THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



235 



Points to be Considered in Breeding. 

 Of Much Importance. 



Longevity 



F. DUNDAS TODD. 



XT may seem rather absurd for one 

 who has raised only a few 

 queens to say anything on such 

 an important subject, but, nevertheless, 

 I have read much on the problem and 

 thought carefully over all the data I have 

 gathered together, trying to get hold of 

 some definite, basic principle that would 

 be all-inclusive. Recently, I have had 

 the experience of being associated a good 

 deal with a poultry expert, and in the 

 course of his lectures, he deals with 

 problems similar to those that interest 

 bee keepers. Some breed poultry for 

 points, some for flesh, others for egg 

 production. The latter quality is the one 

 commercially desirable in this part of the 

 world; so my friend is always urging the 

 farmers to secure a good egg laymg 

 strain; always insisting that the strain is 

 more important than the breed. He also 

 warns his hearers that the most prolific 

 egg layer may not necessarily be the 

 mother of hens like herself. He seems 

 to place more faith in selecting breeding 

 stock by shape rather than by egg pro- 

 duction. The opinion I formed was that, 

 in many respects, the breeding of poultry 

 is just as nebuluous as is that of bee 

 breeding. There is the want of an all- 

 inclusive principle. 



Some apiarists breed from the best 

 queen by honey production; others from 

 the queen whose daughters show the 

 best results; and this looks as if the 

 latter condition should cover almost 

 everything, but, in my short experience, 

 I have found, not infrequently, that the 

 colony giving the greatest honey returns 

 in one year had a great struggle to 

 exist the following spring. 



Another writer m your own paper says 

 he finds it all right to breed from a queen 

 whose brood is uniformly laid and evenly 

 capped, indicating that she and her 

 progeny are methodical— have good busi- 



ness habits. 1 have had no chance to 

 experiment along this line, so can say 

 nothing as to facts, but, on general 

 principles. I can not see anything con- 

 clusive. I can not controvert; will not 

 even turn cold water on the idea, because 

 the scientific world has long ago learned 

 that no fact is too trivial for observation; 

 as the secret of a great principle may be 

 solved from the knowledge of a very 

 small fact. 



As my colonies increase in numbers, 

 my records are becoming more interest- 

 ing; and, let me say, more voluminous, as 

 regards the individual colonies. Then, 

 as a new idea strikes me, 1 sit down with 

 the hive book and a few sheets of clean 

 paper, and spend many a pleasant even- 

 ing hour working out percentages from 

 the data recorded. The results are more 

 than interesting; they are fascinating. 



THE DEATH-RATE IN WINTER IS A POINTER 



In the middle of February, I changed 

 bottom boards to give the bees clean, 

 sanitary conditions, and was much im- 

 pressed with the difference in the 

 quantity of dead bees on the floor. I 

 jotted down the condition roughly, under 

 the headings of "many" and "few" dead. 

 Now, at the end of May, I have just gone 

 over my book to compare results, and I 

 find that out of those with "few" dead in 

 February, 63 per cent, are strong; 9 per 

 cent, are fair; 28 per cent, tried to super- 

 sede the queens, while none are dead. 

 On the other hand, of those with "many" 

 dead in February, 1 7 per cent, are strong 

 today; \7 per cent, fair; 33 per cent, 

 tried to supersede and 33 per cent, are 

 dead. Broadly speaking, 75 per cent, of 

 those with few dead in February are now 

 in shape for the honey flow, while only 

 34 per cent, of those that had many 

 dead, are now ready for business. The 

 wintering conditions were as uniform as 

 I could make them. 



