Texas Beekeeping. 29 



set in front of the entrance of the hives and are so arranged that 

 the worker-bees can pass through them ; but the drones, being larger, 

 can not. In their efforts they soon find their way, through escape 

 cones in a partition, to a compartment in which they remain con- 

 fined until relieved by the apiarist. 



These traps are also used for catching select drones for queen-mating ' 

 to be taken elsewhere, and, during swarming time, to catch queens to 

 prevent them from leaving the hive. 



RACES OF BEES. 



Quite a number of varieties or races of bees have been tried in 

 Texas and, while all of them possess some good qualities, some have 

 not become popular. Some races are very gentle in disposition, while 

 others are very ill-tempered. This is an important factor to be con- 

 sidered in successful handling of bees. A characteristic of the amia- 

 ble races is their mild temper when being handled, adhering to their 

 combs as they are removed from the hive and the entire colony re- 

 maining in a quiet mood, hardly showing any resentment on account of 

 disturbance and making little effort to sting. This is further empha- 

 sized by the fact that many queens of such gentle races continue their 

 egg laying while the combs on which they may be are being held up 

 for inspection, without showing the slightest perturbation. Bees which 

 run all over the hive and drop off the combs as soon as they are picked 

 up are very unsatisfactory to handle. It shows a more nervous char- 

 acter and such bees are much quicker to sting at the least annoyance. 

 The beginner should select a good strain of tractable races, a requi- 

 site that means much toward successful beekeeping; and the amateur 

 and advanced beekeeper will find that such races are much more agree- 

 able to have in the apiary. 



BLACK, OR GERMAN, BEES. 



The common black, or German, bees are still most common in this 

 State, although this race is rarely found any more in its purity in 

 most localities, due to crossing with other races of bees that have been 

 introduced. The result of this continual cross-mating is that most of 

 the bees throughout the State are hybrids. They are a dark race of 

 bees originally brought from Germany. They are rather irritable and 

 more inclined to sting than some of the gentler races. While good 

 colonies store large yields of honey during favorable years, the av- 

 erage is not so good, especially during poor seasons. Besides this 

 and their ill nature, they are poor defenders of their hives against 

 other bees, or robbers, in quest of stores, and the depredation of the 

 wax moth larvae, or "worms," as they are generally called. A valua- 

 ble trait of the race is that their finished honey combs have a snow 

 white appearance, from the fact that they do not fill the cells quite 

 full of honey and then place the wax cappings, when sealing the cells, 

 well away from the honey. This makes them suitable for fancy comb 

 homey production ; but, as a whole, they are considered inferior to 

 other races. 



