THE AMERICAN BEE JOTJRNAI.. 



119 



For the American ISee Jourual. 



Rev. Ge rge Kleine on Color, as a Test 

 of Purity in Italian Bees. 



Mr. Editor : After reading the tirticle iu 

 your July number, from the pen of Rev. George 

 Kleine, I sent him an order for an Italian 

 queen. 



From his letter to me you will see tliat his 

 experience in queen raising agrees fullj^ with 

 the following statement iu my circular : 



"The color of the queens and drones raised 

 from pure raothei's varies greatly, but all their 

 worker progeny show distinctly the three yellow 

 bands or riugs. Queens reared from them in 

 good colonics, where forage is abundant, arc 

 generally h.andsome, while those reared from 

 impure mothers are seldom highly colored." 



I cannot j-et rc»oncile Mr. Ivleine's article 

 with his letter to me, but doubt not that there 

 is a satisfactory solution of the seeming con- 

 tradiction. Like Mr. ICleine, I have procured 

 queens from the best sources in Italy and Ger- 

 many, but have never met with one whose 

 queen and drone progeny vv'cre invariably 

 higlily colored. L. L. Langstrotii. 



Oxford, Butler Co., Ohio, jS'ov., IbtiO. 



Extrac's from a letter from the Rev. Georg-3 

 Kleine to Ilcv. L. L. Langstroth. 



Leuthorst, Hanover, 



October 20th, iJ-jGO. 



Dear Sir : It gives me great pleasure to 

 send j'ou as good an Italian queen as I Iiave in 

 my apiar3^ If I had received your letter 

 earlier iu the season I might have procured for 

 you a cfueen whose drone progeu}' would per- 

 haps have been handsomer. 



Ever since I obtaineil the Italian bee, I have 

 given special attention to the drones, and have 

 come to the conclusion that if they are from a 

 pure queen, their lighter or darker color has no 

 influence upon their posterity. I have ordered 

 queens from the best sources, and while I have 

 constantly found among them a great diversity 

 of colors, they liave invariably proved them- 

 selves to be pure. 



When I commenced raising these bees, I 

 selected for the breeding of drones only such 

 qutens as would produce those most hi>;hly 

 colored, but I now pay no attention to this, 

 finding it unnecessary when I know that my 

 queens are pure, and that the less highly-colored 

 di'ones produce likewise a pure and "beautiful 

 progeny. 



According to my experience, the country iu 

 the vicinity of Lake Maggiore possesses the 

 Italian bee in its highest purity. That the 

 lightest-colored queens often proiluce dark-col- 

 ored queen progeny seems to be the general 

 rule ; at least among all my queens, imported 

 from the best sources, I have not found a single 

 exception to this rule. Such dark queens, 

 however, if purely fecundated, give a beautiful 

 posterity,ofteu more beautiful than that from the 

 handsomest mothers. I had one which was 

 darker even than the darkest queens of the 

 black race, and yet her v;orkers Averethe hand- 

 somest I could show. 



! "VVIieu I first attempted to introduce the 

 i Italian be;; into Germany, I demanded of those 

 ; from whom I imported 1 hem, queens wdiosc pro- 

 i geny would invariably be highly colored, olFer- 

 1 ing to pay for such tiic highes't price. They 

 j replied that though they had none but pure 

 I bees, they could not send me such queens as I 

 desired. Since, although dark queens were 

 I very often found in their apiaries, such queens 

 j were as pure as the lightest-colored. So it 

 I seems to have been iu the time of Virgil, nearly 

 I two thousand years ago, v.'ho advises to discard 

 : such dark-colored queens. Like him, I prefer 

 i to select as breeders the highest-colored 

 ; queens. 



All the visiiors to my apiary have expressed 

 ^ the ir pleasure at seeing the liive you sent me, 

 ; and it unquestionably attracts attention above 

 1 all my other hives. I shall not fail to give a 

 ! full description of it in my Bee Journal. 



I remain, with the greatest esteem and 

 I respect, your obedient, 

 j George Kleine. 



[From tho Bicneuieitung.] 



Cure of Foalbrcod. 



In the Biensnzeitung, No. 18, for 1863, I in- 

 quired of bee-keepers whether a cure for foul- 

 brood was not known to some of them, which 

 they would be willing to communicate to me. 

 1 received numerous letters in reply, suggesting 

 various processes; and several prescriptions, 

 said to he etlicacious, Avere sent to and pub- 

 lished, in the Bienenzeitunrj. Of these latter I 

 have used two, and, as 1 firmly believe, with 

 the best results. 



The /rs^ was as follows : Grate and pulverize 

 a nutmeg, and mix with honey sufficient for ten 

 feeds. Give an infected colony one dose every 

 alternate evening. 



The second — Take li ounces pulverized s.'ar 

 aniseed, anil pour on it a quart of boiling water. 

 After cooling, pass the water through a fine 

 sieve or strainer, dilute therewith two quarts of 

 honey, and add one dram -tincture of opium. 

 Feed fotdbroody stocks therewith morning and 

 evening. This quantity is sufticient for twelve 

 colouies. 



These remedies have been used by mc and 

 several other bee-keepers iu my neighborhood. 

 I say advisedly, "and several other bee- 

 keepers," for there are .5ome who abominate the 

 very name of foulbrood. Their stocks may be 

 ever so weak and disinclined to labor. Colony 

 aifer colony may decamp even while the finest 

 pasturage surrounds them; and though every 

 monthly revision of their apiaries adds to the list 

 of perished stocks, and places ochers on the 

 sick list; yet foulbrood, "oh, no, they never 

 mention it." 



Since using the medicine, I have frequently 

 examined my hives, anxiously inspecting every 

 brood-comb— fearing lest I should detect some 

 new trace of the malady. But I rejoice to say 

 that I have not found one suspicious cell in any 

 of the hives which had been under treatment; nor 

 has the disease reappeared iu those oi myueiudi, 

 bors, though I huvo seen that the evil is still ox- 



