1870.] 



THE AMEEICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



99 



excui'sion with safety. But I have frequently 

 succeeded hi having fertihzation effected on the 

 third or fourth day, in favorable weather, when 

 the niTcleusthus stimulated contained both drones 

 and queen ; and in many cases the queens began 

 to lay on the third or fourth day thereafter. In 

 this way, I not only obtain many (I do not 

 say all) purely fertilized queens ; but also very 

 superior ones, large, vigorous, and prolific, pro- 

 ducing both workers and drones well marked 

 and brightly colored. 



I do not indeed claim that this process gives 

 us absolute certainty, but only a very great 

 probability, that the queens we rear will be 

 purely fertilized. Other bee-keei3ers too, who 

 employed it long before the Kochler method was 

 promulgated, regard it as furnishing the most 

 likely means of assuring success. Thus, for 

 instance, the President of the Bee-keeper's Union 

 of Moravia, Dr. Ziwanski, who is not a blind 

 imitator of others, but a careful and indefatiga- 

 ble inquirer, never recommending aught for 

 adoption till he has himself tested it with suc- 

 cess, found my method worthy of adoption five 

 years ago already, for his annual report for 

 18G5 contains the follov/ing passage: — 



"I made live nuclei this year, with fresh brood 

 from i5ure original Italians. When fitting them up, 

 I recollected a suggestion of the Rev. Mr. Sta- 

 hala, and inserted both drone and worker brood 

 in four of them, omitting the drone brood in the 

 fifth. The queens of the first four mentioned 

 were purely fertilized, while the one in the fifth 

 nucleus mated with a common drone. This 

 result induces me to invite your attention to the 

 fact, for it is reasonable to presume that queens 

 making their excursions will be more likely to 

 mate with drones from their own hives flying 

 simultaneously, than with drones from other 

 and distant hives. The queen usually makes 

 such excursions only at periods when drones are 

 flying, and there is then generally great commo- 

 tion in the hive, as though there was much eager- 

 ness to get abroad and enjoy the genial air. Still, 

 too much must not be exjoected from this sugges- 

 tion and its adoption. It is not supposed that any 

 preliminary arrangements or apj^ointments are 

 made by drones or queens, before the excursion 

 is undertaken ; but merely that there is a much 

 greater probability that parties flying at the same 

 time and necessarily in close proximity, will 

 mate, than those starting from remoter points. 

 Hence since it can can do no jjossiblc harm to 

 supply our nuclei with drone and drone-brood in 

 this manner, the plan should by no means be 

 disregarded when preparing to Italianize an 

 apiary. ' ' 



By means of this process, having selection to 

 to a great degree in my powei", 1 frequently ob- 

 tain queens nearly entirely yellow, having black 

 only at the extremity of the abdomen. I have 

 procured queens for breeding from both Dzier- 

 zon and Mona. The young queens breed from 

 Dzierzon's stock were at first handsomer than 

 those bred from Mona's. But in later years, 

 since using the method I now recommend, I 

 obtain equally fine queens from the latter' s stock. 

 The drones from Mona's queens were, from the 

 start yellower than those from Dzierzon's, which 



were only faintly tinged with yellow on the sides, 

 and had dark orange bauds. Observing this, I 

 then took worker brood and queen cells from the 

 Dzierzon's queens, with drones and drone-brood 

 from the Mona queens, to furnish the same nu- 

 cleus, and thus obtained regularly very handsome 

 queens, bright workers, and very fine drones. 

 J. Stahala, Pastor. 

 Dolein, near Olmutz, Feb. 5., 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Purity of Italian Queens. 



Your correspondent, E. L. Briggs, in the 

 August number of the Journal, has stirred up 

 the bee-keepers a little ; and for fear they will 

 not discuss the point which most interests me, 

 I drop you a line, hoping that those who have 

 had more exxjerience may be able to settle the 

 question. 



It is a fact which I think no one will deny, 

 that it would be for the interest of every one 

 selling queens, to send only such as are purely 

 fertilized. It being as easy to rear queens from 

 pure eggs as from any other, we may look to 

 some other cause than selfishness or cheapness 

 of the price for the difficulty. I have managed 

 my apiary under the impression that the Dzierzon 

 theory is correct, that the drones from a pure 

 queen which had mated with a black drone, 

 were pure. 



I luive failed in keeping my stock pure enough 

 to breed from ; and in my opinion, other bee- 

 keepers who have reared queens in the same way, 

 are as badly oft" as myself. If we wish to improve 

 the Italian bee, we may do so by selecting the 

 best of its race, both male and female, to breed 

 from ; not by crossing with the black bee. The 

 type of the Italian bee should be so fixed, that 

 the bees all show the same marking. We may 

 fix the type of any admixture of the German and 

 Italian bees, so that they will have similar mark- 

 ings. The crossing has been so recent in many 

 cases, that there is no uniformity of color. 

 Breeders of choice stock look as much to the 

 quality and purity of the male as the female 

 parent. It is my present belief that bees are as 

 much subject to the rule, as the animal creation 

 are. 



I look for higher results than any yet attained, 

 when we control (as we soon shall) the mating 

 of our queens; and the low priced ones have 

 given me the most satisfaction so far. 



L. C. WniTiNG. 



East Saginaic, Mich. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Italian Queens. 



Mr. Editok : — Since so much has been said of 

 late about Italian queens, (csi^ecially cheaj) ones,) 

 I feel it my duty, in justice to Mr. Alley, to say, 

 that I inirchased one of his f2.5U queens last 

 June and have bred sixteen queens from her, 

 besides a host of drones and workers ; and the 

 facts are, first, her progeny are all three-banded ; 



