736 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



so." "Why do our journals overflow with enthusiasm, 

 and " gush," and tables showing the enormous profits 

 that have been obtained from a few colonies? Other 

 industrial and scientific journals do not indulge in 

 this sort of thing; why should the bee-journala? Do 

 medical journals abound with tables showing that 

 Mr. M. D. commenced with one patient, increased to 

 fifty, and obtained $1000.00 in fees? Far from it. 

 The articles are written with a view to benefit those 

 already In the profession ; to help them to conquer 

 disease. Perhaps I have done my share of "gush- 

 ing," but T thoughtlessly took my cue from the 

 others, and now that T have an opportunity of writ- 

 ing the "other side" of bee-keeping, I think I ought 

 to do so. 



BLACKS, ITALIANS, AND SYRIANS. 



On page 5S3. W. H. Proctor says that I " leave it to 

 be inferred, that in a good season they (the Italians) 

 will not gather the most honev." Yes, that Is it; 

 Mr. P. expresses it exactly. When the honey is very 

 plentiful, as during the height of white clover, bass- 

 wood, or buckwhpat bloom the blacks hold their 

 own; but, when the tlow slacks, or when there is a 

 scarcitv of honey from ani/cause, then the Italians, 

 by their energy and greater length of proboscis, show 

 their superiority. In the April and May numbers of 

 Gleanings for 1881 is an article upon the compara- 

 tive merits of the Italians and blacks, that expresses 

 my views much better than T can possibly do. It 

 was written by Rev. L. L. Langstroth, and is the 

 most exhaustive paper upon the subject that I have 

 ever seen. Those who haven't the numbers should 

 send and get them. Each variety has its faults and 

 its excellencies, and the Italians are decidedly 

 ahead: and for the production of extracted honey 

 are as good as any bees with which I am acquainted. 

 I also have a decided preference for the dark leath- 

 er-colored strains; but, as remarked in a previous 

 article, the German race has excellencies that no 

 producer of comb honey can successfully ignore; 

 and that a combination of the good qualities of both 

 races i* better than either race alone. 



Judtringfrom mvown experipnce with the Syrians, 

 which has been short, sharp, and stinging, from read- 

 ing the experience of others, and from attending 

 conventions, I should enumerate their faults as fol- 

 lows: Proliflcness, irrltableness, and not thorough- 

 ly ripening and sealing their honey. Their good 

 qualities are: The ease with which they may be 

 shaken from the combs, and their propensity for 

 building large numbers of queen-cells. I am not 

 certain that this last quality is a desirable one, ex- 

 cept for the queen-breeder; but to have bees shake 

 easily from the combs is desirable. With these two 

 exceptions, the Syrians have no good qualities not 

 possessed by the Italians, while they have the above- 

 mentioned undesirable traits not possessed by the 

 Italians. The charge ae-ainst them, that they do not 

 properly ripen and seal their honey, is, I well know, 

 not universal; but it has been made, and siihstantiat- 

 ed, by some of our most extensive honey-producers. 

 Perhaps some will be surprised that I class proliflc- 

 ness as a fault. Proliflcness, to a certain extent, 

 and at proper seasons, is not a fault; but when car- 

 ried on atahigh pressure, the whole season through, 

 it is a fault. With the majority of us, our main sur- 

 plus is gathered in six weeks; and hives full of bees 

 during these six weeks are all ria-ht (but we don't 

 want them to be everlastingly filling up with bees. 

 and swarming all the time, even during this period 

 of six weeijs) ; but to keep on rearing lots of bees 



after the honey-harvest is over is a useless expendi- 

 ture of honey. This extra proliflcness well suits the 

 man who rears bees for sale by the pound, but not 

 the man who raises honey. A. R. Kohnke. on page 

 560 of A. B. J., current volume, says: " The proliflc- 

 ness of queen, and the industry of colonv, do not 

 necessarily go together. I have an Italian colony, 

 the queen of which is very prolific, having kept the 

 hive and 48 sections full of bees ever since June 10. 

 The proceeds from that colony at the end of the sea- 

 son were 9 lbs. of comb honey and of extracted, about 

 as much from unfinished sections; and on examina- 

 tion before putting them up for winter, I did not find 

 more than 9 lbs. of honey in the brood-chamber. 

 The bees looked like what Mr. Heddon calls the 

 'Golden Italians.' The Germans have done better 

 for me (for comb honey)." The above illustrates 

 the point. It is quality, not quantity, of bees that 

 we need. It is linney that we are after, not hives full 

 of bees whose only object is to gather honey that they 

 may rear more bees. Of course, bees that are con- 

 stantly breeding, that will rear brood "so long as 

 there is a drop of honey in the hive," will go into 

 winter with hives full of young bees; but this is no 

 advantage, for the reason that young bees are more 

 liable to suffer from dysentery; and the reason of 

 this is, that the young bees are the nuree-bees, and 

 it is the nurse-bees that do the most handling of pol- 

 len. If this theory is not true, it is true that Syrians 

 die winters just the same as other bees. I am aware 

 that, by stepping softly, raising the covering slowly, 

 waiting until the bees have "rubbed their eyes" aft- 

 er the " great flood of light has been admitted to 

 the brood-nest," handling the combs without a jar, 

 etc., the Syrians can be handled; but, what practical 

 honey-producer has time for all these preliminaries? 

 Time is money with him. 



At the great Northwestern Convention, a gather- 

 ing that Mr. Langstroth said " represented the lar- 

 gest number of large, successful, practical honey- 

 producers of any convention that he had ever at- 

 tended," there was only one man who had gentle 

 Syrians, and he said that tlicy resembled Italians. 

 W. z. Hutchinson. 



Rngersville, Genesee Co., Mich., Nov., 1883. 



Friend H. , even at the risk of being accused 

 of having selfish motives in the matter, I 

 want to take yon to task a little about what 

 you say on the other side of bee culture. To 

 be sure, there is another side; to be sure, 

 bee-men have to put up with bad seasons 

 and poor results ; but I do not think the 

 number who fail is very great compared 

 with other industries. It "is true, there are 

 people going into bee culture every year 

 who really seem to have no right to go "into 

 it, because failure is almost certain. There 

 are those who get into the grocery business 

 in some way, and fail. I know the grocery 

 business is not written up in glowing terms, 

 as bee culture often is ; but I think you get 

 away off from the track when you compare 

 medical journals with bee-joiirnals. Bee 

 culture is a rural industry, like keeping 

 hens, raising berries, going into sorghum, 

 and things of that kind. Do not our agri- 

 cultural journals give constantly reports of 

 what was done with so many hens, a quarter 

 of an acre of strawberries, or a little patch 

 of sorghum ? and is it not right and proper 

 that they should keep doing so V Bee culture 

 has an advantage over these ; it arouses and 



