THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
39 
Rathe was good for that purpose ; I used 
those from Italy for drone-breeding. The 
trouble, labour, and amount of money my 
experience had cost me I need not" here 
mention, still I was not content, because I had 
seen handsomer bees at my venerable tutor’s 
(Dr. Dzierzon, in Carlsmarkt, Silesia.) I was 
determined not to rest until I procured a 
queen of his strain. Finally, in 1861, I 
received a promise that in August a queen 
would be ready for me. (A whole year in 
advance all queens had been bespoken, such 
was the demand.) When the time arrived I 
paid the doctor a visit and received a splendid 
queen. About this time Baron von Hruschka 
(the inventor of the honey-extractor,) in Dole, 
near Venice, had an extensive apiary, and from 
him Rr. Bzierzon had imported his first 
colony ; from that time these really handsome 
bees were sent to Germany in large quantities. 
The bees from North Italy have the first 
bands round the body of a deep orange colour, 
and are unevenly marked ; those from Venice 
have three handsome golden-yellow bands, 
and are evenly marked. The famous old 
Roman poet Virgil praised the golden-yellow 
bee in one of his poems, who says : — “ There 
are two sorts of honey-gatherers ; the one is 
of a reddish colour, and their honey is not of a 
particularly good quality; the other is clad in 
‘ golden yellow,’ and gather only nectar and 
ambrosia.” But to return from this digression. 
There is a decided difference between the 
queens from North and Central Italy. Seldom 
does one rear from the former a yellow queen 
without any black markings, as invariably the 
bands are of a dark tint, and two or three 
bands from the point of the tail are black, the 
best having a black spot on the second, third 
and fourth band ; whereas, from the golden- 
y r ellow variety, with a good queen, mostly 
quite yellow queens are obtained, the others 
having only a dark shade on the point of the 
tail . The handsomer the queen the handsomer 
will be her progeny, and the better do I 
like them. The Italian bees are the best 
honey-gatherers ; they contract the brood 
earlier than any others and drive out the 
drones earlier when requisite. When the 
honey is coming in freely they contract the 
brood, somewhat more than the apiarian 
desires ; it is in such a case that they require 
watching. They are on the flight early and 
late when there is anything to gather. The 
fertility of the queens is always regulated 
according to the strength of the colony, and 
still they increase quickly. The gentleness of 
these handsome bees is generally admitted, 
although if irritated they can also sting ; in 
such case they are, however, easily calmed 
with a little smoke. In Germany pure Italian 
bees rarely swarm. In the Australian Colonies 
I believe, after they have been acclimatised 
they will be more inclined to swarm. On a 
sunny day it is a treat to see a strong colony 
of young Ligurians when practising flying in 
front of the hive, the rays of the sun shining 
on their bright-coloured bands, giving them 
the appearance of golden sparks darting in the 
air. En passant, I have reared Italian bees 
in Germany until my departure for this 
Colony, about three years ago ; I had fifty-five 
colonies, all uniformly handsome bees. It is 
a remarkable fact that the bees existing in 
North Italy are of a deep orange, while those 
in central Italy are of a bright golden-yellow 
colour, and in Southern Italy they are black. 
The Italians appear to be a cross between 
the black and the Egyptian bees. This has 
been confirmed by Herr Vogel, of Lehmann- 
shofel, editor of the Eichstadtor Bee Journal, 
and one of the ablest beemasters, who, under 
the auspices of the Berlin Acclimatisation 
Society, has proved it by experimenting with 
these races. The handsomest, most gentle, 
and most industrious Italians are bred by 
Dr. Dzierzon, Rathe, Gravenhorst, and several 
others. They exceed in their several qualities 
those imported from Italy. The most beauti- 
ful bees I have seen, but which I have not 
yet bred, are 
THE EGYPTIAN BEES, 
which are considerably smaller than the 
North German and Italian bees. The first 
bands are bright yellow, and the breast is of 
the same colour ; the other bands have a black 
lustre ; the hair on the breast and segments is 
perfectly white. The queens are yellow, 
almost transparent, and their breast of a blood- 
red colour. The Egyptians are very vicious, 
and when irritated are so savage that it is 
impossible to handle them, and they cannot be 
pacified. A special peculiarity about this race 
is that in some colonies, in addition to a fertile 
queen, there are several queens of a smaller 
size which do not mate. Nevertheless, they 
lay e ggs which develop into drones. The 
bees, as before mentioned, are small, build 
thirty-six cells to the square inch, and are not 
very industrious. For purposes of crossing 
they are very valuable. After several cross- 
ings with the black bees they will develop the 
finest Italians. In 1864 the first Egyptians 
were imported into Germany, and handed to 
the before-named Herr Vogel for experiment- 
ing. This race is to be found in Egypt, 
Arabia, Syria, and China. 
CYPRIAN BEES. 
“ Cyprians over the whole world,” writes a 
good German beemaster, and this praise is 
owing to their reputed excellent yield of honey. 
To describe this race : they are" in size about 
