Vol. X. 



JUNE 1, 1882. 



No. 6. 



A. I. ROOT, 



Publisher and Pro])rietor, \ 

 ITIedina, O. 



PuWished Monthly. 



Established in 187 S. 



r TERMS: $1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE: 

 I 2 Copies for Si. 90; 3 for 82.75; 5 for 84.00; 10 

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 \ Additions to clubs may be made at club 

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 office. Clubs to different postoffices, not 

 less than 90 cts. each. 



NOTES FROM THE BANNER APIARY. 



NO. 31. 



EXTRA-PURE QUEENS, ONCE MORE. 



^iSf^RIEND DOOLITTLB, on page 118, March num- 

 JiH ber, j'ou say, " It seems to mo that friend 

 — ' HutchinsoQ has made quite a concession on 

 friend Root's part by making him say that he (Root) 

 has had queens mating black drones that never pro- 

 duced a black bee." Now, then, how do yoti under- 

 stand the following from friend Root's remarks on 

 page 483, October number, 1881: "I am well aware 

 that we often have queens whose daughters produce 

 no hkick bees, but I do not know that 1 have ever 

 owned one whose daughters produced no two-band- 

 ed or hybrid bees"? 



Time and again, friend D., have I asked you to 

 say whether you have a queen whose daughters pro- 

 duce all three-banded bees, even though they have 

 mated with back drjnes; also how you could tell 

 what kind of drones they had mated with. You 

 have always evaded answering this question, by re- 

 ferring me to some queens that you had several 

 years ago. Begging your pardon, my friend, do you 

 really know, to a certainty, whether you now have 

 such a wonderful queen? 



I don't wonder, friend D., that It required some 

 courage to say, " There is no such thing as a one or 

 two banded bee." I presume that you thought the 

 majority of the bee-keepers would think, as a prom- 

 inent apiarist wrote me, that, "if almost anyone but 

 Doolittle had made such an assertion, he would be 

 considered a fit subject for the Insane asylum." But 



never mind, my friend, what others think; I think 

 you are deserving of great credit for saying what 

 you believe to be the truth in this matter, even 

 though you stand almost alone. 



ARE DARK ITALIANS HYBRIDS? 



Friend D., although I do not agree with you, that 

 there are no one or two banded bees, I will venture 

 to suggest, that perhaps the dark Italians are hybrids, 

 I know that these dark Italians show the three bands; 

 and if they are hybrids, it certainly helps to strength- 

 en the position that you, in this, have taken. "We 

 now have pretty good evidence that there are black 

 bees in Italy; and isn't it possible that these dark 

 bees are a mixture of the yellow and black varieties, 

 and it is this mixture that makes them so smart? 

 By careful breeding, in this country, the black blood 

 has often been "bred out," and the result is the 

 light-colored Italians and "Albinos." By crossing' 

 these light-colored bees with the black bees, we 

 again have dark bees, or hybrids. But in my ex- 

 perience, hybrids produced by crossing bees in this 

 manner, are bees with one or two yellow bands. If 

 the dark imported bees are hybrids, and yet show 

 the three yellow bands, I will confess that I do not 

 know why it is, unless it is because they have been 

 so long bred as hybrids that almost a distinct variety 

 has been developed; that is, an Italian bee with just 

 enough black blood to give it a dark complexion. 

 We all know that hybrids (whether the hybridiza- 

 tion is done in Italy or in this country) are good 

 workers. Who over knew of a lazy swarm of hy- 

 brids? In my experience, some hybrids are cross as 

 well as smart, while others are as amiable as pure 

 Italians. I consider the dark Italians a trifle more 

 difficult to handle than the light. 



