THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



79 



reniofe the quern, let the bees go back to the 

 old hive, cutting out all iiueen cells but one, 

 or cutting out all of them and introduc- 

 int^ a viri,'iu queen. I would like to have all 

 of the old que^nis out of the hives by the 

 twentieth of June. I yuv/cr to have the col- 

 onies without eggs for fifteen or twenty days, 

 because the bees that are hatched the last of 

 July and fore part of August, are of no value 

 here. They are too old to winter, and we 

 have no fall flow to amount to anything. 



The bees till up the brood-nest with honey 

 when without a laying (pieen, but, as soon as 

 the young queen begins laying, they will 

 move a share of it into the sections, and the 

 rest I wish to remain. 



The bees that hatch the last of August and 

 fore part of September, are of the best age 

 for wintering well. 



I would not have a hive smaller than ten 

 Gallup frames, and I have more than fifty 

 that are larger. 



Kenton, ( )nio. Oct. 10, 1888. 



Golden Italians Versus Imported Italians 

 and Other Strains. 



L. L. HEAKN. 



^ HAVE been very anxious to see 

 the Review for March 10th, a copy 

 of which is just to hand, which we 

 have read with no little interest. 

 Our experience has been with our native 

 brown bee, and the imported and American 

 bred Italians. We consider either the im- 

 ported, or American lired Italians, far supe- 

 rior to our native bees; and, like friend E. M. 

 Hayhurst, we greatly prefer the latter. 



About twelve years ago we had a large 

 swarm of our native bees come out, and they 

 were hived, and in seven days they filled 

 every frame in the hive with nice new comb, 

 and then they came out and "skedaddled'^ 

 without leaving a single cell with honey in 

 it. We have frequently had them come out 

 late in the season, and build enough comb to 

 winter two colonies, and yet have but little 

 honey for winter; while the Italians were 

 more discreet, and filled the comb as it was 

 built; so, taking into consideration, the 

 "good looks," industry, docility, thrift and 

 disposition of the Italians to expel the moth, 

 as compared with our native brown bees with 

 which we have had an experience of nearly 

 thirty years, we would just say we would 

 not receive the latter as a present if compell- 

 ed to keep them ourselves. 



We notice one thing that strikes us very 

 forcibly, and that is, a majority of persons 

 keeping other strains of bees prefer a cross 

 with the Italians. Friend Root once said 

 that any cross of our brown bees with the 

 Italians made an improvement on them (the 

 browns). Just now we would say, take his 

 word for it, especially with the second cross; 

 either this, or order with your smoker, a 

 cannon large enough to blow them to the 

 North Pole. 



Yes, gentlemen, we have "been there" and 

 know whereof we speak. < )ur plan is to kill 

 every mismated queen as soon as discovered, 

 unless it is very late in the fall season. And, 



if Friend Root will excuse us for "stepping 

 on his toes," we would like to call his atten- 

 tion to some other facts, in Feb'y Glecouiujs, 

 page i;};"), in answer to the question by Mr. J. 

 T. Rush, whether or not he considered that 

 imported queens produced better workers 

 than American bred Italians that show the 

 three brands. His answer is as follows: "To 

 the question which you propound no uni- 

 formity of answers may be expected from 

 different ones. We think that stock direct 

 from imported queens, as a general rule, is a 

 little more hardy and vigorous than that pro- 

 duced from queens inbred so many times 

 in our own country. The great tendency 

 with our breeders is to run for color, i. e. 

 'nice yellow bees,' ' four banded bees,' etc. 

 What we want is not color, not bands, so 

 much as bees for business, bees that will pro- 

 duce big crops of honey. Our experience 

 has been rather in favor of the leather color- 

 ed Italians as honey gathei^ers, and these we 

 generally get from imported mothers. Stock 

 bred from queens reared in this country for 

 several generations is pretty sure to be 

 lighter colored; and in this tendency to run 

 to color, as we have already intimated, we are 

 afraid has been a sacrifice of the real bread- 

 and-butter bees." 



Now, we have been taught, whether right 

 or not, that "consistency is a jewel." If 

 these light colored bees are not equal to the 

 darker ones, why, Mr. Root, do you say in 

 your price list, "If we select the largest and 

 yellowest, and those that produce the hand- 

 somest bees, the price will be three times 

 that of an untested (lueen?" And, in Gleati- 

 hius, Mr. G. M. Doolittle, if we mistake not, 

 is said to be one of the most successful raisers 

 of comb honey in the U. S. A., and friend 

 Doolittle says he never owned but one im- 

 ported Italian queen. 



Now gentlemen, what have you all done 

 with your favorite strains in way of raising 

 a crop of honey? We will tell you the best 

 we did last season. We had a swarm come 

 out in June, and in twenty-seven days they 

 filled a Simplicity brood chamber with brood 

 and honey, and made 88 pounds in section 

 boxes, and gave out a large swarm. About 

 this time the honey flow ceased, and no more 

 was made until Sept. Late in the fall we 

 took from this same colony rii pounds in 

 section boxes, beside leaving ten brood 

 frames, each of which was two-thirds filled 

 with honey, and all this from our four-band- 

 ed bees. This was far above our average, 

 but we are satisfied we secured at least twice 

 as much honey per colony as other parties in 

 this county who keep other strains of bees. As 

 to being hardy, they are equal to any we 

 have tried. We reduced by doubling up in 

 the fall from eighty-three to forty-six colon- 

 ies, and to-day, Ai>ril 18th, we have forty-six 

 colonies in good condition. Now, with all 

 due respect to Friend Root, we beg leave to 

 differ from him, and would like to see his 

 explanation. 



We consider our industry an honest one, 

 and shall stick to our favorite four-banded 

 golden Italians, and shall do all we can to 

 still improve them, and we find the demand 

 for them rapidly increasing. 



Fbenchville, W. Va. April 18, 1889. 



