1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



617 



" But I am told that the Cyprians arc very 

 vindictive and ugly. Is this so ? And are the 

 Italians ugly also?" 



" As a rule, the Italians are very quiet and 

 gentle, while, so far as my experience goes, 

 the Cyprians are more given to stinging than 

 any varietj^ known. The Syrians are about 

 half way between the two as to their stinging 

 qualities — -about like our common grade of 

 hybrids." 



" When were the Italians first brought to 

 this country? " 



" Italians were first shipped to this country 

 about 1860, wh le the oiher two were not 

 brought to our shores till about 1880." 



" But are the Italians really a better bee 

 than any others? " 



"So far nearly all apiarists agree in placing 

 the Italian bee at the head of all others, both 

 as to ease of manipulation, beauty, and hon- 

 ey-gathering." 



" How about comb-building? I read they 

 fail here." 



"As comb builders they are not quite as 

 good as the black or German bee, neither do 

 they use as much wax in capping their surplus 

 honey, which gives their comb-honey product 

 a little darker appearance, or what is termed 

 a ' watery ' look " 



"You said something about ease in manip- 

 ulation when working with thtsi bees. What 

 did you mean ? " 



" Italian bees cling very tenaciously to their 

 combs, staying on them, when the combs are 

 handled, very much in the same quiet way 

 that they did when the combs were in the 

 hive and the hive untouched, while the black 

 and hybrid bees very often fall ofT, or run 

 about in a frightened way. This tendency 

 makes the handling of the frames and the 

 finding of queens, or any other inspection of 

 the inside ot the hive and combs, very pleas- 

 ant ; but when we wish to get them off the 

 combs for extracting the honey, or for any 

 other purpose, it is more of a job than with 

 the black or h3'brid bees." 



" But that would hardly pay for procuring 

 queens of this variety, would it? " 



" Well, perhaps not, though I incline to the 

 opinion that it would. However, the main 

 point of superiority in the Italian bee is its 

 honey-gathering qualities. If there is any 

 honey to be had they are away to the fields 

 after it, and will toil incessantly all day for a 

 very little, while the black bees will work very 

 little unless honey can be gathered quite frte- 

 ly. To put it in other words, Italian bees will 

 labor faithfully all day lon^r for only pennies, 

 while the Gtrman b- es must have dimes, (juar- 

 ters, halves, or dollars if tht-y do work to any 

 amount." 



" Can you prove this assertion in any way ? ' ' 



"Let n\^ illustrate, and then you can tell. 

 I find in my diary that, in th-^ spring of 1872, 

 I had fifteen colonies of black Vjees and three 

 of Italians. As an experiment a fourteen- 

 quart pail of maple sap was placed in shallow 

 dishes, after adding two pounds of sugar, so 

 as to make a very thin sweet of the whole. 

 With honey, the bees we;e s arted at work 

 near this sap, and as long as the honey lasted 



they came in about the proportion named 

 above, fifteen of the black to three of the yel- 

 low. As soon as the honey was gone they 

 took to the sap ; but in a few minutes the 

 black bees began to show less in proportion, 

 and kept getting less, till at the end of an 

 hour none but Italian bees were carrying the 

 thin sweet. These Italian bees worked till 

 they carried all of the sap home and had it 

 evaporated down to the consistency of honey, 

 while the black bees thought it not worthy of 

 their notice." 



"That is pretty good proof, sure. But what 

 about the Carniolan bees?" 



" They are natives of Carniola, and, if I am 

 correct, they were imported into this coun- 

 try through Mr. Frank Benton when he was 

 in the Old World looking up Apis dorsata. 

 Soon after their importation there seemed to 

 be a great difference of opinion regarding 

 them. Some extolled them very highly as 

 comb - builders and honey - gatherers, while 

 many more could give no words in their favor. ' ' 



" But, did you not try them?" 



" Yes. During the season of 1885 I procur- 

 ed a queen, said to be as good a Carniolan 

 queen as there was in this country. But from 

 a careful inspection of them for months I could 

 not think otherwise than that they were a very 

 peaceable strain of the black bee. They were 

 said to be of a steel-blue color ; but a close ob- 

 servation, with the two side by side, failed to 

 reveal such color further than the black bee 

 shows it. All the mark of distinction I could 

 see was in their being great swarmers, while 

 the blacks swarm only moderately." 



" Did you have only this one trial of them ? " 



"Yes. I gave my experience with them, 

 and some thought I did not have Carniolans 

 in their purity, so offered to send me a queen 

 on trial. I accepted, and had queens from 

 three other parties ; but the latter revealed 

 nothing different, except that two of them 

 were mixed with the yellow races." 



" How about thtir honey-gathering quali- 

 ties? " 



"They proved so inferior that I finally su- 

 perseded their queens with Italians. The 

 main trouble seemed to be that, as soon as the 

 honey harvest came on, they would go to 

 bre( ding with 'double diligence,' and reared 

 so much brood that the surplus gathered was 

 consumed by the multitudinous brood. That 

 others found them not so good as the Italians 

 is proven by their having comparatively gone 

 from notice, very few breeders of the present 

 day offering them for sale." 



" Now a question or two on foul brood and 

 I will not bother you longer. Can you give 

 me some of the symptoms and also tell me 

 how to cure it ? " 



" When a colony has this dreaded disease, 

 a few of the larvse die i^oon after the bees seal 

 the cells containing them. The capping to 

 the cell soon has a sunken appearance, gener- 

 ally with a small hole in the center. Upon 

 opening the cell the larva is found stretched 

 at full length, having a brown appearance, 

 while all healthy larvse or pupge are white. If 

 touched this dead brood is of a salvy, ropy 

 nature, and gives off an offensive smell. From 



