118 



THE AMEBIC AN APICUL TUELS T. 



western Carniola toward the central 

 plains, and even from the adjoining 

 provinces some colonies are brought. 

 These provinces are narrow strips lying 

 between Carniola and Italy. The na- 

 tive bees, as one proceeds southwest 

 from the central plain of Carniola show 

 more and more yellow. The majority 

 of the colonies brought to the buck- 

 wheat pastures are sold at the close of 

 the harvest to honey and wax dealers to 

 be brimstoned, some are taken back 

 home to be wintered as stock hives, but 

 others remain in Carniola, having been 

 selected to restock some decimated 

 apiary, or start a new one. Little heed 

 is given to the origin of the bees, or 

 what their color may be, as long as they 

 are strong in numbers, and have plenty 

 of stores for the winter, and above all if 

 the price is low. In this way bees from 

 Austrian lands bordering on Italy, and 

 which show more or less yellow, have 

 been scattered about in Carniola, taken 

 even back into the mountain valleys. 

 They are soon lost among the gray bees 

 of the country, or so merged into the 

 gray as to be distinguishable only now 

 and then, for the yellow which thus 

 chances to get introduced is small as 

 compared with the gray of the country. 

 We have had yellow bees in America 

 for over thirty years, yet the race which 

 had sole possession previous to the in- 

 troduction of Italians shows but little 

 yellow where ho direct attempt has 

 been made to replace their queens by 

 those of yellow races ; indeed, in many 

 portions no sign of yellow is yet seen, 

 and in general the bees of our country 

 are still the common black or brown 

 race. This, in spite of the fact that 

 many Americans have tried to get tlie 

 yellow races firmly established — has 

 often given queens to their neighbors 

 and introduced them gratis in order to 

 get the blood of a given locality all 

 changed to yellow. Americans are ac- 

 tive and progressive, disposed to try 

 new things and keen in discerning what 

 is valuable ; moreover, no beekeepers 

 know how to rear and ship queens as well 

 as do our own people. On the other 



hand, Carniolan beekeepers are igno- 

 rant, slow to adopt new ways or ideas, 

 being prejudiced against all that is for- 

 eign, They do not import foreign bees 

 and know little about (]ueen-rearing, 

 and not much more about shipping. 

 In 'all branches of agriculture, they pur- 

 sue the methods used hundreds of years 

 ago, wooden plows, sickles, flails, etc., 

 being the rule. Now, since in our 

 country, with all the pains taken, yellow 

 bees spread so slowly, can it be re- 

 garded as surprising that in Carniola, 

 where the gray bees are as firmly es- 

 tablished as were the black or brown 

 bees when Italians were first brought 

 here, the bees showing some yellow 

 blood, but not pure Italians, which are 

 annually brought there, should, under 

 the peculiar circumstances mentioned 

 as existing in that province, only show 

 a slight influence and that irregularly, 

 over the native gray bees? It seems to 

 me that neither the history, the present 

 appearance, nor the qualities of the race 

 of bees found in . Carniola, indicates 

 that Carniolans were originally the 

 source of the yellow bees of the Euro- 

 pean continent, nor that they were yel- 

 low at all. A careful examination of 

 the suliject made in Carniola itself and 

 extended experience with the bees there 

 lead me, ,as already indicated, to re- 

 gard them as a distinct type of dark 

 bees, and only accidentally contaminat- 

 ed by a small amount of yellow blood 

 of hybrid Italian origin. This contam- 

 ination is not so great, nor so well incor- 

 porated into the race as to show itself 

 always and with uniformity. Few colo- 

 nies show much yellow, and even when 

 considerable yellow is present the work- 

 ers are not uniformly marked. A rusty- 

 red tinge on the first segment of the 

 workers of certain colonies is frequent ; 

 but the majority are not so marked, es- 

 pecially in the north of Carniola, al- 

 though in the south and southwest this 

 peculiarity is more frequently met with 

 than elsewhere in the province. In gen- 

 eral, the yellower the workers are in 

 Carniola the yellower the queens pro- 

 ducing them are likely to be, but it by 



