§ VI. OTHER FOREIGN VARIETIES.
1. Carniolan Bees.—In appearance this variety is very much like our English bee. The difference is that the rings on the abdomen are whiter; otherwise (except by a close observer) one would not be known from the other.
Eight years ago the Rev. W. C. Cotton (brother of Lord Justice Cotton and author of "My Bee Book") had a stock of these bees from Austria, where they are largely cultivated, and he left them under our charge. We placed them in our own apiary at Hampstead, where they did very well, working a capital super in the first year, as well as parting with a fine swarm. The second year Mr. Cotton had the swarm sent to his own apiary, near Chester, because he wanted the original queen, which of course this had with it. This swarm had rather a remarkable adventure, and was nearly lost, as related at [page 78]. The Carniolans have been praised as possessing similar good qualities with the Italians, and though Von Berlepsch laughs at them and calls them "a new grand swindle," yet, as he declares them to be "closely allied, if not altogether identical," with the following variety, for which he has only good reports, his denunciations of these seem reasonably open to qualification.
2. Lower Austrian Bees.—Baron von Berlepsch mentions these as a variety which he found, to his surprise, in the neighbourhood of Vienna, but which must have been the same that Von Ehrenfels had cultivated and described. They scarcely differ from the Carniolan, but about one in fifty is rather strongly marked with red upon the first ring of the back. The Baron speaks of their habitat as "the El Dorado of the Bee," and he declares them wholly free from the vices of the next sort, and thinks they raise fewer drones than ordinary bees. He recommends, as likely to be a profitable breed, a cross of these with our own variety.
3. Heath Bees.—This is a race of a very different character, deriving its name from the district known as Luneburg Heath, and found also about Oldenburg, Schleswig, and Holstein. In form and appearance Heath bees are wholly identical with our own, but they seem like bees in a lower state of civilisation, perpetually swarming without occasion and with unmanageable impulse, and producing principally drones and drone comb even with a queen of the first year. "Undoubtedly," says Von Berlepsch, "this is by far the worst kind of bee existing in Germany."
4. Greek or Cecropian Bees.—In some particulars these are like a cross between the Italian and common bees. The queen is dark bronze on the abdomen as far as the second scale, but the common colour above. Most of the workers have a ring and a half of bronze or a reddish rust-colour; some have two entire rings of this hue. They are stated to be more industrious and productive than common bees, and the drones to be smaller.
This and the two previous varieties we thus briefly notice on the basis of the remarks of Von Berlepsch. We are not aware that either of them has been introduced into this country, nor do they appear to have attained much success in Germany. Thus humorously does our author dismiss this last: "Since 1864, when Deumer sounded his trumpet with distended cheeks, we have heard not so much as a last dying speech from the Cecropian bee, and she seems already in Germany to have gone the way of all flesh. May the earth lie lightly on her!"
5 and 6. Cyprian and Smyrnæan Bees.—"A Country Doctor" writes in the British Bee Journal that he had prepared a translation from the Bienenzeitung of an article by Herr Corri, in which he speaks most highly of the good qualities of the Cyprian bees, and considers them in advance of any other bee that he has cultivated. In this opinion he is borne out by Count Rudolph Kolowrat of Tabor.
"It so frequently happens," proceeds the correspondent, "that the last pet receives the highest honours, and we are so apt to believe that that must have special value which has cost considerable pains to obtain, that a certain amount of caution is advisable in receiving these enthusiastic statements. Herr Corri's opinion, however, is deserving of the highest respect; for both he and the Count have been most perseveringly engaged for many years past in importing various races of bees from their native lands, and making comparative observations as to their merits, and this without being biased by the expectation of commercial gain.
"The bees got from Smyrna (1864) seem to stand next in their estimation. Both the originally imported stocks, and those subsequently raised from them, presented, however, a certain number of black bees, and after the most painstaking attempts to breed them pure the results remained the same. The conclusion come to was that they were of a mixed race."
Our own experience tallies very much with this opinion. We imported from Germany stocks of both the Cyprian and Smyrnæan bees, and exhibited them at the bee shows of the British Bee Association. Previous to doing so we submitted specimens to Mr. F. Smith of the British Museum, and he reported favourably of them—that although resembling the Italian (Apis ligustica), the Cyprian were clearly of a different species, but more nearly approaching the Egyptian (A. fasciata): they certainly possessed the irascible qualities so distinctive of the Egyptians, and used their stilettoes unmercifully on some of the gentlemen connected with the show. We have not been sufficiently enamoured of them to pursue their cultivation further. The resemblance is so close to those bees already domiciled here that we see no special advantage to be gained by doing so.
7. Asiatic Bees.—This bee (Apis dorsata) is a distinct species; it is larger than our own, and exists in a wild state in the woods of India. Mr. Woodbury made considerable exertions to have a colony brought to England, but without success. The stings of these bees, are more formidable than those of the varieties possessed here, and except as a matter of curiosity we can see nothing to recommend their introduction.
8. Egyptian Bees.—These bees, though called Apis fasciata, are considered by many as a variety of the same species as ordinary bees. They are rather smaller and slenderer than our own and the Italian, though closely resembling the latter in appearance. They have white hairs all about them, and the first two and a half rings of the abdomen are of a reddish yellow. The drones are also well marked with similar rings, and the queen is even more beautiful than the Italian. Baron von Berlepsch recommends crossing the handsomest Italian queens with Egyptian drones, with a view solely to the æsthetic purpose of raising the most beautiful breed of bees to be obtained.
The German apiarian Herr Vogel has given special attention to this variety, and has discovered in it some interesting peculiarities. It never gathers propolis, but uses wax in its place; and it seems almost proof against the cold. But the most singular fact that has come to his knowledge is that there exist regularly in an Egyptian colony some twelve or so small drone-laying queens, which would be called fertile workers but that they have a distinctive appearance, consisting in the waxen yellow of their breasts—a feature which is possessed also by the drones of their progeny. This is assuredly one of the most curious discoveries that have ever been made in relation even to this most curious of insects.
The late Mr. Woodbury imported some of these bees, but found them exceedingly vicious, and really to possess no superiority over our English bees. Some years since Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, the naturalist, bought a stock of Mr. Woodbury, and brought them with him in order to place in the Horticultural Gardens at South Kensington. Being unacquainted with the placing of bees, he asked our aid in doing so. From the experience of them thereby acquired our own idea would be that no one could ever desire such bees; they came out with a rush, and stung everybody within reach, right and left, who was not provided with a veil.[12] This is the kind of bee found in Palestine, and therefore the one which Samson found in the carcase of the lion.
[12] Vogel says, that this bee never stings unless incensed, "but then quite maliciously;" also that it is only more irritated by tobacco smoke, but is effectually subdued by that from willow touchwood.
In connection with this species, the Rev. H. B. Tristram, in his valuable book, "The Land of Israel," has an interesting account of the bees in that country. In Palestine bee-keeping is an important item of industry, and every house has a pile of beehives in its yard. Their bee, he says, "is amazingly abundant, both in hives, in rocks, and in old hollow trees. It is smaller than our ordinary bees, with brighter yellow bands on the thorax and abdomen, which is rather wasp like in shape, and with very long antennæ. In its habits, and especially in the immense population of neuters in each community, and in the drones cast forth in autumn, it resembles the other species. Its sting also is quite as sharp. The hives are very simple, consisting of large tubes of sun-dried mud, like gas-pipes, about four feet long, and closed with mud at each end, leaving only an aperture in the centre large enough for two or three bees to pass at a time. The insects appear to frequent both doors equally. The tubes are laid in rows horizontally, and piled in a pyramid. I counted one of these colonies, consisting of seventy-eight tubes, each a distinct hive. Coolness being the great object, the whole is thickly plastered over with mud and covered with boughs, white a branch is stuck in the ground at each end to assist the bees in alighting. At first we took these singular structures for ovens or hen-houses. The barbarous practice of destroying the swarms for their honey is unknown. When the hives are full the clay is removed from the ends of the pipes, and the honey extracted with an iron hook; those pieces of comb which contain young bees being carefully replaced, and the hives then closed up again. Everywhere during our journey we found honey was always to be purchased; and it is used by the natives for many culinary purposes, and especially for the preparation of sweet cakes. It has the delicate aromatic flavour of the thyme-scented honey of Hybla or Hymettus.
"But, however extensive are the bee colonies of the villages, the number of wild bees of the same species is far greater. The innumerable fissures and clefts of the limestone rocks, which everywhere flank the valleys, afford in their recesses secure shelter for any number of swarms; and many of the Bedouin, particularly in the wilderness of Judæa, obtain their subsistence by bee-hunting, bringing into Jerusalem jars of that wild honey on which John the Baptist fed in the wilderness, and which Jonathan had long before unwittingly tasted, when the comb had dropped on the ground from the hollow tree in which it was suspended. The visitor to the Wady Kurn, when he sees the busy multitudes of bees about its cliffs, cannot but recall to mind the promise, 'With honey out of the stony rock would I have satisfied thee.' There is no epithet of the Land of Promise more true to the letter, even to the present day, than this, that it was 'a land flowing with milk and honey.'"
The question as to the worth or worthlessness of the above respective varieties is not yet so decided a matter as it is with the Italians. Those interested in the sale of a particular race will praise it up, while those who have had a single disappointment with it will run it down—and that is nearly the sum of the experience to be gathered from current literature. Thus we find Dathe announcing, "I have discontinued the rearing of Cyprian, Egyptian, and Carniolan bees." That is intelligible; but in the same paper we read, "Between the German and Heath bees there is no particular difference"—which so staggers us after Von Berlepsch's vituperations of the latter that we do not know how much confidence we ought to place in the rest of the sentence, which is given as the summing up of a discussion in that famous bee country, Silesia: "The Egyptian bee ranks after the German and Italian; the Carniolan, at the expense of honey, produces many bees; the Cyprians are diligent, but quite inclined to sting. The Herzegovinian bee is praised. Bees obtained by judicious crossing have the preference over the pure races."
Numbers of other varieties may be expected to crop up from time to time, as for instance the one last named. Della Rocca in the last century spoke of a "dawn-coloured" bee that was brought from Holland and Belgium, and which is probably one of the races included with the Italian. Dr. Gerstäcker thus classifies the varieties: The North European (now spread all over the world), the Italian with black breasts, the Italian with yellow breasts, the Egyptian, the African, and the Madagascar. Three South Asiatic bees he regards as specifically distinct—Apis dorsata, indica, and florea. Mr. F. Smith adds zonata and nigrocincta, and inclines to make a species of fasciata (the Egyptians).