7SS 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 1"> 



on all bees by this i)rocess of natural selec- 

 tion. 



^Another peculiarity of bees is that they 

 run upward when the sides of the hive are 

 drummed. I explain this by supposing 

 that, when earthquakes were common, the 

 bees that did not run upward when their 

 combs commenced to tremble were involved 

 in the general ruin when the combs collaps- 

 ed. Those that ran upward lived to restart 

 the hive with their own honey and that of 

 the less fortunate stocks. The running hab- 

 it would be transmitted. The other stocks, 

 being dead, would transmit no habits. 



It is frequently stated that the large num- 

 ber of drones reared in a hive is for the pur- 

 pose of facilitating the chances of a queen 

 in meeting one of them when she takes her 

 wedding-flight. LTndoubtedly this is a re- 

 sult of ihe large number; but as they are 

 often supplied by a colony different from 

 that from which the queen issues, I think 

 that natural selection furnishes a far more 

 satisfactory explanation. Every hive is the 

 product of a drone and a queen-bee. The 

 stock that supplies the queen must alsosup- 

 \)\y twenty thousand bees as an escort. The 

 drone with his thousand or more brothers 

 required far less effort to produce. Natural 

 selection, therefore, favors the drone-supply- 

 ing colony, and the stock that rears the 

 greatest number of drones has the best 

 chance of being represented in a large num- 

 ber of hives the following season. Heredity 

 would perpetuate the appearance of the 

 drone-rearing instinct in these colonies and 

 their descendants, and in a few generations 

 it would be general. 



Gradual changeof climate or the invasion 

 of more temperate regions by swarms of 

 bees would result in the modification of the 

 swarming instinct. Excessive swarming 

 and honey surplus could not exist together, 

 and the gradually lengthening winters would 

 kill off all stocks that did not store in excess 

 of their immediate wants. 



With regard to the modification of the 

 swarming instinct, Dzierzon was of the opin- 

 ion that the swarming habits of the heath 

 bee of Germany were due to the system of 

 management. This is understood to mean 

 that, by inciting bees to swarm, they ac- 

 quire the habit and transmit it to future 

 generations. I very much doubt if this is 

 true, and should prefer to explain it by sug- 

 gesting that, where swarming is favored, 

 the increase is greatest of those stocks with 

 marked swarming propensities, and that 

 this results eventually in the swamping of 

 the non-swarming strains. If we breed from 

 those strains with the least tendency to 

 swarm, this habit will undoubtedly become 

 modified. Any attempt to alter it by arti- 

 ficially preventing it for several generations 

 is bound to meet with failure. The inheri- 

 tance of an acquired characteristic is doubt- 

 ful in any case, and in bees the heredity is 

 vested in the queen and the drones, while 

 checks to swarming mostly influence the 

 workers who leave no descendants. 



Surprise is expressed at times that bees 



gather honey in excess of their winter re- 

 quirements. The last four seasons in this 

 part of England supply the explanation. 

 The honey surplus for the four years is only i| 

 that of one good year. Wild stocks have ^ 

 mostly died out; and where a stock has sur- 

 vived without a bee-keeper's aid it is owing 

 to the quite necessary habit of storing an 

 excess in years of plenty. 



Similar climatic conditions are probably 

 responsible for the prevalence of the robbing 

 instinct. It is undoubtedly better for the 

 race that one stock should live through the 

 winter at the expense of the four or five that 

 they have "cleaned out" than that all 

 should perish before the spring comes around 

 again. 



Like any other animals bred by man, bees 

 are capable of being changed. To do so, 

 however, it is necessary to start to work in 

 the right way. Mr. Holtermann asks how 

 many generations it will take to te>ich bees 

 to dread smoke. If bees had not dreaded 

 smoke, probably there would have been no 

 bees at the present day. They would have 

 been one of the species of inset^ts that have 

 died out. If we came across their fossil re- 

 mains we should send them to the museums, 

 and that would be the end of the matter. 

 Having never known them we should never 

 miss them. Mr. Pruitt refers to the contin- 

 uance of lambs' tails as a clinching argu- 

 ment against the possibility of modifying 

 the swarming habit. But have sheep-breed- 

 ers ever tried to produce a bobtailed lamb? 

 If there existed a demand for such an arti- 

 cle I feel sure it would be supplied. Tailless 

 sheep are Jio more unthinkable than horn- 

 less sheep. If there was any money in it, a 

 chance variation in the length of a lamb's 

 tail would very soon become the character- 

 istic of a breeu. 



We could never teach an Italian queen to 

 breed five-banded bees; but by taking ad- 

 vantage of a chanee variation they have 

 been produced. Nevertheless, we can not 

 foretell the time it would take to repeat the 

 experiments with another hive of bees. A 

 scientific breeder in England once desired 

 to change a breed of pigeons. The new va- 

 riety was to be like the old in every respect 

 with the exception of the color of the head. 

 This was to be white instead of black. The 

 fancier was twenty years accomplishing his 

 task. Most of the time was spent in wait- 

 ing for a white feather to appear in the head 

 plumage. After that arrived his task was 

 comparatively easy. It is just the same 

 with bees. If we requeen from desirable 

 stocks we perpetuate their qualities. If no 

 stock has the desired quality we can only 

 wait until the quality, or some modiacation 

 of it, appears in a particular hive. 



Until we go thoroughly into the question 

 of natural selection and disease, we shall 

 never understand the foul-brood problem 

 and the apparently contradictory statements 

 that are made as to immunity. The sub- 

 ject, however, is too big to tackle at the end 

 of this paper. 



Albury, Herts., England. 



