526 
HYBRIDS 
their owners do not take the time to Ital¬ 
ianize. Where one owns a series of out- 
yards, comprising from 500 to 1000 colo¬ 
nies, it would be rather expensive to buy 
Italian queens; but if he will follow direc¬ 
tions given under Queen-rearing in this 
work he can rear his own queens; and this 
brings up the question whether the blacks 
and the hybrids in a locality will not make 
it impossible to rear pure stock. If one 
will use drone-traps on all colonies where 
there are black or hybrid drones, and then 
insert a drone comb in the center of the 
brood-nest of the best Italian colonies, he 
will soon have a great preponderance of 
pure Italian drones. The result will be 
that .the most of the young virgins will 
meet drones of their own race. See 
Drones; also Queen-rearing. 
Another plan to insure pure mating, is 
to wait till after the main honey flow when 
all colonies unless fed will kill off their 
drones. If two or three colonies, having 
select or pure drones, are fed a little every 
day, these drones will be kept while all 
others will be killed off. If a batch of pure 
Italian virgins of the right mating age are 
let loose at this time, they will meet only 
the select drones of the fed colonies. In 
this way pure matings can be secured even 
where hybrid and black colonies greatly 
predominate. It is important, however, to 
feed the colonies of select drones if not 
queenless a little every day until all the 
queens are mated. If even one day is 
skipped, the drones will be killed off. 
A beginner should never open a hive of 
hybrids without smoke. A little should be 
blown in at the entrance, and each move¬ 
ment should be preceded by a light puff of 
smoke. If the beginner is a little timid it 
would be well to have an attendant operate 
the smoker, while he, with a pair of gloves, 
proceeds to manipulate the colony. See 
Manipulation of Colonies; Smoke and 
Smokers; also Stings. 
HYBRIDS OF CARNIOLANS AND CYPRIANS 
WITH ITALIANS. 
In this country at least, very little has 
been done to determine with accuracy the 
value of different crosses which can be made 
very easily. A cross between Italians and 
Caucasians has been spoken of very favor¬ 
ably by J. J. Wilder of Waycross, Ga., one 
of the most extensive beekeepers of the 
country. Mr. Wilder says this cross will 
rear brood under conditions and at seasons 
of the year when pure Italians will do prac¬ 
tically nothing. In some parts of the South 
it is very desirable to have a strain that 
will rear brood in and out of season, because 
of certain honey flows that may follow 
shortly after. A pure Italian stock has a 
tendency to stop brood-rearing almost en¬ 
tirely after the main honey flow. If there 
be another flow two or three weeks later, 
without brood-rearing in the meantime, 
the force will be greatly reduced, and the 
bees that are left will be of little value. 
In the same way a eross between Carnio- 
lans and Italians has been found to be 
equally profitable. 
Other hybrids may be considered by the 
beekeeper who has in mind to produce a 
superior strain of bees for some particular 
purpose. It is well known that crossing, 
as a rule, increases the size, courage, and 
stamina of our domestic animals; and it is 
probably so in bees, yet beekeepers have 
made but little progress along this line, 
because it is so difficult to distinguish be¬ 
tween the crosses and pure breeds in many 
cases. 
See Drones; Parthenogenesis; Dzier- 
zon Theory, subhead “Recent Evidence in 
Support of Dzierzon Theory.” 
