A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to the Interests of Honey Producers 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Publisher. 



VOL. XXIII. 



FLINT. MICHIGAN, JULY 1, 1910. 



NO. 7 



Greatly Increasing the Honey Crop by 

 Selection in Breeding. 



GEO. B. HOWE. 



T N writing this 

 -^ article, it is 

 not to advertise 

 queens for sale; 

 as 1 am a honey 

 producer, and 

 can make more 

 money produc- 

 ing honey. It is 

 written simply 

 to help the bee 

 keeping world 

 to improve its bees, and to produce from 

 one-third to double the honey that it is 

 now producing. I know this can be done, 

 as 1 have done it. My best breeding 

 queens are not for sale at any price. I 

 have sold some queens for ten dollars, 

 taking them out of their colonies before 

 the honey flow, and I lost money every 

 time; for these colonies would make me 

 ten dollars' worth of honey, even in a 

 poor season, and some seasons three 

 times that. 1 cannot afford to rear 



queens for sale— seasons are too short 

 and unreliable. 



Let us compare the breeding of bees 

 to the way they are breeding animals 



and poultry. Do these successful breed- 

 ers use any old male that they may 

 have, or any female, as well? I think 

 you will find them selecting and breeding 

 from the best. 



I wish to say that I have just a fair 

 location. The soil is mostly sandy, with 

 clover, and some basswood, no buck- 

 wheat, a little goldenrod, so you can see, 

 you who are favored with a first-class 

 location, that you can easily get larger 

 yields than I could possibly get. 



DARK ITALIANS IN THE LEAD. 



It may be interesting to the readers of 

 the Review to know of my experiments, 

 and the results that led to my selection 

 of the dark, leather-colored Italian bees. 

 I know there are yet many good bee 

 keepers who said, and who still say, that 

 the hybrid is as good, or even better, than 

 the pure Italian. 1 bred the hybrid 

 Italian-black, and the Carniolan-ltalian 

 crosses for several years, and will admit 

 that I had some wonderful colonies of 

 these crosses; but, after breeding them 

 for years, I found that the three-banded 

 Italians would average at least one supe 



