1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



753 



ITALIAN BEES. 



Question. — I am a beginner in bee-keeping, 

 and have taken Gleanings this year. I am 

 much interested in your department, as you 

 make things so plain. I see much about Ital- 

 ian bees, and Carniolan bees mentioned once or 

 twice; also something about foul brood. Will 

 you be kind enough to tell us through Glean- 

 ings something about the bees named, and 

 briefly what foul brood is, how to detect it, and 

 how it is cured? I keep only black bees. 



Answer. — The Italian bee belongs to one of 

 the yellow varieties, to which also belong the 

 Cyprian and Syrian. The Italians are very 

 quiet and gentle, while the other two varieties 

 named are comparatively cross and vindictive. 

 Italians were imported into this country about 

 1860, while the other two were not brought to 

 our shores till about 1880. So far, nearly all 

 apiarists agree in placing the Italian bee at the 

 head of all others, both as to ease of manipula- 

 tion, beauty, and honey-gathering qualities. 

 As comb-builders they are not quite as good as 

 the black or German bees, which you say you 

 have; neither do they use as much wax in cap- 

 ping their surplus honey, which gives the sur- 

 plus product a little inferior appearance, or 

 what is termed a "watery look." They cling 

 very tenaciously to their combs, while the 

 black bees often fall off when the combs are 

 being manipulated, or run about in a frightened 

 way. This tendency in the Italian bee makes 

 the handling of the hives and combs very pleas- 

 ant: but when we wish to get them off the 

 combs for extracting the honey, or for any oth- 

 er purpose, it requires more work. However, 

 the main point of superiority of the Italian bee 

 is its honey-gathering qualities. If there is 

 any honey to be had they are away to the fields 

 after it, and will toil incessantly all day for a 

 very little, while the black bees often do not 

 work at all unless honey can be gathered quite 

 freely. Italian bees will labor faithfully all 

 day long for only " pennies," while the German 

 bee must have "dollar.*," or it doesn't propose 

 to work at all. To illustrate: 



About the time I flrst procured the Italian 

 bee I had fifteen colonies of blacks and three of 

 the Italians. As an experiment a fourteen- 

 quart pail of maple sap was placed in shallow 

 dishes, after adding a pound or so of sugar, so 

 as to make a very thin sweet. With honey the 

 bees were started to work near this sap; and as 

 long as the honey lasted they came in about 

 the proportion named above— fifteen of the dark 

 and three of the yellow. As soon as the honey 

 was gone they took to the sap; but soon the 

 black bees began to stop coming, so that in an 



hour scarcely any but Italian bees were carry- 

 ing the thin sweet. These bees worked till they 

 carried all the sap home, while the black bees 

 thought it not worthy of their notice. 



CARNIOLAN BEES. 



Carniolan bees are natives of Carniola, and 

 were imported into this country mainly through 

 Mr. Frank Benton, now of Washington. D. C, 

 but then of Munich, Germany. There seems to 

 be a difference of opinion regarding these bees, 

 some extolling them very highly as comb-build- 

 ers and honey -gatherers, while many more 

 have no words of favor for them. Some years 

 ago I obtained a Carniolan queen, and, from 

 careful experiments, comparisons, and inspec- 

 tions, I could not think otherwise than that 

 they a were a peaceable strain of the German 

 bee. I then got rid of them, as there were sev- 

 eral traits about them I did not like, ihe two 

 main ones being that they were bound to swarm 

 all through the honey-harvest, while the most 

 of the honey gathered by them was consumed 

 in brood-rearing, so they gave little surplus, 

 and were universally short of stores for winter. 

 Later on, I was led to think that I did not 

 have the genuine Carniolans, so procured other 

 stock from parties supposed to have the simon- 

 pure article, if there was such a thing. But 

 these last proved to be little if any different 

 from the first; and after a careful test of the 

 same, which gave no different results, I did 

 away with ihem again, since which I have let 

 them severely alone. They are said to be of a 

 steel-blue color; but close observation failed to 

 find them of such color farther than the black 

 bee shows it. I wish I could give a more favor- 

 able report of these bees; but when I say any 

 thing about tests which I have made, all I can 

 do is to tell the same just as I found it to be. 

 To do otherwise would be to be untrue to my- 

 self and untrue to those who read what I write. 



FOUL BROOD. 



Probably there is no one thing in bee-keep- 

 ing that has had more care and study given it 

 by apiarists than foul brood, and probably no 

 study which has given as little satisfaction, for 

 we are but little nearer a solution of the true 

 cause of the disease than we were when Quinby 

 wrote about it in the early sixties. When a 

 colony has this dread disease, a few of the 

 larvEe die soon after the bees seal them over. 

 The capping to the cell soon has a sunken ap- 

 pearance, quite often with a pin-hole in the 

 center, though not always so, as some claim. 

 Upon opening the cell the larva is found 

 stretched at full length in the cell, having a 

 brown appearance, while all healthy larvae or 

 pupio are white. If touched, this dead brood is 

 of a salvy, soapy nature, and gives off an offen- 

 sive smell. From the first few cells the dis- 

 ease spreads rapidly till the combs become a 

 putrifying mass, generally during the first sea- 

 son, and nearly always during the second, the 



