emerges. While in the cell the 

 food is bee-pap, a substance prepared by the worker 

 bee, and placed around the larvaj. It is composed of 

 honey, partly digested, and the saliva of the worker. 

 The larvfE subsist entirely by osmosis; it can not 

 eat, and food of a grosser nature would not nourish 

 it. With reference to its food, this is its first stage — 

 the stage of growth. 



Immediately upon leaving the cell, the worker 

 wanders over the comb in search of food. Its appe- 

 tite has now been acquired. It passes over cells of 

 uncapped larvje containing bee-pap, leaving it un- 

 touched. It has never had a taste for this; and over 

 cells of pollen, a taste for which it has not yet ac- 

 quired. It now subsists exclusively upon honey. 

 Here again the Ubiquitous Life Power, the living 

 principle of the bee, that enabled it to recognize the 

 afiinity existing between itself and the young larvas, 

 and forces it to prepare suitable food for its devel- 

 opment, enlightens the worker in reference to the 

 necessary food of the infant worker, and impels it 

 to encircle the brood-nest with uncapped honey; 

 pollen, too, is furnished for its convenience; but 

 honey is given the preference. The bee has now 

 reached the age of usefulness, and the Life Principle 



