AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



829 



Topics of Interest. 



"SMari for Italian Bees." 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Under the above heading, on page 

 255, Mr. Thos. Johnson seems to think 

 that 1 made " a weak statement" in say- 

 ing at the Albany Convention that I 

 " w^as satisfied that the Italian bee vi'as 

 a hybrid ;" and as proof to show why he 

 thinks that statement weak, he cites to 

 us thoroughbred Hereford and Short- 

 horn cattle. 



I may have erred in saying " hybrid " 

 instead of thoroughbred, yet I am not en- 

 tirely sure of this. If hybrid means only 

 the first cross between fixed races, when 

 applied to bees, then I was wrong ; but 

 if it means the mixing and inter-mixing 

 of races, until we have a conglomeration 

 of diiferent varieties, which have been 

 bred In one direction so long that they 

 sport but little, or what is termed by 

 some "thoroughbred," then I was right. 



Most of those who write on apiculture, 

 use the term "hybrid" in the latter 

 sense, if I "read between the lines" 

 aright, and this was the sense in which 

 I used the term " hybrid," which Mr. 

 Johnson takes exception to. I was not 

 fighting the term "thoroughbred," but 

 I was standing against the few who 

 claim that the Italian bee is a fixed race, 

 or as the term goes, " a pure bee." 



With all the testimony which we have 

 had that there are black bees in Italy, 

 and with all the sporting and incon- 

 stancy of color which we have seen while 

 breeding these bees in this country, it 

 seems strange to me that there are some 

 who will persist in calling these bees 

 " pure," or belonging to a " fixed race." 



Capt. Balstein told us years ago that 

 "no Chinese walls of snow-clad Alps" 

 had kept the different races of bees from 

 intermingling in the sunny clime of 

 Italy ; and nearly all who have since 

 visited that country, have given us a 

 similar report. 



Mr. Johnson is right, where he says, 

 "The way to establish uniformity in 

 Italians would be in their color," for we 

 have no other criterion to go by. 



But what shall that uniformity of 

 color be ? The Eoots, of Ohio, claim 

 that the dark, leather-colored bees (so 

 nearly black that it is hard work. to dis- 

 tinguish them from our native bees, only 

 as they are filled with honey and placed 



on a window), which some of their im- 

 ported Italian queens produce, are just 

 as much Italian, and just as good honey- 

 gatherers as are those imported queens 

 which are a nice yellow color, and pro- 

 duce bees of the same consistency. 



Others, like Messrs. Timpe, Hearn, 

 Trego, etc., claim that the standard 

 should be bees whose abdomens, not 

 only of the queens, but of the workers, 

 are nearly or quite an entire yellow ; for 

 these bees, it is claimed, have all the 

 good qualities which go toward making 

 Apis Americana, with the quality of 

 color thrown in. 



I see Mr. Robbins is trying to make 

 the standard for Illinois " three yellow 

 bands," claiming that bees showing 

 these are the best and most prolific of 

 any in the known world. Will Mr. 

 Johnson swing his State of Iowa into 

 line ? and if so, which line will he swing 

 it into— that of ' the Roots', the Timpe's, 

 or the Robbins' ? 



It looks to me very much as if this 

 was a " hybrid question" through and 

 through, when we come to decide on a 

 standard for color, and I agree that 

 COLOR can and must be the only stand- 

 ard which can be fixed upon. In the 

 Good Book we find (Genesis 30, 27-43) 

 how one became rich out of a diversity 

 of color in the flocks and herds which 

 he cared for, and we find this color bear- 

 ing, almost as important to-day as it was 

 then ; but instead of our desiring to in- 

 crease those which are "ring-straked, 

 speckled and spotted," we are desirous 

 of producing something having a uni- 

 formity of color, for by this means some 

 may reach a prominence above that of 

 their more careless and slipshod neigh- 

 bors. 



Chickens are bred " to the feather," 

 yet none of these fancy fowls can claim 

 that they were the original race. No, 

 no. All they can claim is that through 

 a long series of breeding they are what 

 ihey are. And this is what I clam for 

 the Italian bee, and I cannot, for the 

 life of me, see why this should make it 

 any the less valuable, any more than 

 the breeding " to the feather" of poultry 

 should make them less valuable. 



All know that this breeding of poul- 

 try makes the poultry more valuable, 

 and yet we have those among our num- 

 ber who would claim that all the pains- 

 taking of our most enterprising breeders 

 of the Italian bee should count for 

 naught, yea, worse than naught, for say 

 they, this can only be arrived at through 

 a series of in-and-in breeding, and this 

 begets weakness, unprolificness and 

 laziness. 



