THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



143 



the bees in this upper hive body and 

 moving the brood chamber to another 

 stand. 



At that time I placed hives of empty 

 combs on quite a few of the best colonies 

 and they filled these upper combs solid 

 full of honey before the raspberry flow 

 started. 



At the commencement of the raspberry 

 flow I shook the bees in the brood cham- 

 ber upon the combs of honey on the old 

 stand. 



1 then placed some of the brood cham- 

 bers on the lightest hives in the yard, and 

 some of them I tiered up two or three 

 high on a new stand. I afterwards used 

 the bees that these tiered up colonies con- 

 tained to strengthen the shook swarms 

 as they began to get a little weak for the 

 best work in sections. In uniting the bees 

 I placed a super containing partly filled 

 sections on these large colonies, and m a 

 short time the super would be full of bees. 



I then carried the super, bees and all, and 

 set them on any hive I wished to strength- 

 en. Some of the tiered up colonies I re- 

 duced to mere neuclei in this way. 



1 don't know who first found out that 

 bees can be united with any colony, pro- 

 viding the super containing the bees also 

 contains some honey. I first found it out 

 in reading Danzebaker's Circular on the 

 production of comb honey. It often comes 

 very handy in strengthening a colony when 

 they seem to work too slow for best re- 

 sults. 



While there are a great many ways of 

 managing bees in the production of comb 

 honey, the above way is not just the 

 worst way of handling them. I think 

 that for best results, the colonieo should 

 be quite populous, and a good honey flow 

 on. before they are shook on the combs 

 of honey. 



DusHORE. Penn, May 4, 1910. 



Can Acquired Characteristics be Transmitted 

 Through Breeding? 



A. L, Du PRAY. 



HIKE a great many other bee-keep- 

 ers, 1 try to breed from my best 

 stock; but colonies that are by 

 far the best this year, 1 find very inferior 

 next year. I have often had colonies that, 

 early in the season, seemed to promise 

 great things. They were strong in bees, 

 and had lots of brood, yet the season 

 would pass along and they would give 

 little or no surplus. I remember having 

 such colonies, when, for some reason, 1 

 neglected to change their queens, and the 

 next season they would be among the 

 best colonies I would have. 



Now, 1 can understand how, if 1 wanted 

 fast horses, and had a mare that came 

 from stock that had been bred for speed 

 for many generations I might get some- 

 thing that would be superior to what I 

 already had. I would train my mare 



with great care and skill, and when I had 

 her at her best I would breed her to the 

 best stud, one that had been carefully 

 trained, and then I might get something 

 even superior to either sire or dam. But 

 these horses are domesticated, and by 

 using skill and kindness we may develop 

 all their inherited powers; and then, by 

 breeding them, get the benefit of their in- 

 herited, as well as their acquired powers; 

 in other words, they can, by careful train- 

 ing, acquire speed and then transmit both 

 their inherited and their acquired powers. 

 Now 1 go to my bees; 1 find my best 

 colonies are rustlers, and, of course, I 

 will breed from them. They go out, and, 

 perhaps, acquire; but then the thought 

 comes to me, how are they going to trans- 

 mit? Some one says, you will breed from 

 the queen of that best colony. Then I 



