1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



616 



and reared in each hive an Italian queen; these, of 

 course, were nearly all mated with black drones. 

 In August and September, after all the black drones 

 were gone, and nothing loft in the apiary except 

 pure Italians and drones from these pure mismated 

 queens, I again removed all the hybrid queens, giv- 

 ing cells bred from the pure stocks, as befoi-c. Now, 

 when the pi'ogenyof these queens hatched out they 

 should have been pure, according to this theory; 

 but, not so; they were nearly every one hybrids, as 

 in the spring trial, except that none of the prog- 

 eny were full black bees, as in the first cross, but 

 they were from one to three mingled-banded bees, 

 such as hybrids always show more or less of. They 

 were exactly what C. Kingsleysont me last spring 

 as tested Italian bees— nothing but hybrids, yet 

 pure, according to the theory. I continued to breed 

 up queens, and have them mated to these drones 

 as late as I could; and, not being able to produce 

 pure Italians in that way, I sent off and bought 20 

 odd queens of S. D. McLean, of Tennessee, and in- 

 troduced them in place of these queens mated with 

 drones that were bred of pure queens mismated. 



TO START BEES TO WORK IN SECTIONS, 



Or any part of a hive you want them to go to work 

 in, is a very simple thing to do, if they are working 

 anywhere. This is the way: Take a piece of comb 

 having sealed and unsealed brood in it, and idace in 

 one of the sections which you want them to occupy 

 —box or any other contrivance you want honey 

 stored in, and they will certainly go to work around 

 it; they won't desert brood and larva' as they do 

 honey placed up in sections to start them ; and as 

 soon as they get well started and under way you 

 can remove the piece containing brood. This is a 

 nevei'-failing remedy; it will start the most obsti- 

 nate colonies, and is very simple and easj' of trial. 



CAUNIOLANS. 



They do show bees having two yellow bands, and 

 even an occasional one with three; but they are a 

 smaller and more reddish-looking bee— rather dwarf- 

 ish-looking fellows compared with the regular Car- 

 niolan workers; so, at least, do the Carniolans I got. 

 and they, too, are from imported mothers, two of 

 which were sent me by Mr. Benton in August and 

 October last, as first-grade queens. They are very 

 gentle indeed— good workers, but they make little 

 show for it in their hives, in the way of surplus, as 

 they are such excessive breeders that they use more 

 than most bees do in bi'ceding. This is the only 

 reason I can give to account for their lack of stores, 

 as they cei-tainly do work well. Tliey just teem 

 with fertile workers, if made queenless for six or 

 seven days. They have jilenty of fertile workers 

 in their hives, even when having a (lueen hatched 

 in it several days old. They beat Henderson's Syr- 

 ians for fertile workers. 4— A. L. Swinson, 71—73. 



Goldsboro, N. C, July 5, 1880. 



Friend S., I do not see that you demon- 

 strate at all that the drones from pure Ital- 

 ian queens, when crossed with a bhick or 

 hybrid, are vot pure Italian. The tlieory 

 was first propounded by Dzierzon, and then 

 verified by that careful experimenter the 

 Baron of Berlepsch ; and, if I am correct, it 

 has not been proven imtrue as yet. Your 

 experiment upon the point in question is 

 faulty, in that there mi^lit have been, and 

 prol)ably were, black bees witliin your im- 

 mediate vicinity. Besides, it seeiiis to me 

 you could not prove there were no black bees 



near you. At the bottom of your letter I 

 se^ you have been in the business for four 

 years; so at that time (1884) you could hard- 

 ly have Italianized the wild bees in your vi- 

 cinity. — The phm you mention, of inducing? 

 bees to go into sections, is the same as that 

 mentioned recently by Doolittle. — Your ex- 

 perience with the Carniolans is similar to 

 ours, that they make little show of honey in 

 the hives. Ours, however, do not even seem 

 to work well. If Carniolans teem with fer- 

 tile workers wlien cpieenless, it certainly is 

 a bad trait. As we have raised no (jueens 

 from our Carniolans, we have not tested 

 them 'in this ])articular. I would recom- 

 mend you, friend 8., and all otliers who feel 

 undecided about the drones from pure moth- 

 ers, to go over again our little book called 

 the " Dzierzon Tlieory." It is mailed on re- 

 ceipt of 12 cents. 



CARNIOLAN BEES, AND ARE THEY 

 GOOD MTOEKEKS? 



FRIEND J. U. MASON TEI^T^S HIS EXPERIENCE WITH 



THEM. 



"T N Gleanings for June 15, Ernest strikes a blow 

 j^f at the Carniolan bees, pronouncing the verdict 

 ^l upon them as worthless, as he says they are 

 ■^ poor honey-gatherers, and concludes by warn- 

 ing the friends about investing in them. This 

 seems hardly fair to pronounce judgment on this race 

 of bees in that way, until you had tested them further 

 than one or two (lueens, especially as I believe Mr. 

 Benton held that there must be some mistake 

 about one of them. Had I judged the Italian race 

 of bees l)y the three first queens I ever had, or from 

 two that 1 bought later on from a very prominent 

 breeder, I fear I should most surely have condemn- 

 ed the race, for they were as near worthless as Er- 

 nest describes the Carniolans. They were not self- 

 supporting; and from the reports of others I at 

 once decided that there were better Italian bees 

 than I had got; and after procuring some from an- 

 other strain I found a vast diflereuce in them. 



For two years past I have been testing the Carni- 

 olans, and I must say I have found them superior 

 in all respects to the Italians for comb honey. My 

 Carniolans do not show yellow bands, as Ernest 

 speaks of, and they have no lazy or sluggish actions, 

 but are among the very best workers I have ever 

 seen. They are certainly better ccmb-builders than 

 any Italians I have ever had, and build whiter 

 combs, and take to the boxes more readily; and as 

 for gentleness, they are gentler than any I have 

 had. If one wishes for nothing but extracted hon- 

 ey, perhaps there may be none better than the Ital- 

 ian bees. 



It is evident to my mind, that these so-called Car- 

 niolans that have bands are hybrids. You may say 

 they were imported. Well, the next thing is, arc 

 there no hybrids where they were reared'? I re- 

 ceived two imported Italians from a dealer whom I 

 think you would i)ronounce perfectly honest; but I 

 pronounced them both hybrids, and I will bet a tri- 

 fle they were. A. T. Root pronounceil them so, as I 

 sent a sample of the bees. 



In July 1st Or.EANrNC.s, 11a Michener sjieaks of 

 procuring a queen of S. W. Morrison, and he says she 

 was a hybrid, temper not excepted. Well, now I 

 should ask. Did not S. W. Morrison sell her for a hy- 



