8 THE BOOK OF BEE-KEEPINO. 



remove the honey by means of frightening the bees with 

 smoke. 



15. Varieties of the Honey Bee.— We are not, in the 

 present volume, at all interested in the varieties of the honey 

 bee which have not been brought under our notice wfithin our 

 hives. We pass over the little, stingless bees of Mexico vfith 

 supreme contempt, as, according to the experiences of several 

 entomologists, they are simply miniature humble bees, or, as they 

 are more familiarly styled, " dumble-dores," storing very little, 

 if any, honey. The giant Apis dorsata — one would wish it could 

 be acclimatised — with its worker-cells as large as the English 

 drone-cells, albeit the drone is no larger than the worker — a 

 famous storer of honey. We will now turn our attention to 

 those bees most familiar to English bee-keepers. 



16. The Black Bee. — First comes the well-known English 

 (German) black bee, now rapidly being changed into a mongrel 

 by constant crossing with imported varieties. All know this 

 sombre little labourer, and, take it all round, one will find it difficult 

 to beat as a hardy, industrious, and serviceable honey gatherer. 



17. The Iiignrian, or Italian Alp Bee. — This stands 

 next in order of more general distribution over the British Isles ; 

 is a handsome, thrifty, and hard-working member of the family 

 of honey bees. Our opinion of them is of the highest description ; 

 in our own apiary, no other variety of bees has given so large 

 a return. In one season every Italian stock managed to beat 

 the^ blacks by quite 25 per cent. The manner of protecting 

 their hives from robbers is most remarkable as compared with 

 the English or black bee. With this latter, a half-hearted sort 

 of resistance is made, perhaps only one sentinel bee beating off 

 the would-be robber ; but with the Italian, four, five, and even 

 six sentinels will pounce down upon any single stranger trying 

 to invade the precincts of their hive ; not only will they attack them 

 on the alighting-board, but will even venture to repulse them upon 

 the wing. Go to the hive, and remove a frame — very little intimida- 

 tion is required — and, when it is held up to the gaze, they remain 

 so immovable on the comb that the discovery of the queen is an 

 easy task. But, like all things, they have their failings ; one of 

 these is that, if you wish to shake them off the comb, they will 

 not fall properly, but very diligently endeavour to spread them- 

 selves all over the apiary, as they take wing directly they fall 

 from the comb. We remember on one occasion endeavouring to 

 throw a swarm down in front of a hive — their future abode — when, 

 to our great surprise, they distributed themselves on every avail- 

 able portion around the apiary : flowers, trees, walls, hives, each 

 received its share ; but, after a time, they collected together, and 

 soberly walked in, to found a colony that we have never had 

 beaten. The queen is about the same size as our English black 

 bee, but differs very materially in point of colour. The body 



