JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUriE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



it was necessary to study carefully the character of each race before 

 we could tell their respective values in forming the highly improved 

 breed at which we are aiming. 



Mr. Vogel then proceeded to give the results of his experiments and 

 observations. 



1. Cross between the Black and Italian (Ligurian) Bee. — It was ob- 

 served that the working bees from eggs laid by an Italian queen im- 

 pregnated by a black drone did not show the mingled outward appear- 

 ance which was expected. In the second stage, the progeny as it were 

 divided, part being like the Italian, part like the black bee. By going 

 on breeding with these bees carefully, after four or five generations the 

 one came back to the type of the Italian bee, the other to that of the 

 black bee ; but this is of inferior consequence, as it relates merely to 

 the outward marks of colour, &c. The nioro important question is, 

 whether the character seems to be transplanted into the mixed race ? 

 Some bee-keepers assert that the offspring of the black and Italian bee 

 is more gentle than the original black bee, others maintain the exact 

 opposite, and the same as regards their industry in honey-gathering ; 

 but the natural differences of character between these two bees are too 

 slight and subtle for certainty. The next point to be considered may 

 perhaps throw a little light upon the subject. 



'2. Gross between the Black and Egyptian Bee.— When first the 

 Egyptian bee was introduced by the Berlin Acclimatisation Society, 

 and placed under Mr. Vogel's care, he did not rate its value for scien- 

 tific purposes very highly, for he believed that all that was to be learnt 

 was already made clear by means of the Italian bee. But now he 

 thinks that the future, as regards discoveries to be made in the theory 

 of apiculture, belongs to the Egyptian bee. 



The first worker offspring of an Egyptian queen and black drone 

 were scarcely larger than pure Egyptian bees, and were in other 

 respects quite of the Egvptian type; the drones, of course, were pure 

 Egyptian. The next step was to breed queens of the mixed race, 

 and by Mr. Kohler's process to take care that they should be impreg- 

 nated by black drones. According to the rule observed in similar 

 crossings with the Italian bee, the worker offspring in this generation 

 should have been of two types, half of the bees black and half Egyp- 

 tian, but such was not the case. There were two types in the offspring, 

 but the distinctive marks of the parent's varieties were completely 

 mingled in part of the mixed progeny. One part of the young bees 

 was so like the Italian bee in colour, size, and character, that no one 

 could distinguish them from Italians. The other part was black with 

 white hairs like the Egyptian bee, and of exactly the Egyptian size. 

 The idea naturally presented itself, What if the Italian bee he the 

 result of a cross, perhaps thousands of year3 ago, between the Egyp- 

 tian and the black bee ? Mr. Yogel mentioned this idea to some friends 

 who would not hear of it, and to Dr. Gerstacker, of Berlin, who said 

 that he could discover no difference whatever between the bees sent to 

 him and genuine Italians, but that tbe hypothesis had no solid founda- 

 tion, inasmuch as the geographical distribution of the honey bee spoke 

 against it. But upon reading through Dr. Gerstucker's work on the 

 distribution of the honey bee, Mr. Vogel conld find no argument on 

 either side, and determined to try one step farther, which would make 

 his hypothesis still more probable, if it ended as he expected. The point 

 was. What kind of drones would a queen three degrees removed from 

 pure Egyptian blood produce? The drones appeared, and were of 

 two kinds ; one not to be distinguished from Italian drones, the other 

 the size of Egyptian drones, with black bodies and white hairs. Again 

 Mr. Vogel bred, from a queen two degrees removed, young queens 

 which were impregnated by a drone of the Italian type from the same 

 mother. The worker bee3 produced were all like the Italian bee. but 

 the drones naturally were of the double type. Further breeding, into 

 the third and fourth generation, produced the result that all the drones 

 also assumed the Italian type alone. In answer to the objection that 

 such a mixed race would show a tendency, according to rule, to 

 separate into its original factors, Mr. Vogel remarked that he has now 

 the nineteenth generation of the black Egyptian mixture, which remains 

 constant, and, ii anything, grows more and more decided, so that he is 

 thoroughlv convinced on one point — namely, that from a cross between 

 the Egyptian and black bees a breed is produced which no one can 

 possibly distinguish from the Italian bee. 



Mr. Vogel sums up his observations on these singular results, by 

 stating that he believes the black bee and the Egvptian bee to be 

 original types, and that all other varieties, Italian, Grecian, Syrian, 

 Chinese, &c, except perhaps the black bee of Madagascar, are the 

 results of various crossings. 



3. Cross between the Italian and Egyptian Bee. — The previous re- 

 marks have mostly hai reference to the more or less unimportant 

 subject of colour and outward appearance. In this case we come to 

 consider somewhat of the character and disposition of the bees : no two 

 varieties are more opposed in tLis than the Egyptian and Italian, the 

 former are most irascible, the latter most gentle. And now we shall 

 be able to make out, perhaps, whether in what regards the disposition of 

 the bee. the queen or the drone has the greater influence, whether the 

 young colony will inherit the temperament of its father or its mother. 



Tbe result of pairing Egyptian queens with Italian drones was 

 found to show that the character of the latter prevailed without any 

 trace of the usual Egyptian ferocity. Conversely Italian queens and 

 Egyptian drones produced an offspring as truculent as any genuine 

 Egyptian ; it appears, then, that the drone determines the character of 

 the progeny, and that, therefore, in any attempt at improving a breed 



of bees more attention must be paid to drones than has hitherto been 

 done. Mr. Vogel then concluded, in order if necessary once more to join 

 in any debate which might arise upon this question during the meeting. 



Then followed the second division of the first question — 



In. What are the Chief Disadvantages of the Puke Italian 

 Bee which we cannot hope to eemove? — Mr. Kaden, formerly 

 Commissioner of Police at Mayence, opened this part of the subject. 

 He commenced by stating that having heard nothing but praises 

 of the Italian bee, and feeling convinced that nothing in this world 

 was absolutely perfect, he determined to watch for their short- 

 comings ; but at the same time he is a great admirer of this bee, and 

 since the year 1859, when he received his first Italian queen from 

 Dzierzon, up to this time, he has had them sent from no less than 

 seventy different sources. 



Mr. Kaden has convinced himself that Italian bees have three 

 principal faults, or weak points. The first he noticed was the frequent 

 change of queens. In one hive, without swarming, this change was 

 observed three times in one summer. 



The second fault was, that in every kind of swarm, even in artificial 

 ones with young queens, drone comb is constantly built in the first 

 season, which does not occur with the black bee ; and further, the 

 Italians sometimes commence at once with drone brood. 



A third disadvantage is, that Italian stocks are generally weaker in 

 spring than others, this has been also noticed by many leading 

 apiarians. One might then be asked, " Why do you keep on sending 

 tot Italian queens if you find such faults in them?" And Mr. 

 Kaden replies: (1), For their beauty and gentle disposition; (2), In 

 order to raise a mixed offspring, which he considers of very great value. 

 He then read passages out of letters from two distinguished apiarians, 

 the first declaring absolutely that it was a fatal mistake to try to keep 

 to pure Italians ; and the second stating that he had almost made np 

 his mind to discontinue his labours in this direction. He then con- 

 cluded with an anecdote regarding the purchase of an Italian stock, 

 which showed that as a matter of business the selling of Italians 

 might be very profitable, even if they have no further advantage. 



Mr. Dzierzon, who was received with a storm of applause, next 

 addressed the meeting. Whilst he was quite willing to allow that the 

 Italian bee has its defects, like everything else under the snn, he still 

 thought it the best bee we have. He did not think that the rapid change 

 of queens was a rule, except so far as the Italian queens are certainly 

 shorter-lived than their black sisters, but then they are much more 

 fruitful. In a short life they produce as numerous an offspring as the 

 others in a long one. With respect to the alleged weakness of Italian 

 stocks in spring, which would unfit them for localities with early honey 

 harvests, Mr. Dzierzon thinks that this is connected with one of their 

 chief advantages ; for it arises from the fact that they cease breeding 

 earlier than the black bee, and thus, aided by their extraordinary 

 diligence, they often furnish plentiful supplies of honey in only 

 moderately good years. This excessive diligence has of course its 

 shady side in the fact that an Italian hive often becomes dangerously 

 weakened by the continual self-sacrifice of its denizens in had weather ; 

 but if they only reach the beginning of the fine season, their extra- 

 ordinary fruit fulness soon makes np for the loss. The next disadvan- 

 tage is the tendency to breed drones ; now Mr. Dzierzon himself has 

 found the reverse to be the truth with perfectly pure Italians, and has 

 at times been obliged to insert drone combs into Italian stocks, when 

 for purposes of propagation he wished to be sure of a plentiful supply 

 of drones, the Italian bees of themselves not furnishing a sufficient 

 quantity. Mr. Dzierzon must therefore oppose Mr. Vogel, and main- 

 tain that the Italian bee is the best of all known varieties, and in 

 itself already the sought-for breed. 



Mr. Vogel in reply denied that the Italian could be esteemed the 

 breed in question, as what was wanted was a bee possessing the com- 

 bined advantages of every known race. 



Mr. Kichter, a Wurtembura apiarian, could not join in the praises 

 usually awarded to the Italian bee. He had found it neither gentle, 

 industrious, nor averse to swarming, &c, beyond the black bee. He 

 touched upon the great advantages science had derived from observa- 

 tions made, especially by Dzierzon, with the Italian bee, and he men- 

 tioned his own experience as tending to show that the bee of Canuola 

 is on the whole better than the Italian. 



Mr. Fiitterer, of Stein, Grand Duchy of Baden, doubted whether it 

 was true that the Italian bees change their queens so often as some 

 persons had maintained. Probably when some apiaiim happens to 

 possess a very fine specimen of an Italian queen he is always opening 

 his hive and exhibiting her, and no wonder if in such a case her life be 

 not a very long one. This speaker agreed on the whole with Mr. 

 Dzierzon as against Mr. Vogel. 



Mr. Eothe next excited much merriment by remarking, that as a 

 large bee was the great point aimed at, and Mr. Vogel had undertaken 

 to produce any known variety of bee by breeding from the Egyptian 

 and black bee, he would confer a great kindness on apiarians if he 

 would save them the trouble and expense of going all the way to India 

 by breeding Apis dorsata for them at home. 



Mr. Vogel explained that he had spoken of varieties of Apis mellifica, 

 whereas A. dorsata was another species. 



Mr. Kneipp, of Worishofen, spoke in favour of the Italian bee, bnt 

 remarked that it required somewhat different treatment from the black 

 bee, especially in spring and autumn. 



Major Von Hruschka living in the country of the Italian bee, stated 



