THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



129 



[For the Boo Journal.] 



How about Pure Italians? 



Dear .TouKNAL : — I wanl some light on the 

 Italian h(:c quoslion. I have purchased two 

 Italian queens, and liave raised a dozen. My 

 bees now are all Italians and hybrids, or they 

 are all hybrids, llow am I to know which ? 

 Onlj' about five out of every six of the workers 

 from the purchased (lueens show the three 3:0! • 

 low bands ; the other one-sixth show only two. 

 On the other hand, the workers from the queens 

 Avliich I raised, vary greatly. In most of the 

 hives, about one-sixth of them show the three 

 bands, and the other five-sixths show only two 

 distinctly. As to temper, they arc all about 

 alike — a little more amiable than the black bees. 

 I found, Avhcn nearly the whole colony was 

 hybrid, that still the black bees annoyed me 

 more than the hj-brids ; yet my bees Avill all 

 sting. 



Cannot some one Avho has eyes, who can 

 count a hundred, and who has not made up his 

 mind on the distinguishing marks of Italians, 

 visit some apiary where imported queens are 

 kept, and examine carefully a large number of 

 Avorkers, both of imported queens and of Ameri- 

 can born queens, and report the result to the 

 Journal. There is truth in the matter, if we 

 can only get it. One misfortune is 'hat the 

 observations of many persons are worthless. 

 You cannot trust their eyes, and must receive 

 with allowance their honest statements. I 

 latojj' called to see a man who has long kept 

 Italian bees. I wanted light. He informed 

 me that Jhere was no doubt about all pure 

 Italians showing the three bands. I went to 

 see. Putting his hand on a hive he said, "here 

 is a queen that I am very sure produces pure 

 workers." I stooped down and commenced 

 examining carefully the bees at the entrance. 

 I saw at once that about one-fourth of them 

 showed only two yellow bands. I told him so. 

 He would not believe. I pointed out the bees. 

 He caught one to pull its abdomen and show 

 me that the yellow teas (here, but covered vj') un- 

 der one of the folds. It was hard to find. But 

 still he is confident that all pure Italians shoio 

 distinctly the three yellow bands ; and he is 

 equally confident that he has pure Italians. I 

 believe he writes sometimes for the Journal. 

 There is no use in such persons as my friend 

 going to see other people's bees. They know, 

 without looking, that all Italians show the 

 three marks. 1 hope they do, and that the 

 question will soon be settled. 



Many persons have the opportunity to ex- 

 amine the workers produced from imported 

 qnecns. There can be no doubt about their 

 purity. "Will some one have the goodness to 

 make the examination, and vii\)on the fdcts in 

 the Journal. Let him tell us how manj'- bees 

 lie has examined, and how many show dis- 

 tinctly the three yellow bands. And, above 

 all, let him keep his eyes open for those which 

 show but two bands. I have a notion tliat even 

 if there be such among pure Italians, they are 

 harder to see than those which have the three 

 bands. Indeed it is quite probable that some 



people could not see them at all. 

 light. Who will give it ? 



But I want 

 Inquirer. 



[For the American Bee Joarnal.] 



Experience of a Novice.— No. 10. 



Dear Bee Jounnal : — The following items 

 of experience may be acceptable: 



During tlie dry weather the past fall there 

 was considerable robbing among the bees in 

 our vicinity. 



About the middle of August, I observed one 

 evening two swarms of black bees that I had 

 bought -this season to be very busy till nearly 

 dark. Supposing that some other bees were 

 robbing them, I proceeded to contract the en- 

 trance; but soon saw that the returning bees, 

 instead of being light, were so heavy that in 

 many cases they fell to the ground before reach- 

 ing the hive, and on killing a few found them 

 gorged with honey. Next morning I found 

 them again at work, and fiutillj' lined them to 

 a neightior's, where one of his best hives, as he 

 called it, was literally black with bees, which 

 we eveutuall}' found coming from four difl'crent 

 apiaries. Of course the honej'' was soon gone; 

 but the remarkable part of it was that not an 

 Italian bee was seen there, although I had 

 twenlj'-three Italian stocks, and only the two 

 black ones. The Italians were at the time at 

 work on red clover, and on nothing else that 

 we could discover. 



Mr. Editor, do you not think it rather harsh 

 and ungentlemanly for a correspondent to make 

 the assertion that he does not believe any one 

 ever bad seen Italian bees work freely on red 

 clover, after the contributions we have had on 

 the subject? Why should beekeepers use so 

 little forbearance with each other? It seems to 

 me that we can develope real tacts from actual 

 experience, without so much picking at each. 

 other and doubting each other's statements. 

 For instance, Professor Varro reasoning to sh >w 

 that Mr. Quiuby could not have had a fertile 

 queen smaller than a worker. Now, Mr. Edi- 

 tor, I did raise a queen much smaller than an 

 ordinary icorker. A number of my friends saw 

 her, and laughingly called her my " Bantam 

 queen." Contrary to our expectation, she met 

 a drone and was seen to return with the usual 

 drone appendage. She afterwards laid eggs 

 Avhieh produced fine Italian workers; but she 

 laid so few that, after keeping her about three 

 months, she was replaced by a more fertile 

 queen. We do not think her eggs produced 

 any drones at all. She was raised in cool 

 weather, in a small nucleus, and was nearly 

 all of a jet black, although raised from my first 

 Langstroth queen. 



To return to the robbing. The Italians did 

 learn it later in the fall. After buckwheat was 

 gone, all queenless hives, for a mile or more 

 around, were greedily appropriated; and the 

 numi)er was ciuite considerable, so that one 

 stock of hj'brids Avorked some in boxes on 

 stolen honey. This gave the Italians rather a 

 bad name among some; but in no case could I 

 learn that there was any fighting, and most of 



