Litchfield enquirer., 1860-12-13
Agrifnltl1ral.
ITALIAN BEES.

ADIllHlluIul.
 ITALIAN BEES.
 noticed in the Farmer to-day an arlcle 1ae from w. A. Flanders, about Italian eees the M states that he put queen into hlve yn .i.t I,. l7th of Auonst. with only four frames, anu enas he added from time to time, eight other ilahes, and that in less than two months tae s"m ahnh nas become completely Italanlzed, 1o.' snei Hoy showing that the queen had in that tlne proauc. ed a swarm of Italian bees. lie aiso .nthAs .nne the Italian bees destroyed tne proo4 anu eApe ed the common variety.
 Tak;no his experience, as published, it would look as though he intended to make great com motion among bee-keepers generally, in regard to the Italian bee and his great success lin bee keeping) with them. Having had some experi- ence in the matter, beg leave to state that hay ing had the care of an Italian queen and her progeny since the 18th of August last, my expe- rience would prove, first, that the bees will take as good care of the brood of the common bee as they do of their own second, that they work as harmoniously together as two young swarms when hiyed together; third, that the queens are not more prolific than are the common variety ; fourth, that the common bees are not expelled, or in any way injured, by the Italians. He does not state whether the stock was large or small one into which he put his new queen; but we will suppose it to be an average one. Be fore any of the new variety would be matched, all or nearly all of the brood left by the old queen would be matched; so that the young Italians could have had no chance to destroy the brood, as stated nor does he state whether the swarm ofItalians is now large or small stock. am very much in doubt about the common variety being absent from his stock even at this date
 MT. J. c. Ely, of Cuyahoga Falls, purchased of Mir. s. B. Parsons, of Flushing, l.. l., pure bred Italian queen. He received her by express on the evening of August 18th. We put her in- to one of Langstroth's observing hives on the morning of the 17th with one frame nearly full of sealed and matching brood, and enough young bees (that had been matched by artificial neat to cover the comb. Late in the afternoon off 18th, she commenced to deposit eggs in the cells vacated by the young bees, laying several hun dred before bedtime that night, even in the full light of a candle held close to the glass side of the hise The next morning we added more young bees, and two more frames, nearly full of sealed brood; and the next morning, being the third day in the hive, we removed the divider, and added about two quarts of bees brought from distance, and four more frames nearly full of brood were added, the frames being taken from four different stocks in the yard, so that there must have been as many different broods in the hive at the same time. The queen refus- ed to lay eggs in the outer combs after she had filled them once, confning herself to the inner combs. The young Italians began to make their appearance on the 8th of September, mak- ing short flights around the hive, and then re- turning to it long before the older workers had quit work, showing that they have very little to do with the business of the hive for some days after they are matched. Icould not see anything that showed me that there was any inclination on the part of the young Italians to expel the common variety but on the other hand, a con- stant care and feeding of them by the older bees, which decrease very rapidly in the fall of the year from natural causes. There are very few stocks that now have one-half as many bees as they had in the middle of August. This every bes-kseper should and may know by examining at that time and now. It will be seen that swarm made up of 50 many additions of combs, bread and bees, must necessarily be strong colony.
 On the 27th of August we took out a comb filled with honey, eggs, larva and sealed brood, it being the produce of the new queen which we put into another hive, having previ ously removed their queen and queen-cells they have since raised for themselves an Italian queen from it. The young Italians did not appear to gather honey or pollen for some days after theil first appearance, but can safely say they vii work on cooler days than the other variety which shows their superiority. On the 4th in stant removed an old queen from strong stock, and put in young queen taken from an after swarm, (both of the common variety,) and on the 20th instant, we removed three stocks from observing to plain hives--the first being the one we built up with the Italian queen the sec. ond the one in which we put Italian brood 1; the third the one to which we put the common queen-all having worked from three different windows of the same room. We removed them orc frame at time, examining each in turn, ard found ia the first hive brood in four frames in the second brood in seven frames in the third brood in five frames-they all having been fed for three weeks previously, so as to stimulate breeding which shows that the younger the queen in stock, if well supplied with plenty of food she will produce the most eggs, variety not excepted. We also found ill the first swarm as many of the common bees as there was of the Italians and equally interested in the defence of their united stores. In the second stock the common bees were greatly in the ascendancy, and in all far less bees than there was in Au- gust. There are far more bees lost in the fall than in summer, owing to the colder weather, strong winds and cold rains, oil of which they must encounter in their last efforts to lay up winter stores. It is we'll that the stock should be somewhat reduced, or they might all perish for want of fosd if they all should live to con sSns it in fall and winter, it being the older and more feeble portion that are lost, and the ones that would die of old age before the spring fur nished new supplies. would add, that I was at Mr. E. T. Sturtevants, in East Cleveland on the 18th instant, in company with Mir. Ely ,; we there found three stocks of Italians all busy al work two of which had more of Italians at work than the other kind. In the third the common variety predominated. It being the last ont procured by Mir. Sturtevant, and we found ths same good feeling existing between the two va rieties iu the same hive as before related.
 Any person having doubts about my state msnts can satisfy themselves by calling ant seeing the bees at MT. Elys, or at MT. Sturte vants-S. Q. Brown, Ravenna, Ohio, Octobe 27, ls60.-l Ohio Farmer.
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