THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



149 



should pay no attention to the selection 

 of drones. 



It has also been sufifgested that even 

 if drones are derived from partheno- 

 g^enetic eg^g^s, yet drones from a mis- 

 mated queen have some of the charac- 

 teristics of the male which mated with 

 her. Evidence for such a veiw does 

 not exist, and no work done carefully 

 enough to warrant consideration can 

 be produced. Like to.) many other 

 things in apiculture, the idea is formed 

 without a basis of fact which would 

 bear scientific scrutiny. 



One of the best methods yet found 

 for controlling the drone production in 

 an apiary is to requeen every year. 

 In this way the advantage of using 

 queens only during the most prolific 

 time of life is obtained, and, by allow- 

 ing only extra fine queens to live for a 

 longer time, no drones will be pro- 

 duced except from selected colonies, 

 since queens rarely produce drones 

 until about a year old under normal 

 circumstances 



Up to the present time the use of 

 crosses between races of bees beyond 

 the first cross has not been tried to anj' 

 extent on a firm basis because of the 

 excessive variability caused by cross- 

 ing. Certain first crosses have proven 

 desirable in certain localities, but the 

 great disadvantages in the use of them 

 is that no use can be made of them for 

 breeding purposes, except in drone pro- 

 duction. That certain combinations 

 might prove extremely valuable in suc- 



cessive crosses seems probable, but the 

 person who attempts anything of the 

 kind should have a very definite idea 

 of what he is after, and know rather 

 definitely how he is going to get it. 

 Any such attempt on the part of one 

 not versed in the principles of breeding 

 would naturally be utter folly. 



Some good work has been done by 

 some breeders in producingbetter stock, 

 beyond doubt, but it is a fallacy to be- 

 lieve that simply because a man raises 

 queen bees for sale that he is therefore 

 in a position to produce better queens 

 than the average honey-producer. 



By the careful keeping of records and 

 by selection of only the best queens for 

 breeding purposes, a honey producer 

 can in a few years bring his stock up 

 to greater uniformity and also keep 

 less colonies to obtain the same total 

 ivunual yield for an apiary, which 

 would mean a saving of considerable 

 time in manipul.ition By making the 

 queeng more uniforuily prolific a great 

 deal of the usual brood shifting would 

 be done away with. The work which 

 has been done by honey-producers is a 

 fact which can be proven by actual 

 cases .;iid is not mere 3' a theoretical 

 statement. When the time comes that 

 bee-keepers realize the possibilities in 

 breeding for themselves, some of the 

 very careless queen rearing which now 

 flourishes will close, and men in the 

 business will either produce better 

 stock or go out of business. 



Washington, D. C, Jan. 27, 1906. 



'eremi^ Practices Gatlheired uEp at 

 Be©°Heep©iPS^ Coi^veinitioiniSo 



F. GREINER. 



EVERY business man meets with 

 some losses. But if eventually iie 

 makes the business pay, notwithstand- 

 ing these losses, so far, so good. This, 

 however, does not signify that he 



should content himself with this state of 

 affairs. To the contrary, he should be 

 constantly stud^'ing the situation how 

 to avoid even the smallest losses. 

 I have been running out-apiaries at a 



