THE DISEASES OF BEES. 91 



Italian and certain hybrid races of bees, though not in every 

 case immune, are found to be far less liable to the disease 

 than the ordinary native English brown or " black " bee. It 

 is for this reason that the Board of Agriculture has latterly 

 imported many thousands of Italian queens and made them 

 available for British bee-keepers at very low prices, and they 

 have further encouraged the importation of Dutch bees on 

 a large scale for the restocking of apiaries which have been 

 depleted (and in some cases entirely destroyed) by the Isle 

 of Wight disease. Dutch bees, and the hybrids bred from 

 them, are found, like Italians, to resist the disease better 

 than English bees, but many people find they swarm 

 excessively. 



I have just pointed out that certain hybrids resist the 

 disease better than our pure-bred native bees, but the bee- 

 keeper who contemplates breeding queens for the purpose of 

 restocking his apiary with hybrids will do well to bear in 

 mind what I have already drawn particular attention to, with 

 regard to hybrids, in Chapter III. — namely, that an Italian 

 or Carniolan queen crossed with an English drone generally 

 produces workers which, although they are good honey 

 gatherers, are usually very vicious and difficult to handle ; 

 while, on the other hand, an English queen, mated with an 

 Italian or Carniolan drone, generally produces workers which 

 are both good honey producers and gentle when handled. 

 But it must be borne in mind that these English queens, 

 generally speaking, are not so prolific as either Italians or 

 Carniolans. Since, however, in the second generation, such 

 lack of prolificness tends to disappear, probably the best 

 results of all would be obtained by breeding our queens from 

 English mothers which had been crossed with Italian drones, 

 and mating the virgin queens thus bred with Carniolan 

 drones ; or, if the English mother had been mated with a 

 Carniolan instead of an Italian drone, we" should endeavour 

 to have the virgin queens bred from her mated with Italian 

 drones. 



Although it occasionally happens that the strongest stocks 

 in the apiary are the first to be attacked by Isle of Wight 

 disease, yet it is generally the stocks whose vitality is lowest 

 — that is to say, the stocks which are headed by weak or 

 inferior queens — that are most subject to be attacked. The 



