42 A Modern Bee-Farm 



than blacks,, more, especially as they can work upon some 

 flowers not accessible to the others, and continue to gather 

 until Autumn is well advanced. Strange to say, natives 

 often do best early in the season, but in Autumn I have, 

 known Italians draw out foundation rapidly and store heavily, 

 while at the same time the former would not attempt to work 

 upon a sheet of foundation placed in the centre of the 'brood 

 nest. The Italians are more gentle, and together with their 

 beautiful markings, this has done much to make them 

 popular. 



They are considered to be an all-purposes bee, but their 

 comb-honey is not quite so good as that of the native kind : ■ 

 they are not equal to the latter as comb-builders, and are. 

 often hard to persuade to enter the supers ; while they are 

 unsuitable for queen-raising purposes, unless great care is 

 taken, as they will start but few cells. A mixture of the two 

 races, however, as previously stated, will give energetic 

 workers, and there is no doubt that the " leather-coloured " 

 Ligurians mentioned by many Americans as being superior tO' 

 any, are nothing more nor less than hybrids. 



As with all yellow races, Ligurian workers have three 

 yellow bands on the upper part of the abdomen, beginning at 

 the first segment. Creamy white lines of hair follow the 

 broader yellow bars, down to the extremity of the body, 

 giving the bee a handsome appearance. The queens vary in 

 colour from dark to light yellow ; while the drones sometimes 

 have patches of yellow on the abdomen, and others are hardly 

 to be distinguished from those of the black kind. 



CARNIOLANS. 



Of all pure races, these are undoubtedly the best " all- 

 purposes " bees known. Scarcely a fault can be found with 

 them, and while they are not quite such good honey gatherers 

 as Cyprians, the latter -cannot compete with them for colour 

 of comb-honey. It has been stated that they swarm im- 



