CHAPTER III. 



THE VARIOUS RACES OF BEES. 



The English Bee. 



Tni6 bee is still considered by many as the most suitable 

 variety for this climate. Owing, however, to the extensive 

 introduction of foreign bees into all parts of the country, it is 

 by no means easy to find this bee in absolute purity, untainted 

 by any admixture of foreign blood, as cjueens and drones fly 

 over a lai-ge area — probably often five or six miles from the 

 hives — in i-earch of a mate. 



The English bee is considered more wilHng than the foreign 

 races to enter supers, and this is indeed a great matter in 

 its favour. It also seals its honey with nice, thick, white 

 cappings — another great advantage. English bees, when com- 

 pared with some of the foreign bees and hybrids, are by no 

 means diflScult to handle ; but then, again, they are not nearly 

 so gentle as the Carniolan bees. Altogether, the amateur 

 might do worse than start bee-keeping with English bees. 



The Ligurian or Italian Alp Bee. 



This bee has been imported into this country in greater 

 numbers, perhaps, than any other foreign race. It is easily 

 distinguished from the English bee, as the workers possess 

 three beautiful, golden-coloured bands on the abdomen. The 

 tongue of the Ligurian bee is longer than that of the brown 

 bee, and consequently it can gather honey — or rather nectar — 

 from fiowers on which the latter is unable to work. 



Almost all who liave kept these bees agree, that they are 

 much more gentle and better honey-gatherers than Englisli 

 bees, that the queens are consideiably more prolific, and that 

 the bees — at any rate in this country — are proof against the 

 ravages of the wax moth. 



Ligurians seal their honey with thinner cappings than do 

 our native bees, and their comb honey is therefore not quite so 



