.PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W. T FALCONER MANPG CO 



VOL. I. 



JULY, !891. 



NO. 7. 



The True Color of Carniolans. 



BY FRANK BENTON. 



In response to your request for a 

 description of pure Carniolan bees I 

 enclose a copy of the leaflet "Bees," 

 printed Jan 20th, 1886, containing an 

 article on this subject from my pen. 

 Were I to revise this article now, after 

 the additional experience of four years 

 residence and travel in Carniola, I 

 might make slight changes, though 

 not material ones, in its statement. 

 This article was copied shortly after 

 its appearance, by nearly all of the 

 apiarian journals printed in the 

 English language, and also appeared 

 in the New York World of May 19th, 

 1886, and it was then translated into 

 several foreign tongues and published 

 by European journals, the Noiwegian 

 version having the name of Ivar S. 

 Young attached to it as Its author, (by 

 mistake, of course, you will under- 

 stand.) It has also formed the sub- 

 stance of all information given about 

 Carniolans in the circulars of breeders 

 of Carniolan bees in this country and 

 in England, in most instances the 

 greater part of the article having been 

 incorporated into these circulars with 

 never a mention of its source. I am 

 also aware that about a year since, 



Prof, A. J. Cook, of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, published this 

 article, with only slight changes, under 

 his own name, in the American Bee 

 Journal, whence it was copied by the 

 British Bee Journal, and then appeared 

 in French in the Swiss Bulletin Inter- 

 national, and also in part in Spanish 

 in the Reoista Apieola, the name of the 

 new author having accompanied each 

 appearance of the article. I humbly 

 beg pardon after all this for laying 

 any claim to it. It is true I wrote it 

 ti ist, and nothing of the sort giving 

 information about Carniolans had 

 previously appeared in any language, 

 but I never for a moment supposed so 

 many would lay claim to its author 

 ship. 



In order to give more specific 

 answers to your questions concerning 

 yellow bees supposed to be pure Car- 

 niolans, I add herewith a few re- 

 marks explaining why yellow blood 

 crops out now and then among the 

 bees of Carniola. These remarks con- 

 tain some facts not known to me at 

 the time I wrote the article above 

 alluded to. 



The purest type of the Carniolan 

 race is dark gray, or steel colored, 

 larger than our common bees, and 



