10 



1 HE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



of bees, which I built up into a strung 

 colony, and thence commenced my 

 career as a modern bee-keeper 



At that time, and for years after- 

 ward, the Italian was believed to l>e a 

 pure race of bees, and at the start I 

 shared in this common belief. But, 

 being a close observer of all matte: s 

 pertaining to bees, 1 soon discovered 

 that, when breeding from imported 

 queens, I could "find none that did not 

 "sport" in a way that convinced me 

 that the Italian bee was a hybrid, and 

 1 was the first American writer who 

 disclosed the fact to the public. 



I was opposed in my views by many 

 at the time, and supported by none. 

 But it was noticeable that the " thr^e- 

 band test" followed rapidly on the 

 heels of my announcement. Now no 

 reputable writer would venture to 

 speak of the Italian as a pure race of 

 bees. 



In those days I owned one imported 

 mother that "spurted " in her off .spring 

 - — worker, drone and royal progeny — 

 in a fashion that opened up a new field 

 of study to me. I discovered speci- 

 mens among the worker progeny that 

 were pure yellow bees, minus any 

 stripes, hands or dark veins, and other 

 specimens as black as night, with 

 broad, short abdomen — the very pic- 

 ture of what I have since seen in the 

 new " Punic " race. I inferred from 

 those out-cropping specimens that the 

 Italian was a cross, of long standing, 

 between a pure "yellow" and a pure 

 "black" race of bees. 



Some smart persons tried to make 

 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. 



I have never lost faith in the forth- 

 coming " pure yellow bees." They are . 

 going to be discovered, and the man 

 who first procures them will need no 

 machinery to "boom" them. The 

 pure yellow bees will be taken with- 

 out the asking. 



There are more chances in favor of 

 importing 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 put the blossoms beyond the reach 

 of the native black bees. The Ital- 

 ians, however, visited the blossoms of 

 the first as well as the second crop of 

 bloom every season. 



The Italians also work on the iron- 

 weed bloom, which is never visited by 

 the native black bees. There are pos- 

 sibilities connected with the newly-in- 

 troduced Punic bees that cannot be 

 known until these bees are tested. 



Why may not these "little bees" 

 find their way into flowers loaded with 

 nectar that are inaccessible to the 

 larger races ? On this account the 

 trial of the new race 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 jCarniolan must be 

 a pure race. In my opinion nothing 

 is farther from the facts. I procured 

 an imported queen direct from Mr. 

 Benton, two years ago, and though her 

 working progeny were uniformly dark, 

 only some of the aged workers show- 

 ing slight splotches of rust color, not 

 yellow, on the first segment of the ab- 



