APIS MELLIFERA — VARIOUS RACES. 
15 
THE COMMON HIVE OR HONEY BEE. 
(Apin mellifera Linn.) 
Besides the common brown or German bee imported from Europe to 
this country some time in the seventeenth century and now widely 
spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific, several other races have been 
brought here — the Italian in 1860, and later the Egyptian, the Cyprian, 
the Syrian, the Palestine, the Carniolun (Plate I, figs. 1, 4, and 5), and 
the Tunisian. Of these the brown or German, the Italian, and, in a 
few apiaries, the Carniolan bees are probably the only races existing 
pure in the United States, the others having become more or less 
hybridized with the brown race or among themselves or their cultiva- 
tion having been discontinued. It should also be remarked that so 
few have kept their Carniolans pure that imrchasers who wish this 
race should use caution in their selection or else import their own 
breeding queens. There are many breeders of Italians from whom 
good stock can be obtained. Egyptian bees 
were tried some thirty years ago, but only to a 
very limited extent, and, as has been the case 
with Syrians and Palestines imported in 1880, 
and whose test was more prolonged and general, 
they were condemned as inferior in temper and 
wintering qualities to the races of bees already 
here, it not being thought that these points of 
inferiority were sufficiently balanced by their 
greater prolificness and their greater energy in 
honey collecting. 
The Tunisians, for similar reasons and also 
because they are great collectors of propolis, 
never became popular, although a persistent 
attempt was made a few years since to create 
sale for them under the new name of " Punic 
bees," the undesirable qualities of the race hav- 
ing previously been made known, under the orig- 
inal name, by the author, who had tested them 
years — a part of the time in Tuuis. 
Cyprians.— Bees of the race native to the Island of Cyprus have pro- 
duced the largest yield of honey on record from a single colony in this 
country, 1,000 pounds in one season. Everyone who has fairly tested 
them admits their wonderful honey-gathering powers and their perse- 
vering courage in their labors even when the flowers are secreting 
honey but scantily. They winter well and defend their hives against 
robber bees and other enemies with greater energy than any other 
known race. When storing honey Cyprians till the cells quite fall 
before sealing, and thus the capping rests against the honey, present- 
WW^ 
Fig. 4.— Worker-cells of com 
monhoneyhevi Ajns rr.cUi/t ra). 
natural size. (Original.) 
carefully for several 
