XHE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



517 



Orcrrres:p0Wilewce. 



This mark O indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center or the state named ; 

 i north of the center: 9 south; O* east: 

 ♦Owest: and this (< northeast : ~o northwest; 

 ©•southeast; and 9 southwest of the center 

 Of the State mentioned. 



For tlie American Bee Joornat. 



Hot f eatlier— Introdncing Qneens. 



G. JI. DOOLITTLB. 



Hot, hot, hot, has been the order of 

 the day for the past six weeks, and 

 although the prespiration flowed 

 freely from every pore, and the sun 

 beat "down fiercely on me all day, I 

 rather enjoyed these days of toil in 

 the apiary until about a week ago 

 when the flow of nectar stopped so 

 effectually that not a drop could be 

 obtained.- For a day or two the bees 

 behaved very well, but hot weather 

 with nothing to do soon let the evil 

 disposition loose in them, and they 

 seemed all of one accord to start out 

 on a marauding expedition. 



The first thing that greeted my ears 

 in the morning, at early dawn, was 

 the shrill notes of bees prying about 

 in every nook and corner on the 

 premises, and the same was the con- 

 soling and all absorbing music at 

 twilight. Never before did I see such 

 persistent exertions made by bees to 



Elunder the stores of each other as I 

 ave the past week. This, with all of 

 my other duties, kept me on a jump 

 from " early morn till dewy eve," and 

 to save my nuclei from being plund- 

 dered was the all-absorbing thought 

 of the hour. I must save these, for I 

 needed from 30 to 35 queens a day for 

 shipping, and the getting of these out 

 of the hives only whetted the appe- 

 tites of the robbers. 



At last something practical sug- 

 gested itself. It Was this : Place 

 the combs at one side of the hive, 

 and have the entrance at the other. 

 No sooner thought than at it I went, 

 doing it at the time each queen was 

 caught, all being done under a bee- 

 tent, for nothing could be done with- 

 out the tent. This made the robber 

 bees look shy, for if any succeeded in 

 passing by the outside guards, it was 

 met on its travels through empty 

 space, by sentinels so numerous that 

 it was glad to take refuge in flight. 

 In this way my nuclei have been pre- 

 served, except a few weak ones— too 

 weak for any time except in a good 

 honey flow. 



The next thing to be done was to 

 finish taking off comb honey — yes, we 

 have a little of that precious stuff 

 here, about one-third of a crop— and 

 as the tent cramped us so for room, I 

 tried one or two hives without it. An 

 awful state of affairs is no name for 

 what this created ! In taking the 

 section cases from the hive a little 

 honey was exposed where brace-combs 

 had been built, and the robbers were 

 after it almost in a cloud. Then a 



struggle ensued, the result of which 

 was many stiff, but not cold, corpses 

 covered the ground. It is hardly 

 necessary to s;iy that the writer es- 

 caped with ills life. 



I now took to the tent, and after a 

 little I made it go very well. The 

 mode of operation was as follows : 

 The folding tent was placed over a 

 hive having sections to come off, when 

 the cover was taken off and placed on 

 the ground in one corner of the tent. 

 Upon the cover was placed a sheet, 

 such as all bee-keepers should have in 

 the apiary. A deluge of smoke was 

 now poured down between each row 

 of sections, when I waited a moment 

 for the bees to run below, but not long 

 enough for any to return, at which 

 time they were taken off, and by the 

 shaking made, most of the few re- 

 maining bees shook out, when the 

 surplus arrangement was placed on 

 the sheet, and the same wrapped 

 snugly about it. An enameled cloth 

 quilt was now placed over the frames, 

 and the cover put on. I now removed 

 the tent, placed the wrapped up sec- 

 tions on a wheelbarrow which stood 

 waiting, when 1 was ready to proceed 

 to the next hive. The robber bees 

 howled about the tent as long as the 

 hive was opened, but upon closing it 

 and wrapping up the sections, they 

 dispersed. In this way I work right 

 along, accomplishing what is neces- 

 sary to be done. 



One other item : During one of 

 these busy days, a queen-breeder 

 wished to exchange queens with me, 

 so without a word of notice he sent 

 on his best queen saying, that he 

 " hoped it would not inconvenience 

 me." Well, it did not, although five 

 years ago I should not have known 

 exactly what to have done with a 

 queen coming thus unexpected. But 

 now I went to a hive which was tiered 

 up for extracted honey, having the 

 front side covered with bees, and 

 having my nucleus box in my hand. 

 After getting things arranged a little, 

 the tent was let down over us (bees, 

 hive, things, and myself, I mean by 

 us, for I have not had an hour's work 

 outside of my own, in the apiary this 

 season), the hive opened, and I soon 

 had the frames out of the upper story 

 standing around the hive with the 

 bees filling themselves with honey. 

 As there was a queen-excluding 

 honey-board above the lower story, 

 there was no danger of getting the 

 queen. Oh, how the robber bees did 

 howl about the tent, and as I waited 

 a moment or two for the bees to load 

 up, I enjoyed a good laugh at the ex- 

 pense of those would-be but baffled 

 thieves. 



The bees were now shaken from the 

 frames into the box, the frames put 

 back into the hive, and all nicely 

 closed. The buzzing of the bees in 

 the box kept the robbers about the 

 tent this time, so when I lifted the 

 tent a cloud of them took to the wire- 

 cloth covering of the box. At the 

 bee-cellar door 1 dispersed them with 

 smoke, and quickly drew into the 

 cellar. This was at 10 a.m. At 3 p.m. 

 the queen was dropped in with the 

 caged bees, and at 4:30 a.m., the next 

 day, they were hived on two frames 



of hatching brood and two of honey. 

 In 24 hours this choice queen was 

 laying nicely, and is the mother of 

 what will be a good colony of bees in 

 the fall. 



I saw, a day or two ago, from the 

 pen of one of our most noted writers 

 on bee-culture, that " no infallible 

 way to introduce a queen had been 

 found." If he will try the above plan, 

 it is my opinion that he will never be 

 heard saying so again. 



Borodino,© N.i. 



ApiculturiBt. 



Race and Variety in Bees. 



TROF. A. J. COOK. 



As is commonly observed, all ani- 

 mals tend to vary. How seldom we 

 see two individuals of our most dis- 

 tinctive breeds or races of cattle, like 

 the noted Angus, the Devon, or the 

 Herefords, that are precisely alike. 

 These variations, which are always 

 more or less transient, are not sure to 

 be reproduced. "We call them mere 

 varieties. 



Now let us suppose that some ex- 

 pert breeder who has an ideal animal 

 in mind selects from these varieties 

 of only such animals as point towards 

 his ideal. He will, after a series of 

 years, produce animals which possess 

 marked characteristics, which have 

 been retained so long that they are 

 quite permanent. The longer they 

 have been held by careful selection, 

 the more permanent they are, and the 

 more certain they are to be repro- 

 duced in the progeny of their posses- 

 sors. Such animals form a race, or 

 breed. Such animals will vary, and 

 so we shall have varieties within the 

 race. The more fixed the race, the 

 less frequent and the less startling 

 will be these variations. Every 

 breeder of cattle and horses, etc., 

 knows and acts upon the fact, that to 

 maintain the excellence and most 

 desirable characteristics of any of 

 our breeds, care, selection and a keen 

 insight and observation are all-re- 

 quisite. These very variations make 

 great improvements ever possible ; 

 they also point to degeneration, un- 

 less caution and intelligence push it 

 aside. 



Our Italian bees are surely a race, 

 though made so by the careful selec- 

 tion of nature. Those who hold that 

 the Italians do not breed as true to 

 type as any of our best breeds of 

 sheep or cattle, may well look about 

 them, for impure mating is surely the 

 deceiver that has misled them. Nor 

 is it true that the excellence of the 

 Italians will be maintained without 

 careful breeding. If the possibility 

 of degeneration characterized only 

 varieties and not races, then we 

 should have no races. Albino bees 

 are varieties ; but if we should select 

 long and carefully with white fuzz 

 only in view, we might soon change 

 this variety characteristic into the 

 more fixed one of race. 



The practical point to be drawn 

 from all this is obvious. Messrs. 

 Alley and Demaree, in their excel- 

 lent articles, have emphasized none 



