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The Family: Italian

The Italian bee has been introduced into this country by sending queen-bees from Italy, and this variety of bee is now very common here. It is a pretty bee, with the upper rings of the abdomen of a light tan color, a mark which distinguishes it at once from the common brown or German bee.

Queen-bees are raised in large numbers for exportation by Italian bee-keepers. By removing the queen the bees can be set to building queen cells and raising queens, and if the "brood" is watched and the young queens prevented from killing each other, large numbers can sometimes be taken from a hive in the course of a season. The queen-bee, shut in a small box with a wire gauze covering, supplied with food and accompanied by two or three dozen workers for comfort and consolation, can be sent through the mails in safety for very long distances. In a Texan bee journal we read the following interesting advertisement, — "We will receive next month a fresh supply of the finest imported Italian queens to be had in Italy, also some Holylands from Jerusalem, in June, and Cyprians from Cyprus, in May. All direct from their native lands." Bees have been sent by mail from Germany to California, to Australia, and to Calcutta, India.