THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



89 



Here the Howe Queens are Reared, in Deerficld, Massachusetts. 



out. Now find a drone that shows any 3'ellow blood if you can. I 

 find that it is true every time. 



THE ITAZIAIT A E-STBiSID. 



I said that the Italian bee was a hybrid. Let me explain. I 

 never saw a queen of what we call pure Italian blood but what 

 won id show a variation in her drones and queens. It makes no dif- 

 ference if her worker progeny are perfectly marked, her queens will 

 \ ary in color ever}- time. 



Nor is this all. I have taken tlie average Italian strains, not 

 i^olden but the banded stock, and by selecting the dark queens of 

 the right color, in three generations have bred the Black bee with 

 all their characteristics. I could not say what these queens mated* 

 v/ith ; might have been Black drones, as there w^ere Black bees in 

 mating distance. 



aim: HITB^ISS BETTEI!^? 



I was told that the Hybrid bee was better than a pure race. 

 I bred these crosses for a few years and got some wonderful colonies, 

 but by keeping a record I found that I got too much variation as 

 to honey, some giving large yields while others scarcely a living. I 

 used a pure Italian queen, that is, a three banded stock, mating these 

 queens to Black drones. I found I could take a Hybrid queen and 

 by selecting the yellow queens, her daughters, get some of them 

 that would breed pure Italian workers. About one-third of these 



