iTH =-;^s- * 



ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



137 



Mr. Moore: Won't you go a little 

 further, and tell us some of the char- 

 acteristics of the Caucasians? 



Mr. Stanley: Their good qualities 

 are, that I can get them started in 

 sections; they build up faster in the 

 spring, and are toetter bees to handle 

 t5xan the average of Italians; they 

 keep the honey better; I am not "both- 

 ered as much with swarming, and they 

 dio not put pollen in the sections any 

 more or as much as other bees; they 

 do, probably, gather a little more. 

 That is why I like them better. 



Mr. Moore: Ek) they sting you and 

 run around and fall ofC the combs? 



Mr. Stanley: No; I would not keep 

 them if they stung me. 



Mr. Whitney: I have had a little 

 experience with the Caucasians. I 

 think Mr, York sent me a queen two 

 years ago, and I introduced her to an 

 Italian colony, and in time I had a 

 Caucasian colony of .bees. They did 

 not do anj^hing that year. Towards 

 fall they just chucked their hive as 

 full of propolis as they could. They 

 didn't quite close the entrance. The 

 next year I nursed them along, and 

 built them up as well as I could. They 

 are capital hees to handle. I handled 

 them many times without smoke or 

 without a veil, and imy hands bare — I 

 , never use gloves — and I didn't get a 

 sting; not one in all the two years I 

 had them — a lady came along and saw 

 me handle them. They were rather 

 weak. I was afraid they were going 

 to mix with my Italians. I saw they 

 were producing drones very rapidly, 

 and that causes me to S"" that th« 

 ordinary foundation, such as we use 

 for worker-comb, is just about the 

 kind of foundation that the Caucasian 

 bee, the queen, takes to lay drones in. 

 They are a small bee and make a 

 small section. I found they were pro- 

 ducing drones pr«:-*ty rapidly. The 

 lady who saw me handle them asked 

 me what I would tixke for that colony 

 of bees. I said: "You can have them 

 for $10.00." She said: "All right," and 

 she took them. They were in the 

 neighborhood, a mile or two away, and 

 that summer they swarmed "to ibeat 

 the band." They swarmed themselves 

 almost to death. They saved two 

 swarms of them, I think. A young 

 lady told me that some person on the 

 farm said that their man was out and 

 saw a swarm of black bees, and told 

 thetn to come up and hive them. They 



went up and saw them, and said: 

 "Those are black bees; we don't want 

 them." I was up afterwards, looking 

 over the colony for them, and looking 

 over the brood-chamber, and I saw 

 half a dozen bee-cells that had been 

 nicely capped. I thought a number of 

 swarms, deducting those they had 

 saved, had gone ofC, and I said: "That 

 swarm of bees you saw up there was 

 your Caucasians," and showed them 

 their queen-cells, and convinced them 

 they had lost two or three swarms of 

 bees. -It is the experience - f those 

 who have handled them most, that they 

 are great swarmers, and great to put 

 propolis into their hives in the fall, 

 and, of course, they breed drones. I 

 think perhaps they would swarm less 

 if the foundation base was a trifle 

 smaller than it is; perhaps 'that would 

 change that condition. 



Mr. Moore: Will Mr. Stanley tell us 

 how he can teU a Caucasian from an 

 Italian or Grerman bee by inspection? 



Mr. Stanley: I cannot tell. I have 

 to watch their movements and th« 

 way they work, and then I am not 

 sure. 



Mr. Moore: They look like an Ital- 

 ian bee? 



Mr. Stanley: No, sir; they don't. 

 The queens are a litle slimmer. The 

 bees are smaller and a little more 



restless. 



Mr. Moore: Yellow bands? 



Mr. Stanley: iDark ivories, as near 

 as I can call them — ^between a hybrid 

 and a black, I should think. 



Mr. Whitney: Those that I had, the 

 segments were very black, with a very 

 narrow white band at the joint of the 

 segments of the abdomen, and . the 

 queen looked like an enlarged, as near- 

 ly as I could describe it, mud-wasp, 

 more like that than like an Italian 

 queen; quite dark, but she had some 

 earth- colored bands across her; but 

 very slim, and long-legged apparently, 

 because her slim body made her look 

 so. It is very easy to tell this strain 

 that I had from the Italians or from 

 the hybrids, but a little difficult to tell 

 them from the regular black bees. 



Mr. Kannenberg: I want to ask 

 Mr. Stanley if they were hybrids or 

 regular Caucasians. 



Mr. Stanley: I had some of both, I 

 think. 



