TlIK ITALIAN BEK. 3l9 



Italy, during part of the Napoleonic wars, he noticed that the bees, 

 in the Lonibardo-Venetian district. 0/ V^ltelin, and on the borders 

 of Lake Come, differed in color from the common kind, and seem- 

 ed to be more industrious. At the close of the war, ho retired 

 from the army, and returned to his ancestral castle, on the Ehse- 

 tian Alps, in Switzerland ; and to occupy his leisure, had recourse 

 to bee-culture, which had been his favorite hobby in earlier years. 

 While studying the natural history, habits, and instincts of these 

 insects, he remembered what he had observed in Italy, and resolved 

 to procure a colony from that country. Accordingly, he sent two 

 men thither, who purchased one, and carried it over the mountain, 

 to his residence, in September, 1843. 



" In May, 1847, this colony, the queen of which had never failed 

 to produce genuine Italian hrood, began to show signs of weak- 

 ness, but suddenly recovered in the following month ; and it was 

 evident that it had supplied itself with a new queen, which had 

 fortunately been impregnated by an Italian drone, as she produced 

 genuine, or pure brood. On the 15th of May, 1848, this queen 

 issued with a swarm, and he hoped that, as he had placed the 

 parent-hive in a rather isolated location, her. successor would be 

 impregnated by an Italian drone. But in this, he was doomed to 

 disappointment ; she produced a bastard progeny, while the emi- 

 grant queen produced genuine brood, as before. Similar disap- 

 pointments awaited him from year to year; and in June, 1851, he 

 possessed only one colony of the pure stock. 



'■ Among the points which he considered as definitely estab- 

 lished, by his ohservations on the Italian bee, are the following : 

 1. The queen, if healthy, retains her proper fertility at least three 

 or four years. 2. The Italian bee is more industrious, and the 

 queen more prolific, than the common kind ; because, in a most 

 unfavorable year, when other colonies produced few swarms and 

 little honey, his Ita,lian colony produced three swarms, which 

 filled tlieir hives with comb, and, together with the parent-stoek, 

 laid up ample stores for Winter ; the latter yielding, besides, a 

 boxswell filled with honey. The three young colonies were among 

 the best in his Apiary. 3. The workers do not, at most, live 

 longer than one year ; for, though the. bees- and brood in the 



