THE AMERICAN APICULTUBIST. 



101 



A NEW STRAIN OF ITAL- 

 IAN BEES. 



For many 5'ears we have tried to 

 develop a strain of Italian bees 

 that would winter on the summer 

 stand when properly protected. To 

 develop such a desirable character- 

 istic, in any race of bees, has re- 

 quired very careful breeding and 

 many 3'ears of constant experi- 

 menting. We are now ready to 

 announce to our readers that the one 

 object so long sought has at last 

 been realized. 



The readers of the Apicultu- 

 RiST will probably remember the ac- 

 count given in the August number, 

 1887, of a queen bee that went on 

 a lark from our apiarj^ but returned 

 in the course of a few days. That 

 particular queen was of more value 

 to us as a "breeder," than was even 

 hinted at in the account referred 

 to. We think, however, that it 

 was stated sometime last year that 

 one of her good points was her 

 wintering qualities. This queen 

 brought her colony through the 

 winter of 1885-6 very strong and 

 healthy, with no dead bees nor 

 mouldy combs, the only perfect 

 colony out of fifty-nine Mr. Locke 

 placed in a cellar. Well, it occurred 

 to us that we had at last found in 

 these bees what we had long desired 

 and aimed for ; namely, hardiness 

 and first-class wintering qualities. 

 Last season there vvere reared in 

 the Bay State apiary nearly 800 of 

 as fine young queens from this 

 mother in question, as any bee- 

 keeper ever saw. The queens are 

 very large, handsome and unusu- 

 ally: prolific, and the worker pro- 

 geny as fine honey-gatherers as one 

 could really expect bees to be. 



We have wintered in our out- 

 door apiary about twenty qneens 

 reared from this mother. These 

 colonies have been carefully 

 watched to see how they would 



winter and the result noted every 

 week since Dec. 1, 1886. At no 

 time has there been over three dead 

 bees on the bottom-board or about 

 the hive. About some other colo- 

 nies we have side by side with these 

 we would find froui thirty to one 

 hundred dead bees about the hives 

 each week. 



To-day (Feb. 21) I made an ex- 

 amination of the hives and found 

 more dead bees in front of one col- 

 ony of some other strain than 

 about all of the twenty hives in 

 which we have these queens. 



There is another point about this 

 new strain and it is this : our bees 

 have had two days since Dec. 1, 

 when they could take a flight ; one 

 was Jan. 23, and the other Feb. 17. 

 While the bees in all of the hives 

 except the twenty referred to were 

 flying by eleven o'clock, none of 

 the colonies of this particular strain 

 had shown a bee until nearl}' two 

 o'clock, P.M., and some had not 

 started then. I began to think 

 that the colonies were dead as they 

 w^ere so slow to take wing, but 

 found on examination that they 

 all were alive and in fine condition. 

 They did not care to fly at all, and 

 I believe that they could have en- 

 dured confinement from Dec. 1 to 

 April 1, and still go through the 

 winter in good condition. These 

 two points are very desirable in any 

 race or strain of bees. We have 

 discarded all races but the pure 

 Italian bees, and only queens of 

 the strain described will be toler- 

 ated in the Bay State Apiary in 

 future. 



now TO GKOW 15ASSW00D TREES. 



Corning, Iowa. 

 Will basswood sprouts gi-ow? If not, how is 

 the best way to get a start of that wonderful 

 honcj'-plant"? Tliere is uone at all very near 

 niv location, bnt plenty of it at a distance. of 

 three miles. How far do bees go in search of 

 honey ? 



Jas. A. Russell. 



[Who will answer? Ed.1 



