188 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



on the under side of the racks. This makes 

 a good honey board when on the hive. 

 Now rack on ; spread a cloth in the places 

 for the rack; to put the rack on, put a 

 glass 6x6 in. first; in 8 racks put the oth- 

 er glass. Put small wedges in against the 

 glass to hold the racks tight together. The 

 rack must not fill the space, so crowd 

 them in. This is very convenient for out- 

 door wintering, by putting a piece of cot- 

 ton cloth over the holes and filling the 

 frame with sawdust. This is to fit a ten- 

 frame Langstroth hive. I send my honey 

 to market in the same kind of frame, with 

 glass in, only the bottom is tight ; it shows 

 off well in them. John M. Bennett. 

 Bremer Co., Iowa. 



Improvement of the Italian Bee. 



A PAPEK READ BEFORE THE NINTH AN- 

 NUAL SESSION OF THE MICHIGAN BEE- 

 KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



Gentlemen:—! wish to call your atten- 

 tion to a subject, though nothing new in 

 itself, but I think of importance : viz., 

 the improvement of the Italian bee ; and 

 I think it will be admitted by all that 

 they are as susceptible of improvement 

 as any other class of animals, fruits or 

 flowers, though there may be some difler- 

 ence of opinion as to the best means to be 

 put into operation for the accomplishment 

 of this desirable object. Many seem to be 

 satisfied when they obtain an imported 

 queen, or queens from an imported mother ; 

 this is all very well so far as it goes, but I 

 have yet to learn that the bee-masters in 

 Italy have paid much if any attention to 

 the improvement of the Italian bee. Now 

 with this understanding coupled with the 

 fact that there are a great many dark, and 

 even black bees in Italy, there must of 

 necessity be a very great diversity both in 

 color and disposition; and there is no bee- 

 keeper in this country, who has for years 

 cultivated the Italian bee, but must have 

 noticed the great tendency, as florists 

 would say, to sport: therefore making all 

 tests of purity very unreliable. 



In Germany, from whence we have de- 

 rived the most of our knowledge of the 

 physiology and habits of the bee, consid- 

 erable attention has been paid to the im- 

 provement of the race, and the prominent 

 apiarists there say that the Italians are not 

 uniform in Color — not a, fixed variety. The 

 Italian bee, in America, has also been 

 much improved; England has come here 

 and taken back an improved stock of her 

 own breeds, far surpassing the original, 

 beautiful Italian bee. 



But we must not rest with results already 

 obtained, for we live not only in a pi"0- 

 grcssive countr}-, butin a progressive age; 

 we must still endeavor to reach a* 

 higher standard of beauty and purity. 

 The question naturally arises here, 



how is this to be brought about? 

 In my humble opinion one of the chief 

 means is the improvement of our drones. 

 Most bee breeders have paid more atten- 

 tion to the queen than the drone. Let me 

 draw your attention to the fact that cattle 

 and fowl breeders give as much if not 

 more heed to the male, and they are very 

 successful in their operations. Now if 

 we depend entirely on the queen for all 

 the points desired, disappointment will 

 follow. 



The drone question has not, however, es- 

 caped the attention of the master minds in 

 bee-keeping. Dzierzon says, "It is my prac- 

 tice always, to select and reserve only the 

 perfectly marked queens and drones.''^ 

 Berlepsch says, "I shall constantly endea- 

 voi- to preserve and breed from the finest, 

 that is, the most brightly colored drones." 

 Vogel says, "Accordingly in our endea- 

 vors to provide an improved breed, our at- 

 tention must be pre-eminently directed to 

 the drones." Langstroth says, "As the 

 drones of some Italians are much more 

 beautiful tuan those of others, we can se- 

 lect a stock containing such to impreg- 

 nate our queens." Now I think you will 

 see from what has already been said, that 

 this subject has not received the attention 

 that it demands. 



There are three points which ought and 

 can be mucli improved viz. : color, size, 

 and disposition ; and it will be an advan- 

 tage, of course, if we can work for all the 

 points at the same time. I have not 

 named prolificness as one of the points, 

 for I think, as a rule, queens are prolific 

 enough if the conditions of the hive are 

 all right. 



Some bee-keepers seem to be under the 

 impression that our queens are lowered 

 in vitality as they are raised in color, but 

 as far as my observation extends, the 

 brightest colored are as prolific, and long- 

 lived as the dark ones. Others again say 

 if we breed too close, our stocks will be- 

 come impaired; true, the same natural 

 laws that govern life in all its phases 

 govern bees, but the careful breeder can 

 easily avoid this by exchange or new im- 

 portation, and not allow his stock to run 

 down on account of too close breeding; 

 but we must breed in and in, to some ex- 

 tent, in order to bring out some points 

 desired. The bright colored queens and 

 bees are certainly more pleasing to look 

 upon than the dark ones, and it is cer- 

 lainly a pleasing sight to see a company 

 of young bees, for the first time, sporting 

 in ihe noonday sun. 



I would, therefore, urge each one, not 

 to rest satisfied till he obtains his drones 

 as beautiful and distiuctl}' marked as his 

 workers. This, in my judgment, is one 

 of the means through which we may ex- 

 pect to improve the Italian bee. 



Geo. Thompson. 



Kane Co., 111. 



