AMONG THE CARNIOLAN BEE-KEEPERS,
BY Thomas B. Blow, F.L.S., &c.
After spending two or three very pleasant days in Venice, in viewing all the sights of that noted city, I left by rail for Trieste. ... I was anxious to see the bees around Trieste, so we took a carriage and drove to Bassoviza, where we found many bee-keepers, some having sixty or seventy stocks. The bees here, and all through Carniola, are kept in boxes about three feet long, ten inches wide, and five or six inches deep. The bees here were a rather mixed race, being in many cases slightly striped with yellow, quite different to those I saw later on in the mountains.
Laibach [Ljubljana] is a fine old town, with a big castle towering on a hill close by. Not many bees were kept just near, though the district around is a great one for bees. However, we found one apiary of about 150 stocks, all in boxes, and with the fronts of the boxes most artistically painted, mostly with Scriptural subjects. … The bees, here were well-marked Carniolans, quite different from those of Trieste.
My conclusions are that as a race the Carniolans are ahead of any race of bees that I know of, and that their merits are inherent, for no attempt has been made to improve the race by cultivation, by the selection of the fittest, &c. Being natives of a cold, and windy, andwet country, they are admirably adapted for our climate. ... These bees have undoubtedly a great future before them, and will, I am convinced, in a few years, come into very general use.
THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. December 2, 1886.
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