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825 



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time of j'ear being most favorable for 

 this practice, and 1 certainly saw sev- 

 eral fine examples of fovil-broodj' 

 combs. 



In other apiaries no trouble seemed 

 to be taken with the quality of the 

 queens, such as selecting the best 

 queens to rear progeny from, nor was 

 any attention paid to the rearing of 

 drones from suitable colonies. These 

 great considerations Avere quite neg- 

 lected ; the great point seeming to be, 

 the largest number of queens in the 

 shortest possible time, and with the 

 least trouble ; and, as far as 1 can 

 judge, manj' were sent oft" without it 

 being definitely known that they wore 

 fertilized, and I feel sure that some 

 such queen.s arrive in England, and 

 are here fertilized, as, in the course of 

 my exj)erieuce as an expert, I have 

 had shown to me many colonies of 

 bees that I was assured were the 

 progeny of an imported cpieen, but 

 were certainh' hjbrids. 



My visits to apiaries extended over 

 the country between Bellin/.ona and 

 Montseliee ; this embraced the moun- 

 tainous district of the northern Italian 

 lakes, and the plains of Lombardy, and 

 again the hilly country around Bologna. 



I may say at once that I certainly 

 prefer the bees from the montains, as 

 they seem much more vigorous and 

 hardy : and the results in the way of 

 honey-gathering, as far as I coukl get 

 at the facts, were certainly far better. 

 The bees from these hilly parts would, 

 too, be better suited for our climate. 

 The number of apiaries visited was 

 large, yet I can count upon my fingers 

 of one hand all those who knew anj-- 

 thing about their business ; and if 

 those who took a real pride in the pro- 

 duction of their queens, and who use 

 reallj' scientific means to insure the 

 best results, then the number would 

 certainly be less than live. 



I shall describe the apiaries of the 

 best of these, and their methods ; but 

 before doing so, will give tlie conclu- 

 sions which I have come to with re- 

 gard to Italians : That, excepting 

 perhaps Carniolans, there arc no bet- 

 ter bees than Italians if care is taken 

 to get the best queens from a breeder 

 of recognized merit. 



That the bees of the mountains are 

 hardy, vigorous workers, great honey- 

 gatherers, prolific, and certainly gen- 

 tle, and in their own country not given 

 to robbing much. 



That to get the best results from 

 Italian bees, we must get a good strain 

 to start with, and then, by careful 

 selection, rear our own queens, and be 

 constantly on the look-out for those 

 having the most desirable characteris- 

 tics, and to pro])agate from them only. 



I can name one very striking case in 

 my own country, where all these points 



have had most careful attention given 

 to them, and- with the result that the 

 bee-keeper is ■ not only the best in the 

 country, but one of the best in Eng- 

 Umd, as far as results go ; and practi- 

 cal results (the largest amount of 

 honey, of the highest possible quality, 

 got with the least expenditure of labor 

 on the part of the bee-keeper), are 

 what we require In this age of keen 

 competition. 



The first apiar}' which I visited be- 

 longed to Jean Pometta. and was on 

 the hills above Gudo, near Bellinzona. 

 He had promised to meet me at Bellin- 

 zona station ; but on account of the 

 breakdown of the telegraph wires, 

 owing to a heavj' fall of snow, he failed 

 to be there. However, it was not ranch 

 trouble to find him. Everyljody whom 

 I asked was able to direct me to the 

 man who had a lot of bees ; and after 

 a most picturesque walk of two or 

 three miles I arrived at his home, in 

 the midst of vineyards, and with a 

 waterfall close by, which would have 

 made the fortune of auj' man in Eng- 

 land who possessed it. 



He was from home ; not having got 

 my telegram he ilid not expect me. I 

 had a chance, therefore, of looking at 

 his apiaiy at my leisure, and without 

 anj- interruption, which is an advan- 

 tage. His father (a venerable old 

 man) received me in a very hospitable 

 manner, and, as Mr. Pometta is a vine- 

 yard-owner as well as a queen-breeder, 

 I was able to see all the vintage opera- 

 tion in full swing. I may say that he 

 takes pride in his wine products as 

 well as in his bees ; and he showed me 

 with great interest an ancient-looking, 

 squat Uagon of Aqua Vitse, very old, of 

 his own distilling, that had taken the 

 gold medal at Zurich. 



I found an immense number of col- 

 onies of bees, many of them in bar- 

 frame hives with straw sides ; the 

 majority of them on the Italian plan, 

 opening at the back, and iron tongs 

 being used to remove the combs. 

 There were, too, a large number of 

 nucleus hives, with bar-frames lifting 

 out in the ordinary way. The bees 

 were the leather-colored strain, not 

 the bright colored bees such as I saw 

 later on in Lombardy. To show their 

 energy, I may mention that Mr. 

 Pometta told me that they are usualh' 

 at work at six in the morning, and 

 that on one or two occasions he actuall}" 

 saw them work by very bright moon- 

 light. We have heard this same story 

 from the Americans, and I fear every 

 one has doubted it. 



On Mr. Pometta's return we looked 

 through many colonies, and I had ex- 

 plained to me his whole .S3stem of 

 queen-rearing. 



The system used of rearing queens 

 depends upon the time of the year. In 



the early spring (when loss of heat 

 must be much guarded against) a col- 

 ony is taken, and, by means of three 

 dummies, is divided into four nuclei, 

 the hive being made with four en- 

 trances for this purpose. In this way 

 five queens are secured from one col- 

 ony, and though the system is a some- 

 what wasteful one, yet it answers, as 

 the price obtained for queens in earlj- 

 spring is comparatively high. Another 

 plan is to preserve a large number of 

 small colonies with young queens in 

 the autumn. In the spring two or 

 three of these can be united, and one 

 strong colony formed, and the surplus 

 queens sold. 



As the season advances, the nucleus 

 hives are used ; each n\icleus being 

 large enough to be again divided into 

 two. By this plan better queens can 

 be reared, and in good quantity too. 

 The bars of these are of just such a 

 size that two will fit into the large 

 bars of the Italian hives. This, of 

 course, is of great service to the queen- 

 rearer in manj' waj's, such as making 

 up nuclei for queen fertilization, and 

 afterwards for strengthening such with 

 hatching brood. 



SEASON OF 1888. 



Report of a Suniincr's Work 

 ivitli llie Bcc§. 



Written for the American BceJoui-nal 



BY GEO. W. STEPHENS. 



I caught the " bee-fever " away back 

 in the '70's, and have never been 

 cured. I once owned a number of 

 colonies, but about eight jears ago, 

 during a long and severe winter, when 

 so many bees were lost all over the 

 country, they took sick and died of 

 that most fatal disease, neglect. 



I began again last spring with 2 

 colonies of black bees — one in a Lang- 

 stroth hive, and the other in an Ameri- 

 can hive. I transferreil them bj' 

 driving, to a hive that is used by a 

 prominent apiarist of this State, but 

 which has not yet been named. The 

 hive is of about the capacity of a 

 cracker-box in length, breadth and 

 thickness. 



The spring was cold and rainy, and 

 the conditions were such that the 

 spring blossoms yielded no nectar, and 

 mj' bee.s gathered no honey until 

 about July 4 ; in fact, by that time 

 they had consumed all of their winter 

 stores, and although I had fed them 

 some, there was not at that time a 

 pound of lioney in either hive. The 

 same could be said of all the bees in 

 the neighborhood. I kept my bees in 

 the same yard with Mr. Hawk's 20 

 colonies, which were worked on shares 



