THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



queens than were in those cla3's 

 sold at ten dollars each. After 

 this I saw several colonies of 

 so-called Italians for which the 

 owners had paid twenty-five dol- 

 lars a colony, and these also were 

 inferior hybrids. 



For several years after this 1 

 contented myself with the native 

 bees, having but little faith in the 

 imported race of bees. 



About the year 1870 or soon 

 after, a shrewd German, named 

 Fred. Kreuger started an apiary at 

 Shelbyville, Ky., and introduced 

 Italians ia it, I called on Mr. 

 Kreuger to see his new bees, and 

 out of a large number of colonies 

 I found a half dozen or more that 

 came fully up to the description 

 given of them and I was capti- 

 vated by them at once. My Ger- 

 man friend, differing from most 

 beemen, was decidedly uncom- 

 municative and seemed to dodge 

 adroitly all the questions I plied 

 him with. How do you like the 

 Italians, Mr. Kreuger? I ventured 

 to ask : " Veil za ees goot peeze. 

 If you pu3's a swharm ov doze 

 peeze for twend^'-fife toUar za be 

 goot peeze every dime." Well, 

 while I was talking to him a swarm 

 issued from one of his best colo- 

 nies of Italians and settled on a 

 limb. The swarming season was 

 nearly past, and most probably 

 this swarm would have to be fed, 

 a fact which he knew very well. 

 I offered him ten dollars for the 

 swarm which he accepted, but 

 required the return of the hive 

 in which we put them at the 

 time. This looked like a tight 



bargain on my part at the time, 

 but as it turned out I never made 

 a better trade on a small scale. 

 The queen turned out to be an ex- 

 cellent one, and after trying many 

 queens I have owned very few that 

 possessed the strength of character 

 as breeders that my first queen did. 

 After handling Italian bees long 

 enough to test them I became con- 

 vinced that with Italian bees the 

 business of producing honey could 

 be made to pa^^ as large a profit as 

 that derived from any ordinary 

 pursuit. 



With my knowledge of the traits 

 of the several races of bees, I am 

 unable to comprehend how somany 

 writers can blindly drawl out the 

 old stereotyped delusion about the 

 " superior traits" in the German 

 bees. The German or native bee 

 is essentially a " scrub" among 

 the races of bees. If they have a 

 single " trait" which is superior to 

 well-bred Italians they have never 

 exhibited it in my apiary or any- 

 where under my observation. 

 "They build whiter combs ;" "they 

 are better comb-builders ;" "they 

 enter the sm-plus department more 

 readily." How often have we seen 

 these assertions in print, all of 

 which are without the semblance of 

 truth unless we except the first, 

 and that is a matter of " taste" on 

 the part of those who sit in judg- 

 ment concerning the matter. It is 

 true that the German bees " pile 

 on" a little more wax in the pro- 

 cess of capping and there bj- give 

 the surface of the combs a white, 

 chalky appearance ; to my taste 

 decidedly inferior in delicacy of 



