The American Apiculturist. 



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VOL. V. 



WENHAM, MASS., AUGUST i, 1887. 



No. 8. 



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For the American Apiculturist. 



CAliNIOLAN^, NEW 

 RACES, ETC. 



DU. G. L. TiNKEK. 



Tut: im[jrcssion seems to [tiuvail 

 that cross-bred and h3'bri(l bees are 

 not very desirable ; yet the al- 

 most universal testimony is that 

 they are superior workers, often 

 making the largest surplus. Many 

 beekeepers prefer a hybrid strain 

 of bees, paying no regard to color, 

 temper or traits, caring only fur 

 first-class working" qualities and 

 the dollars and cents of the busi- 

 ness ; and man}' of our best au- 

 tiiorities, like Professor Cook, 

 have held for some years that the 

 best bees of the future are likely 

 to be an intelligently selected, 

 cross-bred bee, made up of the 

 blood of a number of our present 

 races of bees. Such is also my im- 

 pression as well as that of quite a 

 number of queen-breeders, all aim- 

 ing and working for a high-bred 

 bee, combining all the more desir- 

 able qualities minus the objection- 

 able ones of the best races. 



In characterizing the Carnio- 

 lans as hybrids, that through long 

 interbreetling have become an es- 

 tablished race, I had not antici- 

 |iated the friendly criticisms ol" 

 Mr. C. L. Fisher on page IIG, and 



15 



Mr. A. Norton on page 152, or I 

 should have made myself better 

 understood in regard to what con- 

 stitutes hybrids among bees. 



It is a well recognized fact that, 

 excepting the blacks, not one of 

 the laces of bees breeds strictly 

 to a type. The black or Gei'man 

 bees are no doubt a lix'cd and oi'ig- 

 inal race, as indicated by thesliglit 

 variation in the breeding of(]iieens 

 and di'ones. All the otiicr races 

 are, strictly speaking, hybrids, or 

 the result of the interblending of 

 two or more of the original and 

 distinct races, which may have been 

 Germans and Egyptians as some 

 writer has already suggested. Tiie 

 dill'erence, then, in the recognized 

 races of bees in the .south of Eu- 

 rope and in the Orient, is siin|)ly 

 in the relative preponderance of 

 the original races blended in each, 

 lluw do we know? Wh}', by the 

 fact that by intelligent!}' pursuing 

 the variations found, we may de- 

 velo[) a 1)1 ack strain of bees from 

 any of these yellow races or a 

 more distinctive yellow type. The 

 (pieens and drones all i)resent 

 marked variations. Each race has 

 marked characteristics, but never 

 breeds strictly to a type. The 

 variations arc leadily accounted 

 for by supi)osing an original ad- 

 mixture of the black and yellow 

 races in their make up, .so that 

 both theory and experiment con- 



(190) 



