July. Ililfi. 



American Hee Journal 



still better than those we have if such 

 can be olitained at all. 



How shall we proceed in selecting 

 our queens in view of improving our 

 stock ? Two ways or two systems pre- 

 sent themselves. One is to cross bees 

 of diflferent races in the hope that 

 among the crosses something far bettt-r 

 than either parent stock may eventually 

 be obtained. That is what Burbank has 

 done with plants. After a superior 

 plant has been obtained it may lie prop- 

 agated indefinitely by cuttings and 

 grafting. But that cannot be done 

 when crossing animals. 



We may gather a few lessons from 

 stock-breeding. The greater the differ- 

 ence between the parent stocks the 

 greater will be the variations be- 

 tween the crosses and their descend- 

 ants. Hence, to obtain something 

 new and superior, stocks as differ- 

 ent as possible should be secured. 

 Generally the first cross combines the 

 qualities that are the strongest and 

 best established in the parent stock. 

 For instance, if we cross a Jersey bull 

 with a cow of common, hardy stock, 

 we may have crosses that are good 

 milkers and at the same time possess 

 the hardiness and strength of the com- 

 mon stock. Occasionally some are 

 even more profitable than the pure 

 Jersey stock, as they can be fed suc- 

 cessfully on much cheaper food. But 

 we cannot perpetuate these qualities. 

 If we use these first crosses for breed- 

 ers, the next generations wi'l show all 

 sorts of variations and combinations, 

 some of the individuals exhibiting only 

 the defects of the parent stocks instead 

 of their qualities. And the same thing 

 would occur with bees. Yet by pre- 

 serving and breeding all the time from 

 the best, good results can be obtained. 



The second method would be to start 

 with the best stock obtainable and 

 breed exclusively from it, selecting 

 always th ■ best queens ; that is my 

 preference. An objection to it is that 

 when in-breeding or breeding from the 

 same stock indefinitely, there is a risk 

 of the stock deteriorating; the faculty 

 of reproduction being the one most 

 likely to suffer. In support of that opin- 

 ion, Darwin's theory has been quoted 

 that in the natural state in-breeding 

 is rather the exception, that animals 

 cross between far-related parents, and 

 that in the majority of cases plants are 

 fecundated by pollen brought from 

 other plants by insects or by the wind. 

 I don't think this argument has any 

 value. Inbreeding in some classes of 

 plants or animals is the rule instead of 

 the exception. But suppose the theory 

 always correct. It is easy to conceive 

 that a defect might be perpetuated by 

 in-breeding and eventually bring the 

 extinction of the race. But such need 

 not be the case when man is in con- 

 trol, because the defections individuals 

 can be eliminated. 



There are some cases in which close 

 in-breeding has brought in a weakness 

 of reproduction. But such cases exist 

 only in cattle and swine raised exclu- 

 sively for fattening purposes. Nothing 

 of the sort has ever occurred in cattle 

 bred for milk or in horses. The weak- 

 ness must be due to the excessive dis- 

 position to storing fat. This could be 

 expected if we consider that such a 

 disposition is in some respects a kind 

 of diseased condition. 



Another thing must be mentioned, 

 the influence of the sexes. In the 

 higher animals the concourse of both 

 sexes is needed to insure reproduc- 

 tion. The offspring partakes of the 

 characters of both. Many farmers dis- 

 pute that statement and insist that the 

 male has more influence than the 

 female. But the authorities say that if 

 the male of a pure race has more in- 

 fluence it is due, not to his sex, but to 

 the fact that his characteristics are 

 stronger, or to use the proper word, 

 better " fixed." What does the word 

 fixed mean ? Let us take the Jersey 

 cattle. From away back, only calves 

 showing the regular standard color 

 have been used for reproduction. So 

 that color has become fixed and now is 

 invariably reproduced. But if calves 

 of any and all colors had been used, 

 the color would not have become fixed, 

 and we would have Jersey cattle of all 

 colors. 



When we come to bees we are con- 

 fronted by altogether different condi- 

 tions. The drones are produced with- 

 out the concourse of the male element, 

 and therefore reproduce the character- 

 istics of their mothers. The male ele- 

 ment is strong enough to invariably 

 change the sex of the eggs, and for that 

 reason we might expect it to predomi- 

 nate in the workers, and it so happens. 

 When Doolittle began to keep Italian 

 bees, he had the only ones in his 

 locality. At the beginning what crosses 

 occurred were necessarily first crosses. 

 He tells us that the workers from a 

 black queen crossed to an Italian 

 drone showed the characteristic of the 

 Italian race to a very marked extent. 

 On the other hand, the hybrids from 

 an Italian queen mated to a black 

 drone possessed the traits of the black 

 bees, almost exclusively, some of them, 

 their temper for instance, even exag- 

 gerated. The experiments made by 

 Frank Benton, published in Gleanings 

 some eight or ten years ago, gave the 

 same results. 



Such being the case it is very impor- 

 tant to have drones of good stock. We 

 cannot control the individual drones, 

 and this is not necessary, for there is 

 probably very little difference between 

 the drones of the same colony. What 

 is necessary is to have plenty of drones 

 from our selected colonies and suppress 

 the others as completely as possible. 



We come back now to the all impor- 

 tant question: What constitutes a 

 good queen ? Evidently the one whose 

 workers gather the most honey or give 

 us the most surplus. It does not mat- 

 ter to what their superiority is due. It 

 may be long tongues, it may be longev- 

 ity, it may be something else. So far 

 as practical or rather financial results 

 are concerned, we want to breed from 

 queens whose colonies have given us 

 the best returns. 



Still a few other conditions have to 

 be met; gentleness for instance; a dis- 

 position to cling to the combs instead 

 of falling off at the least jar ; color for 

 those who care for it. I prefer the 

 lightest, but this is with me a question 

 of locality. All the bees around me are 

 black hybrids, or very dark Italians. 

 The difference of color enables me to 

 detect misraating easily. 



Two other considerations are very 

 important to the comb-honey producers 

 but not so much to the e.xtracted-honey 



men. One of them is the disposition 

 to swarm. It can be easily controlled 

 when working for extracted honey if 

 the directions given in l.ingstroth re- 

 vised are followed, including the use 

 of a hive of the proper size. But it is 

 not so with the comb-honey worker. 

 However, as the colonies which refrain 

 from swarming are usually those that 

 give the most surplus, the selection of 

 the best will automatically help some 

 in that direction. 



The other is the capping of the cells 

 white. A good deal depends upon the 

 flow, the temperature and other condi- 

 tions, but after all is considered, the 

 fact remains that some colonies cap 

 their honey much whiter than others. 

 That has some importance with the 

 comb-honey producers, for the honey 

 capped white outsells the other. Need- 

 less to say that for the extracted honey 

 apiarists, the color of the capping does 

 not matter at all. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



Drone and Worker Comb in a 

 Hive 



BY DR. C. C. MlLLtR. 



HOWEVER much we admire the 

 work of the bees under ordinary 

 conditions, their exhibition of skill 

 and intelligence under unusual condi- 

 tions demands still more our admira- 

 tion. 



A piece of honey comb is a sample 

 of exquisite workmanship, whether it 

 be worker-comb or drone-comb, but 

 the manner of changing from one to 

 the other is a feat of engineering to 

 which human skill can haidly attain. 

 How rapidly the change is made from 

 worker-cells to drone cells, and how 

 few irregular cells, or accommodation 

 cells, between one kind and the other! 



Bees build their combs so that there 

 is plenty of space between them for 

 them to pass over the two opposing 

 surfaces without any interference. 

 Between two worker-combs this space 

 will be about half an inch. But some- 

 times a meddling beekeeper interferes 

 with their arrangement, and two oppos- 

 ing surfaces are placed too close to- 

 gether. If this be done at a time when 

 the cells contain young larvae, the 

 brood goes on to completion, but the 

 bees are necessarily dwarfed. The bees, 

 however, take good care that this shall 

 not happen again. Rather than to have 

 the young bees dwarfed in both combs, 

 they decide that the youngsters in one 

 comb shall have plenty of room, and 

 they proceed deliberately to gnaw down 

 to the septum the cells of the opposing 

 side. 



The up to-date beekeeper considers 

 it the proper thing to suppress all or 

 nearly all drone comb in the brood- 

 nest, but he has not yet trained his 

 bees to understand that this is a desir- 

 able thing, and so instead of thinking 

 that a colony or two can rear drones 

 enough for the whole apiary, each col- 

 ony, at certain times proceeds, so far 

 as it is able, to rear as many drones as 

 it would if not another colony were 

 within a hundred miles. 



If drone-comb be lacking in the 

 brood-nest, the bees seem desperate in 



