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ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 31 



gathering and storing of honey. It might be safely said that th e 

 Italians are the standard variety of this country. They are very 

 gentle in disposition, remaining quietly on the combs when being 

 handled, while there seems to be about them a peculiarly quiet, 

 steady, energetic determination possessed by no other variety. 

 Almost any variety of bees will do fair work gathering honey when 

 it is plentiful and near by, but when the flowers yield sparingly, and 

 must be sought for far and wide, then -it is that the Italians carry off 

 the palm. For the production of extracted honey, the Italians are 

 probably unexcelled, but in producing comb honey the blacks show 

 two points of superiority. They are more willing to store their 

 honey in the supers at some distance from the brood, and, in capping 

 their honey, they leave a small space between the honeyand the cap- 

 ping, which gives to the comb an almost snowy whiteness. The 

 blacks are also more easily driven out of the supers with smoke, and 

 more readily shaken from the combs. They are very irritable while 

 being handled, many taking wing, and others running about upon 

 the combs, gathering in bunches and dropping off upon the ground. 

 For the production of comb honey there is probably no better bee 

 than a cross between the Italians and the blacks, at least, so far as 

 results are concerned. They are energetic workers, willing and 

 ready to store their honey in the supers, but, unfortunately, they 

 are possessed of a very uneven temper. Either variety, black or 

 Italian, in its purity, is easier to handle than is a cross between 

 them. 



Modern bee culture, with its "bait" sections of partly drawn 

 combs, or the putting on of extracting supers at the opening of the 

 season, then changing them for sections after a start has been made, 

 has well-nigh overcome the objection of the Italians clinging to the 

 brood nest, while much can be done by selection in breeding to over- 

 come the trait of poor capping. In brief, if I were to engage in the 

 production of either comb or extracted honey, I should adopt pure 

 Italians; then, by selection in breeding, get rid of the undegirable 

 traits, such as "watery" capping of the honey, inclination to build 

 large quantities of brace-combs, undue swarming, etc. Every bee- 

 keeper of experience, who has tried different strains of bees, knows 

 that there is a great difference between different strains of even the 

 same variety. A bee-keeper who is just starting in the business, or 

 one already in the business who has not taken such a course, ought 

 to get queens from several of the best breeders, then adopt some 

 easily kept but comprehensive system of recording the traits and 

 peculiarities of each colony. The card system which has been so 

 successfully adopted in so many ways, readily lends itself to this 



