i'HE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



197 



I should prefer crossing 2 strains of 

 unrelated Italians.— G.M. Doolittle. | 



I do not believe the Carniolan bee 

 is equal to the German for such cross- 

 .ing.— James Heddon. 



A cross between the Carniolan and 

 black bees might be, but the cross 

 named would in my estimation be 

 highly undesirable.— G. L. Tinker. 



I think so; it remains to be seen. I 

 have a cross between Syrians and 

 Carniolans, and I like it ; though I 

 shall know more about them with 

 longer experience. I am not yet pre- 

 pared to speak of these.— A. J. Cook. 



Who knows V As yet the Carniolan 

 bee has not been here long enough to 

 be given a thorough test, and of 

 course crosses with it stand the same. 

 I myself do not believe that any 

 crossing with the Italian will be any 

 improvement upon that race, or pro- 

 duce as profltable a bee for any pur- 

 pose.- J. E. Pond. 



We much prefer pure Italians. — The 

 Editor. 



(^ovvtsj^onHznct. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Haryesting tlie Honey. 



LOUISE S. HARRIS. 



The lontr, bright sammer-days were o'er. 



The bees poetic hum 

 Was husben, till near meridian height, 



Plodded the morning sun. 



Sweet summer— one poetic dream 



I t nectar and of fluw'rs ; 

 Of hazy halo o'er the lawn, 



And sylvan woodland bow'rs ; 



Arcadian haunts, that poet's lore— 



The myptic. the sublime, 

 BrouKht down to earth to rear aloft 



An apiarian shrine. 



But now the woods like huge bouquet 



Of crimson, rus»et gold, 

 Tinseled by skill that's Infinite. 



The death of summer told. 



The nipping frosts their work had done, 



The flowers along the waste 

 No longer flirted with the bee. 



That sought their sweets to taste. 



All Nature spoke of boding storms, 

 With black-flag soon unfurled ; 



To waken from poetic dreams. 

 And face a stern, cold world ! 



And so I donned by hat and veil, 



And pupils, (I bad tbrtfe) 

 Who saw beyond them golden sheaves 



Garnered by fancy free ; 



We marched along, a phalanx strong. 



For foraged sweets so free — 

 ^'G"od beavens !" una blue-eyes hied away, 



" Jt stung me on the knee!" 



"Ah! ah ! oh ! oh !" her comrade sighed. 



"My! honey ought t> sell 

 Five times as high "—but off' she flew— 



" A bee's got in my veil !" 



But Sam was left, a freckled youth 



With yellow, sun-burnt hair, 

 Who " wa'nt at all afeard of bees 1" 



And vowed he'd " stay right there !" 



And 80 we toiled for weary hours. 



J* nd piled the crates on high. 

 While myriad »tin»:B and aching backs 



Caused many a stifled sigh. 



The poetry our souls bad filled. 



Oozed out Ht every pore— 

 The melody of humming bee 



Was now vindictive war. 



Sam moved hla veil to "squirt the juice." 

 CTwas trickling down his chin.) 



" By jingo !" and he stumped and yelled— 

 "The bees are rushing In !" 



And still they rame with fresh reomlt, 



lill overorue with pain. 

 He beat a moi-t uncouth retreat. 

 And ne'er returned again. 



And so I harvested alone 



My golden treasures tail- 

 But now a slen Is up—** For Sale- 

 Bees. Poetry and All.*' 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State named ; 

 5 northof the center; 9 south; 0+ east; 

 ♦O west; and this 6 northeast; "o northwest: 

 o» southeast; and ? southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For tne Amencan Bee Joomal. 



Preyention of Swarming— Tliat CMp. 



S. SIMMINS. 



My thanks are due to W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson for his kindly notice of my 

 pamphlet in the valuable American 

 Bee Journal. Now I notice that 

 he intends to give us some collective 

 evidence in regard to wax production. 

 Whatever he brings forward in his 

 interesting style will be eagerly read 

 by all : but I am afraid there is much 

 yet to be done before anything deh- 

 nite can be arrived at. The resources 

 and temperature of one's locality, the 

 best bee for the purpose, will all have 

 an important bearing upon the settle- 

 ment of this question for individual 

 bee-keepers. 



My own position at this time is that 

 foundation is used in many cases at a 

 loss — not in all ; and every intelligent 

 bee-keeper will soon find out which 

 way he is going, when his attention 

 is once directed to this matter. 



I presume Dr. Miller works his 

 apiary for comb honey, or he could 

 not have much difficulty in prevent- 

 ing the issuing of swarms if working 

 for extracted honey. Now I wish the 

 Doctor could be here during the sum- 

 mer, and I would show him those 

 powerful colonies working right along 

 all the time without attempting to 

 swarm, having no attention whatever 

 except a proper manipulation of the 

 supers. In fact, the bee-keeper's 

 skill is shown, not by constantly cut- 

 ting out the combs between the brood- 

 nest and entrance, but by so regulat- 

 ing the surplus arrangements that the 

 bees are so busy in tne sections as to 

 be quite unable to hnish off the combs 

 next to the entrance. This is fully 

 explained on page 10 of my non- 

 swarming pamphlet. 



The foregoing refers to hives placed 

 one above the other, called by us 

 "storifying;" but here we have many 

 long hives in use, and the frames with 

 starters being ou the same level and 



Parallel with the brood-combs, it will 

 e found necessary to cut out the new 

 combs occasionally as they are built 

 out more rapidly in that position ; but 

 with 10 frame hives tiered up, and the 

 lower body having only starters in 

 every frame, as before stated the 

 strongest colonies do not swarm, or 

 fill out the brood-chamber. 



I do not claim to prevent swarming 

 with any but colonies in normal con- 

 dition. In case of superseding a 

 queen, of course there is the linbility 

 of several young ones hatching out 

 and a swarm going off. Then, again, 

 there are those miniature swarms 



from queen-rearing nuclei complained 

 of in some quarters, though that is a 

 thing almost unknown to myself. 



Perhaps I need hardly say that if 

 wax is to be produced at a profit, it 

 will be done while working for ex- 

 tracted — will it become again 

 " strained " honey V At present prices 

 it will be a question whether " less 

 labor and more wax in connection 

 with a smaller average of honey with 

 many more colonies," will pay better 

 than " more labor with fewer colonies, 

 a higher average, less wax, and a 

 large stock of combs needing careful 

 attention all the time they are not 

 occupied." I venture to state that 

 " Time " will decide in favor of the 

 former where many colonies are kept. 

 By placing several empty chambers 

 under the brood-chamber before the 

 swarming season arrives, with the 

 entrance only in the bottom box, the 

 owner of many hundred colonies may 

 find something else to do during what 

 has hitherto been considered the 

 busiest and most expensive time in 

 the extracting apiary. There is no 

 crowding ; the brood-nest is regulated 

 according to the incoming stores, as 

 the combs are carried forward in pro- 

 portion, and thus there is no undue 

 waste in feeding an excess of brood, 

 as often is the case where the queen 

 has an unlimited number of empty 

 cells at hand. 



Though hitherto it does not appear 

 to have been observed, the latter 

 statement shows wherein lies the suc- 

 cess of the plan of hiving new swarms 

 upon starters only. It is the non- 

 production of many more consumers 

 just at the height of the " flow" which 

 gives the advantage. 



Now, though I have told the Doc- 

 tor that swarming has been prevented, 

 while rousing colonies working in sec- 

 tions can be carried right along, I will 

 not touch that " chip," but leave it 

 for Mr. Hutchinson to strike off next 

 season, though if Dr. Miller will do as 

 I have shown, Mr. H. will not find it 

 there, as the other will himself re- 

 move it. 



One thing more and I have done : 

 Many bee-keepers think they have no 

 need to prevent swarming ; but rather 

 than submit to the least uncertainty 

 when working fqj- comb honey in 

 particular, will it not prove a very 

 much wiser plan to prevent natural 

 swarming, and make increase by 

 division at the most suitable time V 



Rottingdean, England. 



ror tne Ainerlcan Bee JoamaL 



Fertilization of Qneens. etc. 



Vf. T. HOttENSHELL. 



For some time I have been giving 

 considerable thought to the subject of 

 fertilizing queens in confinement; and 

 during the season of 1886 I was de- 

 termined to try my plan, which was 

 to build a tent out of bleached mus- 

 lin about 10 feet square, and have the 

 walls spotless white, which was easily 

 done by shading so the sun would not 

 shine on the tent at all, but have 

 plenty of light. 



