870 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



made in all between 35 and 40 colonies of the 

 dark strain. In addition to this we put in this 

 same yard about an equal number of Italians of 

 various strains. It was our purpose to test both 

 Caucasians and Italians side by side to determine 

 their relative merits as to gentleness, honey-gather- 

 ing qualities, etc. 



So far we have refrained from offering any 

 opinion until we could test the Caucasians for 

 honey, any more than to state that we found them 

 excessive breeders of drones (see page 683) — so 

 much so that a few colonies of Caucasians in a 

 yard with a lot of Italians, if not restrained with 

 drone-traps, would breed out the yellow blood in 

 very short order. 



But how about their other qualities.? We have 

 not found them to be any gentler than the average 

 run of Italians; neither have we found them to be 

 any Grosser. They will stand some kinds of 

 banging in cool weather that the average Italians 

 will not. They are slightly more nervous, and 

 at times fly up en masse as if they were about to 

 sting, but after all making little more than a big 

 bluff. Colony by colony, season in and season 

 out, with ordinary care one will receive as many 

 stings from Caucasians as from Italians. But 

 before we go further, we ought to state that we 

 have in the yard two strains of Caucasians. We 

 have never had any of the government strain of 

 Caucasians, and therefore can not speak of those 

 bees. 



But you may ask how our Caucasians are for 

 honey. Early in the season, and during the fore 

 part of the flow, they ran neck and neck with 

 our best Italians; and, what is more, the cappings 

 of their combs were whiter than those made by 

 the yellow bees; but this slight advantage is more 

 than offset by their habit of daubing every thing 

 with propolis. Brand-new frames they smear all 

 over in three months' time, and make them look 

 as if they were four or five years old. 



THEIR SWARMING PROPENSITY. 



We went down to look them over yesterday, 

 July 7, and we were chagrined to find that some- 

 thing over 95 per cent of them had swarmed 

 right when they were doing their very best work, 

 while less than 5 per cent of the Italians, under 

 precisely the same management, had swarmed. 

 To say that we were surprised and disgusted is 

 putting it mildly. 



As we have previously explained, we have been 

 working this yard alone, except a very little 

 help from the boys. We ran the yard for ex- 

 tracted honey in shallow supers. Having calls 

 for some Caucasian queens, pure and mismated, 

 we went down to the south yard and proceeded 

 to fill our orders. We then looked over hive aft- 

 er hive of Caucasians with the above result— ^they 

 swarmed. Fortunately we had drone-traps on 

 all but two; and the virgins coming on made 

 way with the old queens, and, of course, their 

 colonies began to sulk. We did not, as perhaps 

 we should have done, make an examination of 

 the brood-nest; but we didn't know the Cauca- 

 sians. 



Year after year we worked hives of Italians on 

 this same tier-up principle, for extracted honey, 

 and we never found it necessary to go into the 

 brood-nest. As we found the combs began to 

 whiten we would add extra supers, putting emp- 



ties under the partly filled ones up to about the 

 middle of the flow, after that reversing the order. 

 We expected, of course, the same procedure 

 would work with the Caucasians, as it always 

 had worked for us with the Italians, and as it 

 worked this year under precisely the same condi- 

 tions. Every one of the Caucasians and their 

 crosses, with the exception of two, had swarmed, 

 while we were up town attending to our office 

 work — hives full of cells, some hatched and some 

 not, and the colonies completely demoralized. 

 The 35 colonies of Italians, in the same yard, 

 with two single exceptions, went on taking in 

 honey, and with those exceptions there was not 

 a single colony that had a single cell in it or 

 showed any indication of swarming. 



You may say we ought to have known better, 

 and that we ought not to have depended on sur- 

 face indications at the entrance, at the tops, and 

 under the sides of the combs, with any strain of 

 bees. We admit that, had we gone through the 

 brood-nests of the Caucasian colonies, cutting 

 out the cells and the drone brood (and there were 

 quantities of the latter), we might have checked 

 the swarming to some extent. The fact remains, 

 however, that we didn't have to do this with the 

 Italians. No, they not only did not prepare to 

 swarm but kept piling in the honey. 



If this showing is a fair sample of Caucasians, 

 and their swarming propensities can not readily 

 be controlled in the production of extracted hon- 

 ey, what shall we say when we run them for the 

 production of comb? If this yard had been ex- 

 clusively Caucasian and its crosses, we might 

 have laid the excessive swarming to the locality 

 and season; but when it is understood that the 35 

 other colonies of Italians (except as mentioned) 

 in the same locality, in the same yard, and under 

 precisely the same management, did not sivarm, nor 

 sho-ru any indications of it, then we must perforce 

 conclude that the difference was in the race. 



But this is not all. The Caucasians are the 

 worst bees we ever saw to plug in brace-combs. 

 By this we mean spurs of wax between the combs 

 and between the top-bars and not on top of them. 

 There is occasionally a colony of Italians that 

 will do this between the wide thick top-bars; but 

 in our locality they are the exception, not the rule. 

 But even this is not all. The Caucasians stuck 

 in brace-combs down between the frames in the 

 very heart of the colony — so much so that it was 

 very difficult to remove the frames. We will 

 have some photos that will speak for themselves. 

 While, of course, these brace-combs could be re- 

 moved with the uncapping-knife, the act of draw- 

 ing the combs out of the hive is very greatly im- 

 peded, to say nothing of the broken comb sur- 

 faces, and danger of killing queens and bees in 

 the general stir-up. 



We wish to make it clear that we are not con- 

 demning all Caucasians. There may be strains 

 of them that do not show up the bad traits that 

 we have found in ours. Our Caucasians as stat- 

 ed consist of two different strains — some of one 

 and some of another; and we find that the crosses 

 of Caucasians — that is, bees from Caucasian 

 queens fertilized by an Italian drone — show the 

 bad traits about as strongly as the pure bloods of 

 the dark race, with the difference that the Cau- 

 casian-Italian is a little more vindictive than ei- 

 ther of the pure races. 



