May, 1908. 



ll^American Hm Journal 



danger exists. It is evident that the 

 rapid introduction of queens is but httle 

 understood by those who oppose this 

 system, and who find it necessary to 

 cage queens until they acquire the col- 

 ony odor. When bee-keepers learn that 

 odor has very little to do with success- 

 ful introduction there will be less loss 

 in introducing queens. It takes about 

 one minute to introduce a queen to any 

 colony, whether queenless or not. 



\ medium colony amounts to but lit- 

 tle. If you want honey you must have 

 the hive jammed full of bees, and the 

 two-queen system gets them without fail. 



If American bees would do as Profes- 

 sor Reepen describes in Gleanings, there 

 would be little use for the two-queen 

 system. He says, "If a strong colony 

 stands next to a weak one during a 

 heavy honev-flow, and succeeds in filling 

 its own hive, it happens now and then 

 that the strong colony will help to fill 

 the hive of the weak one in a most 

 pea,ceful way." 



I've been wondering ever since I first 

 read the article above quoted if those 

 bees boarded themselves and went home 

 at night; and if the Professor has any 

 queens to sell of that particular strain. 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



Improving the Honey-Bee 



BY C. D. BENTON. 



There is a difficult problem before 

 every bee-keeper who undertakes to im- 

 prove the honev-bee. Because many have 

 failed to accomplish their purpose in this 

 direction is no reason why we should 

 quit trying. I am impressed more and 

 more as we strive to lay any plan or 

 basis to build upon, that obstacles in the 

 lii^e of ignorance are the only stumbling- 

 blocks in our ways. I have come to the 

 conclusion that when we speak of pure 

 Italians. Carniolans, Caucasians or black, 

 that the word "pure'' is a misnomer. In 

 my experience as a cattle-breeder, that 

 not only must certain traits or types be 

 followed up for a series of years, but 

 a special selection of those traits or 

 types. It would be useless for the 

 breeder to accept every heifer or bull 

 in his flock for improvement. He must 

 make the selection that approaches the 

 ideal on both sides. 



\Vc have a recognized standard of 

 purity on poultry and cattle, but the poor 

 honey-bee we guess at, and every one 

 has his own standard. 



The word strain seems to me far more 

 fitting than purity. When we sum up 

 the apiaries by scores, who among us can 

 boast of the best strain, either in purity 

 or for business? We find it mostly in 

 the man and not the bee. A Jersey cow 

 gives richer milk no matter who owns 

 her, and hence more butter. But take 

 the best strain of bees under neglect, 

 and soon you have something else. Some 

 will argue that 'they are pure still, if 

 not allowed to mix with others. 



Please examine a colony of drones 

 from the best pure Italian queen pro- 

 curable, and follow them in a series of 

 years on the supersedure plan, then de- 

 cide if you have the same drones. The 

 best and purest cattle or chickens that 

 are produced vary with every speci- 



men. W'liat can you expect if all breeil 

 tOB-ether? 



Now, can't we first discover that all 

 these drones, like all the roosters or bulls, 

 if allowed tlu- freedom of the flock, you 

 spoil your ideal, almost to obliteration? 

 If you know the queen and the drone 

 with equal knowledge, can't you start on 

 an advance b^c? But some will say you 

 can not control or know your drones 

 the same. When (if that be true), 

 where, or when, are you going to make 

 the improvement or advance? The 

 queen only reproduces herself, therefore 

 your advantage must come from the 

 drone. It does not need thousands of 

 drones to breed a few queens ; the less 

 drones one can have to secure the prop- 

 er results the easier to control or make 

 the advance, and to illustrate I will give 

 a simple experiment carried on last 

 summer: 



Having 3 colonies for rearing-drones, 

 the first step I took was to open the hives 

 at the proper time and destroy all dwarf 

 drones by pinching them on the frames; 

 next time those showing the least gold- 

 en color ; the third time those that seem- 

 ed least active by touching them and 

 noticing their activity; the fourth and 

 last time, Aug. 25. I had one hive in 

 which the drones would commence to 

 fly between g and lo o'clock, while, the 

 other hives did not have any flying 

 drones before i o'clock. I killed all 

 drones in the last two mentioned hives, 

 and then opened up the hive containing 

 the early-flying drones, all which I de- 

 stroyed but about 100 sorted ones. I 

 was rearing queen-cells in the same hive, 

 and destroyed all but 9 of its best cells. 

 They hatched in due time, about Sept. 

 I, and all 9 queens mated, which proved 

 superior to any lot of cells mated through 

 the past season. 



I traced the improvement all through 

 the season, and more noticeable the last 

 lot mated. I also crossed the golden 

 drones on some vicious hybrids, and 

 perceived that the trait of gentleness 

 was transmitted in a marked degree. 



The prevalent idea is that drones fly 

 a number of miles in mating queens. As 

 I have always had an adverse opinion. 

 I tried a simple experiment with one 

 colony. My golden breeding queen is 

 located close to one corner of the house, 

 and was introduced into a 3-frame nu- 

 cleus of ill-tempered hybrids, and open- 

 ing the hive to procure eggs made them 

 so vicious that the children could not 

 play anywhere around the house without 

 being strung. So I devised the follow- 

 ing plan : 



Getting up early before the bees began 

 to fly, I carried them to a woods about 

 a mile away, and let them fly. At even- 

 ing I went to the corner of the house 

 and there w^ere about a quart of bees 

 which I destroyed with kerosene oil. I 

 discovered only 2 drones in the lot ; there 

 were more than 300 carried to the woods 

 that were all old flyers. Now it seems 

 to me the homing instinct seems to be 

 the limit of flying. (I use the word 

 Golden instead of yellow). 



I shall experiment more fully by us- 

 in ■ more colonies next season, as to the 

 drones' homing instinct. I happened to 

 notice 3 virgin queens on their wedding 

 flight, and especially one that made 3 

 trips before being mated, and not over 

 10 minutes in all her flights. 



We had a poor honey-llow here last 

 summer, so we had to resort to feeding 

 all the time to prevent losing drones. 

 When we have reached the goal, that 

 one can breed any trait or type with 

 certainty, then we can talk of pure bees, 

 of honey-gatherers, of non-swarmers, of 

 gentle ones ; also, and not least those 

 bees immune to foul brood. Then we 

 will smile with the Jersey milk maid 

 as she fills the jars with beautiful Jersey 

 butter. 



Akin, N. V. 



Keeping Qualities of Honey- 

 Vinegar 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



In my previous article, I have called 

 attention to the possibility of a putrid 

 fermentation taking place in honey- 

 water as it does in rotting apples or 

 grapes. Even if the vinegar has been 

 made, it may have gone through only 

 partial alcoholic and acetic fermentation, 

 if improperly handled, and a part of its 

 strength used up in putrid changes. 

 Ropiness, which shows in honey-vinegar 

 or wines, is only an evidence of un- 

 sound conditions. Your vinegar, if not 

 well made, may be in the condition of 

 cider made in part from rotten apples. 

 This will destroy its keeping qualities, 

 aside from injuring its flavor. The most 

 important requisite of good wine, in or- 

 der that it may improve with age, is 

 that it should be made from absolutely 

 sound and well-ripened grapes. Thus 

 the keeping qualities of vinegar will de- 

 pend very much on the material from 

 which it is formed as well as from the 

 manner in which it has been made. 



Honey-vinegar made out of a liquid 

 which contains decayed pollen, dead bees 

 or limbs of dead bees as well as other 

 foreign substances, is on a par with 

 cider made of the refuse apples picked 

 under the orchard trees, partly rotten 

 or wormy, or with wine made from un- 

 salable grapes, such as are picked by 

 birds and decayed or riddled by the 

 black-rot and which some inexperienced 

 persons ingenuously describe as "wine- 

 grapes." Nothing good can come from 

 such refuse. I am strongly of the opin- 

 ion that it is said that crab-apples make 

 the best cider, because such apples are 

 not culled before using. In the same 

 way, good honey will prove to make 

 better and more lasting vinegar than 

 refuse. 



In addition to possibly imperfect 

 methods in the production of vinegar 

 from honey or wines, there are diseases 

 of vinegar which have been described 

 at length by Pasteur, the great bac- 

 teriologist. The germ of acetification 

 which changes the alcoholic liquid into 

 vinegar is a fungus, the " mycoderma 

 ac'eti " which may be noticed on the 

 surface of a liquid undergoing acetic 

 fermentation, in the shape of white float- 

 ing "flowers." This germ continues to 

 develop, even after the liquid is entirely 

 sour, if it is continuously kept in con- 

 tact with the air, and the vinegar loses 

 its strength and becomes "flat." 



On the other hand, there forms, in 

 good vinegar, a microscopic worm, the 

 vinegar-eel, "anguillula aceti." It is a 

 snake-like worm, very active, and large 



