19 J5 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1025 



FIVE-BANDED BEES OR GOLDEN ITALIANS. 



' ' Say, Doolittle, got time to talk -a few 

 minutes about bees?" 



"Yes; always have time to talk about 

 them. Ever know a man who did not have 

 time to talk about the thing he was intense- 

 ly interested in? It is those things which 

 are uninteresting that a peison has not time 

 to talk about. Talk to a poultry enthusiast 

 about chickens, a dairyman about cows, a 

 motorist about autos, and any one of them 

 will take time to listen to you; but talk to a 

 rumseller about temperance, or a worldling 

 about the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

 and they have no time for such things. I 

 am an enthusiast on the bee question (also 

 on some other things). What do you wish 

 to talk about in the bee line this morning, 

 Mr. Jones?" 



' ' I wish to know if the golden Italian bees 

 are a different race from the leather-colored 

 Italians; or were they bred from the dark or 

 imported Italians by choosing the light-col- 

 ored queens to breed from? " 



' ' According to my opinion, the Italian 

 bees, no matter what their coloring, are not 

 a fixed type or race of bees as are the Ger- 

 man bees, or what are more commonly call- 

 ed 'black' bees." 



"That is strange. What would "^you" call 

 them?" 



' ' I consider them a variety, or what might 

 be more properly called a thoroughbred, the 

 same being brought about by the environ- 

 ments of their home during many generations 

 and centuries, the environments largely being 

 the snow-clad Alps in Italy. If I am cor- 

 rectly informed, the first importations of 

 these bees to this country were quite dark- 

 more so than the importations of the pres- 

 ent day." 



' ' Then you think selection had something 

 to do with the matter? " 



* ' Yes, Early breeders of these bees found 

 that they were liable to ' sport, ' as it is call- 

 ed; that is, some of the queens reared would 

 be almost entirely black, while others would 

 be striped with yellow, and still others a 

 beautiful yellow nearly the whole length of 

 the abdomen; and the longer these Italian 

 bees stayed in this country the more yellow 

 they became, even where no special atten- 

 tion was paid to the matter of color." 



"But the goldens of to-day did not come 

 about in that way, did they? " 



"No. After a little some of the earlier 

 queen-breeders saw a profit in the beautiful 

 yellow shown by some of the Italian queens, 

 a few generations removed from the import- 

 ed stock, so they began breeding along this 

 yellow line. Notable among these were the 



Rev. H. A. King, of Ohio; Mrs. E. S. Tup- 

 per, of Iowa, and Jos. M. Brooks, of Indi- 

 ana, the latter seeming not only to breed for 

 color, but for all of the other good qualities 

 possessed by the Italian bee; and if there is 

 any thing of praise to be said for the golden 

 Italians of this day, this man Brooks should 

 come in for his share, for there are few if 

 any very yellow Italian bees in this country, at 

 this time, but what sprang from stock which 

 originally came from his apiary." 



"Why did you put emphasis on that word 

 Italian 'f ' ' 



" Because there are very many yellow bees 

 in the United States which came from Cyp- 

 rian stock originally; and this yellow breed- 

 ing has been carried to such an extent that, 

 in the very yellowest specimens, the queens 

 do not show the least bit of black on their 

 abdomens, and the drones' abdomen is near- 

 ly a solid mottled yellow, while very many 

 of the workers are a solid yellow except the 

 tip or point of the abdomen, which is of a 

 brownish-black color." 



"Do I understand that such bees as these 

 came from queens whose original progeny 

 were very dark, and many of the queens 

 and drones nearly or quite black? " 



"Yes; and as this color is of such a rich 

 orange or gold, these bees are very properly 

 called 'golden Italians;' but, aside from 

 those having Cyprian blood in them, all orig- 

 inated from queens imported direct from 

 Italy, being brought up to their present 

 standard as to color by selection. In view 

 of this, do you wonder that I object to such 

 a strain of bees as this being called pure?" 



' ' No. But one more question : Are golden 

 Italians what are called by some people five- 

 banded bees? " 



' ' Yes. The worker bees from an import- 

 ed queen direct from Italy show two colors 

 on each of the three homy scales or seg- 

 ments of the abdomen, next to the thorax. 

 That on each segment nearest the thorax is 

 of a leather color, and that furthest from 

 the thorax being of a very dark brown or 

 nearly black color. This gave birth to the 

 expression 'three-banded bees.' As the 

 breeding toward the yellow progressed, some 

 individual workers were found having a very 

 narrow stripe of yellow on the fourth seg- 

 ment of the abdomen, and with this stripe 

 came the contention that the Italian was 

 not a pure race of bees, but a mongrel or 

 thoroughbred; for, if bees showing three 

 bands are pure, what are those showing yel- 

 low on four bands? " 



' ' Yes, I see now. I had not thought of 

 the matter in that light before. Go on. ' ' 



' ' As the breeding for yellow continued, 

 that on all the segments became wider and 

 wider, the yellow encroaching on the black 

 or dark more and more, all the while, until 

 individual specimens began showing a very 

 minute yellow stripe on the front edge of 

 the fifth segment; which gave rise to the 

 present term, 'five-banded' bees." 



"That seems easy, I am sure. But some 

 of the golden Italians are not thus marked, 

 are they? " 



