1882 



•GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



79 



groves, and his friends will he pleased to learn that 

 his health is Improving. The bee-keepers in Ven- 

 tura county wiscl.v, J think, adopted a universal 

 frame for the entire countj', and nearly every bee- 

 keeper vies with his neighbor in keeping up with 

 the improvements of the ase, while in Los Angeles 

 county, as a rule they are far behind. They have all 

 kinds of sized frames, and in many instances two or 

 more sizes in the same apiary, and many of them 

 take no care to Italianize or improve their bees 

 whatever. 



Foul brood exists in the county to quite an extent. 

 Taken all together, it is not an loviting field for a 

 careful and interested eastern bee-keeper to visit; 

 at all events, hi^ first impressions are not of a very 

 favorable nature. Thea we have had no rain to 

 amount to any thing in this part of the State, 

 and that makes the bee-keepers blue, blue. Some 

 are hauling their bees down into the valleys, and 

 some are letting them starve where 1 hey are, and 

 some few have kept their liees in such a condition 

 that they are all right for any emergency. Good for 

 them! That corroborates what I have before said, 

 that bees can be kept in such a rondition that they 

 will be self-supporting, even in our poorest seasons. 

 Now, don't say that Gallup has sold his bees because 

 he got frightened; not by any means. I have sold 

 them, rather than to move them nearly a hundred 

 miles. Mr. Mclntyre wanted to purchase, and I 

 wanted to sell; therefore we are both well suited. 



DO BEES EVER VOID THEIR EXCREMENT IN A DRY 



STATE? 



I had a copy of the Uin-al Ncw-Ynrl;er of Dec. 31st, 

 given to me by a friend. On page 370, Prof. A. J. 

 Cook says: "I have never found any support for 

 the theory of the late Mr. Quinby, that bees excrete 

 a dry powder in winter." Somewhere away back, I 

 think in the A. B. J., I corroborated that statement 

 of Mr. Quinby's; and now for the facts: In Lower 

 Canada, 6.5 miles north of Vermont, where I first 

 commenced bee-keeping, bees went into winter 

 quar'ers frequently as early as the 1,5th of October, 

 and were confined to their hives consfanthi until the 

 15th of April, fully six months. The weather would 

 be cold and dry continually. Sometimes we had a 

 January thaw, and a regular Canada thaw used to 

 be, in old times, a fall of about two feet :"f snow. 

 The weather was constantly cold and dry, and the 

 thermometer sometimes 40° below zero. Our bees 

 were wintered on their summer stands, and I have 

 frequently seen them, on their first llight, not even 

 speck the snow. It was the mild open winters that 

 gave us trouble in wintering, with dysentery. In 

 the cold dry winters the comb capping^ and dry 

 powdery excrement would lie an inch hiah on the 

 bottom-board, between each range of comb, in the 

 spring. The bees would be small and very active at 

 any time in winter, and never have their abdomens 

 enlarged or distended with fiecal matter as they do 

 in Michigan. Ohio, or other mild climates. So you 

 readily see, Mr. Editor, that Mr. Quinby's theory has 

 support. Whether that support is worth anything 

 is for your readers to determine. I always found 

 more or less brood in good strong stocks after the 

 middle of January. 



OALLUP'S IDEAS ON POLLEN. 



Old stocks that contained lots of pollen wintered 

 i'variabl ■ the best in our c^ld winters. Youn? 

 stocks with newcomb, and but little pollen, if they 

 wintered at all, came through weak. Now 1 am not 



contradicting the theory that pollen causes dysen- 

 tery in a mild climat?. T have stated facts. 



E. Gallop. 

 Santa Ana, Los .\ngeles Co., Cal., Jan. 9, 1SS2. 



We see, friend Gallup, that you think Mr. 

 Quinby was right, but I don't hardly see 

 that you have proved it. I have often 

 noticed these piles of dust, but I never could 

 be quite satisfied that it was excrement that 

 composed part of this dust. A part of it is 

 capping; some, clippings from old brown 

 combs and cocoons, with other dirt that 

 drops dovvu. Very likely a considerable 

 part of it is dry excrement, but it has never 

 been proven to my satisfaction. Did any 

 one ever witness excrement passing from a 

 bee, in the form of dry powder V I confess 

 I should much prefer to have them adopt 

 that way of doing, if I may be excused. 



REVEKSIOX, VARIATION, HEREDITY, 



ETC. 



ME. KOOT:— You ask If you are right in draw- 

 ing the conclusion, that I claim that the 



' crossing of two races gives fresh vigor to 



the cross for only a few generations, and that, to 

 reach the best results from crossing the black bee 

 with the Italian, we must keep on importing fresh 

 stock, and also preserve pure black bees to cross 

 with. If we do not wish to do this, keep both races 

 separate. 



The increase in size and vigor is not apparent aft- 

 er one or two crosses have been made; but, on the 

 other hand, we have decrease in size, and diversity 

 in form and color, for several generations, until the 

 tv;o races have become blended, if bred inter sc; or, 

 if crossed continuously with blood of the same race, 

 until the blood of the pure animal predominates 

 sutKciently to produce uniformitj-. The probable 

 cause of this is the latent tendency to revert back to 

 the original type race, which, being doubled by 

 uniting two races, predominates over all other ten- 

 dencies. The tedious process of arriving, in most 

 cases, at nothing better, if as good, as we had at 

 first, should lead to extreme caution in crossing dif- 

 ferent races. The attainment of some desirable end, 

 not likely to be reached by continuous breeding of 

 one race, such as the lengthening: of the tongue of 

 the honej'-bee, for instance, is most likely to be 

 reached by variation, produced by crossing several 

 races; and, once reached, can be permanently 

 fixed by in-and-in breeding. Animals have a won- 

 derful power of transmitting peculiarities of charac- 

 ter and form to their offspring. I once purchased a 

 heifer that had the habit of resting her head upon 

 stumps and logs for several minutes at a time. This 

 habit, so trifling and peculiar, was transmitted to 

 her offspring for several generations. In-and-ia 

 breeding would doubtless have fixed this character- 

 istic permanently. 



To arrive at uniformity in color, form, and dispo- 

 sition, in-and-in breeding is resorted to by the most 

 skillful breeders of stock in the countrj-. An animal 

 once mated to another not of the same race, is re- 

 jected as not fit to breed from, because rendered im- 

 pure by inoculating and fetal circulation. Great 

 skill, and refinement of judgment, are used in mat- 

 ing the animals, that the desired results maybe 

 reached. To overcome the bad effects of in-and-in 

 breeding, they resort to the following process: 



