698 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 15 



Dr. Bruennich says they didn't have to breed 

 up a strain of bees practically non-swarming. 

 Tney had the material ready to hand, to be 

 had for the seeking. 



"The race was existing already," says Dr. 

 Bruennich, "but only in very remote farms, 

 where no foreign blood (Carniolan or Italian) 

 had spoiled the good qualities of the old ac- 

 climated bee. We had nothing to do but to 

 seek those isolated colonies, and to take the 

 best of them for rational breeding. The best 

 stock I possess myself: Sigrun, Made, and 

 Berna " (in Switzerland their blooded queens 

 are named as well as their blooded cattle) , 

 "are from such colonies. The first comes 

 from an exceedingly remote bee-yard of 

 about 12 colonies, which has existed there 

 for many years, with almost no swarming, 

 the bees quietly superseding their queens. 

 The second I found in a straw-hive, the ' last 

 Mohican ' of a little isolated bee-yard, and it 

 was the same with my Berna. 



"These 'last of the Mohican ' represented 

 the noblest successors of a good race which 

 could maintain itself in spite of the poor 

 treatment that had been given. The Berna 

 colony had been in the same hive for 1 8 years ; 

 and when put into a large hive it developed 

 wonderfully. The only task we had was 

 simply to breed from this good stock, which, 

 without exception, was the brown bee (black 

 bee it is called in America) , and to avoid any 

 mixture of bad foreign blood. As may be 

 readily understood, the constancy of those 

 bees was exceedingly great; they were of a 

 very fixed type, hence the excellent results 

 with no great or long-continued effort. I 

 have often, since, bred between parents — al- 

 so brother and sister — with good success. 

 The pure black or brown bee is very gentle, 

 while a mixture of Italian blood produces 

 veritable little devils. 



" The qualities of our native bee, if pure, 

 are indeed excellent. Thanks to their lon- 

 gevity, they cease brood-rearing in August, 

 and then winter well (of course always in 

 the open air) . In spring they begin brood- 

 rearing late (March), but then breed so in- 

 tensely that they are in full height of popu- 

 lation by the first part of May. The early 

 cessation of breeding leaves a good stock of 

 pollen in the hives, and this favors quick de- 

 velopment in spring. In the beginning of 

 my bee-career I possessed Italian hybrids. 

 I was glad and proud to see as late as Octo- 

 ber those great brood-nests; but when spring 

 came they were in a pitiful state; they had 

 no pollen, and little honey or sugar syru 



& 



and came into fullest development only 

 when the harvest was over. 



"A good queen works at her best for three 

 years, and is then superseded in her fourth 

 year. She then remains in the hive with 

 her daughter till she dies. My good old Sig- 

 run was superseded in June of her third year, 

 and lived together with her daughter till May 

 of the fourth year. Her daughter is now 

 four years old, has still a very good brood- 

 nest, but is now going to be superseded. 

 Last year it was the same with my Made, 

 which (four years old) worked as well as a 



young queen, and was superseded early in 

 July. She lived only eight or ten days with 

 her daughter and then died. 



"The brood-chamber of our hives is about 

 12 inches in width, 15 in height, and 14 to 17 

 in length. The capacity is, therefore, 1.5 to 

 1.8 cubic feet. 



"You are right, that in Switzerland we 

 produce very little comb honey, and that it 

 would, perhaps, make some difference if we 

 should run for comb honey. The chief point 

 is that which you have mentioned; bees that 

 do not swarm give, of course, far more hon- 

 ey than those given to swarming. 



" As to the Carniolans, I must say that it is 

 quite a different strain from the blacks, and 

 that because the Carniolan flora is totally dif- 

 ferent from ours. There in autumn they have 

 great areas of Erica (heather) , giving a very 

 good crop — one may say the chief crop; there- 

 fore swarms coming in May or June are eas- 

 ily strong enough for the Erica harvest. 



"Last year I sent a number of queens to 

 American bee-keepers, and should indeed 

 like to know the results of this year. At all 

 events it would be a test of our Swiss bees 

 in America. I have sent a great number of 

 queens into all parts of Germany, and a great 

 many of them proved extraordinarily good. 

 A queen I sent to Bohemia furnished 35 kil- 

 ograms of honey, while the average of other 

 colonies was but 6 kilograms. 



"If this stock is to be introduced, the ef- 

 fort should be to keep it pure by mating in 

 remote places with black drones. It is quite 

 possible that the long voyage across the ocean 

 may have a bad effect, but the offspring 

 would hold good. The offspring, however, 

 should be purely mated." 



With sucn a number of mating-stations in 

 Switzerland where pure mating may safely 

 be counted on, it may seem to Dr. Bruennich 

 an easy thing in a country the size of ours to 

 find places tor pure mating in still greater 

 abundance. Switzerland is not a third as large 

 as Illinois; but who knows a spot in all of Illi- 

 nois where queens could be mated without 

 interference from surrounding drones? 



It is to be hoped that those who have tried 

 these Swiss bees in this country will report 

 as to results. Of course, as Dr. Bruennich 

 says, a queen which has crossed the Atlantic 

 may not be expected to do her best work; 

 but her royal offspring should be as good as 

 though no such journey had been made; and 

 as to these, we should have reports. The 

 great trouble, however, is as to pure mating. 

 Even although well satisfied of the superi- 

 ority of Itahans over blacks, the Swiss blacks 

 may be quite different from the blacks we 

 have had. And whether we have interest in 

 blacks of any kind, there is plenty of room 

 for improvement of Italians; and as to this 

 we may learn much from our Swiss brethren. 



Marengo, 111. 



[If there are any of our readers who have 

 this Bruennich stock of blacks in this coun- 

 try we should be pleased to get reports of 

 what they are doing. Possibly our climatic 

 conditions would render even this strain of 

 blacks undesirable. — En.l 



