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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Mat, 



black bees, the supposed fragmental dash of 

 black blood would, in regular breeding, have 

 long since been expelled, and the true or genuine 

 type of the race restored, precisely as Italian 

 bees, n natural breeding among black bees, after 

 several generations, resume their proper native 

 type. But this is by no means the case with 

 the proper genuine Italian bee — neither the one 

 nor the other taking place. As in the case of all 

 other animals living and breeding in a ptate of 

 nature, so with the bees in Italy and Italian 

 Switzerland, an archetypal race has been gradu- 

 ally formed, and this more especially in the por- 

 tions precisely of those countries which, hemmed 

 in by lofty snow-capped mountains, give them 

 so isolated a location, that even an occasional or 

 accidental introduction of fresh blood is impos- 

 sible, without human intervention. But such in- 

 tervention has certainly not there taken place, 

 because the inhabitants have never yet practised 

 improved or rational bee-culture, and only re- 

 cently a few emigrants have settled there, for 

 the express purpose of supplying the outer world 

 with genuine Italian qiieens. 



Yet it is unquestionably true, that by cai'eful 

 selection of queens for breeding stock, Italian 

 queens have )jeen produced, which, as regards 

 their color, and that of their progeny, are con- 

 siderably lighter, and, I concede, handsomer 

 also, than the original stock. But these lighter 

 and handsomer bees are the product of artificial, 

 or rather scientific breeding, and of the peculiar 

 circumstances amid wliich they came into ex- 

 istence. Thus, too, it is stated that the young 

 queens now bred in America, from inported 

 stock, are lighter colored than their mothers. But 

 I can by no means admit that those bees are still 

 genuine Italians, because they lack the genuine 

 characteristic mai'ks of real Italians. Theyai-e, 

 if we so please, improved Italians, or they may per- 

 haps, be more accurately named American Ital- 

 IA^s. Dzierzon also has, by careful selection of 

 queens for breeding stock, secured a variety 

 in his apiaries, which are prettier or brighter 

 than those procured from Italy or Switzerland. 

 But that Dzierzon's Italians exclusively, or those 

 brighter American Italians alone, are to be re- 

 garded as genuine, is certainly not the fact ; and 

 Mr. Quinby is undoubtedly correct when he 

 says, in the American Bee Journal, Vol. V., p. 

 200 — " Dzierzon's full-blooded bees have three 

 bands exclusive of the narrow strip. But in 

 Italy, where these very bees were obtained, they 

 have but two ; and now, after he has succeeded 

 in breeding, through several generations, a 

 lighter color than the original, should he adver- 

 tise that four bands were the only test of purity, 

 and considered so 'by the best apiarians,' and 

 the pure are in his hands and you must come to 

 him for them, it would be as consistent as very 

 many of our folks are. When we find who the 

 'best apiarians' are, we will inquire of them if 

 it is possible for any of those of our imported 

 queens, that come from a district where no black 

 bees are known, to be pure, although they show 

 less than four bands?" Thoroughly correct. 



But how is it now in regard to the economic 

 value of these brighter — I will say four-banded 

 — bees, which, strictly speaking, have as yet only 



an ideal existence, for in fact Dzierzon's hand- 

 somest bees have only three yellow bands ? This 

 is undoubtedly another, yet most important 

 question, for the bee-keeper whose object is to 

 obtain honey and wax in remunerating quanti- 

 ties, and who cares not to make money by 

 trafficiug in handsome queens. The eager de- 

 sire to possess these so-called four-banded bees, 

 exposes us to some disadvantages, in.separable 

 from these finely marked specimens. These 

 external pretty marks, are not only regarded as 

 undeniable proofs of the greatest purity, but as 

 evidence of the highest economic value. Yet 

 such is, in many instances, by no means the 

 case ; nay, according to my own experience, and 

 that of many other German bee-keepers, it mostly 

 happens, that these handsome light bees, have 

 much less economic value than is attributed to 

 them. It was laid down as an axiom that the 

 brighter and finer the color, the higher the com- 

 mercial value of the bees. No wonder then if, 

 in consequence of this view, the demand for the 

 brightest colored bees became very general, for 

 with the bright color, every other desirable 

 quality was, a priori, thought to be secured. No 

 wonder then, if, for that reason breeders prefer 

 breeding for color, in order to secure marketable 

 products and ready sale. These queens, bred 

 exclusively for color, i^ossess, in this, the utmost 

 yet attainable degree of external beautj', really 

 not seldom their chief defect. They ai'e consti- 

 tutionally more delicate, their queens are less 

 prolific than they should be, and the colonies 

 consequently do not winter well — that is, they 

 reach the spring in a feeble state, after a large 

 consumption of stores. But how should it be 

 otherwise ? The attentive breeder discovers in his 

 apiary a colony with a bright queen and splendid 

 workers, or he purchases such a queen for a 

 round sum. Her pretty colony is his sole induce- 

 ment for breeding from this queen, hardly con- 

 cerning himself about aught besides. But this 

 is not the proper course. Color alone should not 

 decide, when arranging for queen breeding, 

 regard should be had also to the prolificness of 

 the queen from which we design to breed, and 

 to the industry of the workers she produces, as 

 well as their peaceableness, readiness to resist 

 attempts at robbing, and their cautiousness in 

 leaving their hive in bad weather. Many Ger- 

 man breeders now are careful to breed in this 

 direction, and their efforts have not been unsuc- 

 cessful, inasnnich as they have a type of bees 

 already in their apiaries, possessing much greater 

 economic value in all the points just indicated. 

 Hence, it is manifestly a great error, in which 

 many breeders are still involved, to breed solely 

 with reference to color. 



Of course, it is altogether a different matter, 

 when, from a large number of colonies, a selec- 

 tion is made from among the best marked bees 

 and queens, and those best in all respects are 

 taken to breed from. In this, no one has been 

 more eminently successful than Dzierzon. Long 

 experience, and his peculiar genius as an apiarian, 

 have enabled him to produce in his apiary the 

 most beautiful workers, combining at the same 

 time all the other desirable qualities. Very distin- 

 guished sj)ecimens of these still so-callecl Italian 



