THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
Wet a cloth with water and cover over the 
frames of the hive that is to be manipulated, and 
cover the hive up again. Now take the smoker 
and give the bees two puffs of the chloroform. 
Then go to the next hive and operate on it as 
betore. If you are uniting bees, then go back to 
the first hive and give them two puffs more. By 
this time the bees will be “ silly,” and the 
queens may be allowed to run in, and all will be 
right. 
The bees may also be united with perfect satis- 
faction, and without loss. No consumption of 
honey is needed, no sweet solution is wanted, and 
the perfumes of cremated wood are uncalled for. 
The time is fast approaching when the old 48- 
hour-method will become obsolete. 
South Newbury, Ohio. 
Italtr. 
A VISIT TO THE QUEEN-BREEDER OF 
ITALY. 
Written for the British Bee Journal BY T. B. 
BLOW, F.L.S. 
The many controversies which have arisen 
during the past with respect ro the merits or 
demerits of the Italian bees, induced me. in the 
interests of British beekeeping, to pay a visit to 
the north of Italy, to study them in their native 
habitats, and to come to some decision as to their 
qualities as compared with other races, and more 
especially with the English bees. 
Those who have carefully noted the published 
accounts of the Italian bees from their first intro 
duction will remember the surprising successes 
that were years ago achieved ; and I could call to 
mind several who have kept Italians for many years, 
and s' ill hold that they are far ahead of the blacks. 
The Americans, too, quite upheld this opinion, 
and hold it strongly still. 
Carefully considering these facts, I was led to 
think that the root of the evil, and the reason of 
the many grievous complaints that have lately 
been made, might lie in the inferiority of the 
queens imported during the last few years. Those 
who years ago went in strongly for Italians (and 
have succeeded) usually kept in stock by breeding 
from the best, rather than by constantly importing 
queens. And the same method obtains in 
America, where most of the Italians are home- 
reared — not imported — and I think it will be 
admitted on all sides, that, as far as scientific 
queen-rearing is concerned, the Americans stand 
at the head of the world, though the successful 
persons in England, that 1 allude to, are indivi- 
dually equal. 
To get the best results we ought, undoubtedly, 
to import the finest queens, and then to rear the 
best from them here, keeping up the stock with 
occasional importations, perhaps. In this way 
we can perpetuate the best features of the race, 
and at the same time get bees that are perfectly 
acclimatised. For it is an admitted fact, that the 
bees, the immediate progeny of imported queens, 
are far more liable to disease — especially diarrhea 
— lhan are the progeny of a home-reared Italian. 
And. with the facilities which modern beekeepers 
have, there is not the least difficulty in getting 
the home-reared queens purely mated, and thus 
practically keeping our strain pure, if absolute 
purity is desirable. 
The complaints made by those dissatisfied with 
Italians are: I. They do not winter well. 2. 
As honey producers they do not equal the English 
bee. 3. That they are very vicious and un- 
manageable. 4. And lastly, some have asserted 
that a very virulent form of foul brood has been 
introduced by them. From an examination (ex- 
* tending over a considerable time ) of many apiaries, 
I have come to the conclusion that most of the 
eviKrepute that has fallen upon Italians has been 
brought about by the inferior queens sent. In 
some cases the breeders knew nothing about their 
business, and procured the cheap queens which 
are sent so freely in 'he autumn, by going around 
and collecting them from the colonies condemned 
by the country people to be taken up for the 
honey ; they get these and the bees for about a 
franc each. 
By this system many queens would be quite old 
worn out, others unfertilised, and therefore drone- 
breeders ; and in a district where foul brood 
occurred, of course the disease would go with the 
queens, and disastrous results would follow by its 
introduction into the apiary of the unsuspecting 
British bee-keeper. I have in my mind’s eye one 
case of a well-known cottage bee-keeper, whose 
apiary was utterly ruined by the introduction of 
foul brood by Italian queens. This system of 
getting queens from condemned bees. I saw in 
full swing in many cases (in one case by the 
servants of a well-known exporter) ; the time of 
year being most favorable for this practice, and I 
certainly saw several fine examples of foul-broody 
combs. 
In other apiaries no trouble seemed to be taken 
with the quality of the queens, such as selecting 
the best queens to rear progeny from, nor was 
any attention paid to the rearing of drones from 
suitable colonies. These great considerations 
were quite neglected ; the great poini seeming to 
be. the largest number of queens in the shortest 
possible time, and with least trouble ; and, as far 
as I can judge, many were sent off without it being 
definitely known that they were fertilized, and I 
feel sure that some such queens arrive in England, 
and are here fertilized, as, in the course of my 
experience as an expert, I have had shown to me 
many colonies of bees that I was assured were the 
progeny of an imported queen, but were certainly 
hybrids. 
My visits to apiaries extended over the country 
between Bellinzona and Montselice; this em- 
braced the mountainous district of the northern 
Italian lakes, and the plains of Lombardy, and 
again the hilly country around Bologna. 
I may say at once that I certainly prefer the 
bees from the mountains, as they seem much more 
virgorous and hardy ; and the results in the way of 
honey-gathering, as far as I could gel at the facts. 
