THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



389 



wrat, for this noble-minded gentle- 

 niiin, who is a skilled master in judg- 

 ing of the diiferent bee races, told me 

 that, according to his best knowledge 

 and conscience, the Cyprian bees pos- 

 sessed the greatest ability of perform- 

 ance. When I visited Count Kolo- 

 wrat last summer, and he questioned 

 me how the pure Cyprian colony 

 which he had sent me was doing, I 

 answered : " Ttiat colony is so strong 

 that I had to take from it wlien I 

 left home 3 combs of brood, fearing 

 that they would swarm during my 

 absence ; but I have never found any 

 honey in this hive." Tlien the Count 

 said to me ; " When you have re- 

 turned home you will find the hive 

 full of honey." And so it was. Re- 

 turning honie after an absence of .5 

 ■weeks, I found that the entire hive 

 was filled with combs of hone5'. It 

 was the same this summer, all hives, 

 the colonies of which 1 had not divi- 

 ded, abounded with honey, and I 

 therefore liad to bring the extractor 

 into motion, although the present 

 year is not looked upon by bee-keep- 

 ers as a favorable one. 



10. Here I will remark, that tlie 

 collecting propensity which manifests 

 itself with the Italian bees, through a 

 greater liking to rob than is the case 

 witii our domestic bee, is developed 

 in a yet greater degree among Cyp- 

 rians. Therefore, it is well to pay 

 more attention to the Cyprian bees, 

 after the honey gathering is over, 

 than to tlie Italians, so that their nat- 

 ural collecting propensity may not 

 degenerate into a robbing propensity. 

 Last fall, one afternoon when absent 

 from home, I was robbed of a whole 

 colony. 



11. If the genuine Cyprian bees re- 

 main strongin tlie fall, too, then one 

 has greater hopes of bringing them 

 safely througli the winter than would 

 be the case with the Italians ; for it is 

 well known, that the Italian bees, af- 

 ter the expulsion of the drones, grow 

 weaker from year to year, and never 

 go as strong into wintering as the 

 Cyprian bees. As I liad cassated 

 those colimies this fall that had Cyp- 

 rian-hybrid queens, I did not know 

 finally, into what colonies I should 

 put the bees from the cassated colo- 

 nies, for as all the colonies were very 

 strong. I did not like to overfill them. 



12. The Cyprian drones are, witli 

 only few exceptions, of a beautiful 

 yellow color on the top of the hind 

 body, as also on both sides of the 

 same ; and I have never noticed this 

 in like manner among the Italian 

 dr^es, which is, furthermore, con- 

 firmed by the masters of bee-keeping, 

 for they say that the pure Italian 

 drones are entirely dark, with only a 

 very indistinct, yellow-looking stripe 

 upon their hind body. I found in my 

 apiary this summer a few drones who 

 were "marked yellow nearly all over; 

 they could really be called apistic 

 beauties, while the first drones in 

 the spring were of a dark color. 



13. I found it in truth confirmed, 

 what Count Kolowrat had stated to 

 me as his experience, that the Cyp- 

 rian queens begin much later with 

 laying drone eggs than the Italian or 

 domestic queens. I therefore wrote 



to the Count on the 24th of last May, 

 that I could see a few drones only in 

 tliree hives in my apiary, notwitli- 

 standing the fact that the colonies 

 were quite strong already, and, as I 

 desired to give to all of my colonies 

 pure Cyprian queens, I felt quite a 

 longing for Cyprian drones. For tliis 

 reason I employed, when I found that 

 the queens showed little inclination 

 towards laying drone eggs, all the 

 means at n'ly command to increase the 

 number of Cyprian drones, so that I 

 could count' with greater certainty 

 upon a pure Cyprian fertilization of 

 the young queens, and my desire was 

 fulfilled. In -July thousands and 

 thousands of beautiful drones came 

 flying into my garden. The young 

 queens did not have to look long be- 

 fore finding a Cyprian drone. In this 

 manner I had 55 young Cyprian 

 queens, daughters of the original 

 queen from the Island of Cyprus, fer- 

 tilized between .Tuly 22 and 24, in 

 about 3 days. 



Here let me remark, that my ex- 

 perience in reference to the fertiliza- 

 tion of the daughters of the original 

 queens, does not agree in full with the 

 experiences of Count Kolowrat, for, 

 while the daughters of the original 

 queen in his apiary furnished, every 

 one of them, a throughout yellow pos- 

 terity of workers, notwithstanding 

 the fact, as stated by him, that some 

 of tliose queens had "come in certain 

 contact with black drones, I have 

 found that 3 daughters of the original 

 queen from the Island of Cyprus 

 brought f(uth many black (nearly 

 coal-l)laek) workers, and proved them- 

 selves, therel'oi'e, Cyprian-liybrids, 

 while all the other daughters of the 

 original Cyprian queen had such beau- 

 tiful workers for her children, that the 

 heart of a iiassionate apicultnrist 

 must have filled with joy when look- 

 ing at these golden darlings. 



If the Italian bees have bribed the 

 eyes of many a bee-keeper, on account 

 of their handsome dress, so that he 

 could find no rest until he saw him- 

 self in possession of the Italians, and 

 saw them fly around in his garden, 

 then the Cyprian bee — the genuine- 

 must indeed charm the eye of any ap- 

 icnlturist who has never beheld Iheui 

 in their uniform splendor; the more 

 so, because they possess, besides their 

 more beautiful dress, many valuable 

 qualities which the Italians lack. It 

 is not surprising, therel'ore, that m'-iny 

 a bee-keeper after having seen these 

 beautiful and industrious little in- 

 sects, cannot withstand the desire of 

 coming into possession of them. 



14. The Cyprian queens are smaller 

 than the Italians, and have a very 

 long and pointed hind body. In ref- 

 erence to their color, they vary the 

 same as the Italians. Among them I 

 liiul some that are dark, some are 

 yellow, and S(nne brilliantly yellow. 

 After issuing from their cells, they 

 are mostly similar to the Cypriaii 

 workers. The first two segments of 

 the hind body are of an orange-yellow 

 too. 



But the upper part of the hind- 

 body, commencing with these orange- 

 colored rings, clianges into black 

 towards tlie pointed encf of their 



bodies ; the sides of the hind-body are 

 in most cases liglit vellow. more beau- 

 tiful than those of the Italian or those 

 of the Cyprian workers, and the lower 

 part of the hind part is a pale yellow. 

 I had a queen this year upon which 

 nothing hiack at all could be detected, 

 only upon the point of the body could 

 be "noticed an almost imperceptible 

 darker shade of yellow. All to whom 

 I showed this c^ueen assured me of 

 having never before seen such a beau- 

 tiful queen. Unfortmiately, and 

 through my own fault, I have subse- 

 quently lost this queen. 



Tlie offspring, tliough, do not al- 

 ways take after the queen; for many 

 a darker queen lias yellower workers 

 than anotiier, which is of a beautiful 

 yellow, ;ind has been i)urely fertilized. 

 The lighter or darker color of the 

 workers takes its origin from the 

 Cyprian drones with which the queen 

 has come in tliiect connection while 

 being fertilized ; for, the first Cypriaii 

 drones this spring were darker, and 

 though the Cyi^riaii queens that were 

 fertilized, at that time were fertilized 

 pure, yet the workers (their daugh- 

 ters) were much darker.than the work- 

 ers of those queens tliat were ferti- 

 lized later, wlien I already had many, 

 very beautiful yellow drones in my 

 apiary. 



The light color of the Cyprian 

 queens changes likwise into dark or 

 dark-red when they are getting old, 

 as is the case with the Italians. The 

 pure Cyprian queen which I in the 

 previous year received from Count 

 Kolowrat was of a reddish-yellow ; 

 this summer she had already ciianged 

 into dark-red. 



15. Finally, I will mention another 

 distinction of the Cyprian bee, name- 

 ly, the famous sting-fury of the Cyp- 

 rian bees, about which we have read 

 a description in the Bienenzeituny, on 

 account of which it was attempted to 

 deny to them their fitness for a large 

 apiary. I iiave practiced a great deal 

 with these bees in my large apiary 

 during these two years, and have had, . 

 therefore, many opportunities to ob- 

 tain experience in this regard. Last 

 year, as well as in the present, I have 

 for the secoud time given new Cyp- 

 rian queens to all the colonies of my 

 large apiary. I furthermore had to 

 take all the combs from the hives last 

 spring, because I desired to exchange 

 the old-fashioned sticks for frames, 

 brush off the bees from them, insert 

 the combs into the new frames, and 

 get the cabinet-maker to nail down 

 the ledges in the hives, after which I 

 let the bees that had been brushed off 

 from the combs run back into their 

 hives ; besides all this, I had to form 

 several nuclei — had to look quite fre- 

 quently if the queens were fertilized, 

 and iii'the fall, if the bees possessed 

 suflicient food and proper combs for 

 the winter. As may be judged by the 

 above. I have had in this connection 

 a great deal of experience. But, it 

 will be said, what was your experience 

 in reference to the stinging propensi- 

 ties of these bees V Tell the truth ! 

 Ilave you not been killed by tliese 

 beasts that take so much delight in 

 stinging V And I answer: No, 1 am 

 alive yet, and they give me great joy ! 



