442 GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



a fctrongcr one ; thus giving needful support to one or more families, without 

 injury to any. In the perfonnance of these operations the use of a little 

 tobacco-smoke is requisite to paralyze the bees so far as to prevent them from 

 being intrusive. If the object be to collect pure honey, and to prevent swarm- 

 ing ; as soon as you have ascertained that the box is about three parts full of 

 combs, another box should be placed either under or over the first, and a 

 communication opened between them. In some remarkable seasons even a third 

 box may be required ; but this will rarely happen during the first year of a 

 family's establishment. Dm*ing the first year honey should generally be rather 

 sparingly taken. In future years, in good seasons, from thirty to forty 

 IDOunds may be taken from each family ; in highly favourable seasons, in a 

 good locality, much more. 



1321. The Ligurian, or yellow Alp-bee, recently introduced into this country 

 through the agency of Messrs. Neighbour & Sons, is rapidly replacing the old 

 Apis raelUfica. 



1322. The yellow Italian Alp-bee is a mountain insect, found between 

 two mountain-chains to the right and left of Lombardy and in the Rheetian 

 Alps. It thrives up to the height of 4,500 feet above the level of the sea, and 

 appears to prefer the northern clime to the warmer side of the Alps. 



1323. It differs from the common black bee in its longer, slender form, and 

 light chrome-yellow colour, with light brimstone-coloured wings, and two 

 orange-red girths, each one-sixth of an inch wide. Working bees as well as 

 drones have this mark. The drones are further distinguished by the girths 

 being scolloped, and attain an astonishing size, almost half as coi-pulent 

 again as the black drones. The queen has the same marks as the working 

 bees, but much more conspicuous and lighter ; she is much larger than the 

 black queen, and easy to be singled out of the swarm, on account of her 

 remarkable bodily size and light colour, being in shape and colour not unlike 

 a wasp. They are almost transparent when the sun shines on them, and have 

 nothing in common with the black bees : this can be instantly seen by their 

 ways and manner of building. The cells of the Italian bees are considerably 

 deeper and broader than those of the black bees ; fifteen cells of the Italians 

 being as broad as sixteen cells of the black kind. They are extremely tender, 

 amiable little creatures, and a bee-protector is not necessaiy with them, 

 as, unprovoked, they never sting. The Alps are their home, and there they 

 thrive beautifully ; the higher the better. 



1324. A healthy hive of yellow Alp-bees [Apiis helveiica) contains three 

 kinds of bees : — 1. the queen, or mother-bee ; 2. the drones, or males ; 3. the 

 working bees, or imperfect females. 



1325. The queen lays in summer daily from 1,000 to 3,000 eggs, and theso 

 in the best order ; one c^g in a cell. More than one queen the bees do not 

 suffer. Should there be more, like the black bee, they fly away as swarms, 

 or are killed by the bees. 



1326. The queen lays male eggs in the drone cells, and female eggs in 

 the small cells of the working bees. 



