The Italian Alp-bee; or, The gold mine of husbandry / short and practical instructions to breed genuine prolific Italian queens; to multiply them by hundreds in a few months and how to change German hives into Italian

by H. C. Hermann

A very sure way to strengthen Italian queens with German people is, that the Italian queen with her company, and a few combs are put into a box, and, gradually, brood nearly running out is introduced: not all at once, but every one or two combs, so that the brood running out is strong enough to cover the brood in store. By so doing the queen will have an increase of people who will adhere to her, not having known another queen yet. This way of strengthening is the safest, only too many combs must not be put in at one time, because then, the queen with her weak people could not produce sufficient warmth for the entire hatching of the brood.

There is another way to be recommended. The Italian queen with her people are put in the box, intended for the purpose, with a sufficient number of combs, empty and full of honey. Then bees without a queen, or which have been deprived of the queen one, or a few days previous, and have been confined without the least brood or combs are let into the Italians through a small hole, so that only one at a time can go in and must, so to say, beg her admittance.

Hives where the queen has been taken from, but which have young brood or queen-cells, are not to be called deprived of their queen, they have even the best hopes to bring up, in a short time, several queens; for that reason they kill any new introduced queen.

§ 20.

THE FEEDING

Is always done best from above with a bottle, the mouth of which is tied over with loose linen, so that the bees can always suck in the honey without attracting robbers.

§ 21.

THE ORIGINAL MOTHER BEE

Must be particularly carefully preserved to have always, in case of any cross-breeding, one queen of undoubted purity. To make quite sure the queen can be marked by clipping one of the wings; she can then be easy recognised.

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 enabled to serve their customers always with genuine Italian Alp-bees, and consequently increase their sale.