If the apiarist has several colonies, it is better to make the new colony from several old colonies, as follows: Take one frame of brood-comb from each of six old colonies, or two from each of three, and carry them, bees and all, and place with the nucleus. Only, be sure that no queen is removed. Fill all the hives with empty combs, or foundation instead of frames, as before. In this way we increase without in the least disturbing any of the colonies, and may add a colony every day or two, or perhaps several, depending on the size of our apiary, and can thus always, so my experience says, prevent swarming.
By taking only brood that is all capped, we can safely add one or two frames to each nucleus every week, without adding any bees, as there would be no danger of loss by chilling the brood. In this way, as we remove no bees, we have to spend no time in looking for the queen, and may build up our nuclei into full stocks, and keep back the swarming impulse with great facility.
These are unquestionably the best methods to divide, and so I will not complicate the subject by detailing others. The only objection that can be urged against them, and even this does not apply to the last, is that we must seek out the queen in each hive, or at least be sure that we do not remove her, though this is by no means so tedious if we have Italians, as of course we all will. I might give other methods which would render unnecessary this caution, but they are to my mind inferior, and not to be recommended. If we proceed as above described, the bees will seldom prepare to swarm at all, and if they do they will be discovered in the act, by such frequent examinations, and the work may be cut short by at once dividing such colonies as first explained, and destroying their queen-cells, or, if desired, using them for forming new nuclei.
CHAPTER XI.
ITALIANS AND ITALIANIZING.
The history and description of Italians (see Frontis-plate) have already been considered ([p. 41]), so it only remains to discuss the subject in a practical light.
The superiority of the Italians seems at present a mooted question. A few among the able apiarists in our country take the ground that a thorough balancing of qualities will make as favorable a showing for the German, as for the Italian bees. I think, too, that the late Baron of Berlepsch held to the same view.
I think I am capable of acting as judge on this subject. I have never sold a half-dozen queens in my life, and so have not been unconsciously influenced by self-interest. In fact, I have never had, if I except two years, any direct interest in bees at all, and all my work and experiments had only the promotion and spread of truth as the ultimatum.
Again, I have kept both blacks and Italians side by side, and carefully observed and noted results during eight years of my experience. I have carefully collected data as to increase of brood, rapidity of storing, early and late habits in the day and season, kinds of flowers visited, amiability, etc., and I believe that to say that they are not superior to black bees, is like saying that a Duchess among short-horns is in no wise superior to the lean, bony kine of Texas; or that our Essex and Berkshire swine are no whit better than the cadaverous lank breeds, with infinite noses, that, happily, are now so rare among us. The Italians are far superior to the German bees in many respects, and more—though I am acquainted with all the works on apiculture printed in our language, and have an extensive acquaintance with the leading apiarists of our country from Maine to California, yet I know of scarcely a baker's dozen that have had opportunity to form a correct judgment, that do not give strong preference to the Italians. That these men are honest, is beyond question; that those who disagree with us are equally so, there is no doubt. The black bees are in some respects superior to the Italians, and if a bee-keeper's methods cause him to give these points undue importance, in forming his judgments, then his conclusions may be wrong. Faulty management, too, may lead to wrong conclusions.
The Italians certainly possess the following points of superiority:
First. They possess longer tongues ([Fig, 20]), and so can gather from flowers which are useless to the black bee. This point has already been sufficiently considered ([p. 42]). How much value hangs upon this structural peculiarity, I am unable to state. I have frequently seen Italians working on red clover. I never saw a black bee thus employed. It is easy to see that this might be, at certain times and certain seasons, a very material aid. How much of the superior storing qualities of the Italians is due to this lengthened ligula, I am unable to say.