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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 18, 



The Carniolaii Bees— Their Color, Etc. 



BY EMEB80N T. ABBOTT. 



Just before he discontinued the publication of the Ameri- 

 can Apiculturist, Mr. Alley, in reply to an article of mine, 

 made some statements about which I wish to offer a few sug- 

 gestions. I do not do this for the sake of controversy, as life 

 is too short to spend much of it in argument simply for argu- 

 ment's sake, but to see if we cannot get the facts a little more 

 clearly before us. The matter seems important to me, as I am 

 confident that the time will come when the Carniolan bees 

 will be given more attention than they are now receiving in 

 the United States. I might say, in passing, that so far as my 

 information goes, they are likely to prove of much more value 

 to the bee-keepers of this country than Apis dorsata, about 

 which a good deal is being said at the present time. 



But to return to the article of Mr. Alley. He asks, ad- 

 dressing himself to me : "Do you not know that the silver- 

 gray rings of the dark Carniolan bee are merely the result of 

 the yellow blood in the Carniolans ?" To which I reply that I 

 do not know anything of the kind. The gray bees of the 

 South and Southwest have the same rings, and these bees do 

 not show even a trace of yellow blood when purely bred. 

 More, they possess many of the desirable traits of the Carnio- 

 lans, and I am inclined to think that they originally sprung 

 from the same stock. I have seen colonies of these bees in 

 Missouri which were as gentle as the Carniolans, and that 

 stuck to their combs as closely as the Italians. The truth of 

 the matter is, I think any one who has the gray bees without 

 any admixture of Italian or the ordinary black blood makes a 

 mistake if he does not take pains to keep them pure. 



Mr. Alley further says : " When we breed Italians from 

 imported mothers, the progeny, both queens and workers, 

 runs back to solid black." This has not been my experience. 

 They do not do that way with me. In fact, the very opposite 

 is true. Every generation, if purely bred, becomes more yel- 

 low, so that it seems to me that the entire tendency of the 

 progeny of imported Italians, if kept pure, is toward increased 

 yellowness. 



Again he says, " There are no all steel-gray colonies of 

 bees to be found in Carniola." While I cannot say from 

 actual observation that this is a mistake, yet I do Tiiiow that 

 I have had a queen in my apiary since I lived in St. Joseph, 

 which came direct from Carniola, the progeny of which did 

 not show even a trace of yellow. However, the fact that there 

 is a tendency in nearly all bees which come from that country 

 to show yellow, does not prove that the original color of these 

 is yellow. Every breeder of Barred Plymouth Rock fowls 

 knows that they show a tendency to become black, but this 

 does not prove that the natural color of these fowls is black. 

 There is also at the same time a tendency to become white, 

 and from this by the same process of reasoning one might 

 prove their natural color to be white. Both are unwarranted 

 conclusions, and prove nothing as to the original color, or 

 rather, the true color of these fowls. They do prove, how- 

 ever, that the Barred Plymouth Rocks are what may be called 

 a combination breed, that is, made up of mixed blood, and 

 that the color tends to vary according to the pre-potency of 

 the fowl furnishing the blood which produces the prevailing 

 color. It is claimed, I know, that there is a tendency in Na- 

 ture to variation independent of the blending blood, but I 

 doubt this being true. There may be a mixture of blood in 

 most of the bees found in Carniola at the present time. If so, 

 we would expect all of the progeny of such mixture to show 

 traces of it for a long time. 



The longer fowls are carefully bred and selected as to a 

 special marking or color, the more permanent that marking 

 or color will become, and the less tendency there will be to 

 variation, or to revert back. This is just as true of bees as it 

 is of fowls, but we would expect any mixture of foreign blood 



to show through several generations. With proper care and 

 careful selection any color can be bred out or in. You can 

 take a white hen and breed her to a black cock, and then by 

 judicious selection breed out every tendency to either black or 

 white in the progeny, no difference which color seems to pre- 

 dominate. The predominancy of color, as I said above, will 

 depend entirely upon the pre-potency of the parent furnishing 

 the blood, or, to speak more correctly, the germ which pro- 

 duces the tendency to the color predominating. This law of 

 heredity, as previously suggested, is just as applicable to bees 

 as to any other animals. I have no doubt but what he can take 

 Carniolan bees showing a tendency to yellow and breed out 

 every trace of gray ; or, if he choose, he can breed out every 

 trace of yellow, that is, if he can control the matings. This, 

 of course, will take time, but it can be done. The doing of it, 

 however, would not prove anything as to the original color of 

 Carniolans. 



Which strain of these bees would prove to be the best I 

 am not prepared to say. From what little experience I have 

 had along this line at the present writing I would select the 

 yellow. As to which strain would come the nearer being like 

 the bee which was first given the name Carniolan, I do not 

 know this, either. In fact, I doubt if any one knows, or could 

 demonstrate it beyond successful contradiction. It would re- 

 quire a long and careful investigation in the native land of 

 these bees to come any where near settling the matter, and 

 even then the chances are the question might remain unset- 

 tled. It is ray opinion that steel-gray is the original color, 

 but I may not be correct. 



There is one point that is fully settled in my mind, and 

 that is, that the Carniolans are much more valuable than the 

 mass of bee-keepers at the present time seem to think. I am 

 thoroughly convinced that all that is needed is to put them to 

 the test in order to demonstrate their superior qualities. I 

 think, too, that the mixture of yellow blood improves them. 

 Here is a field for some of our workers at the experiment sta- 

 tions. Will not some one take it up, who has no financial in- 

 terests in the result, and see what can be developed out of it ? 



Let me say in conclusion that I do not have any of these 

 bees for sale, and have no interest in the business of any one 

 who has. St. Joseph, Mo. 



¥k 



Painted or Uupainted Hives— Which ? 



BY J. A. NASH. 



On page 243, C. Theilmann advocates the non-painting of 

 bee-hives, referring to an article on page 746 (1895) by Mr. 

 Thomas. On examining my file of the "Old Reliable" for 

 last year, I find that number missing. I believe, however, 

 that Mr. Thomas advocated the oiling of hives with old linseed 

 oil, instead of a priming coat, as is usually done by experienced 

 painters. 



I think that Mr. Theilmann has taken untenable ground 

 in this case. I have made hives and painted them for many 

 years, and am well aware that lead and oil add greatly to the 

 cost, but I have always believed that it was money well in- 

 vested. I am a practical mechanic, and for years, in the 

 earlier part of my life, followed house-building, as well as 

 bee-keeping. Now, I consider a bee-hive and a house very 

 much alike in many respects. Both should be made of good, 

 sound, dry lumber ; the joints should be tight fitting and well 

 nailed. But let a house be ever so well built, of the best ma- 

 terial, and not painted, and in a few years it presents an un- 

 sightly appearance ; boards are warped and split, water has 

 soaked into the once tight joints and rotted them ; nails that 

 once were driven down " flush," or sunk beneath the surface, 

 now protrude, or, as the workman would say, "the sun drew 

 them." Sashes and doors are sagged out of square, and the 

 pins and keys that held them together are loose. These and 



