1877, 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



183 



aid of the greater part of what are usually 

 teruied angry bees, or bees that prefer to 

 prowl i\>u!ij<l, robbniig and stmging, rather 

 than gather honey ''all the day" as the gi'eat- 

 •er part of tlie. population of the apuiry does. 

 The sugar should be located several rods 

 uiway, ai\d shoxdd be well protected from the 

 Taiw, but In -su<;li a way as to allow tlie bees 

 to have tree access. When no flowers axe 

 in bloom, they will work on it in great nuin- 

 i)ers, but when honey is to be found, you 

 will see none bxit tlie prowling robbers round 

 it. These you will very soon notice, are 

 juostly cojnnion bee« and those having a 

 very little Italian bkwd. We have seen 

 Itiilians storing honey in boxes, while the 

 ■common l>ees did nothing but work in the 

 sugar baiTels. "Wliere yon work without a 

 veil, it is very convenient to have these an- 

 noying bees out of the way, and even if they 

 belong to our neighbor, we prefer to fur- 

 liish them with all the cheap sugar they can 

 lick lap. 



Tlie i^marte that have been made nre 

 |)articularly for large apiiuies ; where one 

 .has only a single hive and no neighbors who 

 keep bees, tlie case is something like Rob- 

 inson Ciiisoe on the Island ; no cluuice for 

 stealing, and conse<iuently nothing to be 



quite sure he succeeded, but after examin- 

 ing into the matter it was found that the 

 queens got out and took tlieir flight in the 

 lusual Avay thiougli the passage that was left 

 for the worker bees, he having l)ased his 

 calculations on tlie oft rei)eate(l statement 

 that a queen could not pass through a pas- 

 sage 5-'S2 of an inch in width. Tlie queen 

 just before lier tlight, is very slender, and 

 will get through a passage that an ordinary 

 laying queen would not, and those who 

 claimed to have succeeded, being rather 

 careless titeervei-s, might have supposed 

 that tlie fertilization had in reality taken 

 place in the hive. Again, one of those who 

 claimed to have succeeded states tliat a 

 queen will always take exercise in the open 

 air, after slie has been fertilized in contine- 

 ment ; this seems to render the whole mat- 

 ter ridiculous, esi)ecially if she takes this 

 flight before she commences to lay. About 

 the year 1870, hundreds of bee-keepers were 

 busily at work, trying this project \\itli a 

 view of keeping the Italian blood in a state 

 of aljsolute purity, in neighborhoods where 

 black or common bees were kept in consid- 

 erable nunibere ; and tlie subject affords a 

 fair illustration of the mischief which may 

 be done by careless or unscrupulous persons. 



■cross abont. Bees are seldom cixiss or an- | in reporting through the press, what has 



gry, nnless tlrroi'.gh some faidt or careless- 

 ness of your own. 



/iM.TlTMSIIL-L CCl^EB. Altliough 

 several tittempts have l)een made to make 

 >eonib for the bees of full depth of cell, we 

 3)elieve all have resulted in failures ; the 



been guessed at rather than demonsti-ated 

 by careful experiment. 



Taking into view the in and in breeding 

 that would have resulted had the experi- 

 ments really been a success, it is doubtful if 

 it would have been a benefit after all. 



bees ■either refusing to uvse them, or gnawing 1 Wb.en it was found that the Italians speedi- 



them down, and building then- own in place. 

 If given the base of the cell, however, with 

 •only shallow walls of such depth that the 

 bees can reach to the bases with their nian- 

 •dibles so as to shape and tliin tlie bottom as 

 they wish before the walls are raised, the 

 case is quite ditfei'ent, for they aa"e used then 

 as readily perhaps as their own natural 

 comb, as has been abundantly proven by 

 the co>rB t-oitndation, which see. 



AB.TIPICIAL FERTILIEATIOlSr. Much 

 time and money has l>een expended in Anre 

 cloth houses, and glass tixi;ures'to accom- 

 plish tliis result, the more perhaiis because 

 a few sanguine individuals imagined they 

 had succeeded in having the queens meet 

 the drones in continement, thus securing tlie 

 advantage of choice drones as Avell as queens 

 to rear stock from. As several years have 

 pa.ssed, and no one has succeeded in verify- 



i ly became hybrids where so many black bees 

 were ail about us, as a matter of necessity 

 ' frequent importations from Italy began to 

 ! be made, and wlien it was discovered that 

 I stock fresh from their native home at once 

 showed tiiemselves sujierior honey gather- 

 1 ere, the business assumed considerable pix)- 

 1 portions and now almost every ai)iaiist of 

 ' 50 hives, has an imported queen of his own 

 to rear queens from. This has the effect of 

 not only giving i;s the best stock known, 

 but of giving fi-equeiit fresh strains of blood, 

 and is perhaivs very much better all ai-ound. 

 than it would have been IuhI artificial fertil- 

 ization been a success. 



ir:^^ZriC2^Ia '^STM.T. As strong 

 colonies early in the season, are the ones 

 that get the honey and furnish the early 

 swarms as well and are in f:ict the real 

 source of piT)tit t(^ the bee-keeper, it is not 



ing their experiments, we .shall have to con- j to ])e wondered at that much time and mon- 

 <iude it was all a mistnke. A friend was I ey h<\s been spent in devising ways and 



