TITE ITALIAN BEE. 
321 
gradually became less diligent, till when the buck-wheat came 
into blossom, they were surpassed in industry by many colonics 
of the common bees. But, as young bees continued to make their 
appearance he felt satisfied that the colony was in a healthy con- 
dition. Later in the season, he unfastened the hive, preparatory 
to putting it into winter quarters ; and on attempting to lift it, 
found he was scarcely able to move it. He now discovered why 
it had so greatly fallen behind the other colonies in industry. 
Having early rid itself of drones (as probably is done instinctively 
in Italy), it had, in consequence of its extraordinary activity, filled 
all the cells with honey, in a very short time, and was thcncetor- 
ward doomed to involuntary idleness. It had attained a weight 
which scarcely any of his colonies reached in the Summer of 
1846, when pasturage was so superabundant; whereas, the Sum- 
mer of 1853 was a very ordinary one in this respect.* 
“ 1 The general diffusion of this species of bee,’ says Dzierzon, 
1 will form as marked an era in the bee-culture of Germany, as 
did the introduction of my improved hives. t The profit derived 
by the farmer from feeding stock, depends not alone on due atten- 
tion to the habits and wants of the animals, but mainly on tho 
• “ His experiments on this colony mad© it manifest, tlint frequent disturbance 
hail not produced any injurious effect. Until Midsummer, ho not only removed a 
brood-comb containing about 5000 cells, ovory other day, but had, on uumoroua 
other occasions, taken out comb after comb, several times a day, to find the queen, 
and show her to beo-koeping Mends, who visited him. When, in consequence of 
such Interruptions, the queen retroatod to tho upposlto otfd of the hive, he usually 
found her, half an hour thereafter, on the same comb she had occupied before, 
engaged in laying eggs. Such disturbances, if tho combs bo not broken, or ma- 
terially damaged, he thinks, do no injury; but that, on the contrary they not 
linfrequently produce a certain excitement among the boos, which impels them to 
Issue in greater numbers, and labor with increased assiduity.” — S. W agnku. 
t After my application for a patent on tho movable-frames was favorably 
decided upon, tho Baron Von Berlepsch, of Scobuch, Thuringia (soe p. 126), Invented 
frames of a somewhat similar character. Carl T. E. Von Siebold, Professor of 
Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, in the Untvorsity of Munich, thus speaks of 
these frames: “As the lateral adhesion of tho combs built down from tho bars" 
‘.see pp 15, 16 of this Treatise), “frequently renderoil their removal difficult, 
Berlepsch tried to avoid this inconvenience, in a very ingenious way, by suspend- 
ing In his hives, Instead of the bars, small quadrangular frames, tho vacuity of 
which tho bees All up with their comb, by which tho removal and suspension of 
the combs aro greatly facilitated, and altogether such a convenient arrangement is 
given to tho Dziorzou-hlve, that nothing more remains to bo desired.” 
14 * 
