THE ITALIAN BICE. 
319 
Italy, during part of the Napoleonic wars, he noticed that the bees, 
in the Lombardo-Venetian district of Valtclin, and on the borders 
of Lake Como, differed in color from the common kind, and seem¬ 
ed to be more industrious. At the close of the war, he retired 
from the army, and returned to his ancestral castle, on the Rhie- 
tian Alps, in Switzerland ; and to occupy his leisure, had recourse 
to bee-culture, which had been his favorite hobby in earlier years. 
While studying the natural history, habits, and instincts of these 
insects, he remembered what he had observed in Italy, and resolved 
to procure a colony from that country. Accordingly, he sent two 
men thither, who purchased one, and carried it over the mountain, 
to his residence, in September, 1843. 
“ In May, 1847, this colony, the queen of which had never failed 
to produce genuine Italian brood, began to show signs of weak¬ 
ness, but suddenly recovered in the following month ; and it was 
evident that it had supplied itself with a new queen, which had 
fortunately been impregnated by an Italian drone, as she produced 
genuine, or pure brood. On the 15th of May, 1848, this queen 
issued with a swarm, and he hoped that, as he had placed the 
parent-hive in a rather isolated location, her successor would bo 
impregnated by an Italian drone. But in this, he was doomed to 
disappointment; she produced a bastard progeny, while the emi¬ 
grant queen produced genuine brood, as before. Similar disap¬ 
pointments awaited him from year to year; and in June, 1851, he 
possessed only one colony of the pure stock. 
“Among the points which he considered as definitely estab¬ 
lished, by his observations on the Italian bee, are the following : 
1. The queen, if healthy, retains her proper fertility at least three 
or four years. 2. The Italian bee is more industrious, and the 
queen more prolific, than the common kind ; because, in a most 
unfavorable year, when other colonics produced few swarms and 
little honey, his Italian colony produced three swarms, which 
filled their hives with comb, and, together with the parent-stock, 
laid up ample stores for Winter; the latter yielding, besides, a 
box well filled with honey. The three young colonies were among 
the best in his Apiary. 3. The workers do not, at most, live 
longer than one year; for, though the bees and brood in the 
