314 THE ITALIAN^ OR LIGUEIAN BEE. 



duced, averaging heavier than the others. Where the 

 queens had been introduced, however, the season was well 

 advanced before the bees were all changed, and such stocks 

 therefore did not furnish a perfect test. Neither did the 

 full blood colony from which I was taking brood to rear 

 queens, since it was fed at different periods to promote 

 breeding, and at the same time kept reduced to prevent 

 swarming. 



In the spring of 1862 I sold neai'ly all my pure queens, 

 keeping only a few to breed from, and the hybrids. 



DISPOSITION. 



Long before this time, I had learned much about their 

 amiable disposition. They had exceeded my expectations 

 in so many particulars, that for a long time whenever 

 they manifested any unusual ill-nature I found myself 

 seeking some apology in the peculiar circumstances of the 

 case. But I was at last reluctantly forced to admit that 

 the Italian bees, especially the hybrids, were cross — not 

 moderately so, but just as cross, it seemed, at times, as 

 they knew well how to be. In the season of swarming 

 for instance, to hive some swarms without protection 

 would be perfect madness; others would be less irritable. 

 In the season of honey, any time between ten o'clock in 

 the morning and four in the afternoon, when the weather 

 is fine, I have no difficulty in opening the hive to obtain 

 brood, or for any other purpose. While at work they do 

 not seem to notice much that is going on around them. 

 Walking among them at such times seldom attracts 

 attention. But when I would fasten up a colony that 

 Lad been sold, and was now about to be sent away, 

 I had to do it of course when the whole family was at 

 home, usually in the morning ; and at such times every 

 bee would seem a warrior bent on driving me away. By 

 the use of smoke I could drive them like the black bees 



