230 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[April, 



former perJiapx-ftve to one. This fact, ascertained 

 by careful obxerrafion, would seem to place pure 

 Italians ahead in acnteness of scent or range of 

 flisrht, or in something equally important." 



Well done, Mr. Careful Observer ; this is cer- 

 tainly a settler ; and will doubtless give a 

 quietus to all mongrel pretentions. A force of 

 young frisky Italians, have beaten a whole host 

 of Old worn out mongrels — the youngest of 

 ^Yhich, must have nearly reached the "three 

 score and ten" limit of bee existence. Wonder- 

 ful ! Wonderful discovery ! ! ! 



Look again Mr. ]\Iahin and as you look tri^ 

 and think a little. If proof was wanting in all 

 other respects, the history of the Italian bee, 

 would of itself demonstrate it, as a mongrel 

 breed. From the earliest accounts of it, dating 

 back to the days of the Roman Empire, it was 

 certainly exposed to crosses with the black bee. 

 For not only have we accounts of the two breeds 

 existing together in Italy both now and in the 

 past, but to say that the Alps present an absolute 

 impassible barrier to the flight of the honey bee, 

 is an assertion which possibilities do not war- 

 rant. When it is known that General Fremont 

 captured a humble bie on the top of one of the 

 loftiest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, is it too 

 much to say that the honey bee, so recklessly 

 persistent in its course when swarming, might 

 at times cross the less elevated portions of the 

 Alpine range. 



I do not say that this Alpine or trans-alpine 

 migi-ation of bees, has really transpired ; but I 

 do say that I believe such a thing to be possible 

 even to the crossing of the glaciers. I know 

 from i^ersonal experience, that neither the Rocky 

 Mountains or Sierra Nevadas, present any obsta- 

 cle whatever to the passage of the honey bee. 

 Besides Mr. Grimm if I am not mistaken, re- 

 ports that in the neighborhood where he pro- 

 cured his queens, in Italy, he saw bees, so very 

 dai"k, that at first he took them to be genuine 

 black bees, but found upon closer inspection 

 they were old Italians. Now does any one sup- 

 pose, that so proficient a bee-master as INIr. 

 Grimm would mistake an old Italian bee for a 

 common black bee, unless there was such a 

 blending of breeds as to render it uncertain 

 where the dividing line really was ? But a very 

 short wliile ago the test of purity for Italians 

 was '■Hhree hrigM strato colored bands, and the 

 more docile the ]>urer the br^'ed. Now, however, 

 the thin.g is entirely reversed ; the darker the 

 lands the purer the bees and besides, they are 

 allowed now to stinrj if they want to, without 

 being discarded as impure. What then are the 

 inferences to be drawn from such facts? Simply 

 that the further we breed away from the black bee, 

 after a certain intermixture has been reached ; 

 the poorer the breed becomes. 



I have not said that the "Coming Bee" is to be 

 produced in '■^jive generations'^ or ten genera- 

 tions, but I do say that I believe that when we 

 can control fertilization successfully, we can 

 produce by crosses a better honey bee, than we 

 are at present possessed of; and thus do away 

 with the necessity of going to Italy every year 

 to keep our stock good. 



A few words with you Mr. Editor, and I will 



close. You say in your editorial comments 

 upon Mr. Hewitt's article on the removal of eggs 

 to and from queen cells, "the facts stated have 

 not we believe been remarked before by any ob- 

 server.'''' — I wish to call yom- attention to Richard 

 Colvin's excellent essay on the "Italian Honey 

 Bee." published in the Agricultural Report for 

 18fi3, page oSfl. In the article referred to. Mr. 

 Colvin says in reference to queen raising : — 

 "The combs containing eggs shoidd hang be- 

 tween two others containing a sufScienry of 

 honey and pollen to supply their wants. These 

 combs however shoidd contain no eggs, or grub, 

 young enough to be convertible into queens, other- 

 wise the bees may select their native or impure 

 eggs or grub for queens ; and raise the pure 

 Italians as workers only. This is the more 

 important from the fact, that they sometimes 

 transfer eggs, or grub from one cell to another, 

 or from a worker to a queen cell." 



Thus wrote Mr. Colvin ten years ngo ; so Mr. 

 Hewitt's discovery is "no new thing under the 

 sun." 



G. A. Weight. 



Orchard, loica, January 10, 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



My experience with Hybrid Queens. 



Mr. Editok : — I read an article in your in- 

 valuable Bee Journal of October, page 11, on 

 "The Coming Bee." 



Having had some experience in rearing hybrid 

 queens is my only excu.se for troubling you with 

 this communication, and hoping some person 

 may profit by my mistakes. , 



About the 19th of .Tune, 1870, I received per / 

 express, from Mrs. E. S. Tupper, of Brighton, 

 Washington county, Iowa, two Italian queens. 

 I made swarms and successfully introduced 

 them. Wishing to get all my bees Italianized, 

 and having perfect confidence in their purity as 

 Mrs. Tupper had informed me by letter, '^ I send 

 out none but tes'ed queens reared in full clonies.'''' 

 In about twelve days I unqueened two colonies 

 of black bees and exchanged their combs with 

 my Italian stands, giving the combs that con- 

 tained the supposed pure Italian eggs to the 

 black queenless colony to raise queens. 



In about ten days I unqueened the remainder 

 of my black colonies, and gave them capped 

 queen cells. All went along well, until the 

 young queens hatched, when I noticed they 

 were smaller and much darker than their 

 mothers ; not having had experience, I supposed 

 they would get lighter as they got older. In 

 this I was di.sapiiointcd. 



The worker progeny of the supposed pure 

 Italian queens proved them to be hybrids. The 

 worker progeny of the young queens gave but 

 few marks of any Italian blood. 



In September, 1870. I purchased one Italian 

 queen of the Rev. L. L. Langstroth, of Oxford, 

 Ohio, and one of T. V. Brooks, Esq., of Lexing- 

 ton, McLean county, Illinois. Both produced 

 as fine worker progeny as anyone could desire. 



Late in the fall I purchased several stands of 



