664 



THE AMERICAJ^ BEE JOURNAL. 



ing to get into about six combs each), 

 I expect to keep them until April. 1 

 had but few swarms, and only in- 

 creased my apiary to 66 colonies, 

 which I have reduced so far to 58. 



There is no honey in Springfleld, ex- 

 cept a little that I took there some 

 time ago. Some producers whom I 

 know, rushed their honey in last July, 

 selling it at 10 cents per pound. 1 ex- 

 pect to reserve mine for my home 

 trade. The prospect is that I shall 

 easily dispose of it all within a few 

 miles of home at higher rates than 

 last year. Very few around here ob- 

 tained any surplus at all. 



Mechanicsburg,© Ills., Oct. 10, 1887. 



Bead at the Ga. Agricultural Convention. 



Tlie DeTelOBments of Bee-Keeping. 



COL. J. B. MITCHELL. 



From the earliest ages of the world 

 bees have been invested with pecu- 

 liar interest, and have claimed the 

 attention, not only of the unlearned 

 and ignorant, but of the student and 

 naturalist as well. The mystery 

 which so long enveloped them and 

 their habits added not a little to the 

 zest with which their history was in- 

 vestigated. The discoveries of the 

 last thirty years, however, have so 

 elucidated the laws of bee-instinct, 

 that no important point is any longer 

 a subject of controversy or mystery ; 

 and in the light now thrown upon the 

 subject, no branch of moral economy 

 can be more definitely regulated or 

 conducted with such absolute cer- 

 tainty of success. 



The management of bees can only 

 be successful when conducted with a 

 perfect understanding of their natural 

 history, and in accordance with the 

 instincts that govern them. In the 

 words of an eminent writer on this 

 subject, the business may be viewed 

 as a science, having for its object the 

 attainment of a correct knowledge of 

 all that pertains to the life, habits 

 and instincts of the busy bee, and as 

 a practical art, which regards all the 

 attainments thus made, and to be 

 made, as the only reliable foundation 

 of successful management. 



Bees in themselves have the same 

 essential habits that were given to 

 them when they hrst winged their 

 flight in the Garden of Eden, as 

 permanent and unvarying as the at- 

 traction of gravitation, or the natural 

 laws of our solar system. They act 

 alike under like circumstances; are 

 incapable of education, and learn 

 nothing. It is by taking advantage 

 of their unchangeable habits that we 

 can control their actions and make 

 them subservient to our own good 

 pleasure, just as we take advantage 

 of the immutable laws of the universe 

 and appropriate them to our own con- 

 veniences. The laws which govern 

 these wonderful little insects are 

 peculiar to themselves, different from 

 those which govern everything else. 

 They are simple, and one can manage 

 them in almost any way he chooses, 

 so long as he does not go contrary to 

 their instincts, but they are fixed and 



immutable, and when we deviate 

 from them in the smallest degree, we 

 may expect failure, either partial or 

 total, to be the result. To be success- 

 ful, then, in the practical art, the 

 science upon which it is founded 

 must be thoroughly understood. 



All these laws are fully and clearly 

 explained in various able works on 

 the subject which have been published 

 and are now accessible to all who 

 desire to acquire a knowledge of them. 

 It is not my purpose or intention to 

 speak of them further than is neces- 

 sary to give a general idea of what 

 has been accomplished in climates 

 less favorable to success than ours, 

 and leave you to judge, if such results 

 can be obtained in the bleak and in- 

 hospitable regions of the North, what 

 might be done, or rather what might 

 not be done, among our rich plants, 

 under our sunny skies, by a system 

 of intelligent bee-culture. 



Notwithstanding the attention that 

 bee-culture has always received, and 

 the efforts that, from time to time, 

 have been made to perfect some in- 

 vention to assist the owner in obtain- 

 ing the greatest amount of surplus 

 honey in the best form, and with the 

 least injury to the bees, and to also 

 give him the control of the interior of 

 the hive, so as to enable him, at any 

 time, to tell if anything was wrong, 

 and apply the remedy, it was not un- 

 til the present century that such a 

 thing was actually accomplished. 



Between the years 1834 and 1845 

 several persons in Europe and in this 

 country invented hives in which the 

 combs were to be built, each on a 

 separate bar or frame, which could be 

 readily taken out and replaced at 

 pleasure, and without injury to the 

 combs, and thus a new era in "bee- 

 keeping was commenced. 



There is nothing in these hives 

 which is intended to perform the 

 labor of the bees or their keeper. 

 They are simply aids to the work. 

 The great advantage they possess is 

 the command they give of every 

 comb, placing it in your power to 

 know exactly the condition of your 

 bees. 



There is much difference of opinion 

 among bee-keepers as to which is the 

 best hive, and without pretending to 

 say what may or may not be accom- 

 plished with other hives, it is now a 

 matter of history that the Langstroth 

 hive has given the best results Ihat 

 have ever been obtained by any hive 

 in the world. 



It is not positively certain whether 

 bees were found in this country at the 

 time it was first visited by Europeans 

 or not. It is thought by some that 

 they were, while others contend that 

 they were not, but were imported by 

 some of the first settlers from Eng- 

 land. In support of this proposition 

 we hear of a tradition among the In- 

 dians, that the appearance of honey- 

 bees, which they called " the white 

 man's fly," was a sure indication of 

 the white man's coming to take pos- 

 session of the land. In the investi- 

 gation of this subject, which is of no 

 great importance at this time, I have 

 seen bees in the same locality so en- 

 tirely different as to create an impres- 



sion that there were at least two dis- 

 tinct races of the so-called black bees, 

 and that possibly some were natives 

 of this country, while the others were 

 imported. 



As soon as the practicability of the 

 movable-comb hive became a certain 

 fact, new interest was awakened in 

 bee-culture. Hundreds were induced 

 to commence the business that would 

 never have done so under the old 

 system. A new and much better sys- 

 tem of management has been devel- 

 oped, larger quantities of honey have 

 been obtained, which, going to mar- 

 ket in better shape, has increased the 

 demand and made a better market. A 

 few years ago honey could only be 

 sold in small quantities or by the hun- 

 dred weight, but now it is sold by the 

 barrel, hogshead or ton. The Agri- 

 cultural Department at Washington 

 no longer considers bee keeping a 

 business of no importance, but its 

 agents all over the country now in- 

 clude in their reports the results of 

 bee-keeping the same as that of other 

 agricultural pursuits. The present 

 production of honey in this country 

 is estimated at about one hundred 

 millions of pounds per annum, repre- 

 senting a value of about fifteen mill- 

 ions of dollars. 



In the year 1879 two enterprising 

 apiarists started for the Old World in 

 quest of new species of bees, with the 

 hope that they might discover and in- 

 troduce into America some that were 

 of more value than any we then had. 

 After visiting the principal apiaries 

 of Europe, they located on the island 

 of Cyprus, where they established a 

 large apiary in the city of Larnaca. 

 On the island they found the Cyprian 

 bees, a pure and distinct race, which 

 had been isolated from all other races 

 by confinement to that island for per- 

 haps thousands of years. They also 

 obtained a new variety known now as 

 Holy-Land or Syrian bees. Some of 

 them they got from Jerusalem, and 

 other places in Judea ; some from 

 Jaffa, some from east of the Jordan 

 and Dead sea, some from Damascus, 

 and some from Mount Lebanon and 

 other places. In the month of June, 

 1880, one of the apiarists returned to 

 America, bringing a large number of 

 the queens of these two races of bees 

 with him, and since that time thou- 

 sands of them have found their way 

 to this country. 



The Cyprians are described as bear- 

 ing a close resemblance to the Ital- 

 ians, but having a reddish golden 

 shield running across the back between 

 the wings, and the under side of the 

 abdomen being of a light golden color, 

 which becomes darker towards the 

 extremity. It is claimed that as 

 honey-gatherers they are superior to 

 any other race, but their stores are 

 protected with so much determination 

 that few who have encountered them 

 once are very ready to do so the sec- 

 ond time. I have seen but 2 colonies 

 of them, and though I am regarded 

 by some as an enthusiast in bee-cul- 

 ture, I do not hesitate to say that, if 

 all bees were like the Cyprians, I 

 should give up the business. 



The Syrians also bear a close re- 

 semblance to Italians, but are de- 



