The Chinese Bee 



Chinese bees are smaller than the Italians and are inclined to bite 

 rather than sting. They have a heavy coat of long gray hair. It is 

 listed as an undesirable race by people who have had experience with 

 Italians. 



Other Races of Bees 



In various parts of the world where continuous isolation is obtained 

 other races of bees have arisen. There are at least three races in 

 India. The Giant bee, which is, as its name indicates, a much larger 

 bee than the bees to which we are accustomed. There is also a race 

 slightly smaller than Italians and a very small race. These bees all 

 build single combs and no great effort has been made to keep them in 

 in hives as they do not seem to hold any great promise of worth. 



Tarlton-Rayment has recently described another race of wild bees 

 from Australia, which is an isolated continent. These bees build small 

 combs in various locations and do not hold any great promise of profit. 



There are also the so-called stingless bees of Mexico, Central and 

 South America. These stingless bees belong to the Genera Melipona and 

 Trigona and, as their name indicates do not have a stinger. The do 

 bite and have a, habit of buzzing excitedly when disturbed. They store 

 comparatively small amounts of an inferior honey in grape-like masses 

 of wax cells. They are kept only to a, slight extent by the natives in 

 hollow logs suspended on the verandas of their houses or from trees 

 nearby to protect them from depredation by lizards their chief enemy in 

 that climate. 



It would seem from this brief survey of the races of bees that there 

 are but one or two races of bees besides the race with which we are 

 familiar which hold any great promise of being useful in this country. 

 It is probable that the Italian bee is superior under most conditions. 

 However, if the same amount of care in selection and breeding had 

 been expended upon the German bee it doubtless would also have de- 

 veloped into a. very superior race when compared with the present Ger- 

 man bees. The Caucasian and Carniolan bees have certain obvious ad- 

 vantages over the Italians while they also have certain evident disad- 

 vantages. There has been more care expended in breeding Carniolans 

 and Caucasians in this country than in the case of the Germans, so it 

 would appear that possibly the use of the Caucasians or Carniolan bees 

 might in certain cases result in profit. However, if it is ever possible 

 to again import German bees from Switzerland or some of the places 

 where care and time has been expended on breeding them, we would 

 doubtless find that these bees wore as much superior to the old Germans 

 as the Italians. In any case it would be well to supplant Italians very 

 gradually by another race because we know pretty well what the char- 

 acteristics of the Italian bees are under our conditions and we do not 

 always know what will happen with newer races. 



