52 A Modern Bee- Farm 



vary in colour from dark to light yellow ; while the drones 

 sometimes have patches of yellow on the abdomen, and 

 others are hardly to be distinguished from those of the 

 black kind. 



By a careful selection of the queen mothers, and by 

 mating them to selected drones, I have been able to show, 

 as in my own strain of Italians, that these bees are 

 capable of vast improvements, producing workers ever 

 ready to take to the supers, being great comb-builders 

 and heavy gatherers ; while one remarkable feature is that 

 the hybrids from this improved strain are not vicious. 



Italians and Ligrht Honey. 



A notable feature in connection with these bees, is a 

 fact which I have noticed for many years. While common 

 bees may be gathering honey-dew or other dark honeys, 

 these bees are at the same period producing honey of the 

 clearest whiteness. They evidently are able to work on 

 flowers which the natives are unable to make use of, 



CARNIOLANS. 



Scarcely a fault can be found with Carniolans, and 

 while they are not quite such good honey gatherers as 

 some others, few can compete with them for colour of 

 comb-honey. It has been stated that they swarm im- 

 moderately, and this is where they have failed in public 

 estimation. There is one thing, however, which would 

 give that impression ; the demand for imported queens 

 has been so great that I am afraid many old queens have 

 been sent over, more especially as few of the native 

 holders make any attempt to raise queens for the market. 

 Therefore, in the natural order of things, the old mothers 



