126 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



can show in the Bay State apiai'3^ the 

 handsomest brood-combs to be found 

 in the world. The foundation came 

 from the Dadants, every comb is as 

 straight and as smooth as a piece of 

 board. 



Wired brood-frames and narrow 

 top-bars have caused me to say a good 

 many swear words the last ten years. 

 Both of these things are nuisances in 

 the apiary. Bee veils, wood founda- 

 tion, narrow top-bar brood-frames and 

 rubber gloves are the meanest kind of 

 nuisances in the apiary, and wholly 

 unnecessary at all times. 



Carniolan bees. 



The Carniolan bees are getting some 

 hard kicks in the various bee papers. 

 Those who are rearing this race of 

 queens have our sympathy, as we 

 well remember some thirty j'ears back 

 how the Italians were treated. Just 

 substitute the word Italian for Carnio- 

 lan in those fellows' articles who are 

 now saying such hard things al)out the 

 Carniolan bees and you will then get 

 some idea as to what was said about 

 the best race of bees now in the world. 



It does sound so natural to us when 

 reading one of the articles in the bee- 

 papers concerning the Carniolan bees 

 that we almost feel thirty years young- 

 er. Well, the Italians outlived the 

 croakers and no doubt the Carniolans 

 will do the same. 



When the Italians are properly 

 reared and bred, they are as good as 

 bees can be expected to be. Tlie same 

 may be said of the Carniolan bees. 

 The first imported queens were not as 

 good as they sliould have been. Queen 

 dealers here had to rear queens from 

 inferior motliers at the start. The 

 consequence has been that the Car- 

 niolans proved to be great swarmers, 

 and poor hone}' gatherers. Now, in 

 the hands of the skilful queen breeder 

 there has been a great improvement in 

 this new race of bees. 



We cannot say that the Carniolan 

 bees are as good as the Italians, yet 

 will say that they are pretty nearly 



as good in most respects. However, 

 the Italians will sta}' in the Bay State 

 apiary a long time yet ; we do not 

 propose to throw them over yet awhile. 

 There is one peculiar thing about 

 crossing these two races. Last year we 

 mated some Carniolan queens to Ital- 

 ian drones. Result was beautiful Ital- 

 ian bees. We then mated some Italian 

 drones and Carniolan queens. Re- 

 sult was the same. Who can explain 

 this? 



Imported Italian queens. 



We stated in our last issue that we 

 had received two imported queens by 

 mail from Italy. Both queens were 

 successfully introduced and the hives 

 are now well filled with bees. Those 

 unacquainted with imported bees sup- 

 pose that queens received directly 

 from Italy must produce the finest 

 three-bauded, worker bees. This is 

 not so. The progeny from these 

 queens, though they have a yellowish 

 cast, have but two narrow bands. 

 Should I send queens to my customers 

 that produced no better bees, letters 

 would come in by the hat full "the 

 queen you sent me is a hybrid." All 

 queens, and pure Italian queens too, 

 do not produce three banded workers, 

 nevertheless they are pure Italians. 



We shall soon rear a few queens 

 from the imported mothers. The 

 young queens will be quite dark col- 

 ored, yet they will produce handsome 

 bees where fertilized by drones reared 

 from our SlOO queen. One thing is 

 certain, there will be no in -bred bees 

 when thus crossed. 



Will those who desire these queens 

 please order early, so that we may be 

 prepared to fill all orders as soon as 

 possible. The imported mothers are 

 very prolific and we have no doubt 

 that the daughters, when fertilized by 

 the drones to which we propose to 

 mate them will produce bees for busi- 

 ness and profit. 



We did not attempt to rear any 

 queens from these mothers till they 

 had been in the hives sutiicieutly long 



