1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



149 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Light "Wanted. 



Mr. Editor. — I wish, by your permission, to 

 put another question tlirough the Journal, for 

 sohition. It is this — Can a pure Italian queen, 

 whose progeny for the first few weeks all show 

 the three ydlow bands distinct — thus being purely 

 tested, sent oflf, and introduced into another 

 colony — afterwards produce workers, half black 

 bees, and the rest having only one and two 

 bands? Or, in plainer words, can a pure queen, 

 tested pure, afterwards produce hybrids? If any 

 of your readers know of such cases, will they 

 please communicate them to the Journal? 



On July 11th, I shipped three tested queens, to 

 a gentleman out west. July 13th, he writes 

 "queens arrived safe, caged and put in the 

 hives to remain forty-eiglit hours." The next 

 letter was to this effect — one queen died in the 

 cage ; the other two are at liberty. 



August 14th, he writes — "one of them shows 

 fine workers in their daily play ; but the other 

 does not yet give very pretty workers, being too 

 dark colored." Again, August 18th. he writes — 

 " I have just opened the hive in which the queen 

 is, that produces the dark colored workers, and 

 find she is giving about three-fourths black bees, 

 and the other fourth one and two banded hybrids. 

 It is now one month and six days since I set her 

 at liberty in the hive " 



Now upon the receipt of the letter of the 14th, 

 I know that there had not appeared a hybrid bee 

 in either of the stands, for I had been daily 

 among the hives. But, to be sure of no mistake, 

 I went to my books to see if I was not right iu 

 the number of the hives, 30, 64, 6S, from which 

 I had taken the queens. I then opened each hive, 

 examined carefully, and could not find a tAvo 

 banded bee in either of them, much less a black 

 bee. I then, August 22d, wrote to him that he 

 must be mistaken in having the same queen he 

 got of me. 



He answered on the 2Gth, " I know she was 

 not killed in the first fifteen days after she was 

 put into the stock, as she was there to be seen, 

 and no queen cells were made in that time. 

 Hence she could not be superseded by a black 

 queen. If she has since then been superseded, 

 it has been by a queen raised from her own brood 

 and mated with a black drone. Now in the first 

 fifteen days of her existence in the hive, I opened 

 it as many as three times, and found the facts 

 as stated above. ' ' Again, August 28th, he writes, 

 "Since writing you on Saturday, I have again 

 examined that stock of bees, and begin to find 

 an occasional three-banded bee. If she left good 

 stock with you, it will certainly appear here, if 

 she was pei-fectly fertilized." 



On the receipt of this last letter, I again care- 

 fully examined the three hives mentioned above, 

 with the same result as before — not an impure 

 marked worker in either of them. I felt satisfied 

 I had sent him purely tested queens ; but as he 

 was not satisfied, as was clear from his letters, 

 I sent him another queen, September 12th. 



Now, to this day, there has not appeared a 

 hybrid bee iu either of the above stands. Hence 



one of two things must be true. Either the 

 queen got of me was superseded, or if she was 

 not, she produced hybrid workers after being 

 removed from her stand here — a case I do not 

 recollect ever hearing of. Some may try to ex- 

 plain this case, by saying the queen met another 

 drone, after being removed. I do not believe a 

 queen is ever impregnated but once and for life. 



The above case is a strange one to me, for if 

 true that a queen, after producing purely marked 

 workers for the first few weeks, can afterwards 

 produce hybrids, then how can any breeder be 

 certain that the queen he is sending off is pure? 

 I was as certain of the purity of these queens 

 when I shipped them, as I ever was of any 

 queen ; and after I had shipped them off, had I 

 discovered within three weeks a single black bee 

 with a two banded bee in either of the stands I 

 took the queens frojii, I would have been satis- 

 fied that I had sent a bad queen. But as no 

 such sign was discovered and has not been even 

 to the present time, I can give no other explana- 

 tion ; but leave this for your readers, who may 

 know of such cases, to explain. 



R. M. Argo. 



Lowell, Ky., Nov. 22, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Cross-Bred Bees. 



In the October number of the American Bee 

 Journal, there is an article under the caption of 

 " The Coming Z?ee," upon which I wish to offer 

 a few thoughts. I do so the more freely, because 

 the writer requests any one who may have had 

 experience with the kind of bees he describes, to 

 report. I do not know what special qualities 

 he may have found in bees less than half Italian ; 

 but my observation of that kind of bees, has 

 given me a very poor opinion of them. 



I have a number of colonies, the progeny of 

 pure Italian queens fertilized by black drones. 

 These I have found to be but little more inclined 

 to sting than pure Italians. One of them, iu 

 fact, is as good natured as any bee I ever saw. 

 They rarely if ever attack any one, when the 

 hive is not disturbed ; and I have extracted the 

 honey from their combs, and have opened the 

 hive many times for other purposes, without 

 their manifesting anger. Other colonies of half- 

 bloods are a little more belligerent than this one, 

 but none of them are as much so as black bees 

 generally are. I am aware that half-bloods have 

 a bad reputation for ill nature, but as far as my 

 observation extends they do not deserve it. 



I had a colony whose mother I thought was 

 pure, and they were terribly cross. It was 

 nearly impossible to smoke them into submission. 

 They would obstinately refuse to fill themselves 

 with honey, and as soon as the hive was opened, 

 they were ready for battle. But on close inspec- 

 tion of the progeny of the mother of this queen, 

 there was found to be in them a dash of black 

 blood. So these very cross bees were less than 

 half Italian. I have had other colonies less 

 than half Italian, and have found them to be 



