February, '21] franxe: queen fertilization 105 



Last year we got packages about the first of IVIay and we did not lose 

 a single one, but this year we lost twenty-nine out of ninety. We 

 attribute that to the fact that when it was cold the bees would not take 

 care of them. 



Chairman Paddock: The next paper on the program is "Some Api- 

 cultural Investigations" by Wallace Parks of Ames, Iowa. 



SOME APICULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS 



By Wallace Parks, Ames, Iowa 

 (Withdrawn for publication elsewhere) 



Mr. E. C. Cotton : I would like to ask Mr. Parks if he knows if those 

 bees that made a few trips had larger loads than those that made many 

 trips. 



Mr. Parks: I am inclined to believe that in most cases the bees 

 making very few trips were old bees. 



Chairman Paddock : The next paper is by Mr. L. V. France. 



THE PROBLEM OF CONTROLLED FERTILIZATION OF QUEEN 



BEES^ 



By L. V. France, University Farm, St. Paul, Minn. 



This problem is without doubt the most important one which has to 

 be solved before the pursuit of beekeeping, or industry, if it can be called 

 such, may advance farther than its present stage. We know fairly well 

 how to manage the honey bee, in her present more or less hybrid and 

 variable condition, for surplus honey production. We are also able, 

 after a fashion, to control the bee diseases and keep the winter loss down 

 to about ten per cent. (10%). In an apiarv^ of one hundred colonies 

 of the purest breeding possible at present, we find a few colonies that 

 surpass all of the others in honey production, gentleness, comb building 

 and wax production qualities, resistence to certain diseases, hardiness, 

 length of life, etc. For the one single reason that we are not able to 

 control the mating of otir queen bees we cannot keep and combine these 

 desirable characteristics when they once appear in one or more colonies. 



Published with the approval of the director as Paper No. 238, of the Journal 

 Series of the Alinnesota Agricultural Experiment Station. 



