110 ITALIAN BEES. 



Having now had an experience of several years with Italian 

 bees, spending much of our time in the apiary, rearing queens, 

 we find them to possess the following points of superiority over 

 the common black bee : 



Their individual strength being greater, they fly with less 

 fatigue and are more active and successful in defending their 

 stores against both the moth-miller and robber bees. They gather 

 honey — especially when other sources fail — from iron weed, this- 

 tle and other flowers which are seldom visited by the black bees, 

 working quite freely upon the seed crop of red clover, when 

 other late forage is cut short by drought. They also work more 

 steadily during the season, even when there is but little honey to 

 be gathered from any source, and it being a well known fact that 

 breeding keeps pace with honey gathering, the result is, strong 

 stocks, which secure a large product of honey, and are proof 

 against the moth-worm and poor seasons. Hence the import- 

 ance of the above peculiarities cannot easily be over estimated, 

 and they account in part for the following characteristic differ- 

 ences between the two races of bees : 



1st. The Italian queens are called "prolific breeders," a3 the 

 stocks breed earlier in the season and continue later, casting 

 larger swarms and swarming on an average about two weeks 

 earlier than the black bee, thereby gaining that much time in 

 the best of the gathering season, and usually swarming in sea 

 sons when common bees do not. 



2d. They gather much larger stores of honey than the black 

 bees, a3 proven by the united testimony of eminent apiarians 

 both in Europe and America. 



