Italian bee

“ Therefore, when we decided to buy bees, we un-hesitatingly ordered Italians. These are much more gentle and friendly than the others, and it is one of our greatest pleasures to be on good terms with our bee-folk. Under all ordinary circumstances the Italian bees are not only tolerant of human interference, but are sweet tempered and optimistic, believing that we mean well by them; and one cannot work with them without learning to love them.
If one begins bee-keeping in the spring, some money can be saved by buying a nucleus and tested queen, instead of a full colony of bees. ”

“ The parent hive and the first swarm are the heaviest stocks in my apiary. I shall Italianize all my colonies this fall. No man will ever persuade me that black bees are as good. I shall always consider such men as jealous or prejudiced. The advantages derived from Italian bees are well worth paying for—their early swarming and their rapid breeding are sufficient compensation. The color of the queen, too, is a great advantage when looking for her in the crowd on the comb, and her superior fertility is an unquestionable fact. ”

“ Between you and me, I don’t think there has been such an immense amount of science squandered on the breeding of Italian bees. They are what they are, because of the surroundings in their native habitat. While some have taken great pains in breeding, I think a large number to-day would say that an Italian queen imported from Italy 30 years ago was just as good as the average queen in America to-day, and every year many queens are imported from Italy and sold at a high price, which would hardly be, if there was no advantage in it. ”

“ Italian bees have been carefully selected for color by some breeders to increase the area of yellow on the abdomen, until we now have what are known as "five-banded" bees. These are very beautiful, but it can scarcely be claimed that they are improved as honey producers or in regard to gentleness. They are kept mostly by amateurs. Some breeders have claimed to select Italians for greater length of tongue, with the object of getting a bee which could obtain the abundance of nectar from red clover. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When you have one or two Italian hives, you must endeavor to put them into hives with moveable parts, if they are not already in one. Then care must be taken, that by continual feeding with good honey, and filling up of the hive with sufficient combs, they increase their strength and prepare a good many drones. The trouble is much less if the Italian bees are on a stand by themselves, about 500 or 1000 yards from the others, the farther the better. ”

“ Sixth, he says, “many bee-keepers find the half-blood Italian bees are better than pure ones”—his reason being that in and in breeding is broken up.
Answer. Those that receive them, let them swarm naturally; thus the forcing is at an end, and nature again asserts her superiority.
He says, seventh, “In good seasons the queens raised in small nuclei are as good as those raised in full stocks.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ The first Italian bees brought into the New England States, I had the honor of receiving. The Italian bees being entirely distinct from the native or black bees in color and size, I determined to avail myself of the opportunity offered to satisfy myself on the long-disputed question—"How far a bee will go to collect honey." I therefore made close and repeated examinations, at different times during the honey season, and it was no uncommon occurrence, to find the Italian workers seven miles from their hives. ”

“ Though the Italians will sometimes sting a pint of them to death around a single hive, not an Italian can be found among the slain.
In spite of all this, to which we have repeatedly called the attention of others, many are busy in accusing the Italians of driving the innocent common bees out of the land. One neighbor in particular, who cannot afford to take the Bee Journal, has been very busy in telling how our Italians have taken all his surplus honey, and had he not used great care, they would have carried off all his honey, hives, bees and all. ”

“ It will not be a guaranty of success that they use the best hive, nor that they have an abundance of bees; a familiarity with all the recognized authorities and a mind crammed with theories, will often fail; the industrious brown bee will seek in vain, the gold-banded Italian bee will tire in its flight, and even Apis dorsata will view its stores with dismay, if there be no nectar-laden bloom from which to gather.
Now is the time to invest for the future. Every dollar judiciously paid out for seeds of honey plants will bear compound interest—will be “bread cast upon the waters.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ Should they have run into a hive deprived of the queen, or only provided with queen-cells, they will be heartily glad that a queen is given them and will not leave her. The bees generally become anxious and tame if the drones and drone-brood are taken away. Endeavouring now, on the one hand, to permit no black drones on the Italian stand, which is kept for the improvement of the races, and to destroy them with their drone-brood and cells, care must be taken, on the other hand, that the Italian bees breed the largest possible quantity of drones. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I have managed my apiary under the impression that the Dzierzon theory is correct, that the drones from a pure queen which had mated with a black drone, were pure.
I have failed in keeping my stock pure enough to breed from; and in my opinion, other bee-keepers who have reared queens in the same way, are as badly off as myself. If we wish to improve the Italian bee, we may do so by selecting the best of its race, both male and female, to breed from; not by crossing with the black bee. The type of the Italian bee should be so fixed, that the bees all show the same marking. ”

“ The queen-bee is a model keeper at home, rarely leaving the hive. Most apiarians are interested at present in the habits and acclimatisation of the Ligurian bee—the Apis Ligustica, or Italian bee. It is found easy to substitute an Italian for a British queen, in a British hive which has been deprived of its native sovereign. The bees refuse to constitute themselves into a republic, and therefore they will accept even a foreign queen, who, no doubt, takes the oaths and obligations of the realm over which she is to reign. ”

“ In a favourable locality one hive, with its average colony of thirty-five thousand workers and a queen, will turn out from thirty to forty pounds, besides the fifteen or twenty necessary to feed the hive through the winter.
The vicious temper of the old-time black bee has much to do with the neglect of this profitable industry. The Italian bees are, however, so much better as honey-gatherers that they are almost universally kept now, and are so gentle in disposition that even a nervous person can easily learn to manipulate them without fear of stings. ”

“ We are inclined to believe that more visiting takes place amongst bees of different hives than bee-keepers have been accustomed to suppose; but where the Italian and black bees are kept near each other, the foreigners being conspicuous by their lighter colour, there is less difficulty in identifying them when at the entrance of other hives. Von Berlepsch, we find, remarks that there exists during the gathering season a species of "communism - 41 - of dwellings" between the bees of neighbouring hives.
The Italian bees are more active than common bees when on the wing. ”

“ We find the queens more prolific than those of the common kind, and the quantity of honey produced is greater. These two facts stand as cause and effect: the bees being multiplied more quickly, the store of honey is accumulated more rapidly, and the Italian bees consume, if anything, less food than the common kind. When of pure Italian blood these bees are, by - 40 - some apiarians, thought to be hardier than our own. That they forage for stores with greater eagerness, and have little hesitation in paying visits to other hives, we can testify from our own observation. ”

“ The Italian bees are said to dwindle worse in spring, which, as they are more active, is quite probable. As I have never had a case of serious spring dwindling, I cannot speak from experience. If the bee-keeper prevents early spring flying, which is very detrimental to either black or Italian bees, this point will have no weight, even if well taken. ”

“ That mother which has been picked out as breeding bee must be taken with part of her people and some brood-combs, honey-combs, and empty ones, until the little box is quite full, and is then placed on the stand where the Italian bees and drones are kept. After a few days, the queen is taken with a few combs of brood and their bees, and is put into a breeding-box. ”

“ To prevent the injuries of this pest the colonies should be kept strong. The bee-moth follows the rule of other parasites and attacks only the weak and the irresolute, and never injures a comb that is covered with bees. A queenless colony, dejected and discouraged, is usually victimised by it. The Italian bees have learned to cope with the bee-moth and exterminate it whenever attacked by it. Some bee-keepers, when a comb becomes infested, introduce it into the centre of an Italian colony, being sure that the little wretches will find there the fate they deserve. ”

“ In the spring of 1882, a gentleman in Maine purchased a swarm of Italian Bees of me, and that season they gave him five large swarms. They were managed with a view of securing as many swarms as possible, as the gentleman wished an increase of swarms rather than surplus honey.
Every one who has a place to set a hive of bees, would derive great pleasure, as well as profit, in keeping Italian bees in Controllable Hives. They are so docile, so very - 122 - industrious and so beautiful in color, that one finds real pleasure in their care. ”

“ I put into winter quarters 16 colonies (all blacks) and now have one, very weak. I have a lot of nice, well-made and painted hives on hand, and a lot of combs. As I have never handled Italian bees, and have concluded to purchase, and I hear they are larger than the blacks, will you please answer these 2 questions in the Bee Journal: Are comb cells of the black bee too small for the Italians to raise brood in? Will it not cramp them in size? Will it be safe to feed the thin uncapped honey that has caused dysentery to other bees? The bees in this vicinity are all dead. ”

“ I find that I can handle bees very rapidly; can shake the bees from the combs without even breaking the comb loose from the frame; with the Langstroth hive, or frame, rather, the combs will give way occasionally in hot weather, if not wired.
I think that I shall always run for extracted honey at this apiary. In Placerville, Calif., where I used to rear bees for sale, I had a decided preference for Carniolan bees. I think that I shall rear them largely. The so-called Golden Italian bees—if I can prove to my satisfaction that they will equal the Carniolans, I will insert a number of queens. ”