ITALIAN BEES 
549 
handsome plumage in the “stern realities” 
of hard work in the fields. Occasionally 
will be found a queen whose bees have 
bands nearly white instead of yellow, and 
that is what has led to the so-called albino 
bees. When the plumage is gone, they are 
just like other Italians. These bands of 
down have nothing to do with the yellow 
bands that are characteristic of the Ital¬ 
ians; for, after this has worn off, the yel¬ 
low bands are much plainer than before. 
A, B, C are the normal yellow bands of 
which so much has been said, and they are 
neither down, plumage, nor any thing of 
that sort, as will be seen by taking a care¬ 
ful look at an Italian on the window. The 
scale, or horny substance of which the 
body is composed, is yellow, and almost 
transparent, not black and opaque, as are 
the rings of the common bee or the lower 
rings of the same insect. 
The first yellow band, A, is down next 
the waist. It is very plain, when one 
knows what to look for, and no child need 
ever be mistaken about it. 
At the lower edge of this first yellow 
band is the first black band; this is often 
only a thin sharp streak of black. 
The second, B, is the plainest of all the 
yellow bands, and can usually be seen in 
even the very poorest hybrids. The first 
band of down is seen where the black and 
yellow join, but it is so faint one will hard¬ 
ly notice it at first in some specimens. 
A‘t the lower edge of the scale there is 
a narrow line of black; when the down 
wears off, this shows nearly as broad as the 
yellow band. 
In hybrids are found a greater diversity; 
for while the bees from one queen are all 
pretty uniformly marked with two bands, 
another’s will be of all sorts, some beauti¬ 
fully marked Italians, some pure black, 
others one or two-banded. Some will sting 
with great venom, while others with only 
one or two bands will be as peaceable as 
the best Italians. Without a doubt, many 
queens have been sent out as pure that pro¬ 
duced only hybrids; but since the author’s 
recent studies in the matter he is quite well 
satisfied that several queens have been sold 
as hybrids that were really pure. 
In the matter of rearing queen-cells, 
either the Cyprians or Holy Lands will 
rear more queens than any Italians, Car- 
niolans, blacks, or hybrids. As many as 
100 natural cells have been frequently 
found on one frame. One instance is re¬ 
corded where 25 virgins from a Holy Land 
queen emerged within a few minutes of 
each other; and so vigorous were they that 
some of them actually flew the moment 
they popped out of their inclosures. 
The recent craze for five-banded bees, 
golden bees, and yellow-all-over bees, has 
complicated the marking problem some¬ 
what. For instance, a colony that produces 
four or five banded bees, when crossed 
with a black or Carniolan drone, may pro¬ 
duce the same kind of bees; but the second 
cross, at least, will show three-banded bees 
that are in reality hybrids but still showing 
the typical three yellow bands. 
Under the Dzierzon Theory, subhead 
“Recent Evidence in Support of the The¬ 
ory,” it will be found that the first cross 
between an Italian queen and a Carniolan 
drone may have generally the markings of 
the yellow bees. The second cross will 
make one, two, or three banded Italians, 
and the bees will be distinctly hybrjid, 
showing characteristics of the two races. 
While the presence of three yellow bands 
does not necessarily prove the purity of 
Italian stocks, the test is fairly reliable in 
an Italian apiary that has not been run to 
color to get four and five bands, or in a 
yard where there have not been raised 
Carniolan, Caucasian, or black drones for 
several years previously. 
FOUR AND FIVE BANDED ITALIANS. 
Reference has already been made to the 
extra-yellow bees. For a good many years 
back there has been a demand for beautiful 
bees, and in all probability there always 
will be such a demand. A few queen- 
breeders in the country have been endeav¬ 
oring to meet it. The time was when breed¬ 
ers guaranteed to furnish queens that 
would furnish “yellow-all-over bees” and 
“five-banded bees.” While an occasional 
queen may produce a majority of such 
bees, it should be said that the most of the 
extra yellow stock does not show more than 
four bands; and the yellow-all-over bee is 
a “rare bird” indeed. It may be said that 
there is no such thing as a five-banded Ital¬ 
ian or yellow-all-over Italian. The nearest 
approach to it is the very yellow three- 
