188 



June, 1913. 



American liee Jonrnal 



female parent, in determining the lay- 

 ing qualities of a pullet, is not the only, 

 and not even the dominant factor. 

 The male parent seems to play the im- 

 portant and really decisive role. This 

 has been brought out as a new fact by 

 the most thorough and scientific inves- 

 tigations made by the Maine Experi- 

 ment Station (a station that has done 

 so much for the poultry keeper). In 

 regard to the influence of good roos- 

 ters, Dr. Raymond Pearl, of that station, 

 says in Farm and Fireside: "How 

 does a hen ever get to be high layer if 

 she cannot inherit this quality from 

 her mother ? The answer is simple: 

 The high-laying hen gets the excess- 

 production factor, which is necessary 

 to make it a great producer, from its 

 sire. 



" Here, too, is evidently the clue to the 

 riddle which has puzzled so many who 

 have trap-nested their flocks, when 

 they find that some high-producing 

 hens have good laying daughters, while 

 other equally high producers have 

 daughters that are poor layers. It all 

 turns on the male used as the sire. De- 

 pending upon the hereditary constitu- 

 tion of the males used, it is to be ex- 

 pected that different proportions vary- 

 ing all the way from 100 percent to 

 none, of the daughters of a high-pro- 

 ducing hen will be themselves high 

 producers. This is proved by experi- 

 ments extending over a period of 

 years, and involving a large number of 

 birds, 'these results demonstrate the 

 importance of getting the proper kind 

 of males with respect to their heredi- 

 tary constitution if one is to make per- 

 manent and definite progress in breed- 

 ing for increased egg production. 



"The aim is to get males that are 

 'pure-bred' in regard to the excess 

 production factor. These can only 

 come from high producing mothers 

 bred with certain types of males. It is 

 of the utmost importance in any 

 scheme of breeding for production to 

 select high-laying females, but it is 

 not, as has been generally supposed, 

 because their daughters will be good 

 layers — this may or may not be the 

 case — but rather because only from 

 such mothers can males be obtained 

 which will ultimately transmit to their 

 daughters those qualities of high pro- 

 ductiveness which are the goal sought." 



No, the American Bee Journal has 

 no notion of starting a poultry depart- 

 ment, and the foregoing is not given 

 with any such purpose in view. It is 

 given because of its direct bearing 

 upon the business of bee-keeping, and 

 because it is believed that the impor- 

 tance of having the best of sires is just 

 as imperative among bees as it is 

 among fowls. 



Thousands of queens are bought and 

 introduced yearly for the sake of im- 

 provement in stock, but of all the bee- 

 keepers who thus try to get better 

 mothers for their bees, it is doubtful if 

 10 percent pay any attention to the 

 sires, if indeed the number reaches 

 one percent. 



.\t once the reply will be made, " Oh, 

 you can do nothing to control the 



mating of the queens." True, you can 

 do nothing directly; indirectly you 

 can do a great deal, especially in an 

 apiary of any considerable size. While 

 it is true that the queen must be left to 

 chance, each bee-keeper should do 

 what he can to increase his chances. 

 Suppose in an apiary of 100 colonies 10 

 are of choice stock, and that no atten- 

 tion is paid to the drones. A young 

 queen, upon her bridal trip, will stand 

 one chance in 10 of meeting a choice 

 drone. Suppose, however, that the 

 bee-keeper keeps down all drones e.x- 

 cept in the 10 choice colonies, either 

 by trapping, by shaving the heads ofT of 

 drone-brood, or by allowing no drone- 

 comb in the hives. In that case a 

 young queen will have 10 chances in 

 10 of meeting a choice drone. In other 

 words, she has 10 times as good a 



or allowing no drone comb, the choice 

 between the three should be with the 

 last method. Trapping drones is a 

 nuisance at best. Shaving their heads 

 is a dirty job. In both cases we have 

 been to the expense of all that nursing 

 and feeding which might have been 

 bestowed upon worker-brood. Allow- 

 ing no drone-comb, or only such as 

 will rear a few hundred instead of the 

 thousands which are generally bred, is 

 the proper thing to do. But do not rely 

 on simply removing the drone-cotnb. 

 You must also replace it with worker- 

 comb at once. Setting aside a few dry 

 combs containing both worker and 

 drone cells, you should use such parts 

 of those combs as contain worker- 

 cells, to fill the open spaces made by 

 removing drone-combs from the brood- 

 frames. This may be done at any 



View of the Flood at Cincinnati— Notice the Big Honey Sign of the Muth Co. 



chance as when no attention is paid to 

 the drones. 



Of course, drones from neighboring 

 colonies may interfere very materially, 

 but if the bee-keeper persists year after 

 year in improving his own stock, his 

 choice drones will constantly be meet- 

 ing young queensfrom those neighbor- 

 ing colonies, making a gradual but 

 constant improvement in surrounding 

 stock. 



It is pretty safe to venture the asser- 

 tion that if bee-keepers of this country 

 would take as much pains with their 

 drones as they do with their queens, 

 it would result in a million pounds in- 

 crease in the amount of honey annually 

 harvested. Like enough that is stating 

 it mildly. c. c. m. 



Now as to trapping drones, shaving 

 off their heads when in capped brood. 



time, but just before the harvest is the 

 easiest time. If we wait until the 

 combs are full of honey or the heat too 

 great, it becomes an unpleasant job. 



c. p. D. 



Texas In.speotiou Law 



The Texas State Entomologist, Mr. 

 Wilmon Newell, writes us that in the 

 passage of the inspection law, the 

 emergency clause was stricken out, so 

 that no inspection can be made before 

 July in that State. 



Swarming 



If you would avoid excessive swarm- 

 ing remember the following points: 



1. Have the hives well sheltered from 

 the sun if possible from morning until 

 night. 



2. Give plenty of ventilation. Bees 



