THE ITALIAN HONEY-BEE. 537 



point. As soon as they can no longer procure honey from the flowers, they 

 may be found lurking about in search of weak or defenceless colonies, which 

 they soon destroy if permitted. Still, however, so long as the honey harvest 

 abounds they seem not to think of robbing. May we not, therefore, attribute 

 it to their excessive industry ? for in this they also excel, working both later in 

 the evening and earlier in the morning, as well as much later in the season, 

 than the native bee. Onr honey harvest usually, in this section of country, 

 terminates about the middle of July. Last year I found them building combs 

 and storing surplus honey during a great part of August and September. They 

 doubtless obtained it from some source unfrequented by the native bee, as the 

 latter were at that time consuming the honey they had previously gathered. 

 As queens continue to lay in the summer and fall, so long as their workers con- 

 tinue to obtain supplies of honey from abroad, they of course breed later in the 

 season than the native bee. This is of vastly great advantage in sections of 

 country where they are compelled by cold to lie dormant so great a part of the 

 year. As they seldom swarm late in the season, the bees bred at this period 

 enable the colony to enter the winter with a large population of young bees, the 

 larger portion of which survive until one or two numerous broods have been 

 hatched in the following spring, and the colony prepared in numbers to swarm, 

 as well as in every other respect to avail themselves of all the benefits of the 

 honey harvest the moment it presents itself. To this fact, and their great 

 powers of endurance, I attribute much of their productiveness. There is, how- 

 ever, one other most striking feature which, doubtless, is greatly contributive 

 to it. I allude to the rapidity of their breeding. As soon as the weather be- 

 comes sufficiently warm in the spring to prevent the chilling of their more 

 hardy brood, if you will open the hive and examine their combs you will find 

 entire sheets of it filled with young in process of maturation, all attended by a 

 few scattering bees, presenting almost the appearance of a deserted colony. 

 This enables them to far outstrip native colonies of like size in building up a 

 strong population early in the season, which is vital to their prosperity ; for, if 

 the bees are hatched and ready to enter upon their work as soon as the harvest 

 presents itself, all that can be done may be and will ; but (as is the case, proba- 

 bly, in six-tenths of all stocks of native bees) if not hatched until the harvest 

 is ope-half or more passed, of course much is lost ; and when we consider that, 

 in the greater part of the country lying north of Mason and Dixon's line, the 

 honey harvest lasts only about two months, during portions of which the bees 

 are kept in their hives and their pasturage rendered barren by rains, it will be 

 seen that a few days of favorable weather is to them an item of no incon- 

 siderable importance. I have had in a period of two weeks, at the height of 

 the honey harvest, nearly thirty-five pounds of honey stored in surplus honey 

 receptacles, besides building the combs in which they stored it, which, as they 

 consume about twenty pounds of honey in secreting the wax used in construct- 

 ing one pound of combs, would be equivalent to about seventy pounds of honey 

 gathered by a single colony in two weeks. The great redeeming point in the 

 character of the hybrids is that they possess much of the fertility, industry, 

 and productiveness of the pure race. Their stinging propensities, however, in 

 connexion with the fact that they are likely to degenerate rapidly and return 

 to the habits of the natives, will prevent their becoming favorites, aside from 

 other objections which will be found hereinafter. 



BREEDING. 



It is indispensable , or at least of the utmost importance, that those who at- 

 tempt to breed the Italian bee purely should familiarize themselves with the 

 appearance and character of the pure race, in order to detect degeneracy before 

 it has reached a point at which it may cost them much trouble and care to 



