American Bee Journal. 



Vol. Ill 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNEI?, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



No. 1 



A Season Among Italian Bees. 



[Several years ago, Professor Mona, of Italy, 

 undertook to establish an apiary for the pur- 

 pose of rearing Italian queen bees to supply the 

 foreign demand for them, which sprung up after 

 the Italian bees were introduced into Germanj^, 

 and their superior value became known and 

 appreciated. The business which he thus ori- 

 ginated prospered beyond expectation, and soon 

 rendered it necessary that he should procure a 

 competent assistant. He accordingly engaged 

 the services of Mr. Uhle, a practical apiarian of 

 great in'elligence and experience, who joined 

 him at Faido, in the spring of 1866, after the 

 apiaries had been removed to Faido, in the can- 

 ton of Tessin. At the close of the year, Mr. 

 Uhle sent a communication to the Oerman 

 Bienemeitung^ from whi«h the following ex- 

 tracts are taken. ] 



Having from personal observation satisfied 

 myself of the superiority of the Italian bees, 

 having read the various articles contained in 

 the Bienemeitung exhibiting their great value 

 and importance, as also the excellent treatise 

 on " the Italian Bee," published by Mr. Kleine, 

 I came here in April last with intensified expec- 

 tations. 



Professor Mona had given up his school to de- 

 vote himself exclusively to bee culture, and 

 taken up his abode at his paternal home in 

 Faido, though his bees still remained, for the 

 most part, in the neighborhood of Pollegio. 



Since the 1st of March, the business of sup- 

 plying orders by sending out full colonic*, driven 

 swarms and single queens, had been recom- 

 menced ; -and now rapidly increased, as the 

 weather grew milder and the roads improved. 



The excursions, which I had occasion to make 

 to his different ai)iaries, enabled me to obtain a ' 

 comprehensive view of Prof. Mona's arrange- ' 

 menis and modes of operating. There werein 

 all about three hundred stocks, withwhi.h the ' 

 active campaign was opened on the 1st of May. I 

 Among these were large as well as small mova- i 

 ble comb hives, common log hives or "gums," 

 such as are used in the rural districts, and ordi- 

 nary box hives of various shapes and sizes. * 

 The former were similar to those with which I : 



was familiar in Germany ; the others did not 

 impress me favorably, though the exceeding in- 

 dustry of their inmates soon reconciled me to 

 their appearance. 



The movable comb hives were deprived of 

 their queens in the course of the month. The 

 larger ones were then used as store stocks for 

 the accumulation of honey, and the smaller ones 

 for rearing ciueens. From the log hives we 

 drew our supplies of bees in larger or smaller 

 quantities, according to circumstances, to form 

 colonies which were either sent off immediately 

 or placed temporarily in movable comb hives. 

 We also formed a great number of artificial col- 

 onies for queen-raising in small nucleus hives. 

 For these the colonies from which the queens 

 sold were taken, furnished the bees, old log 

 hives supplied the combs and brood, and stocks 

 previously deprived of their queens provided 

 the royal cells. 



Pasturage being abundant, the log hives from 

 which swarm had been expelled, or which had 

 swarmed naturally, sent forth second swarms 

 in due time. The larger of these were placed 

 in boxes (medium sized) made of thin boards, 

 and speedily became excellent store stocks. 

 The smaller were placed in movable comb hives, 

 and used for rearing queens. 



By the beginuijig of June all the queens of 

 the previous year had been sent off to supply 

 orders, and swarming was, for the most part, 

 over. The queenicss log hives were now bro- 

 ken up and the others duly pruned ; and at the 

 same time the large movable comb stocks, now 

 again provided with fertile queens, were proper- 

 ly arranged for the storing of honey — strength- 

 ening them where necessary with brood from 

 other hives, and limiting the brooding space by 

 the insei-tion of dividing boards. Thus pre- 

 pared, they were next transported to some of 

 the higher Alpine vilkigcs where the season of 

 pasturage did not open till the middle of June. 

 In a few weeks they were filled with the most 

 delicious honey, transparent and highly aroma- 

 tic. So abundantly was it gathered'that we 

 were able to remove surplus lioxes frequently, 

 and numerous fine combs from the body of the 

 hives. Pasturage continued to abound till to- 

 wards the end of July, when the weather !a 



