30 Texas Department of Agriculture. 



The queens and the drones are blacker than the gray-blaek worker 

 bees, and, on account of the habit of this race of bees runnmg all 

 over the combs and about the hives, it does not only make them disa- 

 greeable to handle, but makes finding the queens very difficult. 



ITALIAN BEES. 



The Italian bees are the most popular throughout the entire coun- 

 try and, as an all-around, all-purpose race of bees, possess more good 

 qualities than any other. They were first imported into this country 

 from Italy about 1860, and have spread so widely oyer the whole 

 country that they predominate in nearly all apiaries either m their 

 purity, or their various crosses and hybrids. 



There are three varieties of Italian bees. The three-banded Italian, 

 as they originally come from Italy, show three distinct dark yellow, 

 or orange colored, bands on the abdomen next to the thorax. There 

 is a tendency of these bands to become lighter or more yellow in 

 color after the bees have been bred here for a number of years. By 

 constant selection of strains showing the yellowest bands, in breeding, 

 bees with four and five yellow bands was the result and those known 

 as Golden Italians originated. These are very beautiful, but are not 

 regarded as hardy as the original type, and, besides, they are not 

 quite as gentle, as a rule, and are more inclined to robbing. 



Another beautiful and kindly variety of Italian bees is that known 

 as Albinos. These show rows of unusually distinct white hairs on 

 the rings, or bands, of the abdomen. This variety is not very com- 

 monly found, however, and is not superior to the average Italians. 



The color of the queens of each of the varieties of Italians varies 

 a great deal. Ordinarily the queens of the three-banded variety have 

 the main part of their abdomen orange yellow and the rest a dark 

 brown and nearly black toward the tip, but a great number have the 

 abdomen of almost a solid color, varying from bright yellow in some 

 queens to a very dark brown in others. As striking as the difference 

 in the color of the queens i^, the workers will all show the three dis- 

 tinct bands if in their purity. The Golden queens are almost en- 

 tirely yellow, or golden, over the abdomen while some show a darker 

 or even a nearly black tip at the posterior end. 



The Italians are larger than the German race, and have longer 

 tong-ues, enabling them to reach the nectar in deep blossoms out of 

 reach of the black bees. Their docile temperament makes them less 

 inclined to sting, but the Italian hybrids are, as a rule, very ill- 

 natured. As honey-gatherers the Italians are superior to the blacks 

 in every respect, except in the manner of capping their combs of 

 honey. Their tendency is to fill the cells full of honey to the very top 

 and then place the eappings close to, or right down on, the honey. 

 This gives the surface a watery appearance, rather undesirable for 

 fancy comb honey production. Here in Texas, however, this is not of 

 much importance, since section honey is not produced to any great 

 extent, and, as bulk comb honey is covered with the liquid extracted 

 honey, the manner of eappings does not appear. This trait is less ob- 

 jectionable with most of the Italian hybrids, as a rule, but, aside from 



