272 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



again. They may buzz and bump about as 

 much as they please in the upper part of the 

 trap to whiah they are confined, it does not 

 interfere with the workers as they pass out 

 and in below. The other objection to the 

 hiver is that a large portion of the bees will 

 return to the old hive in spite of the fact 

 that the queen is confiaed in the new hive. 

 When a swarm returns because of the ab- 

 sence of its queen, it comes back with a 

 rush: fairly pouHciHg upon the entrance of 

 the old hive, and a large share of the bees 

 will enter the old hive even though the 

 queen is soon found. To a returning swarm 

 of bees there seems to be something pecu- 

 liarly attractive about their old home. In 

 hiving bees upon their old stand by putting 

 a new hive there in place of the old one, the 

 queen being clipped and then caught and 

 caged, I have learned that it will not answer 

 to simply set the old hive to one side a dis- 

 tance of two or three feet. The returning 

 bees will find it, set up the "call" of "home is 

 here," and many of the bees will return to 

 the old hive, even with the (lueen at the 

 entrance of the new hive. I have found it 

 necessary to not only set the hive to one 

 side but the entrance must be turned in an 

 opposite direction to that of the new hive. 

 Even with this precaution I have been 

 obliged to pull grass and throw it over the 

 entrance of the old hive. 



In a large apiary, where several swarms 

 are likely to issue at one time, a self-hiver 

 would be of little value. Under such condi- 

 tions a swarm catcher is what is needed. 



Be Sure They are Carniolan Bees. 



In the A. B. J. Mr. J. A. Green has the 

 following to offer in regard to the discussion 

 upon the " Golden Carniolans:" 



" The editorial comments on Mr. Andrews' 

 article, on page 400, would seem to indicate 

 a belief in the genuineness of the golden 

 Carniolans. If this belief is well founded, 

 the breeders of these bees are much maligned 

 individuals, and the scores of prominent 

 apiarists who ridi ule their claims should be 

 labored with in order that justice may be 

 done. On the otlier hand, if these (lueen 

 breeders are wrong, and their oi)ponents 

 right, justice to the public demands that the 

 facts should be as auickly and widely made 

 known as possible. This I trust will be suf- 

 ficient excuse for a continuation of the dis- 

 cussion. 



If the Carniolans are better than the bees 

 we have had before, we want them. If they 

 are inferior, let us discard thorn. Hut whnt- 

 ever they are, let them stand or fall on their 

 own merits, and when we are testing them. 



let us be sure they are Carniolans, and not 

 something else. 



-Mr. Alley claims, on page 830, that ' The 

 Carniolan race of bees are the original yel- 

 loiv bees.' and in the article containing this 

 statement, and elsewhere, he argues that the 

 Carniolan race has a natural tendency to 

 become yellow. 



If this were true, as has before been 

 pointed out, they would long ago have be- 

 come a yellow race in their native land; 

 whereas, Mr. Alley himself testifies that the 

 progeny of imported queens showed no yel- 

 low whatever. The variation does not begin, 

 as he admits, until we come to the progeny 

 of queens reared in his own apiary. 



The explanation of this is furnished by 

 Mr. Alley himself, when he tells us that these 

 queens were mated in an apiary but little 

 over a mile away from a large apiary of 

 Italians. Now, it is agreed by most authori- 

 ties that the meeting between queen and 

 drone may take place at some distance— a 

 mile or more— from the hives. If they flew 

 only a mile away, apiaries would need to be 

 at least two miles apart to keep them dis- 

 tinct. I have evidence which I consider con- 

 clusive that different races will intermix if 

 kept four miles apart. More than this, I 

 believe— and this belief is shared by many— 

 that a queen is more liable to be mated with 

 a drone from an apiary a mile away than 

 from the one in which she was reared. 



At a time when all my bees were Italians, 

 and no other bees were within a mile— except 

 possibly a few in the woods— and even at 

 that distance there were not over one-tenth 

 as many as I had, a large proportion of my 

 queens were mated with black drones. 

 When I establish an apiary in a new place, 

 although my Italian bees far outnumber all 

 bees within several miles, experience shows 

 me that nearly half the queens reared there 

 will produce hybrids. 



On the other hand, the common bees have 

 become so mixed with the Italians, that in 

 this part of the state it is diiBcult to find a 

 colony of pure black bees. 



To sum the matter up, the " golden Carni- 

 olans have been produced by crossing Carni- 

 olans with Italians, then breeding for yellow 

 bees. 



They may be very good bees. Probably 

 they are, as the greater share of their ances- 

 try (the Italian side) are known to be, while 

 the remaining share certainly has some good 

 points. But to cross Carniolans with Ital- 

 ians, and then breed out as much of the 

 Carniolan blood as possible, is hardly the 

 way to produce 'typical Carniolans.' Let 

 those who wish to test the ' wonderful Punic 

 bees ' get them before the striped variety 

 makes its appearance. It is all very well to 

 test new varieties of bees, but let us call 

 things by their right names. 

 Dayton, Ills. 



[The editorial comment, on page 400, ex- 

 pressed no oiiinion on the controversy. It 

 quoted Mr. Alley's language on page liHO only 

 to show that he had already answered the 

 question again propounded by Mr. Andrews. 

 This was done to save space for a reply, and 

 not to endorse any views presented by either 



