THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



123 



The worker bees of this race are 

 rather dark with a heavy silver 

 gray hair covering, and the wings 

 on the abdomen show a very narrow 

 stripe of yellow. 



The queens of this race are 

 somewhat smaller than the Italian 

 queens and black with yellow rings 

 on the abdomen, similar to those 

 of the workers, only smaller. 



The drones are rather dark with 

 heavy hair covering, but not as 

 dark as black drones, and they 

 show a little yellow but not much. 



This is the most quiet and gentle 

 race of bees (when pure) with 

 which I am acquainted. When 

 the combs are being handled they 

 remain quiet and do not run about 

 as do the blacks or Cyprians and 

 are even more marked in this 

 respect than the Italians. The 

 Caucasian colonies keep their 

 drones late in the season and at 

 this date even (Sept. 22) they 

 have many drones. 



In seasons like that of 1882, 

 where, in this section, bees of the 

 otiier races gathered only a rather 

 dark hone}' from mustard and the 

 like, the Caucasian bees stored a 

 honey whiter than either basswood 

 or white clover, and in 1882 this 

 was the only first-class honey pro- 

 duced in my apiaries. 



As I was very busy I was unable 

 to ascertain from what source the 

 Caucasian bees gathered this hon- 

 ey, but think that it may have come 

 either from Alsyke or red clover. 

 One feature worthy of notice was 

 that every Caucasian colony worked 

 gathering in this honey, so much 

 so that my assistant in the apiary 



could designate the colonies of 

 this race by their having stored 

 this white honey. 



The Caucasian bees finish and 

 cap the box honey even more 

 beautifully, if possible, than the 

 blacks, as the}^ do not make the 

 cappings so thick or heavy, nor so 

 flat or so near the honey as do the 

 Italians. 



In amount of honey gathered 

 per colony they equal any race of 

 bees that I have tested. One 

 feature peculiar to this race is that 

 they do not work so well on buck- 

 wheat as do some of the other 

 races ; hence they would not do as 

 well where buckwheat is abundant. 

 Another bad feature of the Cau- 

 casians is that, like the C^^prians, 

 when they desire to swarm they 

 start from seventy-five to one 

 hundred queen cells, from which, 

 however, they hatch a majority of 

 good queens. While the}' are great 

 swarmers yet they are not very 

 persistent in this respect and are 

 easily controlled. 



They do not commence to breed 

 quite as early in the spring as the 

 other races ; hence they do not 

 spring dwindle so much, and not- 

 withstanding that they begin to 

 breed later in the spring yet when 

 the first flow of honey comes you 

 will find these bees in as fine shape 

 as the others. 



As regards wintering the Caucas- 

 ians compare favorably with the 

 other races. 



I would state in conclusion that 

 I have no queens or bees to sell, 

 and my greatest object in importing 

 and testing tliese foreign races has 



