THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



189 



very evenly; /. e., what seemed to be 

 true of one seemed to he true of all; show- 

 ing that the queen I had purchased had 

 come from stock bred for productiveness, 

 for many generations; and was capable 

 of transmitting her good qualities in a 

 very marked degree. 



To accomplish such improvements in 

 bees as I have outlined, the honey pro- 

 ducer should be able to rear all of his 

 queens from the most productive stocks 

 in his own yard, or from the best queens 

 to be purchased; and this involves the 

 necessary intelligence and skill for rear- 

 ing artificially, with ease and rapidity, all 

 his young queens from year to year. 



In closing, let me say that however it 

 mav be with others, I am satisfied that, 

 for myself, there is no direction in which 

 I can make such decided and paying im- 

 provements in the production of honey- 

 as in the rearing of all my queens from 

 the best and most productive stock to be 

 found in my own apiaries, or that can be 

 purchased for a reasonable sum of money. 



To this end I shall devote my energies, 

 as never before, that the present season 

 may show a large advance over the past 

 in improving my bees. 



MiDDLEBURY, Vt., May 9, 1900. 



M PRO V EM EXT OF BEES IN 

 THE DIRECTION OF NON- 

 _ SWARMING IS THE MOST 

 HOPEFUL FIELD. BY K. S. 

 MILES. 

 To the man who desires to make the 

 production of honey, more especially 

 comb honey, his sole business, there ap- 

 pears one serious drawback; one diffi- 

 culty that perhaps makes as much extra 

 labor as any one thing connected with 

 the business. I refer to the disposition 

 of bees to swarm. While it may not be 

 the most hopeful field of endeavor in bee- 

 keeping, I believe that tlie person who 

 succeeds in solving the swarming problem 



in working for comb honey, without 

 caging the queen or weakening the col- 

 ony, will be entitled to immortal fame, 

 at least among bee-keepers, and will be 

 bestowing a boon on bee-keepers equal to 

 the movable frame hive. With no swarm- 

 ing to watch for, the beeman could locate 

 several apiaries, and produce enough 

 honey with his onxx labor to bring him a 

 good income, even with honey selling 

 lower than it does now. 



Of course, we might produce extracted 

 honey, but were everybody to raise ex- 

 tracted there is no telling where the price 

 would go. I know by experience in sell- 

 ing hone}- that a great many people won't 

 use extracted honey at all. There is an 

 attraction about nice comb honey that 

 appeals to the eye; and what looks pleas- 

 ing, tastes good. 



I believe the most hopeful field for 

 commercial bee-keeping lies in the im- 

 provement of the stock, in the direction 

 of non-swarming. There are some strains 

 of bees not so much addicted to swarm- 

 ing as others. Take such a strain and 

 use every means available to pirevent 

 swarming, breeding always from colonies 

 that are not inclined to swarm, and I be- 

 lieve you will, in time, have a non-swarm- 

 ing strain of bees. Bees have, in times 

 past, been bred mostl\- from the worst 

 s warmers; it is the easiest way to get good 

 queens and increa.se for those who do not 

 make a business of bee-keeping; Vjut I 

 think the time is coming when those 

 making a business of bee-keeping will 

 reverse this practice, and breed from 

 those that dojiH swarm. Now, I will 

 have to plead guilty to the charge of 

 breeding from swarming colonies myself. 

 I was, like all beginners, anxious for in- 

 crease, and glad to have them swarm. I 

 soon saw, however, that the colonies that 

 did not swarm were a good deal the most 

 profitable in honey; so I have reared a 

 few queens from some that did not swarm, 

 and they were way ahead of the average 

 bees. The worst year for swarms that I 

 have .seen, about one-third of mine run 

 for comb honey did not swarm. Other 



