42 ITALIAN BEES. 
brood is brought to me, in determining whether the eggs 
were laid by an Italian or native queen. 
Another reason why they are more prolific, is, that they 
venture out in cool, spring weather, bringing in both 
water and pollen, when the natives are less energetic. Of 
this, I shall speak further in connection with other points. 
If taken from winter quarters too early in spring, their 
disposition prompts them to great activity, and they ven- 
ture out and are lost, which accounts for their suffering 
more largely by wasting in spring, than the natives. 
Swarm Earlier and Oftener.—The fact that they are 
more prolific, indicates that they will become populous 
earlier in the season, and this being the prime requisite 
for early swarms, it readily follows that they may be ex- 
pected to swarm earlier. It is noticeable that, whatever 
the variety, those that swarm soonest also swarm oftenest. 
With the present advanced system of management, where 
swarming is not desired, this tendency is not itself an 
advantage, but the condition that gives us a large num- 
bor of bees, is of much importance. We thus secure a 
large force available when swarming is controlled. 
Work Earlier and Later, gather more Honey, and Work 
on Blossoms that the Natives do not.—This, doubtless, 
may be the case at times. We have had Italian swarms 
fill boxes with white honey, not storing a cell of dark, 
when, at the same time, the natives were working exclu- 
sively on Buckwheat; that plant yields honey only in the 
early part of the day, and such swarms of Italians will be 
found at work much more freely in the afternoon than the 
others. 
It is in the nature of the bee that, when honey is 
abundant, all bees will improve all their time, even fre- 
quently leaving the hive so late at night, that they do not 
return until the next morning, if fortunate enough to do 
so at all. That Italians do work upon some kinds of 
blossoms more freely than natives, as upon the Red 
