104 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 14 



Queen breeders may take exception to this solution of the problem 

 presented. However, the time is at hand when the beekeeper needs 

 queens raised from a production record rather than color, gentleness, 

 character of capping and several features now pointed to with pride 

 by this or that queen breeder. In other forms of production we have a 

 basis of reproducing from individuals of a knoA\Ti record. In the develop- 

 ment of the 265-egg hen each progeny has been selected for breeding 

 purposes on a basis of high performance. The same is true with dairy 

 herds and racing horses. We now hear of poultry culling with the 

 attendant "boarder hens" and we hear of the Babcock test with "boarder 

 cows". Why not hear of pounds of honey and "boarder queens" ? 



The problem of improving the queens on a basis of production may 

 be slow and uncertain but the improvement must come in bees as it 

 has in the other animals. The problem may be complicated by the 

 asexual development of drones and the inabilit}' to control mating. 

 However, effort must be made to overcome the present indifferent 

 production of queens. Individual selection will be required and pro- 

 gress at first will necessarily be slow. 



In the meantime each beekeeper can help in this problem. Rate the 

 colonies and check them closely. Any colony which does not come up 

 to average should be requeened. Provide a queen resen^oir so as to 

 have queens to replace in case of accident or sltmip. In August requeen 

 all colonies that are not up to the average. Such measures are only 

 temporary at best. Improvement must be on a sound basis of heredity. 

 The real solution of this problem lies in rearing queens on an individual 

 record of performance basis. 



]Mr. H. F. Wilson : I would like to ask if that was this year. 



Mr. Paddock : They were spring raised queens and arrived with the 

 nuclei and packages approximately April 25th. 



Mr. Wilson : We had practically the same experience. There were 

 twenty-seven queens out of ninety that failed, that is, died from one 

 cause or another. I presume that }-ou noticed practically every one of 

 those colonies started to requeen itself. 



We foiuid in the case of package bees that every colony, practically, 

 will start to supersede. We found, for instance, that when bees come in 

 as early as April 20th, the loss will be from ten to fifteen percent, more 

 than if the bees arrived on May first. I am just wondering whether or 

 not we can figure correctly the value of queens that come in packages. 

 That the queens should be tested out can not be questioned, but if 

 those queens had not been shipped in, would the results have been as bad? 



