WHY KEEP BEES 7 



servation. One of them is a colony of 

 beautiful Italians, pedigreed, regular 

 royal family stuff you know, and the other 

 is a colony of Germans that never even 

 took out their first papers. It is a warm 

 day for this season, the thermometer is 

 around forty degrees and there is a rather 

 pale sun shining. Not a day that one 

 would think bees would be tempted to fly 

 much, and yet those Italians are out 

 skirmishing around. I don't know what 

 they expect to find at this season but they 

 are looking for it anyhow. The blacks 

 are to all appearances dead, though if you 

 will drum on the hive they will sally forth 

 as though for world conquest. Conse- 

 quently, for the fruit grower, the Italian 

 bee has it all over the dark bees of other 

 races, simply on account of this tendency 

 to fly at the least opportunity. Other ad- 

 vantages of both races will be mentioned 

 later. 



The apple, pear, plum, peach, all small 

 fruits except strawberries, all members 



