NB.—I have no cheap queens for sale.
Willard J. Davis.
Youngsville, Pa., Aug. 8, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Novice.
Dear Bee Journal:—That flood of honey that was driving us so, when we last wrote you, has ceased, and we are having a resting spell.
About the 18th of July the basswood failed, and we were obliged to desist, mostly on account of the neighbors’ black bees desperately attempting to rob our hives when we opened them. In fact, the upper stories of our Langstroth hives are all full now, but before we can empty two hives the black bees are so thick as to threaten demoralization to our whole apiary. Though the Italians will sometimes sting a pint of them to death around a single hive, not an Italian can be found among the slain.
In spite of all this, to which we have repeatedly called the attention of others, many are busy in accusing the Italians of driving the innocent common bees out of the land. One neighbor in particular, who cannot afford to take the Bee Journal, has been very busy in telling how our Italians have taken all his surplus honey, and had he not used great care, they would have carried off all his honey, hives, bees and all.
It was in this way. He came to us one day, quite excited, saying that our Italians were robbing his bees at a great rate—even some new swarms in movable frame hives that we had let him have, (not to mention several hours’ verbal instruction and the attempt to answer all questions pertaining to bee-culture at once).