THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



205 



©OTrcsponrtcnce* 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Improvement of the Italian Bees. 



My ideas about the improvement of the 

 Italian bees differ so mucli from those ex- 

 pressed by Mr. Geo. Thompson, in tlie 

 Amebic AX Bee Jouux.\l for July, that 1 

 want to make some remarks about it. 



He says, at tirst, that he has yet to learn 

 that the bee-masters of Italy have paid 

 much attention to the improvement ot the 

 Italian bee. 



Italy is not so far behind our time in bee 

 culture as Mr. Geo. Thompson seems to 

 imagine. They have in Milan a bee journal 

 —L"Aplcoltore— conducted with great tal- 

 ent and which has for contributors as good 

 bee-keepers as can be found in this country. 

 This journal was founded nine years ago 

 by gentlemen devoted to bee culture, and 

 by trie devotion and learning of its contri- 

 butors it is improving in every sense ot the 

 word. Of course with such a guide the im- 

 provement of bees could not be left aside; 

 and I know personally many bee-keepers of 

 Italy who choose always their best and 

 most prolific queens to breed from. 



Mr. Geo. Thompson adds: "There are 

 dark, even black bees in Italy." Dark bees? 

 Yes! Black bees? No! Last year, in 

 order to help a too well-known lady, who 

 had sent hybrid bees as imported, Rev. H. 

 A. King said, at the Northwestern Bee- 

 Keepers Meeting, that there were hybrid 

 bees in Italy. I have, in the American 

 Bee Journal for March, 187.5, dared him 

 to prove his assertion, offering to pay $200 

 if he would name an Italian bee-keeper hav- 

 ing hybrid bees in his apiary. Mr. King 

 did not answer my offer. Now I extend 

 this offer to those who think there are black 

 bees in Italy. I have not, indeed, traveled 

 in the whole Italian continent, but a well 

 known queen breeder, Mr. Mona, who in- 

 habits Italian Switzerland, and would have 

 been benefited by finding black or hybrid 

 bees outside of his region, wrote in the 

 French paper L'Apiculteiir, that he had 

 spent two months traveling in all parts of 

 Italy, and that from the Alps to Brindisi, he 

 had found everywhere the genuine Italian 

 bees, with such differences only as will be 

 remarked between one family and another 

 or between the bees of the same colony. 



If this statement is true, and there can be 

 no doubt about that, the Italian bees are a 

 fixed variety; the proof of it lies in the fact 

 that this variety reproduces itself in" all 

 countries where it is inti'oduced, foggy 

 England as well as in this warm and sunny 

 country. 



That the Italian bee can be improved in 

 color I do not deny; but that the improve- 

 ment in color be the first to be aimed at I 

 cannot admit, for the matter of celor can be 

 overdone. 



The first queen that I introduced, about 

 ten years ago, in my apiary came from a 

 well known bee breeder of this country, 

 who had got his stock from Dzierzon. This 

 queen was very yellow, yellow from the 

 corslet to the tip of the abdomen. She was 

 introduced in one of my colonies about the 

 middle of October and produced very yellow 

 and handsome bees. Yes, more light in 



color than the average of the workers of im- 

 ported queens. In the following season I 

 raised some 34 or 30 queens to stock with 

 them my apiary, numbering then about that 

 number. I could not hope to get aueens 

 purely fertilized for I was encircled by a 

 great many black stocks. Imagine my as- 

 tonishment when I saw many or my young 

 queens producing workers with three yel- 

 low rings, yet some of these queens had 

 mated when not a drone could be found in 

 any pure colony; and I was sure there was 

 not an Italian drone within fifteen miles 

 from my apiary. It is true these seeming 

 pure bees were not so well marked as those 

 of my pure queen, but nine out of ten bee- 

 keepers would have pronounced them pure. 



This fact led me to search outside ot the 

 markings for a reliable test of purity, and 

 after a few researches I concluded that the 

 best test was the deportment of bees on the 

 combs when they are out of the hive. The 

 following year I had the pleasure of raising 

 a few pure queens, but among them was 

 one producing unfertile eggs and one drone 

 laying. I thought that these mishaps were 

 the result of in-and-in breeding, and resolv- 

 ed to import bees direct from Italy. 



Now how was it that my queens mating 

 with black drones would produce all work- 

 ers with three yellow rings? I think I am 

 able to explain it. Dzierzon, by a careful 

 selection of queens and drones, had pro- 

 duced a strain of bees very light in color, 

 he even succeeded in producing workers 

 with four wide, yellow rings. His bees 

 were so yellow that the mating of his 

 queens could not have the same effect on 

 the progeny as if the color had not been so 

 mucn improved; and a queen breeder, rely- 

 ing on tne color only, could be led into 

 error, so as to consider as pure or very near- 

 ly so a qiieen having half black blood in her 

 veins. No doubt the daughter of an im- 

 ported queen, which has not been subjected 

 to such an improving, if mating with a 

 black drone, will show the impurity of the 

 mating and will never deceive her owner. 

 The queens which have mated with pure 

 drones, and these queens only, will seem 

 pure, all the impure blood being visible in 

 the progeny. The number of pure impreg- 

 nated queens will be smaller, but there 

 could be no mistake about the queens who 

 are fit for reproducing or perfecting the race. 



Now as the bees are not only kept for 

 their color, but for their qualities as honey- 

 gatherers, the first improvement to be secur- 

 ed is the activity of the workers and the 

 best laying capacities of the queens. 



I do not concur with Mr. Geo. Thompson 

 when he says that a queen is always pro- 

 lific enough if the conditions of the hives 

 are right. I think that very few amongst 

 the old bee-keepers will sustain this state- 

 ment. I have often seen queens which 

 could never fill their hives with brood, 

 while some others in the same circum- 

 stances lacked room every season. Of course 

 the last gave plenty of honey while the 

 others could some years hardly get enough 

 for winter. I, therefore, conclude that tlie 

 main quality for a queen is prolificness, the 

 second quality is energy and mildness of 

 her workers; and at last, color. For years 

 I have been working with these aims in 

 view and it would be hard to convince me 

 that I am not on the right track. 



Ch. Dadant. 



P. S.— Mr. Geo. Thompson says also that 



