THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



61 



ten colonies, five weak, and five strong, I 

 would stimulate the strong by feeding, and 

 when an abundance of young bees had matur- 

 ed, I would shake one or two frames full of 

 these young bees in front of the weak 

 colonies, letting the old bees, that know the 

 way, go back. These young bees will not 

 quarrel with the bees of the weak stock, nor 

 kill the queens. As the season grows warm- 

 er, brood from the strong hives may be given 

 the weak ones, when all will soon be made 

 strong. The mistake is made in attempting 

 to stimulate the weak stocks. 



Holliday's Cove, W. Va. Jan. 27, 1889. 



No Variety of Bee is Best in all Respects, 

 But the Blacks are Hard to Beat. 



BYBON WALKEK. 



fN ATTEMPTING to write briefly in 

 relation to which are the best bees, I 

 shall confine my remarks wholly to the 

 merits of the blacks, Italians, and hy- 

 brids; since with these only, have I had any 

 experience. When I began keeping bees, 

 some fifteen years since, I purchased twenty 

 colonies of black bees; and then, following 

 the instructions of the leading apicultural 

 writers of the day, having bought as many 

 Italian queens as I had colonies, I proceeded 

 at once to Italianize my apiary. For reasons 

 unnecessary to mention here, I was not en- 

 tirely successful in the attempt. The result 

 was a sore disappointment at that time, as 

 my heart was set on keeping only the b<'f<f 

 bees, those that could be handled with im- 

 punity, even though no veil were used, and 

 that would gather a large amount of surplus, 

 when the inferior blacks would starve, etc., 

 etc. Well, I finally concluded" to make a 

 virtue of necessity, and so postponed the 

 completion of my scheme until another sea- 

 son. This naturally led to a comparison of 

 the traits of the two races, and since my 

 capital at that time was very limited, I was 

 obliged also to keep in view, general results. 

 The third season found me in charge of an 

 apiary of two hundred colonies, composed 

 about equally of blacks, Italians, and hy- 

 brids; and from then till now, with the ex- 

 ception of two summers, when I had less 

 than one hundred colonies, I have kept from 

 one hundred and fifty, to two hundred and 

 fifty oolonies in my different yards each 

 season; and as these were chiefly bought 

 from dift'erent states each spring, the races 

 in question being each year well represent- 

 ed in possibly a dozen or more different 

 localities during this time, the chance for 

 comparison has been a tolerably good one. 

 I must confess that, at the outset, I was 

 strongly impressed in favor of the Italians; 

 but as I gradually ceased to kick against the 

 pricks, and got my financial eyes wide open, 

 the fulfillment of my original purpose was 

 indefinitely postponed. It would be idle for 

 any one at this time, to claim that either of 

 these races in their purity, possess all of the 

 most desirable traits in a measure that would 

 entitle them to be called the best bees. 



Who would question the superior disposi- 

 tion of the Italians, the greater facility with 

 which they can be handled while performing 

 the ordinary operations of the apiary, with 

 perhaps the single exception of displacing 

 the bees from their combs for extracting or 

 other purposes; or that they excel in the 

 vigor and tenacity with which they defend 

 their homes from invasion? On the other 

 hand, who will call in question the claim 

 that the blacks are superior as comb build- 

 ers, and that they impart a superior finish to 

 the comb honey? In short, that as comb 

 honey producers, they can be handled with 

 far better results than Italians? 



I am aware that there is a marked differ- 

 ence between different strains of the latter, 

 but the best that I have been able to secure, 

 are still quite inferior to the blacks in this 

 respect. There is one point you mention in 

 introducing this subject as an excellence 

 peculiar to the Italians, that I caimot but re- 

 gard as a defect, with a location similar to 

 mine. I refer to the tendency to suddenly 

 reduce the amount of brood rearing one-half, 

 at the beginning of the honey flow. Does 

 not this mean that the honey which should 

 have been stored in sections, to the extent of 

 this reduction, will now be stored in the 

 brood nest, unless the apiarist is to the 

 trouble to correspondingly lessen its size? 

 In either case, does it not often result in 

 crowding the queen so as to cause swarming, 

 at a time when increase of swarms is sure to 

 result in a largely diminished yield of the 

 best comb honey: and further, if, as is often 

 the case with me, the late yield is by far the 

 better, and the interval between it and the 

 early flow is but a short one, will it not often 

 result in such colonies being so far diminish- 

 ed in strength as to be in poor condition for 

 taking that flow? Finally, will not the close 

 of the late flow, often find the brood nest 

 almost entirely filled with honey, even with 

 plenty of room in the sections, and the 

 colony so far reduced as to preclude building 

 up again during the season? Such have been 

 the practical results with me in hundreds of 

 instances. Indeed, only last fall I shook off 

 from their combs, over thirty colonies that 

 were in this condition, and yet each of these 

 colonies had an ordinarily prolific queen at 

 the commencement of the honey flow. 



With regard to hybrids, I have for years 

 past endeavored to follow the plan you men- 

 tion for improving our stock, but constant 

 winter losses have prevented giving it a fair 

 trial. Thus far, I have failed in securing a 

 strain that combines in any great measure 

 the good qualities of the two races. Results 

 have been by no means uniform. Hybrids 

 with'me, however, are commonly energetic 

 workers, better comb builders than the Ital- 

 ians, and better home protectors than the 

 blacks. In conclusion, were I to follow bee- 

 keeping chiefly for the amusement to be de- 

 rived from the occupation, I would no doubt 

 regard the Italians, or, possibly the Carnio- 

 lans, as the most desirable bees; so, also, if 

 my location were better adapted to queen 

 rearing and increasing stock than securing 

 surplus comb honey; provided, of course, I 

 could find sale for queens and bees at prices 

 my conscience would permit me to ask for 



