THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



to develop a strain of bees with as uni- 

 from characteristics as can be procured 

 from any reliable queen breeder at a 

 nominal cost. Let no man delude him- 

 self with the idea that he ran establish 

 uniform traits by miscellaneous selec- 

 tion and cross breeding. 



CAN THE S\V.\RMiNG INSTINCT BE 

 ELIMINATED? 



Concerning the elimination of the 

 swarming instinct of bees by selection 

 in breeding, that is quite a different 

 proposition; it is one thing to develop, 

 and establish by selection in breeding, 

 traits that already exist by nature, and 

 quite another thing to eliminate an in- 

 stinct that is a part of the 

 very nature of bees, and from which 

 no man can separate them. The laws 

 that govern the instinct of animals are 

 as fixed and immutable as the universe 

 and must so remain to the end of time. 

 It is claimed that when man learned to 

 hatch eggs by artificial methods he was 

 soon able to develop non-sitting strains 

 of fowls. However such erroneous ideas 

 as these usually emanate from those 

 whose knowledge of poultry is very 

 limited. We hear a great deal about 

 non-swarming strains of bees and non- 

 sitting strains of fowls, but who can 

 truthfully say that he ever saw a speci- 

 men of either? The truth of the mat- 

 ter is that there never was such a thing 

 as a non-swarming strain of bees and it 

 is safe to assume that there never will 

 be. It is claimed that the leghorn fowl 

 by reason of selection in breeding for 

 many years have finally become non- 

 sitters, but the real facts in the case 



are that leghorns are no more non- 

 sitters today than when they were first 

 taken from their native jungles hun- 

 dreds of years ago. 



After all, what would we gain by 

 breeding out an impulse that is the 

 fountain head of the energy and ex- 

 istence of bees. Without the swarming 

 instinct of bees they would be of little 

 value. The same all wise Creator who 

 gave to man all the lower animals, en- 

 dowing them with instinct only, en- 

 dowed man with reason, that he might 

 have dominion over them, not by brute 

 force and cruelty, nor yet by robbing 

 them of a vital part of their very na- 

 ture and means of existence, but by 

 kindness and gentleness, through the 

 wonder working power of reason over 

 instinct. It is this power when prop- 

 erly applied, that will give us absolute 

 and complete control of the swarming 

 instinct of bees. Right here the ques- 

 tion arises, which do we need most, im- 

 proved bees, or improved methods, and 

 improved bee-keepers? 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



[Since taking hold of the Review, it 

 has been my pleasure to read a consid- 

 erable quantity of manuscript with ref- 

 erence to queen rearing, and the im- 

 provement of stock, and one point that 

 I notice practically all experienced writ- 

 ers seem to agree on, and one which 

 would be easily overlooked by the inex- 

 perienced, is that great care must be 

 taken in the introduction of new blood 

 into the apiary. If one has a good 

 strain of bees, while new blood should 

 be introduced occasionally, yet care must 

 be taken to have it possess the same 

 characteristics as the strain you are de- 

 veloping. This is an important point 

 and is emphasized in the above article.] 



Most Bee Keepers Do Not Have Enough To Do. 



GEO. S. DEMUTH 



■ ™j| N the November Review, ^Ir. Fa- much more than the gain in the better 



Jl cey tells about a bee-keeper who price for the honey. 



neglected his 300 colonies of bees I do not mean to criticize Mr. Facey, 



while selling his honey, thereby losing though perhaps he sees the matter 



