Introduction of Queens, 265 



and require careful handling. They are astonishingly pro- 

 lific, and keep up the brood rearing whether there are nec- 

 tar-secreting flowers or not. For queen rearing they are 

 super-excellent. The comb honey of these bees is said to 

 be quite inferior, because of thin caps; a point I have failed ' 

 to observe. I think the honey about equal to that of the 

 Italians in appearance. The Cyprian bees are in no way 

 superior to the Syrians, so far as I can learn, though I 

 have had no experience with them, and they are consid- 

 erably more irritable. The Carniolans are much praised by 

 European bee-keepers. They are certainly very amiable 

 and so excellent for the beginner. I am now breeding 

 from a cross between the Syrian and Carniolan, and hope 

 in time to develop a race of superior excellence. 



WHAT BEES SHALL WE KEEP? 



The beginner certainly better keep Italians or Carnio- 

 lans. If the Syrians maintain their apparent superiority, I 

 would certainly advise the experienced bee-keeper to give 

 them a trial. 



HOW TO ITALIANIZE. 



From what has been already explained regarding the 

 natural history of bees, it will be seen that all we have to 

 do to change our bees is to change our queens. Hence, to 

 Italianize a colony, we have only to procure and introduce 

 an Italian queen. The same of course is true of Cyprian- 

 izing or Syrianizing. If we change the queen we soon 

 change the bees. 



HOW TO INTRODUCE A QUEEN. 



In dividing colonies, where we give our queen to a col- 

 ony composed wholly of young bees, it is safe and easy to 

 introduce a queen in the manner explained in the section 

 on artificial increase of colonies. To introduce a queen to 

 a colony composed of old bees requires more care. First, 

 we should seek out the old queen and destroy her, then 

 cage our Italian queen in a wire cage (Fig. 99), which 

 may be made by winding a strip of wire cloth, three and 



