Tb 



e (4)ee- 



\eepeps' Ke\^ie6j. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tlqe Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$1.00 A YEAR. 



W. Z. HDTCHiNSON, Ediior and Proprietor. 



VOL, X, FLINT. MICHIGAN, JAN. 10, 1897, NO I. 



( Mr. R. L Taylor, who hab so ably filled this 

 page for so many months, was unable to send in 

 any report this month. He was not well, and 

 when he had recovered a little, there was so 

 much to do to get ready to leave home to en- 

 gage in Institute work, tha' ho could not write 

 for this month, so I have put another veteran, 

 Mr. L. A. Aspinwall, in his place —Ed Review.) 



The Mating of Queens— How it May be 

 Controlled. 



I>. A. ASPINWALL. 



1 N most lines of 

 1 progress, w e 

 find, with the ad- 

 vantage gained a 

 corresponding evil 

 presents itself. 

 This became ap- 

 parent upon the 

 introduction of im- 

 proved bees, nota- 

 bly the Italians. 

 N o t w i t hstanding 

 their recognized 

 superiority over the black or brown bees, 

 the difiSculty of maintaining them in their 

 parity has been and is still a great 

 impediment to profitable bee-keeping: 

 so much so, that many have have aban- 

 doned them, accepting as a natural result, 

 ' — the hybrids, or, more properly speaking, a 

 ~ ' mongrel or cross with the blacks. 

 ^ To maintain an Italian apiary, unless all 

 other varieties are removed for several 

 miles, requires constant vigilance as well as 



the exercise of scrutinizing judgement. Not 

 infrequently, a few colonies of black bees 

 in the neighborhood of an Italian apiary, 

 will, after two or three years, become dom- 

 inant in Italian blood. The owners of 

 such, being unlettered in bee-culture, often 

 express themselves as possessing Italian 

 stock. 



.\t this juncture the difficulty of maintain- 

 ing absolute purity is much increased. As 

 an illustration, we have a queen which be- 

 comes mated with a drone from this mon- 

 grel stock, which is possibly three-quarters 

 or seven-eighths Italian, oi o-ie whicti shows 

 but a trace of dark blood. As a result, 

 her progeny is well-marked, and to the 

 casual observer would be accepted as pure. 

 But, upon close examination, possibly one 

 bee in fifty, or a hundred, will show but a 

 slight proportion of yellow upon the third 

 abdominal ring. Should the bee-keeper 

 fail to recognize this taint of dark blood in 

 the young queen's progeny; a succeeding 

 generation would bring drones into requisi- 

 tion which would contaminate the Italian 

 stock to a great extent, yet almost imper- 

 ceptibly: especially if the law of atavism, (a 

 recurrence to the original type) is display- 

 ed on the Italian side. According to my 

 judgment there i? much itnpurity of this 

 kind throughout the laud. 



I had an illustration quite similar the 

 past season. A young queen proved to be 

 mismated. After destroying her, I gave the 

 nucleus colony a cell which, after a time, I 

 found was destroyed. In the meantime 



