10 
The best time to order the original hives is January, February, March 
and April. Orders arriving later, will only be effected if favorable weather 
conditions make the shipping possible. 
Towards the end of May no hives with very strong colonies can be 
shipped. On the long voyage the colonies would become overheated, to 
avoid this, leess strong colonies are shipped. These need a longer'time until 
they attain the stage of swarming. 
8. Estimation of the Carniolan Bee by an Authority. 
Mr. E. F. Phillips, Ph. D., Expert Apiculturist, U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology Washington, D. C., in his Bulletin No 55, 
»The Rearing of Queen Bees<, makes regarding the Carniolan bees the 
following statements: 
Page 8. »In Carniolan, Cyprian, and other races not so much selection 
has been carried on in this country, and in consequence the desirability 
of importations is greater in order to insure purity of stock«. 
Page 15. »Italians do not as readily accept and complete large numbers 
of queen cells as do either Cyprians or Carniolians. In yards in which 
Italian queens are reared, it may therefore be desirable to keep colonies of 
Carniolans or Cyprians.. It neet scarcely be said that in such cases drone 
traps should be used«. 
Page 29. »There is one phase of queen breeding which would doubtless 
prove useful, but which has not yet been tried to any extend. The first 
crosses of varions races have proven very useful; as for example, the cross 
between Carniolans and Cyprians, but no breeder to the writers knowledge 
has ever undertaken to fix the type. That this could be done seems very 
probable, reasoning from what we know of crosses in other animals, and 
by eareful selection of prolific queens whose workers showed all the 
characteristics of the first cross, these crosses would doubtless prove va- 
luable as breeders«. 
9. Vitality of the Carniolan Alpine Bee. 
The article »>The Vitality of Honey Bees« by an distinguished Ame- 
rican. writer on Apiculture, printed in the American Bee Journal, January 
1911, page 18, shows-unconsciously and unintentionally-the possibilities and 
opportunities the vitality of the Carniolan bee has accorded to her in 
Apiculture. 
The article begins with the question : »Do modern methods, especially 
the restricting of natural swarming and the rearing of queens by artificial 
means on a large scale, have a tendency to weaken the race? 
