198 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



cile. The bees are aroused and in a^grj commo- 

 tion on each occasion ; but the liive is tinally 

 closed, and the owner wallvs ofFsatisfied and grati- 

 fied, readj' to repeat the exliibition day after day, 

 "to please admiring friends. Ultimately however, 

 amid all this disregarded humming and bustle, her 

 majesty is attacked, enclosed by the workers, and 

 killed ! Now who is at fault ? Obviously the bee- 

 keeper himself ! Italian queens are not more 

 liable to be attacked and killed, than others. 



As regards the objection that the Italians are 

 inordinately prone to build drone combs, I agree 

 with Dzierzon that it is unfounded, for my expe- 

 rience coincides with his. If an Italian colony is 

 properly managed, the workers will not build 

 more drone comb, than black bees will in like cir- 

 cumstances. By improper management, doubt- 

 less, undesirable qualities may be developed in 

 those bees, as in others ; but what some may re- 

 gard as an objection, others will perhaps con.sider 

 an advantage. Thus, for instance, with me it is 

 desirable that my bees should secure large stores 

 of honey in the fall, and many Italian workers 

 may be lost in their late excursions. The result 

 is that I have less populous hives in the fall than 

 my neighbor, who has only black bees, in popu- 

 lous hives, with much less honey. I have not so 

 many bees to carry through the winter ; and when 

 the swarming season arrives, my colonies are quite 

 as strong as his, the superior fertility of the Italian 

 queens having speedily replenished the hives." 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Italian Bees Again. 



I have received three eommunications or in- 

 quiries, and all three of about this purport — " Mr. 

 Gallup, I wish your candid opinion of the Italian 

 bees. I have tried them, and do not find them to 

 come up to the recommendation. In fact they 

 have not done near as well as my black bees," 

 &c. 



Now these correspondents are no doubt perfect- 

 ly honest in their conclusions ; but they have been 

 deceived. Two seasons ago I procured three 

 queens from a certain party, who advertised cheap 

 queens, and my neighbor, Mr. Wright, obtained 

 three from the same pai'ty. My "three queens 

 would not breed as fa.st as one ordinary prolific 

 queen ; in fact they could not breed fast enough 

 to keep up the strength of the stocks, leaving in- 

 crease or profit out of view. Neither could I or 

 did I succeed in raising prolific queens from them. 

 Mr. Wright's turned out worse than mine. To 

 use his own language, they did not pay the trans- 

 portation ; they ruined the stocks they were in- 

 troduced to. A Mr. Johnson and Mr. Drake, of 

 Brownsville, in this county, procured queens from 

 a certain party in ]M . They were war- 

 ranted pure, but, allowing me to be a judge of 

 their purity (and I saw them), they were a re- 

 cross from a cross ; and it was hard to tell whether 

 th§y were any better than the blacks. But of one 

 thing we were sure, they were as cross as ven- 

 geance ! Then there was another party at Da- 

 cotah in this State, who scattered pure Italians 

 broad-cast ; and I saw several of those stocks in 

 difl'erent parts of the State. The owners of them 

 informed me that they could not discover that 



they were any better than black bees. Now, for 

 a description. They were a mere shade lighter 

 tlian common blacks, and a few in each swarm 

 showed a slight stripe. The owners purchased 

 them for pure Italians, and not knowing'to the 

 contrary, judged from them that the Italians are 

 a humbug. 



In the first place, a queen breeder that intends 

 to keep up his reputation should breed from none 

 but stock of undoubted purity. He should breed 

 from prolific queens, and avoid breeding in and 

 in as much as possible. As Mr. Benedict says, 

 we can breed stripes on to our bees (and I do not 

 in the least doubt this), so we can by careful 

 breeding raise our stock up to produce prolific 

 queens. 



To the person who is unacquainted with tlie 

 Italians, I Avould say, procure your first queen 

 from some old experienced breeder, one who has 

 already established a reputation ; for it is in the 

 end cheaper to pay even twenty dollars for a qtieen, 

 and be sure that she is a good one in every respect^ 

 than to ohtaina poor one as a present. 



If I had known nothing about Italian bees, and 

 formed an opinion of them from the queens ob- 

 tained by Mr. Wright and myself, I should in all 

 probability have condemned them. 



You will see in the Bee Journal, an account of 

 my experience with the Italians the past season,, 

 as also with the blacks, and the cross breeds ; and 

 the Italians have demonstrated their superiority 

 beyond a possible chance of mistake. 



E. Gai^tjp. 



Orchard, loica. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Italians versus Black Bees. 



It is ten years since the Italian bee was first 

 imported. The question was then asked — " Is it 

 any better than the black bee, or is it a"humbug ? 

 a mere scheme for money making !" And 

 strange to say, notwithstanding that variety is 

 so widely disseminated, the same question is 

 still asked by many anxious inquirers. Skilful 

 ai)i:>rians, men who have given both liinds a 

 chance to be judged of by their fruits, have I 

 believe to a man given the preference to the 

 Italians. But the more Avitnesses the better, and 

 hence I wish to add my experience. 



I am frequently in receipt of letters a.sking 

 how I like the Italians, and whether I find them 

 superior to black ))ees ; and without doubt other 

 apiarians are besieged with similar inquiries. 

 Courtesy requires that such letters be answered, 

 no matter what the hurry of business; and an 

 ordinary letter can cover but a small amount of 

 the ground necessary to be gone over to tell why 

 our preference is so much for the Italians. Allow 

 me, Mr. Editor, to answer, so far as I am con- 

 cerned, many of these letters at once, through 

 the medium of your excellent Journal, that in 

 future it will only be necessary. to say to such 

 inquirers — "5ce American Bee Journal for 

 April, 1870." 



Experience alone can demonstrate the truth- 

 fulness of theory, and I am free to give mine if 

 any one will be benefited or instructed thereby. 

 Ctmcluding that twenty (20) years' experience 



