April, 1913. 



American ^ee Journal 



are about ready to swarm, they often 

 will swarm out after being made, which 

 may result in their loss if the queens' 

 wings are not clipped, and the loss of 

 (|ueen through her not being able to 

 get back with the returning swarm, 

 where she is clipped. 



At the home yard comb foundation 

 or starters may be put in the frames at 

 the option of the apiarist. With the 

 foundation will come more expense, 

 while with the starters will come more 

 work ; for with the best management 

 there will be quite a little drone-comb 

 to cut out and replace with that of the 

 worker size of cells. For out-apiary 

 work I should lill the frames with 

 foundation, for with the necessary 

 journeys needed to get rid of this 

 drone-comb nuisance would come an 

 expense of time more than to make up 

 for that of the comb foundation. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Narking and Color Indications 

 of Bee-Parentage 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



So long and so absolutely have bee- 

 keepers depended upon the " three 

 bands " of the Italians as an indication 

 of purity, that it will not be easy to 

 convince them that such markings 

 alone are not a sufficient criterion. 



The development of the golden type 

 of Italians, and the subsequent intro- 

 duqtion of new types of black bees, 

 have served to reveal some rather un- 

 expected color-variations. Study of 

 patterns and color-shades of the Gold- 

 ens showed a breaking up of the typi- 

 cal " striping " or " banding " with which 

 we have for so long been familiar. 

 Blotched and spotted bees were numer- 

 ous. One strain under test developed 

 bees which had only the terminal seg- 

 ment of the abdomen black, the other 

 segments showing two shades of yel- 

 low bands, one a rich golden orange, 

 the other more nearly a lemon yellow. 

 The bees of one queen were most 

 beautiful to behold, and, until frost 

 shut them in, were the object of fre- 

 quent observation. 



On a bright and balmy day of the 

 following spring, several persons who 

 liad been studying them, went again to 

 the hive, when lo, not a single golden 



bee was to be seen. Every one was 

 striped black and yellow. Five stripes 

 were visible, the black having some- 

 what of a brown tinge. The hive was 

 the same, that was sure, but whence 

 those bees ? Inspection of the inside 

 revealed the original queen, and it also 

 showed every bee emerging from the 

 cells to be like the beautiful goldens of 

 the season before. The explanation is 

 believed to be this : 



The cold weather had caused the de- 

 posit of pigment in the cells underlying 

 the chitinous walls of the abdomen. 

 The variation of color in butterflies 

 and moths caused by cold experienced 

 in the chrysalis stage is well known, 

 and variations in color of mature in- 

 sects, as cited above, are also on record. 



By selection in breeding spotted pat- 

 terns were developed, and, evidently, 

 had it been worth while, such a type of 

 bee could have been "fi.xed." 



A daughter of a Banat queen was 

 mated to a Golden drone, and the 

 worker offspring were uniformly 

 marked "three-banded leather-colored 

 Italians." 



The queen would have passed for a 

 dark Italian, and the handsome, great 

 bees with their excellent working 

 qualities might easily have led any one 

 looking for a good breeding queen, 

 and unacquainted with her ancestry, to 

 have selected her as being most desir- 

 able. When her drones appeared, how- 

 ever, they were typical Banats, and re- 

 vealed the ancestry. 



Golden queens mated to Banat drones 

 gave the same uniformly banded work- 

 ers, though of a little lighter shade. 

 The lighter color of the queen, how- 

 ever, would have aroused suspicion as 

 to her purity, in the mind of any one 

 conversant with color inheritance. Of 

 course, when her drones appeared the 

 blood was apparent. 



Now, the results of the crosses of 

 these high-bred strains showed clearly 

 the danger of the current method of 

 selecting breeding queens. Color and 

 marking of the workers alone are not 

 to be depended upon. 



Queens were reared from the above- 

 mentioned Golden strain, and the cells 

 were caged and placed so as to subject 

 different cells to different temperatures. 

 Those in normal heat hatched promptly, 

 and the queens were typical in color. 

 Others less well cared for hatched 



later, and the queens were darker, and 

 so on down the scale until a condition 

 was reached where the cells failed to 

 hatch. A difference was noticed by 

 caging the cells at different periods 

 after sealing. The sooner after the 

 time the darker the queens, more cells 

 failing to hatch, and the greater the 

 need of having the cages in the very 

 heart of powerful colonies to get them 

 to hatch at all. 



Comparison of the young queens 

 reared under the different conditions 

 showed marked variations, the typical 

 goldens at one end, and at the other, 

 queens so dark that would be consid- 

 ered to be of an entirely different 

 stock. Under normal conditions, 

 queens from the stock used were re- 

 markably uniform. 



Bee-keepers have learned by experi- 

 ence to look upon '■ small, dark queens " 

 with disfavor, and rightly so, for small- 

 ness and darkness usually mean that 

 the queens was reared with a scanti- 

 ness of food, and in a temperature be- 

 low normal. 



Size alone does not necessarily indi- 

 cate inferiority. A certain queen gave 

 queen-offspring which varied most 

 markedly in size. Some were even 

 smaller than workers, yet were perfect 

 queens. These tiny queens never 

 mated, though other queens much 

 smaller than normal did, and they 

 proved excellent. One of the smallest 

 was the most remarkable egg-producer 

 the writer ever observed. This queen, 

 which could slip through excluder-zinc 

 more nimbly than a worker, would fill 

 with eggs one Langstroth comb, and 

 nearly a third of another, in 24 hours, 

 and every egg was placed in exactly 

 the same position. The combs, it should 

 be noted, were perfect ones, built on 

 wired foundation. 



With the tendency to sport in size 

 went a variation in work, and in ex- 

 citability (temper), and the queen pro- 

 ducing the bantams was killed. Her 

 workers and her drones varied in size, 

 though not so markedly as the queens. 

 Had time permitted, it would have been 

 interesting to have seen how small a 

 strain of bees could have been devel- 

 oped. Man can do about as he pleases 

 in bee-breeding, even though he can 

 not mate his queens in enclosures; but 

 this is another subject. 



Providence, R. I. 



No. 3— A Small Apiaky Wintered Oltdoors. 



No. 4— Apiary Comb-Cart Full of Combs. 



