40 A Modern Bee-Farm 



Some writers have given their experience as being very un- 

 favourable with Cyprians, considering them vindictive and 

 difficult to winter. They have faults of course, such as being 

 prone to develop fertile workers and using much propolis j but 

 all the stocks I have had could be handled at any time without 

 intimidation ; and as to wintering, the fault appears to be rather 

 in the bee-keeper than the bees themselves. If the queen is not 

 inserted into a colony too late in the season, and their stores are 

 given at the proper time these bees will winter not worse, but 

 better than many others. When I say that I have had Cyprians 

 hatched in August and September, continue in good health until 

 the following June, it will be admitted that there is not much 

 wrong with them ; and this happened in the most protracted 

 winter we have experienced for many years. 



SYRIANS. 



These are, in appearance, much like the, foregoing, though of 

 a darker shade, and sometimes are not so well marked as 

 Ligurians, though always yellow on the underside of the abdomen. 

 Instead of having cream coloured bands of hair like Cyprians, 

 these have corresponding bars of a bluish white colour, much like 

 the Albinos bred from an offshoot of the Ligurian variety. While 

 some condemn these as utterly unmanageable, others claim that 

 they have many valuable qualities. 



I have found among them queens producing workers almost 

 unmanageable, while a larger number gave bees that could be 

 handled like flies. How misleading then is it for persons who 

 possessing only one — or perhaps two — queens, which upon 

 throwing irritable workers, are induced to condemn the entire race 

 and thus prevent many from obtaining what would prove a really 

 valuable acquisition. The whole matter resolves itself simply 

 into this — select those of gentle disposition and breed only from 

 such, destroying any queen which throws disagreeable bees. 



