392 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



lieve, nearlj' all will agree with me, that the 

 first essential to a No. 1 colony is a prolific 

 queen that can be relied upon to produce a host 

 of workers at just the time when most needed; 

 and without a prolific queen it matters not how 

 good the workers are. If there are not enough 

 of them we can not expect them to store a large 

 quantity of honey. Having a queen that will 

 place a strong force on the stage of action at 

 the time when most needed, we want that force 

 to get a move on them and roll in the honey 

 while their neighbors are hanging on the shady 

 side of the hive or coming the " washboard act" 

 around the entrance. So we see that, hav- 

 ing these two points combined, we come very 

 near having a perfect colony already. But let 

 us proceed to the third point. 



Having stored a large quantity of honey this 

 season we want them to do as well next year 

 again; and in order to attain to this end it is 

 essential that they be able to withstand the 

 severe winter weather without having to be 

 put into a feather bed. To those who winter 

 in cellars this point might be considered of 

 minor importance; but we do not all winter 

 our bees in cellars, and probably there are many 

 of us who never will; therefore we want colo- 

 nies that will pass the winter with the least 

 possible loss in numbers, and come out strong 

 and healthy in the spring. 



Fourth, gentleness. No one, I presume, will 

 deny that this is a desirable trait in bees, and 

 probably some would place it above some of the 

 points named above; but should a cross colony, 

 of strengtli equal to one of a gentle disposition, 

 gather, say, a third more honey in a given 

 time, I believe I would manage to get along 

 with the cross ones for the extra amount of 

 honey they store. 



Non-swarming, or the absence of a desire to 

 swarm, is a trait that the comb-honey producer 

 would probably place among the first qualities to 

 be desired; but so long as swarming comes with 

 prosperity and seasons of large crops of honey, 

 and non-swarming is accompanied by failures, 

 I should consider swarming the lesser of the two 

 evils, if swarming may be considered an evil. 



Sixth, comb-building. In order to produce a 

 first-class article of comb honey we want bees 

 that will go to work at it in a business-like 

 manner, building straight even combs, and 

 attaching them securely to the sections all 

 around. But as this also depends largely upon 

 the honey-flow and the condition of the colony 

 as well, it can hardly be con^idered as one of 

 the first essentials of a first-class colony; for, 

 in my experience, almost any fair to good colo- 

 ny will do good work in this line provided there 

 is a suilBcient flow of nectar for a number of 

 weeks at a time. As to the whiteness of the 

 cappings, it is merely a matter of fancy; for 

 the honey inside of a comb having a translucent 

 appearance is as good as and often better than 

 that having the whitest cappings. However, 



so long as the market demands white combs it 

 is-to the bee-keeper's interest to produce such. 



Longevity in queens is something to be desir- 

 ed, but is not of such great importance when we 

 consider that every practical bee-keeper can 

 rear an abundance of queens at very little 

 cost; yet a queen that will do good service for 

 three years is worth more than one that wears 

 out in one season, and we should certainly pre- 

 fer the former to the latter kind. As to longev- 

 ity in the workers, it seems no one has given 

 the matter much thought or study. No doubt 

 a worker that would live and do good work for 

 sixty days at the season when most needed 

 would be worth more than one that wears out 

 from overwork at from forty to forty-five days; 

 but probably it will be a long time before any 

 one sets up the claim that he has a strain of 

 bees in which the workers live to a greater age 

 than those of the ordinary kind. Probably 

 under the same circumstances — that is, having 

 the same care from the egg to the adult, doing 

 the same amount of work, having the same 

 protection from cold, etc., one worker will live 

 as long as another. 



Large size, in both queens and workers, is 

 something we admire; but who would care to 

 have them as large as the fellow said they grew 

 to be in Germany (as large as sheep) if they 

 gather no more than those of smaller size? Yet 

 the fact remains, that the larger bee may have 

 a proportionately longer tongue than the 

 smaller one, so tliat size should not be lost sight 

 of in breeding for the best. 



Color — there is my ninth and last point of 

 excellence. Won't some of the yellow-banders 

 be ready to jump on to me for placing color at 

 the tail end? Probably I should have made 

 ten points, while I came so near it; but I will 

 leave that for some other fellow to put on. 

 Had I mentioned ten points, color would cer- 

 tainly have been the tenth — not that I am op- 

 posed to beautiful bees, or that I should not 

 prefer them provided they were as good as their 

 more homely cousins; but really if we had a 

 strain of bees that would gather one thousand 

 pounds of A No. 1 honey per colony in a season, 

 would it matter whether they were brown, yel- 

 low, green, or red ? Are the fastest trotters the 

 handsomest of the horse kind ? Are the prize- 

 winning Jersey cows the prettiest cattle? or 

 have the breeders who bred them up to the 

 high standards of excellence bred for beauty, 

 or for the profit there was in them? If any 

 one can show that color or beauty should be 

 placed above any one of the other eight points 

 I have named, I am ready to give him a cooky; 

 and yet have not many bee-keepers from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to Texas, 

 been chasing after yellow bands, instead of 

 large crops of honey, for the last three or four 

 years? Nearly all breeders of the so-called 

 golden or five-banded bees claim that their 

 strain is bred for business; but who among them 



