The Cyprian bees have been described 

 in the Journal, and as I have now fur- 

 nished a great many of our American 

 bee-keepers with Cyprian and holy 

 queens, it will only be necessary to call 

 attention to some of their leading points: 



They build less drone comb than the 

 blacks or Italians. 



They fly further in search of stores, if 

 necessary. 



They fly very swift, being able to go 

 as far, and unload and return, in 7 min- 

 utes as others do in 9. 



They protect their stores against rob- 

 bers with such determination that they 

 often catch the robbers on the wing 

 around their hives and punish them be- 

 fore they even get time to alight ; in 

 fact, they appear robber-proof. 



They are more judicious about going 

 out in bad weather, and have a keener 

 scent, which is more acute than blacks 

 or Italians. 



Their bodies are more telescopic, which 

 enables them to carry large loads of 

 honey, and to contract their bodies at 

 other times to quite small proportions. 



They are wonderfully prolific, laying 

 an incredible number of eggs in a sea- 

 son ; in fact, I would not be surprised if 

 holy queens would lay as many eggs in 

 one season as blacks or Italians do in 

 a life-time. 



They do not stop breeding early in the 

 fall after frosty nights, like blacks and 

 Italians, but continue breeding right 

 along ; thus it will be seen that they will 

 be in good condition for wintering, so 

 far as young bees are concerned. 



Both races have a beautiful gold shield 

 between their wings, and are very light 

 on the under side of the abdomen. The 

 Cyprians have a black tip at the end of 

 the abdomen, more so than the holy bees; 

 some of them having beautiful gray 

 hairy rings even to the tip, and when 

 well filled with honey they sometimes 

 show 4 broad gold bands and 2 narrower 

 ones— 6 in all. 



Some of the Cyprian drones are very 

 handsome, more so than the holy drones; 

 yet the holy drones are very tine, large 

 and vigorous, with long gray and blue- 

 tinged hair. Both Cyprian and holy 

 bees are more easily transported than 

 Italian or blacks, as they do not gorge 

 themselves with honey so frequently or 

 readily, and can contract their bodies 

 so small ; may it not be reasonable to 

 suppose that they consume less stores, 

 except in breeding? I intend to test 

 this matter fully, and wish others to do 

 so. I believe they will be valuable for 

 box honey, as the queen will occupy 

 every cell in the brood chamber, and 

 force them to put their honey elsewhere. 



Both the Cyprian and holy queens are 



very much smaller when not laying, and 

 some persons think them ordinary- 

 looking ; but give them plenty of bees 

 and room, and they get very large and 

 fill frames with eggs so rapidly that you 

 would imagine it impossible for one 

 queen to deposit them so fast. One 

 holy queen can lay eggs enough in 21 

 days to make from 4 to 6 swarms of bees, 

 if they are all cared for and hatched. 

 This may seem surprising, but try the 

 experiment and be convinced. 



How Bees are Kept in Cyprus. 



They are kept in clay cylinders, which 

 are piled up like cord-wood, the ends 

 being closed up with stone or mud, and 

 the spaces between the cylinders as they 

 are piled are also closed at each end, so 

 there is a dead-air-space almost around 

 each cylinder, which keeps them cooler 

 than any one would suppose they could 

 be, standing as they do in the burning 

 sun. As the bees all fly out at a small 

 hole in the end of each hive, I should 

 think that heavy losses must occur with 

 the queens as they go out on their bri- 

 dal tours. 



When the natives want any honey and 

 think the cylinder is full, they open the 

 rear end and remove the stone or mud 

 plate that closes it, and blow in smoke 

 to drive the bees forward, sometimes 

 out of the entrance, and remove all the 

 honey from the back end of the hive. 

 Sometimes they have two honey seasons, 

 other times one, but this year none. It 

 has been the worst honey year ever 

 known in Cyprus. Three-fourths of the 

 bees died last spring, and since then 

 three-fourths of what were left have 

 died, so there are none in some locali- 

 ties, and only a few in others. We have 

 had to feed an enormous quantity of 

 sugar to keep our large apiary at Lan- 

 arca from starving. 



Mr. Benton says that our Italians or 

 blacks could not survive where the Cyp- 

 rians will live and thrive. He wonders 

 that there is a bee left in such a country, 

 and claims that they are only the fittest 

 which have survived. Mr. Benton is 

 very sanguine about their great supe- 

 riority when it is put to the test. 



But I must now tell you about the 

 holy bees, or the bees of Palestine and 

 Syria. In the Valley of Sharon, at Jeru- 

 salem, Bethlehem. Mount of Olives near 

 Jericho, and in fact, all through the 

 hills of Judea, the hives are made of 

 clay, and conical-shaped. The bees fly 

 out and in at the small end, the other 

 being closed the same as in Cyprus. 

 About Beyrout, and along the edge of 

 Mount Lebanon, they are kept in water 

 jugs, some in cylinders, and others in a 

 wickerorbaskethive,about7or 9 inches 



