THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



Ill 



ing favor until at present it stands 

 ( in the opinion of a large numl)er of 

 the most prominent apiarists) at the 

 liead, unsurpassed by any. 



If the Holylands in the short space 

 of time that they have been tested, 

 have proven so valuable, what will 

 be said when they have been given 

 tlie same advantages with which 

 American Italians have been fa- 

 vored ? 



The first essential with the majority 

 of those who call for queens is, that 

 they be beautiful, and in this regard 

 we have never seen any bees that 

 equalled the Holylands, and this 

 concurs with the opinion of the ma- 

 jority of those who visit our bee farm. 



It is claimed for the Italians that 

 the test of purity is the showing of 

 three golden bands or rings on the 

 anterior portion of the abdomen; 

 this marking being uniform, both in 

 the number and color of the bands. 



Those who are most familiar with 

 the importation and breeding of Ital- 

 ian queens are aware that, as a rule, 

 queens received from Italy do not 

 produce workers showing a uniform- 

 ity of this marking, and are further 

 aware that, as a rule, the majority of 

 imported Italian queens prove to be 

 hybrids. 



This comes not alone from the 

 fact that European queen breeders 

 do not fully understand queen-rear- 

 ing, but because the Italian bees are 

 the production of across between the 

 dark and yellow races, and if left to 

 themselves will retrograde, hence, in 

 order to maintain uniformity of mark- 

 ings careful selection and breeding 

 are necessary, which without caution 

 will lead to in-and-in breeding, 



which destroys many other more 

 valuable traits. 



If you want beautiful bees, add to 

 your best Italian blood the blood of 

 the Holyland bees, and our word for 

 it you will be pleased with the re- 

 sult. In order to prove valuable, our 

 worker-bees must prove strong, ac- 

 tive, energetic and correspondingly 

 gentle. All this we have in the Holy- 

 lands, and especially in the progeny 

 of an Italian queen mated with a 

 Holyland drone. 



We are now so confident of the 

 superiority of the Italian and Holy- 

 land bees that we propose hereafter 

 to devote our attention exclusively 

 to them and to their crosses, with the 

 assurance that we can thereby do 

 more toward developing better honey 

 producing bees than by attempting 

 to keep so many races pure. 



The Carniolans have received con- 

 siderable attention of late, but the 

 majority of beekeepers would never 

 be pleased with them as they show 

 too much of the black markings and 

 have a great propensity to swarm. 

 For these reasons we have discarded 

 them entirely. 



It may be well to enumerate the 

 requisite qualities which go to make 

 up the best bee for the honey pro- 

 ducer and see if we liave in them 

 those races to which we have given 

 the preference. 



1. They must be a hardy race, 

 and able to withstand, successfully, 

 the trying changes and severe winters 

 of our northern climate. 



2. Good breeders; keeping the 

 hives well supplied with brood and 

 young bees, from spring to fall, and 

 even during the most trying portions 



