APIARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1289, 12 November 1896, Page 5

APIARY.

VARIETIES AND STRAINS OF BEES.

The two principal varieties of bees (snys Mr W. Z. Hutchinson in the Prairie Farmer) are the coinmcn black, or German, and the Italian. Next in point of numbers are the Carniolans. A few years ago there were some Cyprian and Syrian beet., but they proved so irritable or vicious that they were soon discarded. Not only were they difficult to handle, unless by experts, and even they failed sometimes, but tbey tilled their cells so full of honey, and capped them over so thinly that it gave the honey ft watery appearance, and it was quite apt to leak from the cells. Another objection against them, especially in this country, is their disposition to breed almost continually in "warm weather, whether any honey is coming in or not. In Cuba this proved an advantage, as their honey season comes there in what might be termed their winter, and the excessive breeding in summer resulted in very populous colonies for gathering i the winter harvest. The Carniolans are a dark variety. A casual observer might call them the common black bees, but a close examination shows that the hairs on the abdomen are of a whitish colour, which gives them a greyish appearance. They are good workers, cap their honey very whitely, with a good thick capping, and use but very little bee-glue, or propolis. They arß greater breeders than either German or Italian varieties, and consequently more given to swarming. Great claims have been made for their gentleness, but I have had them from

several different breeders, and with me they have been more irritable than the Italians. As held workers—that is, gatherers of honey—l have never seen any bees that were superior to Italians. As a rule, those from imported mothers, or from tfce daughter of an imported mother, are the best workers. They are good breeders, and the most agreeable bees to handle. The only points in which they are less desirable than any bees are that they are less inclined to enter the section boxes, are not so good comb builders, and do not cap their honey so whitely as do the Germans. These traits are objectionable only in the production of comb honey. This matter of capping the honey whitely is as follows : The blacks and Carniolans do not fill the cell so full of honey a i do the je low var'eties of bees. This leaving of a small space under the capping gives the comb a white appearance. If the cells are filled full and the capping comes in contact with the honey it gives the comb a creamy appearance. When the honey is plenty and near home no bees will gather more of it than will the blacks, but when it must be searched for far and wide then the Italians carry off the palm. It seems that they are less easily discouraged than the blacks. But after the honey is once inside the hive no race of bees can handle it to better advantage than the sirnon pure black bees. They build straight, tender, perfect combs, and cap > them whitely. Not only this, but they seem ever ready to begin work in the sections, that is, to store honey outside of the brood-nest, which is not the case with the yellow races. The use of " bait sections/' that is, sections of drawn comb, in the supers to start the bees to work, the adoption of sectional brood chamber hives, that enables the bee-keeper to bring a large surface of brood right up next to the sections, do much in overcoming the dislike of the Italians to enter the sections; but the man who wishes to secure the best results in comb honey production cannot afford to iguoie the characteristics of the German bee. The best that can be done, under most circumstancss, is to cross the Italian and German varieties, and then by selection in breeding, strive to eliminate the undesirable qualities and preserve the ones that are desirable. Perhaps the most objectionable feature of these cross-bred been is that they are usually more difficult to handle than either of the pure varieties from which they sprang, but the professional bee-keeper with his veil and smoker cares little for this if the bees will only bring in the honey and store it in proper shape. The ordinary farmer bee keeper will probably succeed better with Italians than with any other variety. If soma of his young queens occasionally mate with black drones it will not injure the working qualities of the bees, but, as has been said, it may make them more irascible. It has been said that the progeny of a black queen mated with '

an Italian drone is more gentle than that of an Italian queen mated with a black drone, and 1 am inclined to think that this is true. The disposition of worker bees is like that of the male parent, and the bUcks are more irritable than are the Italians. There is a variety of Italian bees that, through long selection in breeding, has become very yellow. In some instances the whole abdomen is. a bright golden yellow. As a rule, these bright yellow bees are poor workers, but this is not always true.