Aug. 1, 1911 



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455 



CAUCASIAN BEES AND THEIR CROSSES. 



Some Experience Showing that they are Better 

 Honey-gatherers than the Italians. 



BY J. J. WILDER. 



I am not a commercial queen-breeder, and 

 never expect to be. Honey-production is 

 my sole business, and I am not prejudiced 

 nor partial to any race or strain of bees, but 

 judge their qualities as I have found them. 

 On the, other hand, I am not contented with 

 an inferior honey-bee. I have been breed- 

 ing bees for years for superior stock, and 

 have always been on the alert for something 

 better, and I am frank to admit that I have 

 not yet found that strain of bees that is 

 "good enough for me." But, so far, the 

 Caucasians and their crosses have come near- 

 er this ideal than any other strain I have 

 ever been able to obtain. 



As there has been nothing said through 

 the bee publications for a long time relative 

 to Caucasians, no one can think that I write 

 this article to vindicate this particular vari- 

 ety of bees. I now have the Caucasian bees 

 and their crosses in 18 of my apiaries, or 

 about 1000 colonies of them, having obtain- 

 ed several breeding-queens of this variety 

 from the government. This foundation 

 stock came late in the fall, so I was able to 

 put but few colonies of this new variety in- 

 to winter quarters that year. They showed 

 some marks of superiority, and the next 

 spring I requeened my home yard, which 

 then had Italian bees, with queens from 

 this foundation stock. The honey harvest 

 at my honieyard i>roved to be the best. The 

 average yield was a few jjounds more per 

 colony than I had ever been able to obtain 

 here before, and it was of a better quality, 

 and brought two or three cents per pound 

 more on the market. This made quite an 

 item to the credit of these bees. 



Before the next season I divided the bees 

 in each colony in this ajjiary, and establish- 

 ed an outyard with this increase, and did 

 some requeening at two of my other yards, 

 using queens of this variety. Some of" them 

 were mismated with Italian drones. At the 

 same time, I had some of these mismated 

 queens under test at my home yard. Their 

 bees were not quite as gentle as the inire 

 Caucasians, nor as cross as the Italians; but 

 they did not propolize as did the pure Cau- 

 casian stock. As honey-gatherers, however, 

 they were equal to the pure blood on either 

 side that season, finishing their honey just 

 as beautifully as did the pure Caucasian 

 stock. At this time I felt somewhat en- 

 couraged over my effort for better stock. 



The next season I increased again, and I 

 requeened some of my black stock with i)ure- 

 ly mated Caucasian queens, and soon rais- 

 ed some queens of this variety, and had 

 them mated among the black stock. 



As soon as the spring honey-flow was over 



I had no chance to test the bees of these 

 queens, and did not return until after the 

 flow from cotton was nearly over, when a 

 great difference in the amount of surplus 

 honey stored by these colonies (as well as 

 the pure Caucasians over the blacks) was evi- 

 dent. At the time I put the bees away for 

 winter I found these colonies heavy with 

 stores, while many of the blacks were light, 

 and had to be supplied for winter. This 

 cross proved to be about equal to the pure 

 Caucasian blood as honey-gatherers, and as 

 gentle; and they finished their honey about 

 the same, but did not propolize quite as bad- 

 ly, but more than did the cross with the 

 Italians. 



At that time I had Caucasian stock in 

 eight apiaries, and had a good season. Since 

 then I have increased the Caucasians and 

 their crosses with Italians and blacks, in 13 

 apiaries. This season I gathered the best 

 of these crosses, and crossed them again in 

 my home yard; but I am not quite ready to 

 report further on this. 



CAUCASIANS AS HONEY-GATHERERS. 



As honey-gatherers these bees have so far 

 proven themselves to be equal to our Italian 

 stock. Two seasons they have given a bet- 

 ter average. The second season I had them 

 was one of our worst for an early sirring har- 

 vest, owing to continued cool weather, rain, 

 and high wind; but our Caucasian colonies 

 held their own in strength better than the 

 others, and at intervals, when the weather 

 proved favorable, they showed greater ac- 

 tivity. Here was where they made the 

 gain over the others. After the spring flow 

 they did no better than the Italians during 

 the summer and fall flows. I never gave 

 their gain much thought, as I had only a 

 few colonies. 



"When I ol:)tained the stock of Caucasian 

 bees the government i)laced me under obli- 

 gation to furnish other bee-keepers founda- 

 tion of this variety, which I did. I supplied 

 Mr. R. W. Herlong. of Fort White, Fla., a 

 few queens, and he established a Caucasian 

 apiary on benches or scaffolds, 24 or 80 

 inches high. Early in the summer, when 

 the main honey-iiow was exjiected, the 

 weather was vnisuitable for honey-gathering 

 and it continued thus for some time; but the 

 Caucasians seemed to be gaining greatly in 

 numbers, and were lying out in large quan- 

 tities. He added a large number of ready 

 supers, and left the matter of watching for 

 swarms to a farmer living near the apiary. 



AVhen the weather changed, the farmer 

 notified him that the scaffolds were giving 

 way under the bees, and that he ought to 

 come at once to look after them, which he 

 did. On outward examination he saw that 

 not much damage had been done; but when 

 he looked at the supers he discovered that 

 they were about ready to be removed, and 

 that the benches under the hives had broken 

 under the great weight — a condition not 

 true of his other apiaries. 



