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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. IS, 1903. 



mechanical points, you may say, things that will settle 

 themselves for each man. But I do not think Mr. Mclntyre 

 brought forward strong enough some large points— vital 

 points— as compared with these. The question is how to 

 get a large quantity of honey. Now, I believe we are los- 

 ing tons and tons of honey by prejudice against certain 

 strains or types of bees. A man that produces 20 tons of 

 honey might produce 30 if he had the right kind of bees to 

 gather it ; and where he is producing 20 tons of honey he 

 can increase that by half by care in the selection of his 

 bees. The right bees for the locality, and the right queens, 

 might enable him to gather an added 50 percent. 



Now, I will come down to the particular point I wish to 

 bring forward. The Cyprian bees possess more energy 

 than any other race of bees I know of. I handled them for 

 years in the Island of Cyprus, extensively there and also in 

 other countries. They have a disagreeable stinging trait. 

 Their tongues have been measured by a great many different 

 people. I have done something in that direction which has 

 been confirmed by others. Their tongues are the longest 

 of any bees— at least, as long as any of the Eastern races, 

 and longer than any other European types. They can fly 

 farther, have greater wing-power in proportion to the size 

 of the bodies. There is large wing-spread that has come 

 through centuries of dwelling in the Island of Cyprus. I 

 think it wrong to reject that type of bees, because they pos- 

 sess more power in transmitting their rice or progeny than 

 •kny other race I know of. With this element we should not 

 Ignore a strong-wing quality, and the fact that thev are 

 among the most prolific of European races, or beyond any 

 type whatever. Of course, we want a bee that we can 

 handle, and that brings the difliculty. 



We have in Austria a type extremely gentle. Another 

 type in southeastern Russia is an extremely gentle bee. 

 Both of these bees are prolific ; both of them good honey- 

 gatherers. 



Now, confining myself more particularly to the Carnio- 

 lan— the bee of Europe— this is the hardiest bee that I know 

 anything about. If we can eliminate some of its poor quali- 

 ties and unite it with the Cyprians, we would have the ideal 

 bee. I conceived that notion some IS years ago, that we 

 might, by crossing these bees, get the good qualities of each 

 combined. While I was in Munich, Germany, I had sent a 

 large number of Cyprian bees, that had been mated there, 

 back to me. I tested them in that raw region, nearly 2000 

 feet above the sea-level, and I found them superior to any 

 others we had there. I have printed the results of these ex- 

 periments in some circulars which I have brought with me. 

 Two years later I went to Austria and took with me a pure 

 Cyprian queen, and had that mated to Carniolan drones. 

 The same experience came to me, but not content with that, 

 still I have followed down many and various crosses be- 

 tween these two races since then up to the present time, 

 sometimes a large number and sometimes a small number. 

 I have sent these bees into different regions of this country 

 where the winds are high, and where it is important to 

 breed up rapidly in the spring, particularly. Where alfalfa, 

 the first crop, would be an important item, people have told 

 me that these bees with this blood increased their honey- 

 yield, and increased their colonies at the same time very 

 materially. Some have said they doubled their colonies. I 

 am merely calling attention to what we are losing by re- 

 jecting these bees on account of their color, etc. Mr. Mc- 

 lntyre did not like to cross these bees ; they would be re- 

 jected because they are hybrids, but would produce bees 

 that would be acceptable on account of their color. Are 

 they not just as much hybrids ? 



Now, it is just as easy to breed Carniolans that have 

 yellow stripes on them. I have traveled all over Carniola, 

 and have never seen a single colony there where there were 

 not some yellow-banded bees, and I conceived the idea that 

 a grey-colored bee with yellow queens would be very nice 

 to have, and before my departure from that province I 

 selected a set of yellow queens that would produce entirely 

 grey workers, and the tendency was to have the yellow crop 

 out on the workers. I tried to avoid that, but you see it 

 would be to produce yellow Carniolans, and we would not 

 have those hybrid bees, would we, because they are all yel- 

 low 7 Now, that cross-bred bee is not cross. It is amenable 

 to smoke ; it has the energy of the Cyprian, the prolificness 

 of the Cyprian, and the hardiness of the Carniolan. We 

 have, therefore, all the really good qualities and important 

 qualities of the Cyprian, including their great wing-power 

 and their energy, their disposition to fly farther, their long 

 tongues, and the hardiness of the Carniolans. By continu- 

 ing to mate pure Cyprians to the pure Carniolans, I think 



erable to an unfixed type. I find in the spring, when the 

 wind is cold, and many of the bees that leave the hives will 

 drop down on the ground, these cross-bred bees, these 

 hybrids, will actually get back into the colonies, and will 

 fly strongly when others do not dare venture out, and they 

 will gain something. The bees that do not get back into 

 the hive will make a great difference in the honey produced. 

 Coupled with all these other qualities, I am prepared to say 

 that with all my experience of 11 years in foreign countries, 

 and some 30 years since I began handling bees, I have not 

 found anything to excel these bees. I believe the most im- ' 

 portant point in the production of honey is care in the selec- 

 tion of strains or types of bees. 



Secondly, I requeen in the latter part of the year. I 

 take pains to see that the new queens are bred from the 

 very best queens I can produce. I select only large, prolific 

 queens. I want those that will produce 20 to 25 queens to 

 the brood. With these, I believe, we have gotten the two 

 most important points in the production of extracted honey. 

 J. K. Williamson — Several years ago I put about 30 

 Carniolan queens into the apiary for Mr. Wheeler. My 

 partner and I afterwards bought that apiary. The Carnio- 

 lan queens, perhaps, were mostly superseded before we 

 bought it, but the nearest Carniolans in the apiary after we 

 got it were the bees that brought in the biggest amount of 

 honey. 



H. H. Moe — I would like to ask Mr. Benton how many 

 queens he rears out of a good, strong colony — how many 

 cells does he start ? 



Frank Benton — Well, I sometimes start 100 in a colony 

 to get good, well-developed queens. I have seen in the 

 hives of some of these Eastern races of bees, where they 

 had prepared sometimes as high as 250 cells, nearly all pro- 

 ducing well-developed queens. It is a mistaken idea to 

 suppose a large number could not develop. Simply because 

 our Italians and blacks do not produce a large number is no 

 reason why we should not get them. I do not hesitate to 

 rear anywhere from SO to 100. I would not hesitate to rear 

 200 if I had a powerful colony. 



Mr. Hyde — My views are the same. We have at pres- 

 ent five or six different strains, and we try to find out which 

 are the best for all purposes. Cyprians are good bees for 

 honey, but we can not stand the temper. Our men do not 

 like to work where they are liable to be stung so often. We 

 have decided to use nothing but Holy Land bees for our 

 purposes. 



Frank Benton — I may say I spent a good many days in 

 apiaries in Palestine, and at the same time I had an apiary 

 of over 200 colonies in Cyprus, and worked most of the time 

 handling these bees with perfect impunity, while in Pales- 

 tine I had to use clouds of smoke. Now, Syrian bees and 

 bees of Palestine differ very much, and in the first importa- 

 tions brought to this country, in 1880, these two races were 

 mixed, badly mixed, and the term " Holy Land " now covers 

 them both. They differ considerably, and in temper are 

 far inferior to the Cyprians. An occasional Cyprian col- 

 ony shows as bad temper as a large number of bees of Pal- 

 estine, but, all in all, the Cyprians are decidedly better 

 tempered than these Holy Land bees. Where that does not 

 hold good, the Cyprians have become hybridized, and like- 

 wise the Holy Lands, and this has brought in the gentle 

 element. I have tested that. 



Mr. Hyde — I would like to say that Mr. Benton must 

 have gotten his from a different source than that from 

 which we got ours. They are very gentle bees. I think 

 they are as gentle as Italians ; that is, pure Holy Land 

 bees. I am not talking about something mixed up with 

 Cyprians. 



Mr. Benton — I think you got them from Mr. Balden- 

 sperger, in Jerusalem. That is where I established an api- 

 ary myself — that very apiary. Further, I have had con- 

 stant experience with these bees for years, and I have been 

 in his apiary and traveled near them, and moved all their 

 colonies, some 600. They were supplied to me all the time 

 I was in the East, afterwards when I was in Munich, Ger- 

 many. It is just possible that you got a gentle type of that 

 bee. By the side of it you may get fierce ones. The same 

 thing may occur, perhaps, with the Cyprian, though, per- 

 haps, in four cases out of five you will get rather easily 

 managed ones, while, in the fifth, rather fierce ones. 



Mr. Hyde — I would like to say that I got ray stock of 

 Cyprians from Mr. Benton 1 [Laughter.] 



Mr. Delano — I had 200 colonies- in one location and 

 decided to move half away. The 100 I moved away were so 

 cross all that season that I could not go near them, nor any 



constant type could be established, and I find that is pref- » one else, unless fully prepared to do so. while the others in 



