36 A Modern Bee-Farm 



intimidation ; and yet the daughters of such queens allowed to 

 mate only with drones from stocks known to be easily handled, 

 have given workers that one could do anything with. 



I have found many black bees more irritable than any I have 

 ever had, even rushing from the hive to attack a person many 

 yards off; but by crossing the queens with Ligurian, or by 

 preference, Cyprian or Carniolan drones, we get some of the 

 finest and best tempered workers that can be desired. It has 

 been considered that hybrids are very vicious, but this is only 

 half true ; what I have stated above is strictly in accordance with 

 fact, but when any yellow queen is allowed to mate with a black 

 drone, then, of course, the progeny resulting therefrom will be 

 irritable, while their working qualities will be inferior to those of 

 ithe cross recommended. Black drones are not required in breeding 

 up a new strain, and should be rigorously excluded. 



LIGURIAN, OR ITALIAN ALP BEES. 



These were the first yellow race introduced, and though much 

 abused in some quarters, they have gradually gained ground until 

 there is perhaps hardly a district where the native bees have not 

 to some extent, more or less remote, received some benefit by the 

 infusion of fresh blood. Indeed, it is amusing to hear some 

 apiarists assert that Italians are inferior to the old-fashioned sort, 

 and that they will have no more of them ; when as a matter of 

 fact their original stock has been greatly improved by the 

 introduction of the foreigners, short though their existence may 

 have been : and moreover, the probability is great that year after 

 year such short-sighted men are indebted to some distant bee- 

 keeper for the continued excellence of their blacks (?) ; as the 

 new blood is carried from one apiary to another, through 

 successive stages during succeeding seasons ; each cross showing 

 less of colour, until in the end there is scarcely any evidence to 

 show that the dark bees of the neighbourhood have foreign blood 

 in their constitution. 



