AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



399 



Natiye or Black Bees Defended. 



A. D. ELLIXGWOOD. 



In defending black bees I am well 

 aware that I have taken hold of an un- 

 popular race of bees, but why they are 

 thus unpopular I cannot understand. I 

 am heartily sick of the slurs and dis- 

 paraging epithets cast upon the black 

 bees. 



Put the same thought and study into 

 the development of the blacks that has 

 been given to the Italians, and you will 

 have a superior race of bees. 



I will concede to the lover of the 

 Italian bee the following points of 

 superiority in his favorite bee : 



1. The Italian bees are more beauti- 

 ful to look upon. 



2. They can gather honey from 

 certain flowers that the blacks do not 

 work upon. 



3. They protect their hives better. 

 Here are three points of superiority, 



and I will not admit that they are 

 superior in any other way. 



Now, I claim that the black bees have 

 the following points of superiority over 

 any other race : 



1. They winter better. 



2. They rob less. 



3. They swarm less than the hybrids 

 or Carniolans. 



4. They gather more surplus honey, 

 because they go to work quicker in the 

 sections. 



5. They build their combs more evenly, 

 and cap the honey whiter. 



6. They are more gentle to handle. 

 This is not guess work, nor a " think 



so" idea. I have kept both blacks and 

 Italians for a number of years. I have, 

 duriijg this time, made some pretty 

 rigid comparisons, and the blacks have 

 given me the most money every time. 



In 1888 six colonies of blacks gave 

 me 500 pounds of nice comb-honey. In 

 the same yard I had 35 colonies of 

 Italians and hybrids, and about all they 

 did for the Summer was to swarm and 

 go way to the top of the highest tree in 

 the vicinity, and rob and fight the 

 blacks. They only gave me about 10 

 pounds of comb-honey. 



In the Fall there was 45 or 50 colo- 

 nies of the hybrids, and that Winter 

 they nearly all died, and the cause of 

 their death has always been a mystery 

 to me — they just died, and I was noj 

 very sorry. 



I have bought new queens again and 

 again, hoping to get something better 

 than I had, but they have none of them 



been any better than my native black 

 bees. 



The bee-keepers all through this 

 county have had the same experience,- 

 and almost without exception they pre- 

 fer the black bees. 



Now, bee-keepers of America, do not 

 slap and slander the black bees any 

 more until you have given them as fair 

 a trial as you have the Italians. 



They are not the puny, weak, good- 

 for-nothing scamps that you would 

 make it appear that they are ; but if 

 you use them well, you will find them a 

 hardy, busy and valuable race of bees. 



Berlin Falls, N. H. 



False IteAMt Eastern Bees. 



PH. J. BALDENSPEKGER. 



Allow me to correct some false ideas 

 about our eastern bees, appearing from 

 time to time in bee-periodicals all over 

 the world. 



I am a honey producer, and not a 

 queen breeder, and would take to any 

 bees as soon as it would pay to keep 

 them — even the wonderful Punic bees, 

 which I have in my apiary, and have 

 worked in their own Punic homes, with- 

 out discovering the marvelous qualities 

 described in the Bee Journat, of May 

 28, 1891. 



On page 743, an article copied from 

 the Indiana Farmer says the Palestine 

 bees are inferior to the Syrians. " They 

 use more propolis than any other 

 variety, and are more troubled with 

 laying w^orkers." The writer of that 

 article must have had a great deal of 

 experience with Palestines. I have 

 worked both Syrians and Palestines in 

 their own homes, and have failed to 

 detect the difference to which some 

 breeders like to call attention. 



Both are apt to have laying workers, 

 as well as any other race, when neg- 

 lected, but will survive queenlessness 

 an astonishing length of time, if properly 

 manipulated. Sometimes virgin queens 

 remain nearly a month in the hive, 

 before flying out to mate, and still laying 

 workers do not appear. When a queen 

 is lost, the danger of having laying 

 workers becomes greater, but can be 

 prevented by putting in a frame with 

 eggs, occasionally, and sometimes hatch- 

 ing brood. 



This year I gave an old queen, which 

 I wished to dispose of, to a colony con- 

 taining laying workers ; she was ac- 

 cepted, and the laying workers soon 



