ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 



brood rearing the Italians are unexcelled. 

 During the spring months they push 

 breeding with wonderful rapidity; but as 

 soon as the honey harvest begins in ear- 

 nest, breeding is greatly reduced. 



It might safely be said that the Italians 

 are the standard variety of this country. 

 There seems to be about them a peculiar- 

 ly quiet, steady, energetic determination, 

 possessed by no other variety. When 

 honey is coming in slowly, and must be 

 sought for far and wide, it is then that 

 the Italians carry off the palm. For the 

 production of extracted honey they are 

 probably unexcelled; but to the producer 

 of comb honey they have two disagree- 

 able traits. They are loth to store honey 

 outside of the brood apartment, and fill 

 the cells too full of honey. Advanced 

 bee-culture, with its reversible hives, 

 comb foundation and "bait" sections of 

 partly drawn comb, have well nigh over- 

 come the first objection. The latter ob- 

 jection is not so easily removed, but 

 much can be done in this direction by 

 selection in breeding. It is well known 

 that, even of the same variety of bees, 

 there are greatly varying strains. When 

 a colony is found that stores and caps 

 its honey in such a manner as to give it a 

 watery appearance, replace the queen 

 with one reared from the egg of a queen 

 the colony of which shows the best work 

 in this respect. By continual care in 

 this direction, a bee-keeper who prefers 

 to have only pure Italians can secure a 

 strain that will do pretty fair work in 

 furnishing comb hone}' that is nicely 

 capped. 



The blacks do not breed up so rapidly 

 in the spring; and unless the harvest is 

 very abundant the}- will not bring in so 

 much honey as will the Italians. But 

 once the nectar is in the hive they han- 

 dle it in a manner that is truly artistic. 

 They are willing to store their surplus in 

 the supers at a distance from the brood, 

 and in capping the honey they leave a 

 small space under the capping, between 

 it and the honey, which gives to the 

 comb an almost snowy whiteness. In 



short, the Italians are the better field 

 workers; the blacks the better house keep- 

 ers. In this respect the Italians are like 

 man, while the Germans resemble wo- 

 man. To carry the simile still further, 

 they ought to marry. In plain English, 

 the producer of comb honey can secure 

 the best bees for his purpose, in Ihe quick- 

 est and easiest way by uniting the Ital- 

 ian and German varieties; then by con- 

 tinued selection retain the good qualities 

 and weed out the bad. It is practical to 

 do this without any mating of queens in 

 confinement. Simply rear the queens 

 from the best stocks; the drones ditto; 

 keeping the drone comb out of all unde- 

 sirable colonies; and giving some of the 

 choice stocks abundance. This will fill 

 the air with choice drones, and the 

 chances of a queen's mating with an un- 

 desirable drone will be very slight indeed. 



As I have already said, for the produc- 

 tion of extracted honey, the Italians are 

 without a rival. Were it not for the 

 difficulty of dislodging them from the 

 combs, they would, for this purpose, be 

 well nigh perfect; and I might add that 

 the use of the "bee escape" promises to 

 enable us to overcome even this objection. 



The admirers of the Carniolans claim 

 for them the possession of all the good 

 qualities of both the blacks and the Ital- 

 ians, with one or two additional virtues 

 thrown in. It is asserted that they are 

 the most gentle bees known; that they re- 

 main quietly on the combs when han- 

 dled, but are easily shaken off; that they 

 are industrious, good comb builders, 

 capping the honey very white, and using 

 but little propolis; that they are prolific; 

 hardy; and just perfection itself. But 

 we must not forget the disposition to 

 praise new things. Never until last 

 spring did I have several good, strong 

 colonies of Carniolans in the spring. 

 They certainly bred up the most rapidly 

 in the spring of an}' bees I have ever 

 tried, and I hoped to compare their hon- 

 ey-gathering qualities with those of the 

 Italians, but the season proved a failure — 

 not a pound of surplus was secured by 



