H. C. Hermann

“ All Italian Alp-bees have the same distinctive mark, that is, the two orange-red girths, no matter whether dark or light, and a dark queen will just as well produce light ones, as a light one produces dark queens, and the colour has therefore not the least influence on the race, but solely the marks of distinction. ”

“ As that kind of bee inhabits, at present, but a small strip of country, they are very rare, and a bee-cultivator who is in possession of such a hive can turn it into a real gold mine. The interest in the Yellow Alp-bee is on the increase, for it has not the less value - 4 - for science generally, because by breeding such bees one obtains an insight into their manners of life, and many things are made clear and brought to light of which it has not been possible to obtain a knowledge before. Only by breeding bees of this kind one can become a bee cultivator in the full sense of the word. ”

“ Further, it must be remarked that, as the Italian bees build larger cells than the black bees, it is well to give the Italians opportunity to begin building anew. It is to be supposed that those who have decided to introduce a strange race of bees, Italians, must have some knowledge of bee-cultivation, and must also possess bees of their own native race; for one who has no idea at all of the higher branches of bee-cultivation, for him to introduce a strange race would be money thrown away; such an one would do better to try his experiments on common bees until he is well practised. ”

“ As at the beginning, the bees of the black race will be rather shy, caution must be had to clear the entire front of the bees of the native race, by putting them either higher or lower; by these means they will lose about as many people as would make a swarm which they would have had to give up all the same, and the ten new Italian hives will all profit by it, get strong, populous, and will thrive. For as soon as the bees, returning from the field, find no hive of their kind in the same front, they will at last become tame and enter quietly with the Italians. ”

“ Those who do not particularly care to change all their hives into pure Italians can add the Italian queen-cells in a box to the black bees, and can abandon the queen creeping out to her destiny, as to which drone she will mate with. Although not many Italians are by those means gained in the first years, there will be plenty of bastards, and for the second year a very good foundation for Italianizing, because the stock is already Italian, and the Italian element - 22 - preponderates. Care must be taken to mark the original mother well, and only to obtain posterity through her. ”

“ Many bee-cultivators make a great blunder in that respect, in cutting out the drone-cells, thinking that they are unnecessary eaters, but not considering that, the fewer drones there are on a stand the greater the danger of losing queens. For, natural enough, the queen flies out to mate and to find a drone, if she finds one immediately, she can return home directly and the hive is saved. But if the drones - 25 - are scarce, and the queen cannot soon find a lover, she will delay her wedding-journey, or even go home again without having gained her object ”

“ To assist the breeder to change his own black or common bees into Italian bees in the shortest and safest way, and to keep the race pure, for the purpose of a lucrative income, is the object of this little work, and I shall be glad if the contents prove a source of profit to very many friends of the bee. ”

“ When there are sufficient drones or drone-brood on hand, take from a hive the Italian queen with the third part of her people and building, and fill up the missing two-thirds with empty and full combs. This queen is now taken to a distant stand where the common or black bee is kept, and placed in the stead of a populous hive during the absence of the most part of the bees. The black bees will at first be surprised and refuse to enter, as these two species hate each other. ”

“ There is an end to the insect-world, and we may be sure that it has not entered into the mind of an Italian to import a hive from German-Switzerland, by which German blood may have been brought into Italy. ”

“ A bee can suck in double her weight in provision.
A very sure way to strengthen Italian queens with German people is, that the Italian queen with her company, and a few combs are put into a box, and, gradually, brood nearly running out is introduced: not all at once, but every one or two combs, so that the brood running out is strong enough to cover the brood in store. By so doing the queen will have an increase of people who will adhere to her, not having known another queen yet. ”

“ Some insist that they are larger, others, that they are smaller, and others again, that they are as large as the common black bees. Some say that they do not agree with other bees on the same stand; and some are of the obstinate opinion that the Italian bee is not pure, and has a small portion of German blood, and that it is only - 8 - by their (the German bee-masters) pains, and careful crossing with their black bee, that a pure race can be produced. ”

“ Now, I should like to see that swarm of bees that could take its wedding-flight from Stalla to Poschiavo over two mountains covered with snow (for the snow does not melt in June, and even in July and August the temperature is so low that every bee would perish) for the purpose of mating with the nearest borderers in Poschiavo. The same may be said of the entire chain of passes, on the Bernhardin, Gotthard, Splugen, Lukmanier, nowhere for thirty miles round is a bee to be found, for they cannot exists where, through the neighbourhood of the glaciers, the air is so cooled down. ”

“ If now, a queen has crept out, you must wait until she is impregnated, and has well supplied the box with brood, then take away the queen, and put in from another hive a ripe queen-cell; where the queen-cell has been taken from, a few brood-combs must be inserted, so that no interruption takes place. If a queen, taken away, can always be replaced by a ripe queen-cell, fifteen queens may be produced from one breeding-box during one summer. ”

“ Bees, well filled with honey are everywhere welcome, and when the bees have discharged their burdens in the cells they fraternise and forget all quarrels.
Honey is therefore a very good means of union. But to sprinkle the bees only with honey, or honey-water, produces just the contrary effect; they become irritated and impassioned and kill each other. If, therefore, you desire success, give them honey to their heart's content. If a hive is to be driven out, stop up loosely the principal hole, blow a little smoke into it, then turn it over and knock it gently for about ten minutes ”

“ In a hive there is in general only one queen who lays during the time of her highest prolificness in summer daily from 1000 to 3000 eggs, and these in the best order; one egg in a cell. More than - 11 - one queen the bees do not suffer. Should there be more, they fly away as swarms, or are killed by the bees.
The queen lays male and female eggs. The male-eggs she lays in the drone cells, and the female-eggs in the small cells of the working-bees. The queen requires, reckoning from the egg to her creeping out ten to seventeen days, according to the weather. ”

“ The brood is necessary to the bees and makes them industrious. Therefore, never take a queen from her people until she has well supplied them with eggs and brood. - 19 - Frequent inspection is very necessary, for sometimes everything may be thought to be quite in order, and yet a hive has, instead of a queen, only working bees, who, through a longer deprivation of their queen have themselves commenced to lay eggs but out of which only drones are produced, to the great disappointment of the cultivator. ”

“ To increase the Italian drones as fast as possible, deprive the Italian mother of a hive of her drone-cells, and place instead, empty cells for further filling them with drone-brood, which she will do forthwith. The Italian drone-brood hang into the black hives for hatching, taking and destroying, as much as possible, their own black-broods.
Food must not be spared with brood-hives, as that will induce them to continue breeding. ”

“ It is more certain to procure every year or two an original Italian hive, from their native place, with which to freshen up the race. Those who have opportunities to sell Italian bees, which is almost everywhere the case, will find it more than enough to their advantage, as this little extra expense places them in position to breed pure queens with the greatest certainty, and they will be - 28 - enabled to serve their customers always with genuine Italian Alp-bees, and consequently increase their sale. ”

“ Care must be taken that there is always young brood in a queen-breeding-box, so that in case a queen or queen-cell should meet with an accident, the bees have a substitute, and no interruption can occur. ”

“ After four days it must be seen whether the black bees have commenced queen-cells. If they have not the little fly-hole is opened when the bees will unite and accept the queen. But if queen-cells are formed, it is a proof that the bees are not yet inclined to accept the new queen. All queen-cells must now be cut out, and wait a few days to make them feel quite forsaken, then the Italian may be let in and will then be friendly received. ”

“ The assertions of many German bee-cultivators that the Italian bee has German blood, as not even the Alps, like a Chinese wall, would prevent them from mixing with German bees, may sound very well and comprehensible on paper, but the matter would be quite changed if such a biographer would take the trouble to make, on the spot, inquiries which would present a scientific basis-. The last German place from the Julier-pass is called Stalla, between which place and Poschiavo (a distance of fifty miles) there are no bees. ”

“ Some assert that the Italian queens lay more drone-eggs than the Germans, but that is not right; they lay them in the same proportion as the black bees but it can be forwarded by the placing of drone-breeding-combs in the breeding-nest; for the queen to fill them, it is above all things, necessary that the hive be populous and the weather favourable. ”

“ That a small wire-grating is placed before the little box is understood, so that if a queen should creep out unexpectedly before required, the bees can feed her.
If the queen-cells should have sustained any little injury it must be patched again directly with a little wax. The best way is to warm a knife a little and to touch the cell slightly with it, the wax-cover - 20 - is then sufficiently softened to repair the damage. Larger injuries cannot be remedied, and one cannot be too careful in cutting them out not to damage any of them. ”

“ For queens it is only so far applicable, as the period must be waited for when the black drones are killed, and care has been taken to reserve only Italian drones, which is done by depriving some Italian hives of their queens, and also of their queen-cells, so that they cannot breed any more queens. These bees will not kill their drones. By abundant feeding bees can be induced, even in the late autumn, to breed drones and to suffer them. ”

“ The cubic contents of an Italian bee-cell is larger by thirty per cent, and the width is one-fifteenth more than that of the German cell. If, therefore, Italian bees are bred through several generations in German cells, the bees must ultimately degenerate and become smaller. ”

“ The adding of the queen to hives of other races is done like the adding of queen-cells. First, the hive is deprived of the queen, then the queen is put into the box with a little honey and two handfulls of her own bees, and the box is then placed in the desired hive. ”

“ It will be well to be cautious, to leave one hive undivided and untouched that they continue to breed many drones, for the divided hive will not produce any more drones in the same year, therefore one hive must be kept strong and untouched, so that you do not run short in drone-breeding. ”

“ But as soon as the queen, intended for the drone-breeding hive, is again impregnated, the drones would be in danger of being turned out again, for in particular, fresh impregnated queens do away with the drones very quickly, therefore the impregnated queen must be taken from the drone-hive; in that way drone hives may be kept until late in the autumn. The queens intended for drone production, - 17 - particularly in bad weather, must be stimulated with food; so that they do not relax in laying eggs. ”

“ The cause is easily explained. The Italians belong to the long-fingered craft, and creep into other hives, probably to look after the stores; then they begin to like the place, and they stop, joining the black people. ”

“ Some learned men have called them ligurian bees, but that name has neither historical nor geographical claim, and not one bee-cultivator of the whole district of the Italian Alp-bee knows what kind of insects ligurian bees are. ”

“ Here then, in the mountains, must we look for the origin of animals. For, at the time of the great deluge, all animals in the plains were, certainly, the first to perish, and those in the mountains were, in all probability, left for posterity. ”

“ The work can be made much easier by letting the bees run into any weak hive, and only through a narrow slit, when only working-bees can pass through, but is too narrow for drones, so that the drones can all be kept back. ”

“ If many queens are produced, they are principally bred for presents to other lovers of bees, or for sale to extend the race, and by the art to raise queens early it is in your power quickly to multiply a favourite race of bees. ”

“ Before two colonies are joined together, take care that the bees which are to be added are quite satiated with honey. It does not matter if both parties have been previously well fed, for then they are not so capable of beginning to fight. ”