166 



THE AMERICAN APT.CULTURIST. 



a pure "^^ellow" and a pure "black" 

 race of bees, and I so published my 

 convictions in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. 



Some smart folk tried to stir up some 

 fun at my expense at the time, but now 

 the pure "black" race of bees in the 

 new Punic Apis niger, has been 

 brought to light, "■black as jet," and 

 are actually now on trial in hundreds 

 of apiaries in this country. And I 

 have never lost faith in the forthcoming 

 "pure 3-ellow bees." They are going 

 to be discovered, and the man who first 

 procures them will need no machinery 

 to "boom" them. The pure yellow bee 

 will be taken without the asking. 

 There are more chances in favor of im- 

 porting new races of bees than most 

 people are aware of. Before the yel- 

 low races of bees were brought into 

 Kentucky no person had ever seen a 

 honey bee working on the red clover. 

 Its luxurious growth in the blue grass 

 belt puts the blossoms beyond the reach 

 of the native black bees. The Italians 

 however, visit the blossoms of the first 

 as well as the second crop of bloom ev- 

 ery season. The Italians also work on 

 the iron weed bloom which is never vis- 

 ited by the native black bees. There 

 are possibilities connected with the 

 newly introduced Punic bees that can- 

 not be known till these bees are tested. 



Why may not these "little bees" 

 find their wa}^ into flowers loaded with 

 nectar, that are inaccessible to the 

 larger races. On this account the trial 

 of the new races is a matter of much 

 interest to me. 



ABOUT THE CARNIOLAN BEES 



much wild fuss has been made. The 

 idea has taken hold that the Ctiniiolan 

 must be a pure race. In my opinion 

 nothing is farther from the facts. I 

 procured an imported queen directly 

 from Mr. Benton two years ago, and 

 thougli her worker progen^'^ were uni- 

 formly dark, only some of the aged 

 workers showing slight patches of 

 rust color, not yellow, on the first seg- 

 ment of the abdomen, when I came to 



breed from her the young queens were 

 far from uniform in color. Among the 

 first brood of young queens reared 

 there was one nearly as yellow as the 

 queens of my light colored Italians ; 

 and when she was mated her workers 

 were just like well marked Italians. 

 One of the features noticeable in these 

 bees is the fact tliat the_y never deteri- 

 orate in breeding like other bees. Of 

 tlie number of colonies of these bees 

 that I have handled not one of them 

 has slidback into colonies of dingy hy- 

 brids so commonly met with in nearly 

 all Italian apiaries. I gave two Car- 

 niolan queens to a fiiend of mine who 

 lives in a black-bee region, and he has 

 reared queens from them, and he says 

 that they hold their grip of yellow 

 blood against the black bees much 

 stronger than do the best types of the 

 Italian race. This would be beyond 

 belief to me, if I had not seen it for 

 myself. Introduce some Italian queens 

 in an apiary of black bees and leave 

 them to fight their own battle for color 

 and the result has no uncertainty 

 about it. The black blood will pre- 

 dominate over the yellow till but a 

 trace of the yellow will be visible. 



But once the Carniolan become yel- 

 low in color, no infiuence seems to 

 force them down. 



But to deal fairl^^ with them and 

 all other races of bees, I have found 

 the Carniolan bees especially in their 

 Australian dark dress, more inclined 

 to swarm, and harder to manage when 

 they swarm than most races of bees 

 that I have handled. But as they be- 

 come American bred this undesirable 

 featui'e in their make-up disappears 

 in a measure at least. 



THE LITTLE NIGGER FUNICS 



may be no good when thoroughly test- 

 ed, but as the}^ stand before the judg- 

 ment bar of unprejudiced apiarists 

 untried, they exhibit peculiarities not 

 seen in any other bees heretofore in- 

 troduced into this country. Their 

 small size, solid color in a state of 

 purity, and their quick movements, 



