INTEODUCING. 



292 



ITALIAN BEES. 



INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



As previously explained, a young virgin 

 just liatched, generally weak and feeble, can 

 usually be let loose in a queenless colony 

 without caging, and be i"avoral)ly received; 

 but one from two to six days old is, as a rule, 

 much more difficult to introduce than a lay- 

 ing queen; and one ten (hiys old, more than 

 old enough to be fertilized, is most difficult. 

 Such queens can be introduced, however, 

 but generally it is a waste of time to attempt 

 it in a strong vigorous colony. Better by 

 far give them a cell or a virgin just hatclied, 

 thus saving time and vexation; for even 

 sliould the old virgin be accepted, she may 

 be minus a leg, or be so deformed from 

 rough treatment as to become in a large 

 measure impaired for usefulness. Under 

 head of Queen-rearing we describe " baby 

 nuclei;" and, as already stated, it is much 

 easier to introduce any queen, either virgin 

 or laying, to a nucleus or weak force of bees 

 than to a strong vigorous colony; so if we 

 would attempt to introduce four or five day 

 old virgins, give them to nuclei— the smaller 

 and weaker the better ; but, as we shall di- 

 rect under Queen-rearin(4, it would be mucli 

 better to give queen-cells or young virgins. 



INVERTirirG. See Reversing. 



VJ ITALIAN BEES. At present the 

 Italians, and even hybrids, have shown 

 themselves so far ahead of the common bee 

 that we may safely consider all discussion 

 of the matter at an end by the great major- 



Iity of bee-keepers. Many times we find col- 

 onies of hybrids that go ahead of pure stock; 

 but as a general thing (taking one season 

 with another), pure Italians, where they have 

 not been enfeebled by choosing light-colored 

 bees to breed from, are ahead of any admix- 

 ture. There has been a great tendency with 

 bees, as well as other stock, to pay more at- 

 tention to looks than to real intrinsic worth, 

 such as honey-gathering, prolificness of the 

 queens, hardiness, etc.; and this may have 

 had much to do with the severe losses we have 

 sustained in winters past. 



Even if it were true, that hybrids produce 

 as much honey as pure Italians, each bee- 

 keeper would want at least one queen of ab- 

 solute and known purity ; for although a 

 first cross might do very well, unless he had 

 this one pure queen to furnish queen-cells 

 he would soon have bees of every possible 

 grade, from the faintest trace of Italian 

 blood, all the way u\). The objection to this 

 course is tliat these blacks, with about one 



band (with the exception of the Eastern 

 blood), are about the worst kind of bees to 

 sting, being very much more vindictive 

 than either race in its i)urity; they also have 

 a very disagreeable way of tumbling off the 

 combs in a iierfectly demoralized state when- 

 ever the hive is opened, except in the 

 height of the honey-season, and of making a 

 general uproar when they are compelled, by 

 smoke, to be decent. 



Our pure Italian stocks can be opened 

 at any time and their queens removed, 

 scarcely disturbing the cluster, and, as a 

 general thing, without the use of any smoke 

 at all, by one who is fully conversant with 

 the habits of bees. A good many hybrids 

 will not repel the moth as do the half-bloods 

 and the pure Italians. For these reasons and 

 several others, we would rear all queens from 

 one of known purity. If we do this, we may 

 have almost if not quite the full benefit of 

 the Italians as honey-gatherers, even though 

 there are black bees all about us. 



The queens, and drones from queens ob- 

 tained direct from Italy, vary greatly in their 

 markings, but the worker bee has one pecul- 

 iarity that we have never found wanting; 

 that is, the three yellow bands we have all 

 heard so much about. Unfortunately, there 

 has been a great amount of controversy 

 about these yellow bands ; and to help re- 

 store harmony, we have been to some ex- 

 pense for engravings. 



Every worker - bee, whether common or 

 Italian, has a body composed of six tubes, 

 or segments, one sliding into the other, tel- 

 escope fashion. When the bee is fidl of 

 honey these segments slide out, and the 

 abdomen is elongated considerably beyond 

 the tips of the wings, which are ordinarily 

 about the length of the body. Sometimes 

 we see bees swollen with dysentery spread- 

 ing the rings to their fullest extent, and in 

 that condition they sometimes woidd be 

 called queens by an inexperienced person. 

 On the contrary, in the fall of the year 

 when the bee is preparing for its winter 

 nap, its abdomen is so much drawn up that 

 it scarcely seems like the same insect. The 

 engraving on the left shows the abdomen of 

 the bee detached from the body, that we may 

 get a full view of the bands or markings 

 that distinguish the Italians from our com- 

 mon bees. Now we wish you to observe par- 

 ticularly tliat all honey - bees, common as 

 well as Italian, have four bands of bright- 

 colored down, J, K, U, M, one on each of the 

 four middle rings of the body, but none on 

 the first and none on the last. These bands 



