688 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



posed, and liable to be laid waste by hurricanes, which will have to be guarded 

 against. Three of those storms visited the island in July, August and October, 

 1893. The first did not do much damage. On Aug. 17, it came nearly annihilat- 

 ing us. It left only five standing colonies. I stuck to my post and kept setting 

 them up as they were blown down, to save my fine queens, but it was of no use, as 

 it lasted so long. At last I was blown against a small tree, and there anchored. 

 On Oct. 15 it was just about as bad, but I was prepared. The loss was not so 

 serious as it was disappointing, as some 30 customers had to do without queens. 

 With this exception, the island is perfect for queen-rearing and other experiments 

 that may require isolation. 



Cakniolan Bees. — I commenced with Carniolans first, because I found them a 

 very gentle bee and amiable in disposition. My home yard, of 250 colonies some- 

 times, was within 50 feet of the busiest thoroughfare of the city, and demanded 

 gentle bees. After breeding them some time I saw one objection — the great diffi- 

 culty in find the queens. They were very shy, always seeking cover. The bees 

 behave beautifully on the combs, and the queen hides so among them, with such a 

 similarity in color, that in strong colonies it was almost impossible to find her. 



Another good feature of Carniolans is, they wintered well. They looked so 

 well that in the winter, or rather spring, of 1890 I sold right out of the cellar 165 

 colonies on April 1, to the Ontario Honey & Apiary Company, and 50 more to 

 another bee-keeper, leaving me with only 33 in the home yard ; those produced 

 four tons of beautiful honey, besides plenty in the brood-chambers to bring them to 

 a new crop. The perfect bee, I thought, if they had the yellow color. 



I then selected the best queen and reared nine from her, and sent them to the 

 island and with hand-picked yellow drones from my best and gentlest yellow colony in 

 one of my out yards. I was successful in mating only one. This cross produced 

 workers about half Italian and half Carniolan. As soon as this queen produced 

 eggs they were given to a colony to rear queens from, and crossed again with the 

 same drones. This was repeated four times in 1890, the first cross showing the 

 most marked results. Any change after that was slow and gradual. Four straight 

 crosses were made before much change was seen in the drones. You could see the 

 change first'on the underside of the abdomen, becoming lighter colored. The bronze 

 coloring gradually rose up and closed over the first segment next to the thorax. At 

 the eighth cross, yellow blotches or patches could be seen making their appearance 

 all over the abdomen, more especially on the three upper segments. At this cross 

 the^workers were evenly marked three-banded. It has taken eight more crosses to 

 produce the fourth and fifth bands. The seventeenth cross brings 100 per cent. 5- 

 banded. The drones are not so bright as I would like. But many are the bee- 

 keepers that would be satisfied with them, and think them perfect. 



In using the term "cross," or " crosses," it might be as well to make an expla- 

 nation, not wishing to be misunderstood. We will term it "in-and-in breeding." 

 The sire dies at mating, and the dam mates only once in a lifetime. If it can be 

 termed " in-and-in breeding," then it is not what stock-breeders would call "close 

 breeding." Sire and daughter cannot couple, nor dam and son. The drones used 

 in breeding have been the progeny of one queen for four years. The queens have 

 been bred in a direct line from the Carniolan, and selecting those of the most uni- 

 form color, there being considerable difference, and I am not able to fathom nor 

 give a reason why a queen producing uniform stock — say every worker three- 

 banded, or four— should not produce every queen evenly marked. They don't, 

 some being entirely golden, some with black tip, others two-bands, while some are 

 nearly all black. The last two queens hatched were from a pure yellow queen, and 



