172 



THE BEE-KEEPERS" REVIEW 



sirable colonies. This can be simply 

 done by placing a strip of zinc queen 

 excluder over the entrance about the 

 middle of the afternoon of a bright day 

 and leaving it on till the next morning. 

 The drones that are out of the hive 

 will be unable to get back and will 

 perish in the night. It may be neces- 

 sary to repeat this treatment for two 

 or three days to kill them all. 



INTRODUCE NEW BLOOD. 



In connection with this, it should not 

 be omitted to introduce new blood by 

 requeening at least one-tenth of the 

 apiary each year with queens from the 

 best breeder olitainable. No investment 

 will pay better. A seventy-five cent 

 queen may make a ditYerence of five 

 dollars' worth of honey. 



This new blood can be used to breed 

 from, but caution should be used in 

 breeding from any stock before it has 

 proved its superiority. A year or two 

 ago I purchased a single queen from 

 probably the best known breeder of 

 Italians in the United States, and one 

 who has been much praised by the edi- 

 tor of this journal. She was wintered 

 in a very cold cellar in a five-frame 

 nucleus, but the bees came out about as 

 strong as they went in, and during the 

 spring they built up into a strong ten- 

 frame colony. They were boiling over 

 at the opening of the honey-flow, which 

 was a fairly good one. I never saw 

 handsomer or gentler Italians, and the 

 queen kept the hive full of brood, but 

 they would not work. They did not 

 store a drop of honey in the extracting 

 super, and the brood-chamber actually 



seemed to contain less honey at the 

 end of the honey-flow than at the be- 

 ginning. 



Before this result became apparent, 

 and hypnotized by the breeder's reputa- 

 tion, I reared about twenty queens from 

 this mother. Afterwards I was sorry 

 that I had been so premature, though 

 some of her daughters showed them- 

 selves energetic workers on buckwheat 

 that fall. 



This is not intended as a slur on 

 that particular breeder. Indeed, I in- 

 tend ordering a dozen queens from him 

 this spring. But it simply shows how 

 individuals of the best strains may 

 prove worthless in some qualities. It 

 needs at least half a dozen to make a 

 test. 



MATING STATIONS. 



In Switzerland experiment stations 

 are maintained where virgins can he 

 mailed to be fertilized in an apiary of 

 select drones. It would seem that the 

 United States is rich enough to provide 

 some such stations, and a request by the 

 National Association might secure it. 



If not, surely a number of members 

 of the association might be found who 

 would take sufficient interest in the mat- 

 ter to subscribe a small sum each, and 

 establish a mating station on some iso- 

 lated point, where a small apiary could 

 be kept consisting of colonies bred 

 from queens that showed not less than 

 a hundred and fifty pound record. Two 

 or three years of selective breeding in 

 such a yard should work wonders. 



Stouffville, Ontario, Can., Jan. 31st, 

 1911. 



A Poor Testimonial for the Caucasians. 



F. A. STROHSCHEIN. 



'"J| SEND a photograph showing 

 Jl how a Caucasian colony contract- 

 ed a ^-inch entrance with propo- 

 lis. They finished the entire entrance 

 after the photo was taken, leaving 



small openings all along to go between 

 the frame end-bars. 



These bees do not work with as much 

 energy, it seems, in gathering honey as 

 they do in gathering propolis. 



