American ^oe Journal 



January, 191 1. 



rather peculiar line of goods, and must 

 be shown in a case by itself — as we 

 have demonstrated for many years — to 

 have any success with it. This is veri- 

 fied by the number that have gone into 

 the business in this city to make a for- 

 tune ; but who soon left for other lines 

 of trade. 



The above reasons, and many others 

 that could be given, show the advan- 

 tages of special display cases, and the 

 ne° essity of attractiveness for the re- 

 tailer of' this line of goods. 



Have your honey in the proper 

 shape, alwavs exchanging it when it 

 shows the least bit of granulation, and 

 every retailer in your city will handle 

 it, and you will find your market is 

 permanently established. (This is a 

 hint at what others can do along the 

 same line in other cities.) 



Denver, Colo. 



The Vitality of Honey-Bees 



V BY C. P. D.\D.\NT. 



Do modern methods, especially the 

 restricting of natural swarming and 

 the rearing of queens by artificial 

 means on a large scale, have a tendency 

 to weaken the race? In other words, 

 do the domesticated bees, as well as 

 other domesticated animals, losesome 

 of their vitality by domestication .'' 



At the first thought, I would answer, 

 positively. No, to both questions. But 

 this negative reply must be formulated 

 with some exceptions. To be well un- 

 derstood, we must consider the matter 

 under its difTerent aspects. 



First, let us propose a point upon 

 which we are all agreed. The greater 

 or less vitality of the race can be af- 

 fected only through the instrumentality 

 of the queens, or of the drones, since 

 thev alone are the reproducers. It is 

 therefore only in the choice and rear- 

 ing of these reproducers that we find 

 any occasion of ameliorating or de- 

 teriorating the race. 



That the distinctive characters of a 

 race mav be considerably changed 

 does not admit of a doubt. But the 

 changes are more or less rapid in the 

 inverse ratio of their importance. For 

 instance, the shade and the width of 

 the yellow rings upon the abdomen of 

 the Italian bees, or of the Cyprian 

 bees, mav be changed in a very few 

 generations. In this country, where 

 the Italians have for over half a cen- 

 tury been considered as superior to the 

 other races, some breeders have suc- 

 ceeded in producing much yellower 

 bees than the average of the Italians 

 in their native country. 



Knovi'ing that the yellow bands are 

 the most palpable evidence of the 

 purity of the worker-bees of that race, 

 the breeders for many years placed 

 their attenion most especially on color, 

 and kept breeding from their yellowest 

 queens. By this method a race of 

 "golden Italians" was promptly ob- 

 tained, in which the color was so 

 dominating an influence that the first 

 mismating with common or black bees 

 did not produce any black bees at all, 

 but onlv a slight decrease in the width 

 of the vellow rings. They were golden 

 to the tip. The excess in that line was 

 not secured without loss on other 

 sides. Not only did the in-and-in 



breeding for color decrease the quali- 

 ties of activity and prolificness so 

 marked in the ordinary Italians, but it 

 even produced degeneracy, queens that 

 would not lay, albinos and white- 

 headed drones totally blind. That is 

 why, within a few years, a reaction 

 took place, and the leather-colored 

 Italians were welcomed as an improve- 

 ment. This was due to the very plain 

 fact that the latter named had been 

 bred and selected for their boney-pro- 

 ducing qualities, and not at all for their 

 color. 



If, in order to secure a non-swarming 

 race of bees, we were to commit the 

 same fault, we would still more rapidly 

 deteriorate the race. Selecting as 

 breeders of our young queens the colo- 

 nies which did not swarm, without tak- 

 ing into consideration their activity, 

 their prolificness, and their honey-pro- 

 ducing qualities — which are, above all, 

 most important — we would naturally 

 secure our breeders from undesirable 

 colonies. Certainly they would swarm 

 less than the others, and this would be 

 due to the self-evident fact that they 

 were less active, less prolific. This 

 would cause a prompt and easily ex- 

 plained decrease in the usefulness of 

 the breed. 



The selection which, to my mind, 

 will be the slowest to produce positive 

 results, will be that of the most prolific 

 and most productive colonies, manipu- 

 lated in such a manner as not to in- 

 duce swarming. When we succeed in 

 avoiding natural swarming in some of 

 our best colonies, by minute and con- 

 stant attention, supplying them with 

 ample room, plentiful shade, abundant 

 ventilation, etc., we may be able to im- 

 prove the race by taking our breeders, 

 queens and drones from these same 

 colonies, but reared elsewhere. At the 

 same time we must avoid permitting 

 the lesser colonies to furnish any in- 

 crease. Every time that we will man- 

 age one of the best colonies so as to 

 prevent its swarming, and will allow 

 one of the poorer ones to cast a swarm, 

 we will make a step towards deteriora- 

 tion. The method to be followed in 

 swarm-prevention is to make an arti- 

 ficial rearing of queens from our most 

 desirable colonies, and use these 

 queens to supply the swarms or arti- 

 ficial divisions from our mediocre col- 

 onies. 



However, some one perhaps will say 

 that the production of a non-swarming 

 race of bees is a Utopia beyond our 

 reach. Perhaps not altogether, but as 

 the swarming tendency is the only 

 method by which the honey-bees have 

 perpetuated their kind, and repaired 

 losses caused by winter, diseases, and 

 enemies, it is not likely that for many 

 centuries we will be able to produce a 

 non-swarming race of highly active 

 bees. We can at best weaken slightly 

 this tendency by methods of manage- 

 ment, which would fail in their results 

 as soon as they were slightly neglected. 



But how about the artificial rearing 

 of queens ? Will this have a tendency 

 to weaken the race and decrease its 

 vitality ? I can not see why it should 

 have any bad influence if it is carried 

 on under favorable conditions. Here, 

 again, there is room for good or bad 

 administration. We must not only 

 select our breeders, queens and drones 



from the best colonies, but we must 

 rear them in the best possible condi- 

 tions of warmth and food. The larva 

 from which a queen is produced differs 

 in nothing from the larva that will pro- 

 duce a worker at the time of its hatch- 

 ing from the egg. Yet, the queen will 

 have a much larger abdomen, and a 

 larger body; she will have the desire 

 and ability to mate and to lay millions 

 of eggs. Her sting will be curved in- 

 stead of straight, and she will not be 

 provided with pollen-baskets. 



On the other hand, the worker will 

 be an absolute neuter; will have but an 

 abortive ovary, capable only in a few 

 instances of laying unfertilized eggs, 

 hatching only as drones ; she will be 

 active and aggressive instead of retir- 

 ing and home-staying, and will die in 

 the field. All of these differences in 

 structure and character will be ac- 

 quired by each of the two insects dur- 

 ing the 6 or 6K days of larval stage, 

 and will be due entirely to the size of 

 the hatching cell, and to the quality 

 and quantity of the food consumed dur- 

 ing this short time. We can not lay 

 too much stress on this fact. Our 

 queens, in order to have all the attri- 

 butes of queens, all of their prolificness, 

 must be reared in positively royal cir- 

 cumstances. 



I believe that the latest methods of 

 queen-rearing will respond to all the 

 requirements. The queens, however, 

 must be reared from the best blood, in 

 the midst of plenty. Neither food nor 

 bees must be lacking. I have seen 

 hundreds of queens reared by the Doo- 

 little method, in full colonies, as well 

 provided and housed in as large queen- 

 cells as with natural swarming. I can 

 see no reason why such queens would 

 not be as healthy and as prolific as the 

 best of naturally-bred queens. 



The advantages of the artificial 

 queen-rearing methods lie principally 

 in the fact that you can rear an un- 

 limited number of good queens from 

 your best colonies. 



One more thing must be guarded 

 against, and this is " in-and-in " breed- 

 ing. Consanguinity is fatal. That is 

 why, in the human race, marriage be- 

 tween closely-related persons is frown- 

 ed upon. That is why the queen is 

 directed by her instinct to seek her 

 mate in the fields, on the wing. That 

 is also why our fruit-blossoms need 

 the agency of insects to fertilize them 

 from the pollen of other blossoms. 

 Consanguinity must be avoided. We 

 should rear our queens and the bulk 

 of our drones from dift'erent mothers. 

 From time to time we should exchange 

 breeders with other bee-keepers, 

 equally as careful as ourselves in the 

 selection of the race. 



If the above conditions are carefully 

 fulfilled, it seems to me that we will be 

 sure to retain, and even increase, the 

 vitality of our honey-bees. 

 Hamilton, 111. 



What About Laying Workers ? 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent wishes me to tell 

 him through the columns of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal what I do with laying 

 workers. 



In the first place, allow me to say 



