162 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



HANDSOME BEES OR LOIS OF HONEY. 



WHICH ARE WE STRIVING FOR? 



FRIEND ROOT: — Do you think beauty of color 

 in queens or bees a criterion by which we may 

 judge of their real worth? I have had a num- 

 ber of queens from different apiarists, some bred 

 from imported, and some from home-bred mothers. 

 Some of these queens were real beauties, large and 

 yellow, and some were quite dark. I used to think 

 beauty a mark of worth, and of purity of stock, and 

 have bred accordingly. 



Now permit me to stand up in the class and re- 

 cite. My experience is, the yellowest and handsom- 

 est bees are, as a general rule, not the best honey- 

 gatherers. The largest, yellowest, and handsomest 

 queen I ever saw, I bought nearly two years ago, 

 and paid a big price for her too. The worker proge- 

 ny of this queen are, like their mother, large 

 and yellow. They show three broader bands than 

 I have ever before seen. Would you like this colo- 

 ny of bees? They are beauties. No; you don't 

 want them; they are actually paupers; and it is not 

 altogether the fault of the queen either. I have 

 built this colony up good and strong with bees and 

 capped brood from other colonies, and, for a while, 

 they would do well, and the queen would deposit an 

 abundance of eggs; but, after a while, when the 

 bees I had given them had died off, this colony would 

 dwindle down until there would be hardly enough 

 left to guard their entrance. What is the matter 

 with these bees? I believe they are indolent, actu- 

 ally lazy. I have had other beautiful " golden Ital- 

 ians " that would store no surplus, while other colo- 

 nies of a darker strain, no stronger in numbers, 

 would store an abundance. 



Some colonies are more industrious than others. 

 Can anyone tell the reason why? I believe this 

 breeding for beauty of color, regardless of other 

 good qualities, will depreciate rather than improve 

 the real worth of the bees. 



I have another remarkable colony of bees. The 

 queen i9 the daughter of an imported mother, and 

 is now nearly three years old. Her bees show the 

 requisite three bands and are of uniform color; but 

 they are a little dark, and don't show the three 

 bands as distinctly as do lighter colored bees. This 

 colony is always strong, and always has abundant 

 stores even in the driest times. They built combs and 

 stored honey which I used to strengthen weak colo- 

 nies during the drouth of last summer, and gave me 

 two other colonies by artificial swarming, while oth- 

 er colonies, as strong as they, did nothing. This 

 colony gave me 82 lb. of honey in eleven days, while 

 other colonies, equally strong, gave me not half that 

 amount. There is nothing remarkable about the 

 mother of this colony, only she is a little longer and 

 more slender than other queens are. Such queens 

 as this one I shall breed from, be they light or be 

 they dark. 



The Italian bee may be improved by careful breed- 

 ing as well as other stock; but I am of the opinion 

 that there can be but little improvement in our 

 stock by selecting only choice mothers, and allow- 

 ing th< ir daughters to mate with just any kind of 

 drone they chance to meet. 



I bred a few queens last year away from home, and 

 quite away from other bees, and some of the queens 

 equal my expectations. I shall breed all my queens 

 in the same way this year. I will select, to breed 

 from, queens that are very proliao, that produce 



bees which show the three bands, that are of uni- 

 form color, and superior honey-gatherers and comb- 

 builders. I will select drones to mate with my 

 young queens. The mother of my drones shall pos- 

 sess the same points of excellence that I require of 

 the mother of my queexs. My drones shall be well 

 marked. My drones and young queens shall not bo 

 of the same blood. I will get some cards of comb con- 

 taining my select drone brood, take them to my 

 queen-breeding apiary, and let them be hatched there. 

 Last season's experience has proved to my satisfac- 

 tion that the value of our bees as honey-storers may 

 be greatly improved. Mr. Root, do you not think our 

 bees can be improved by breeding in this way? 

 Calhoun, 111., Feb. 17, 1880. M. J. Harris. 



I decidedly believe, friend II., in rearing 

 bees for honey, and paying little or no atten- 

 tion to color. If black bees gave more hon- 

 ey than yellow ones, I would assuredly get 

 the blackest stock I could find. Of course, 

 we can afford to give something for gentle- 

 ness, and such like traits ; but few of us, at 

 most, can afford to waste our time in rearing 

 bees simply because of their prettiness. You 

 know I have always been much in favor of 

 having each apiarist test his queens himself. 

 Well, I am more than ever in favor of hav- 

 ing each one of you rear and test your own 

 queens now. After having one good Italian 

 queen in his apiary, one can select, every 

 season, the best honey-gathering stock to 

 rear queens from, doing the same with 

 drones, as far as may be. If his neighbor 

 succeeds in getting a strain that beats his 

 own, he can get a queen or two from him. of 

 course, but I doubt about its being necessa- 

 ry to ship queens back and forth clear across 

 the continent so much as w r e have been do- 

 ing for a few years back. 



FRIEND DOOLITTLE NOT YET IN THE 

 SHADE AFTER ALL,. 



WISH you to turn to page 109, March number of 



Gleanings, and then turn to page 263, October 



No., Gleanings for 1877, and see if you did just 



right in putting " Even Doolitlle in the Shade," as 



the beading of J. W. Eckman's article. If you think 



you did not, T shall expect amends made in April No. 



Borodino, N. Y., Mar. 10, 1880. G. M. Doolittle. 



I beg pardon, friend D., for my small-cap 

 heading. It was a random speech, and more 

 in pleasantry than anything else, and I 

 should rather have said, "Doolittle almost 

 in the shade." I was much pleased, as I sup- 

 pose we all were, to find that Texas had 

 made at least one report that would com- 

 pare favorably with almost any state in the 

 Union, thus upsetting the grow'iner idea that 

 the South could not equal the North and 

 California. I presume friend E. had not 

 seen your 1877 report, friend D., as he al- 

 ludes to the one of 1878. The great point to 

 encourage us in all these reports, seems to 

 be that God has. at least in bee-culture, so 

 ordered it that we may feel our chances are 

 pretty nearly equal, no matter where we are 

 located. A' bountiful flow of honey may 

 come in York State, or it may come in Tex- 

 as, or even right at each one of your own 

 homes, my friends, if you are faithful, and 

 ready to take care of it when God does send 

 it. 



