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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



very possible, but to my opinion the 

 queens are not pure — If as pure as the 

 queens imported from Italy. 



Let us suppose that, until ten years 

 ago we had here no other hogs than the 

 old white boar, and those the improved 

 imported hogs ; were all half black and 

 half white ; the mixing of the blood of 

 our white sow with the pure boar would 

 give some white, some partly black, 

 some partly white hogs. In selecting 

 those but for breeding we would succeed 

 in giving to that half-blood race the 

 color of the pure race; furthermore, 

 after new generations, blending only 

 from those having more black, we could 

 produce a new variety entirely black ; 

 yes, without restoring the pure black 

 pigs, for the color of the skin is not 

 sufiBcient. It is the same with bees; 

 the color is, in my humble opinion, one 

 of the smallest evlcfences of purity. 



Let us examine now the bees coming 

 from Upper Italy, where they are kept 

 pure by the Alps Mountains on the north 

 side, and cannot possibly intermix with 

 those of another race ; for the yellow 

 variety exists alone for many hundred 

 miles from the Alps to the sea. The 

 first ring of the abdomen, that section 

 which is attached to the corselet, is 

 leather-colored ; the second ring is of 

 the same color, with a narrow border of 

 black ; the third ring has the same color 

 with a black border; the black edge is 

 sometimes so broad that often the bee, 

 being empty, she seems to have only two 

 yellow stripes ; besides, all the rings of 

 the abdomen have a thick edge of hairs 

 fawn-colored ; these hairs disappear 

 with age. As for the shape, the Italian 

 bee is more slender, her abdomen, if 

 empty, is longer, more round, more slim, 

 than the same in the black bee ; if full, 

 her abdomen is longer and larger, for 

 her sac is more capacious, while the Ital- 

 ian bee has her wings more separated 

 from the body. 



Such are the marks to recognize de 

 visa the family of the Italian bee. 

 There is also an unerring sign, that is, 

 their demeanor as the comb is taken 

 from the hive ; if pure, the bees remain 

 on the comb, and do not seem to be dis- 

 turbed ; the purer they are, the more 

 still on the comb. The black bees re- 

 main clustered under the comb. To an 

 experienced eye, the shades between 

 these two different departments are the 

 best tests of purity. 



Some years ago I received queens 

 reared here. These queens were very 

 handsome. I have bred from them 

 many very light-colored queens; yet, to- 

 day, I am satisfied that those queens 



were not pure, in all the acceptations of 

 the term. They were daughters of 

 queens imported from Germany, but 

 Germany, as well as the United States, 

 has plenty of black drones to intermix 

 with its queens. I am surrounded with 

 apiaries, none of them yielding certain 

 black bees, and also Italian bees of every 

 shade, purity from a sixteenth, nay, to 

 a thirty-second degree. If one of my 

 lighter queens mate with a drone hav- 

 ing an eighth part of black blood, her 

 progeny will no longer be pure ; yet I 

 am unable to detect the difference. So 

 it is in Germany, although the queens 

 reared there are more yellow than the 

 Italian imported queen. 



Perhaps some readers of this article 

 would guess that I am an importer of 

 Italian queens. I can answer, that 

 being in intercourse with France, Italy 

 and Germany, it is as easy a matter to 

 procure queens from one of those coun- 

 tries as from another, but my preference 

 is in favor of Upper Italy for these, the 

 workers, the Italian queens, are of un- 

 doubted purity. Chas. Dadant. 



Bee.Keeping: in Utah — Sweet 

 Clover, Etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY HOMER BKOWN. 



The last winter was a severe one on 

 bee-keepers in Salt Lake county, as one 

 of our bee-inspectors told me that the 

 loss, as far as he had been (up to about 

 the middle of July), was about 90 per 

 cent. My individual loss was not so 

 great as that, but as the season was so 

 backward I thought I was not going to 

 get a pound of honey. Notwithstanding 

 there was a profusion of alfalfa bios- ' 

 som, there seemed to be no honey in it, 

 for in going over a 15-acre field that 

 was in full bloom, I could not count a 

 dozen bees. It was the first of August 

 before I got my first super of honey, 

 and no swarm until the 8th ; this out of 

 between 50 and 60 colonies. But owing 

 to the sweet clover and the Rocky 

 Mountain bee-plant they have done 

 fairly well since that time, and are still 

 storing some honey. 



On Aug. 27th I took 21 pounds of 

 comb honey in one-pound sections, from 

 the swarm I caught on the 8th. and I 

 think I will get about 40 pounds more 

 from the same ; besides, they have eight 

 Langstroth frames well filled in the 

 lower hive. I mention this because of 



