THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



99 



Golden Carniolan Bees. 



BY HENRY ALLEY. 



I am amused, greatly amused, at the 

 arguments published in some of our 

 exchanges to pr< ve that there is do 

 such strain of bees as golden Carnio- 

 lans. Not since the advent of the Ital- 

 ians has there been such an excitement 

 in the bee kingdom as the golden Car- 

 niolans have created. Why all this 

 great noise over such a small matter? 

 This perhaps had better first be ex- 

 plained, as it is the key to the trouble. 

 Jealousy and envy on the part of deal- 

 ers in dark Carniolan bees seems to be 

 the chief cause of the tumult. They 

 well know that the dark Carniolan 

 bees have one bad fault, or trait if you 

 please, and that is the swarming pro- 

 pensity. They well know that if this 

 bad feature can be bred out and at the 

 same time the golden yellow color bred 

 in that the day of the dark bees has 

 gone by. 



Now, having shown why certain par- 

 ties claim that there are no such bees 

 as yellow Carniolans, let me prove to 

 the readers of the American Bee- 

 Keeper that there are such bees and 

 and that one bee-keeper can produce 

 them as well as another. In the year 

 1880 I ordered and received the first 

 Carniolan bees imported into this 

 country. I soon commenced to rear 

 queens from them. Although they 

 were pure, that is, as pure as any Car- 

 niolan bees ever seen here, I could not 

 rear any daughters from the imported 

 mothers whose progeny did not show 

 more or less yellow bands, and this 

 notwithstanding the fact that the Car- 

 niolan queens and drones were kept 

 miles from all other bees. I soon got 

 disgusted with these bees as they would 

 swarm when the hive had bees enough 



to construct cells. In the year 18*8 

 I again purcha.-ed one full col- 

 ony of Carniolan bees of Lockhart 

 & Andrews. They sent me a 

 fine colony of bees, although 

 there were not any bees showing the 

 yellow bands distinctly, I could see that 

 there were more or less workers that 

 had two indistinct yellow bands. I 

 commenced to rear queens, and in do- 

 ing so would select the whitest or light- 

 est colored ones for breeders and put 

 into my own hives, as I supposed such 

 would give me almost white bees. I 

 little thought that the light queens had 

 yellow blood in them. Well, the 

 queens were duly fertilized and I 

 watched for results, expecting of coarse 

 some beautiful iron-gray bees. I need 

 not say I was disappointed. Instead of 

 iron gray bees I had golden yellow 

 workers. " They met and mated with 

 Italian drones," did some one say ? 

 Yes, those who do not* know say just 

 that. Now wait till I have finished my 

 story and then give your opinion on 

 the point. It will be all the more val- 

 uable. Now the above queens were 

 kept two miles from all other bees, and 

 what is more is the fact that in the 

 yard with the young Carniolan queens 

 were several thousand drones and all 

 reared from the same mother as the 

 queens^ Every queen was reared with 

 all the care I could bestow, yet were 

 impurely mated, that is, a majority of 

 the worker bees showed more or less 

 yellow bands. 



Here is a point. Now if any one de- 

 sires to produce yellow Carniolan bees 

 what would be the proper step to take 

 to bring about the result? Why, select 

 the lightest colored queens and have 

 them fertilized by drones, reared from 

 the lightest colored mothers. How 



