Read Ebook: The American Bee Journal. Volume XVII No. 11 March 1881 by Various Newman Thomas G Thomas Gabriel Editor

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Belle River, Ont., March 5, 1881.

For the American Bee Journal.

Remarkable Tardiness in Fecundity.

G. W. DEMAREE.

One of my Cyprian queens has upset an established doctrine in bee-science, set at naught all the bee-books, and reversed the old adage which says: "hope long deferred maketh the heart sick." In the latter part of last season I reared some Cyprian queens from eggs and larvae, obtained from Mr. Root; they were 7 in number, and were hatched on the 6th, 7th, and 8th days of Sept. The weather being warm and fair they were all fertilized by the 12th of the month, and a few days later they were all laying except one; that being the finest, brightest-looking queen of the lot, stubbornly refused to commence the duties of a good queen. She was in a strong nucleus which was fed regularly and bountifully, till the hive looked as though the occupants were enjoying a bountiful white clover harvest, but "nary an egg would she lay."

She was provided with a clean empty comb, placed in the center of the colony, and the feeding kept up till winter set in, but no brood appeared. The hive was not opened from the time it was prepared for winter till the middle of Dec., at which time there was not a sign of brood. Then came the long siege of snow and bitter winds which lasted till the 30th of Jan.; on that date our bees enjoyed a good, cleansing flight, and I remembered my non-laying queen and proceeded to look her combs over, and to my surprise, on one of the center combs I found a little patch of brood about half as large as a postal card, some of which was sealed over. It was genuine worker brood, and no mistake. Since which time she has been laying nicely, and now has a nice lot of brood for the time of year.

My bees, 30 colonies with selected queens, have come safely through the winter to the 1st of March, and there is really but little danger of losing bees in this climate after the 1st of this month, unless they are short of stores and shamefully neglected. The bee-man is aware, above all others, that there is "many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip," however closely he may watch his business. On the 30th of Jan. last, when my bees were flying lively, I noticed that one large colony with a tested Cyprian queen, were not stirring like the others. I proceeded to open the hive and found the bees so nearly starved that they could only show signs of life by a feeble motion of their wings, which produced no sound whatever. Not a bee seemed able to change its position; the fore-runner of death was already present in the form of a cold, damp atmosphere in the brood chamber. I prepared some rich sweetened water, separated the frames gently, and sprinkled the bees thoroughly with the sweetened water, and poured some of it into the empty cells. The frames were then readjusted and a dry woolen quilt spread over the bees and the sun permitted to shine into the hive. In about an hour I raised the quilt and the inmates of the hive were stirring briskly, handing around the good cheer, while some of them showed fight in a most patriotic style. They were provided with stores, and are now a No. 1 colony. So much for bee-science.

What a lesson this teaches! Here was a large colony of bees perishing with famine, as one single individual; so unselfishly had they divided their family stores amongst themselves that when relief did come, though not till their dire extremity, there was no practical loss of life. Before I close I cannot resist the temptation to tell how my bees have been carrying in meal, and prancing gaily on the alighting boards with their white pellets exposed to the best advantage.

Christiansburg, Ky.

For the American Bee Journal.

Honey-Producing in California.

W. A. PRYAL.

No doubt but by this time many of the Eastern bee-keepers are looking to this far-off "land of milk and honey," as of late years it has been called. Perhaps the reason is partly because here abundant warm rains have fallen all over the State, and the world-renowned honey region has received its complement of the down-pour; in fact, the inhabitants hardly ever saw so much rain visit that section at the right time.

There are now signs, however, that indicate the sun will shine with its usual brightness; that those delightful spring days, which are so peculiar to this fair land, are about to favor us. Let this be the case and the bees will soon be flying out by thousands, and the willow blossoms will each and all receive a welcome visit from those industrious insects. Their journeyings will not be confined to the banks of the creeks where the willows grow, but the woodland, where the Australian blue-gum has been planted by the hand of man, and which holds out its bounteous chalice for the busy bee to come and sip of nectar deep and sweet.

While the loss in bees will in all probability be great in the States east of the Rocky Mountains, here the loss, if any, will not be quite as bad as it has been other years. Thus it will be seen that our eastern brethren will have to commence the season with greatly reduced forces, while the apiarists in this State will commence operations with more colonies, and, consequently, with more bees. Last season was a good one, and the bees went into winter quarters with abundant stores, which have carried them through the mild winter safely. The bee flora having had ample rains to insure a most thrifty growth, will bloom for a longer period than it has heretofore, and, of course, will insure an enormous yield of honey.

North Temescal, Cal., Feb. 17, 1881.

For the American Bee Journal.

Bee-Men to the Front.

A. W. FISK.

Many singular discoveries have been made among manufacturers by the census enumerators in the course of their investigations. For instance, it has long been known that dealers are in the habit of adulterating honey with glucose on the plea of thus improving its keeping qualities. In Boston, however, there is a firm doing a large business in making honey entirely from glucose much in the same way as manufacturers elsewhere make butter from suine and oleo-margarine. The comb is molded out of paraffine in excellent imitation of the work of bees; then the cells are filled with clear glucose and sealed by passing a hot iron over them, and the product is sent to Europe as our best honey. The busiest Italian bees couldn't compete with this firm in turning out honey, any more than could a Eurotas-like Jersey breed compete in butter-making with our deft manipulators of lard and tallow.

It is time that stringent legislative enactments are passed, making the adulteration of so many articles of food a criminal offense, punishable by severe penalties. If these things must be done to gratify the inordinate greed of some men, let it be made obligatory on them that the packages containing spurious products so proclaim them, under penalty of confiscation when detected, and the fraud further punishable by heavy penalty. No man has any right to sell a compound of honey and glucose as pure honey, nor has he any right, either moral or legal, to place a compound of butter and lard, still further "doctored" with drugs, upon the market as pure butter. If adulterations of food are allowed to go on in this way, unrebuked, there is not an article of food known that will not be counterfeited, and oftentimes with substances very hurtful in character.

I am thankful so many are lending their aid and influence in the cause of justice and humanity, but we want the united efforts of honest bee-keepers, and consumers, and fair dealers, to make a bold front against every adulterator, and to expose him to the world. In this way I believe the problem can be solved and the evil remedied.

Bushnell, Ill.

For the American Bee Journal.

The In-and-In Breeding of Bees.

M. S. SNOW.

Mr. C. Thielmann, in the BEE JOURNAL, says he has bees which are mostly hybrids, and he does not know where they came from, but there are Italians 5 miles from him. Another says he has no black bees, and his queens must be purely mated, &c.; another that a neighbor has had some 10 or 15 colonies so many years, breeding in-and-in, but states he manages to keep his number about the same. Breeding in-and-in with bees, I am fully convinced, is not much done. Bees are free rovers and it seems to be their nature or instinct to mate at some distance from the parent hive.

This question was discussed by one of the speakers at a bee convention in N. Y. some years ago. He claimed that in-and-in breeding had a great deal to do with the failures in bee-keeping, &c. He compared an apiary to a yard of fowls, in this respect, and that they could be bred in-and-in until entirely worthless. This may be done, for fowls are confined to a particular locality, but how is it with prairie chickens? what is the reason they do not degenerate and run out? Because they are rovers, like the bee, and are mated by others from some remote part.

I claim that bees will mix from 5 to 7 miles, and if there are 50 or 100 colonies within that distance the progeny of a certain queen will stand a poor show of mating with drones from its own hive.

To illustrate: While living in N. Y. I obtained one of Mr. Langstroth's tested Italian queens; I reared some 70 queens and introduced them into as many colonies. The next season I had Italian drones by the thousand. My stock of Italian drones were the only ones in the locality, so I had a good chance to test breeding in-and-in. The next season, and even that fall, there were hybrid colonies all over the country, even at the distance of 7 miles, one man had one colony. One man, 5 miles from me, wished me to introduce an Italian queen into one of his colonies. I think he had 6 and I was surprised to see 4 of them hybrids, how they came there he did not know. Others said to me, "I have your kind of bees, but where they came from I cannot tell."

All breeders of Italian queens find it very difficult to keep their stock up to the standard of purity. I obtained 5 dollar-queens from a breeder in N. Y., which when tested proved to be hybrids, showing conclusively that there were black bees in that section.

Osakis, Minn.

For the American Bee Journal.

How to Prevent Robbing.

J. D. ENAS.

My location for surplus honey is not as good as some other sections of the State, and from the middle of June to the last of July, from 4 to 6 weeks, there appears to be no honey flow, and the weather being hot and dry, scorches what bloom is left, soon after June comes in. Our last rain is in April, or sometimes late in May, and no more, generally, before October or November. All kinds of stock depending on pasture, especially in the hills, suffer at that time. When bees can gather no honey, Italians especially go about visiting for the purpose of plunder, and woe to the colony that is not strong enough to defend its stores. I have reduced the entrance, covered the entrance with cow-chips, wet hay, brush, and, in fact, tried all remedies that ever I saw in print or heard of, without success. While the robbers were helping themselves, the colony robbed was not discouraged, but appeared to be robbing some other, and the queen was laying eggs, to be starved as they advanced to brood; no bees appeared to be killed at the entrance, as no blacks were about; they were all Italians, and they can rob when they get started.

I exchanged the places of the hives without success, until I thought of changing after dark; so while they were robbing I went to all colonies that appeared to be quiet and minding their own business and placed a single stone on the cover, then on those that were getting robbed the worst, I placed 2 stones. Then when so dark that no bees were flying, I exchanged places and put a strong colony on the stand of a weak one. Sometimes I had to repeat this, but not always. Some of those weak ones filled their hives with golden rod honey and robbing was stopped for that season. It was amusing to see the robbers when those strong colonies had fairly awakened, to know that they had callers; they mustered out at the entrance solid and were ready for business. The robber seemed to think he had made a mistake. The strong colony had not got discouraged; the robbers could not force the entrance and the weak colony not in a fighting humor, received the recruits from the strong one, which were a little too surprised at the change to interfere with the queen and inmates. Most of the old bees would go to their own stand but in the confusion of things they would gradually be at home in their own hive. I found the plan very successful, when closing the entrance did not do. I extracted as late as June 10 to keep down swarming.

Last spring my Italians took the grafting wax from my peach grafts. I also observed them gathering the worm dust from decayed oak wood, and filling their pockets instead of pollen, about Christmas. In the valley 2 miles from here, frost was quite severe, but here the mercury got below 32? only twice; the lowest was 28?. Natural bloom was 2 months behind, owing to early frosts which appeared to drive the sap down to the roots.

Napa, Cal.

For the American Bee Journal.

Bees Killed by Kindness.

B. F. WHITEAKER.

I commenced the year 1875 with 12 box hives and engaged my brother to hive the colonies in movable frame hives on shares, but the bees swarmed faster than he had the hives ready--one swarmed 5 times in one week. In the fall I had 16 colonies in movable frame and 20 in box hives. I prepared them for winter by cutting up a light bed-quilt to cover the frames; drove stakes about a foot from the hives all around except in the front, and packed straw in the spaces and filled the cap with chaff and straw, and covered the hives with straw. In the spring but one colony was living and that was in a box hive. The quilts were laid down flat on the frames, leaving no ventilation. When it became cold the bees died and fell on the bottom board, filling up the spaces between the frames, the moisture fell on the bees and froze solid, closing the entrance so that I could not open it even with an iron rod. In the corners of each hive was a chunk of ice, running half way up the frames. The bees cut holes through the quilts and when they could, had crawled into the straw and died. This was murder, but such was my experience in 1875-6.

Florid, Ill., Mar. 1, 1881.

? The North Western Wisconsin Bee-keepers Association will meet at Germania Hall, LaCrosse, Wis., on Tuesday, May 10, at 10 a.m. All interested in bee-keeping are requested to be present.

? The next meeting of the N. W. Illinois and S. W. Wisconsin Bee-Keepers' Association, will be held at H. W. Lee's, 2 miles n.w. of Pecatonica, Winnebago county, Ills., on the 17th of May, 1881.

? On account of unfavorable weather the convention at Monroe Centre, Ill., met on Feb. 8, and there being but few present, adjourned to the same place on March 29, 1881.

THOMAS G. NEWMAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR,

CHICAGO, ILL., MAR. 16, 1881.

Watchman! Tell us of the Night.

Can you not recommend some reliable prophet, who will prophesy good weather soon? The storm is terrible; not a road in the county is passable for half a mile; the drifts are as high as the fences, and the snow full three feet on the level.

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