THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



81 



facts. Theory will help us but lit- 

 tle in this respect, becjiuse what is 

 true with other uninials is not nec- 

 essarily true with bees. "We need 

 facts proved by experiments, and I 

 am glad to be al)le to give such facts 

 to tiie American beekeeper. 



AVillii'lm Vogel, a prominent bee- 

 keeper in Germany, and present 

 editor of the ''Bienen-Zeitung" (the 

 oldest bee paper in the world), re- 

 ceived in 1864 an Egyptian colony 

 of bees. This race of bees is worth- 

 less at least for practical beekeep- 

 ing, but for scientific experiments it 

 is especiall)' adapted. 



The color of these bees is very 

 different from the color of the black 

 bees. They are the Grossest bees in 

 the world. Tiie queen is I'emarlc- 

 ably less prolific than the German 

 queens. The Egyptian bee is of 

 smaller size than the German bee. 



When Mr. Vogel received this 

 colony he mated at once Egyptian 

 queens to German drones. The 

 worker bees of this generation were 

 a little larger than the Egyptian, the 

 color of the band was not wax- 

 j'ellow but red-yellow. The drones 

 were not different from the Egyp- 

 tian, and so the Dzierzon theory 

 was again verified. The young queens 

 were red-yellow and not wax-yellovv 

 like the Egyptians. These queens 

 were mated again to German 

 drones. When the young bees of 

 this second generation emerged 

 from the cells, something unex- 

 pected was to be seen. The worker- 

 bees were of three different kinds. 

 Some of them were quite like the 

 Italian bce^, some exactly like the 

 Cyprian bees and some were smaller, 

 and the size of the Egyptian, but 

 quite black with gray-white hairs. 



When the 3'oung bees commenced 

 to w'ork in the (ield, the character- 

 istics of the different races were 

 observable. In opening the hive 

 those small black bees covered at 

 once hand, face and clothes, and 

 stung plentifully. No care and no 

 smoke could subdue them. In 



handling the frames the Cyprian- 

 like bees commenced to sting. The 

 bees like the Italian were promi- 

 nently gentle. So on the one side 

 the worst disposition was observa- 

 ble, and on the other side gentle- 

 ness, no mixing of color or charac- 

 teristics. This is one important fact 

 in breeding a new race. 



Further, this experiment and lat- 

 er observations of Mr. Vogel make 

 it very probable that the Cyprian 

 and Italian bees are crosser than the 

 black German and Egyptian bee. 

 The geographical situation of these 

 countries make this more probable. 



The drones and queens of this 

 colony showed the same three dif- 

 ferent kinds, and Vogel tried now 

 to rear from these hybrids a con- 

 stant or fixed race. Of course he 

 selected the gentle bees for this 

 purpose. 



As soon as ayoung queen emerged 

 from the cell, eighty to one hundred 

 selected drones were introduced to 

 this small colony, and the hive car- 

 ried to a dark cellar for a whole 

 week. On a warm afternoon when 

 the drones of every other hive had 

 ceased flying, the fertilizing hive 

 was carried into the yard, and some 

 warm honey poured into it through 

 the alighting hole or elsewhere, and 

 at once the worker-bees started out, 

 then the drones and at last the 

 queen. At evening the hive was put 

 back in the cellar and taken out each 

 day, until the queen was fertilized. 

 In this vvay, sometimes it takes 

 days and weeks to get the queen 

 mated, but the plan is quite sure 

 and we have no better one. This 

 plan to get queens fertilized by se- 

 lected drones is known in Germany 

 as Koehler's plan, and was invented 

 about 1867, but known and pub- 

 lished before by others. 



For scientific experiments, when 

 time and labor are of secondary im- 

 portance the plan is just right, but 

 for practical use to raise queens and 

 then to sell them, it is too compli- 

 cated and too slow. 



