In 1867 Adam Grimm went to Italy for the purpose of importing queens. One hundred queens which he brought back all died on the way and the attempt ended in disappointment. Three years later he made another attempt and this time reached New York with sixty-nine queens alive. Some were sold to New York beekeepers, but forty were reserved for the purpose of improving his own stock. This was the largest importation which had arrived up to that time. Grimm offered queens for sale for a time but found much dissatisfaction among his customers, and after a year decided that he would not offer queens for sale any longer.

In 1868, Charles Dadant ordered queens from Doctor Blum-hoff, of Switzerland, and received three alive and vigorous in the spring of that year. Blumhoff died the following winter and although Dadant made another attempt at importation, the bees were prepared improperly and few of them arrived alive.

Ellen S. Tupper, a prominent Iowa woman, who was a leader in the ranks of western beekeepers, visited Dadant and, as a result, she offered to provide funds to defray his expenses for a trip to Italy for the purpose of importing queens. He sailed from New York in July, 1872. Returning in September with a shipment of 400 queens, he was much disappointed to find only sixty queens still alive. The combs in the boxes were alive with moths, and he was unable to fill a sixth of the orders for imported queens.

Then came a long and grievously disappointing series of attempts to succeed. Dadant tried several shippers, but always some difficulty arose to bring disaster on the attempt. Finally, he got in touch with Guiseppe Fiorina, near Venice, and success crowned his efforts. Fiorina shipped the queens in boxes three inches in width by four inches in length by two and one-half inches deep. Air was let into the boxes by slits in the end. The boxes were placed four in a row and tiered three deep with only three on the top row. In a package were placed two tiers with some space between for ventilation. The bees were given two combs, one filled with capped honey and the other dry comb. During the progress of these experiments Dadant discovered that the bees did not need water in shipment. When water was used shipments arrived dead, while better success came after it was left out of the cage.

Some years later, Dadant wrote that he had received more than 250 queens per year, on an average, from Fiorini for a period of eight years. Dadant continued to import Italian queens for many years and it was he who finally solved the problem of successful trans-Atlantic shipment. This was accomplished at great expense and although he received good prices for imported queens, it is doubtful whether the venture ever proved profitable. He stated in 1873 that each of his imported queens had probably cost him more than $20 but he did not regret the outlay.

Egyptian Bees

In October, 1866, announcement appeared in the American Bee Journal that the Society for Acclimatization in Berlin had imported Egyptian bees to Germany and that arrangement had been made to bring them to this country at an early date. This was followed by a series of articles from German bee magazines and from English beekeepers which stimulated interest in the new race.

In the December issue of the same magazine appeared an advertisement of L. L. Langstroth & Sons to the effect that they had obtained Egyptian queens from the Berlin Society of Acclimatization and would be prepared to fill orders for them the next season. While Langstroth imported the first Egyptians, they were bred extensively by Wm. W. Cary.

While Langstroth continued to advertise Egyptians to the end of 1868, they did not prove satisfactory for American conditions and never attained much popularity.

Bees From Cyprus And The Holy Land

Interest in new races of bees grew rapidly, and efforts were made to obtain them from the far ends of the earth. The expense and risk of importation was greatly reduced after the costly experience of the pioneers in importing Italians, but still the cost was high.

Whenever a group of beemen came together for a convention there was sure to be a discussion of some race of bees as yet unknown in America. The high prices at which imported queens were selling was sufficient to attract those of an adventurous nature in the hope of profiting by the first introduction of something better than was already available.

In 1878 it was announced in the American Bee Journal that C. W. and H. K. Blood had sent a messenger to the Island of Cyprus for the purpose of importing Cyprian bees. This seems a bit confusing, since in the previous issue, April, 1878, these same men had advertised that they had wintered their Cyprian bees successfully and would be prepared to offer Cyprian queens for the coming season at ten dollars each. The advertisement stated that their stock had been forwarded to them direct from the Island of Cyprus and that no other bees would be bred in the vicinity, thus insuring purity.

Whether this was the first successful importation is not clear. Charles Dadant had made an attempt in 1876, having the bees sent to his correspondent in Italy for reshipment. When they arrived in Italy all the combs were smashed and the queens were dead. At the national convention, November, 1879, Dadant stated that only two queens had reached America up to that time.