September, 1912. 



American ~Bae Journal 



producing qualities of our breeding- 

 stock. 



In a limited way the difficulty has 

 been overcome by a process of color 

 selection and restricted mating in Rip- 

 ple Court .\piary, near Dover, England, 

 where a new breed, called " British 

 Goldens," has been developed, and has 

 now reached its ninth generation. 

 Briefly the process is as follows : 



The native bee of Britain is black. It 

 is true Italians are introduced now and 

 then, but they are soon absorbed by 

 the native bee, and bees showing pro- 

 nounced yellow bands are rare. In 

 1901 to 1'.'03 a cross between America's 

 goldens and English blacks was made, 

 and by breeding from the yellower of 

 the hybrids that appeared to be par- 

 ticularly good honey-gatherers, a new 

 golden bee was produced. Year after 

 year the golden bee is bred in i^s purity, 

 and improvement is effected by allow- 

 ing only the best colonies (4 to 6 out 

 oi- 10 or .50) to produce queens and 

 drones, .•'is only black bees are kept 

 by neighboring bee-keepers, it is easy 

 to distinguish the mismated queens by 

 their worker offspring, which are in- 

 termediate colored (,/. <•., resembling 3- 

 banded Italians). 



The work is aided by the fact that no 

 bees are kept within half a mile of Rip- 

 ple Court .•\piary, and also by the fol- 

 lowing interesting condition: The 

 apiary is situated in a cool and wind- 

 swept spot in the southeast corner of 

 England, only 2 miles from the sea, 

 and the queens are often compelled 

 through stress of weather to mate near 

 home. Careful analyses (fully reported 

 in the British Bee Journal of Dec. \K 

 1900) were made of the coloration of 

 the workers resulting from almost all 

 the matings that took place during the 

 two seasons of 1008 and 1000, and it was 

 found that those that took place in low 

 temperature and wind (t)2 to 64 degrees 

 in still weather, and 01 to 68 degrees 

 with wind) included a much larger 

 proportion of goldens than those that 

 took place under more favorable con- 

 ditions (aboutorover 70 degrees). An- 

 other important factor in getting pure 

 matings v/as found to be lateness in 

 the season. The proportion of all 

 goldens from matings in August was 

 large, and in September still larger. 

 (Of course, drones of selected parent- 

 age were bred late in great numbers, 

 and kept alive as long as possible in 

 strong colonies containing unmated 

 queens, and constantly fed.) Mating 

 extra early in the season was of no ad- 

 vantage. On the contrary, it was found 

 that in the early part, as well as in the 

 height of the season, the matings that 

 took place in perfect weather nearly 

 always produced hybrids. The value 

 of having an abundance of flying drones 

 (and also many flying queens to attract 

 them) was well demonstrated. 



British goldens have improved since 

 the breeding was started. They are 

 certainly more industrious and hardy. 

 I believe that the artilicial selection has 

 been aided by natural selection. The 

 testing for honey-production, and the 

 mating flights of the queens (queens 

 are sometimes lost) under the vigorous 

 weather conditions of the district seem 

 to have conduced to the development 

 of hardiness. 



British goldens differ from American 



goldens in being more mobile when 

 smoked, and easier shaken off the 

 combs, qualities in which English 

 blacks dilfer from Italians. 



The breed has proved especially val- 

 uable for crossing with the English 

 black bee. Colonics headed by British 

 golden queens mated by black drones 

 are more vigorous, build up faster and 

 earlier in the spring, and produce 

 larger yielils of honey than ordinary 

 black bees. The workers are consid- 

 erably larger than pure British goldens, 

 and slightly larger than blacks. To 

 some.e.\tent these desirable results are 

 attributable to crossing /<•;- ic. I be- 

 lieve that the value of a new breed lies 

 chiefly in the merits it shows when 

 crossed with the local bee, because it 

 is not practicable for the honey-pro- 

 ducer to keep any pure variety except 

 the local one, unless he buys all his 

 queens. 



Dover, England. 



What to Do With the Surplus 



BY G. .M. DOOLITTLE. 



"Having the supers of sections all 

 oft' the hives, what course do you pur- 

 sue immediately afterward ?" is a ques- 

 tion which is frequently asked me. My 

 honey-room is in a building covered 

 with paper roofing, the same being 

 painted with a coat of black dressing, 

 prepared purposely for such roofing. 

 The sides of this building are painted 

 dark red, so that wherever the rays of 

 the sun strike the building, they are 

 immediately absorbed, which makes 

 the inside very drj' and warm, just right 

 for the evaporation of honey in all un- 

 sealed cells, and from this dry heat the 

 honey gets of a thicker and better con- 

 sistency the longer it stays in the room 

 up to the time the late fall and winter 

 storms come, which shuts off the sun- 

 shine. 



That this warm, dry air may circulate 

 all about every individual section, the 

 supers are set on 2-inch blocks at each 

 of the 4 corners, piling them up as 

 high with these blocks between each 

 super as the room will conveniently 

 allow. 



Thus they are left until it is time to 

 prepare the honey for market, which is 

 from the middle of September to Oct. 

 10, according to my way of thinking. 

 Of latfe, we have been told to get our 

 honey on the market early, but I con- 

 sider the middle of October as plenty 

 early. From experience covering more 

 than 40 years, and the footing up of 

 what my sales have been, and then 

 striking an average, I find that the best 

 prices have been obtained between 

 Oct. 20 and Nov. lu ; especially so dur- 

 ing the past 20 years. Forty years ago 

 there used to be quite a call for honey 

 during the holidays, but that seems to 

 be a thing of the past, as, at the pres- 

 ent time, there is little demand during 

 the latter half of December. 



When the time comes to put the 

 honey up for market, I open the supers 

 and decide what sections are of a qual- 

 ity to go in X.WX, XX.X, XX, and X 

 grades. The 4 X is the very best, or 

 what some style fancy, while the 3 X is 

 very little inferior, except a slight dis- 

 coloration of the cappings at the bot- 



tom of the sections. That styled 2 X 

 may have some irregular combs, or 

 those not so smooth, a few unsealed 

 cells to the amount of H'O or so, and 

 may be more badly discolored by what 

 is known as " travel stain " than the 3 

 .X. The one X takes in the remainder 

 of the sections which are considered 

 go6d enough to send lo market at all. 

 In order that I may not " lose sight " of 

 what is to go in each grade. I place 2 

 or 3 sections of each grade where they 

 are conspicuous, when a glance is suffi- 

 cient to tell where each section belongs 

 as it is taken from the super. 



When enough sections of any one 

 grade have accumulated to make a case, 

 they are freed from propolis by scrap- 

 ing, packed in the case, the cover put 

 on, and the gross and net weights 

 stamped on each. Then they are piled 

 up, each grade by itself, ready to be de- 

 livered to the railroad, or wherever we 

 market them. 



What shall be done with what we 

 have left ? Those partly full, but not 

 enough so as to case, may be used in 

 several ways. Those weighing from 7 

 ounces up, are readily salable in our 

 home market, and if it be known that 

 we have such on hand — if it is with 

 others as it is in this locality — parties 

 will call at the house and take all we 

 have at a price of about three-fourths 

 of what we get for the best. Or if we 

 are willing to cut such combs out of 

 the sections, thus sa\ing to us the cost 

 of the sections and their making, we 

 can sell this for " chunk honey," for a 

 cent or two above what we get for 

 that last mentioned before. The sell- 

 ing of these sections (not quite good 

 enough for marketing by the case) is 

 something often hard to decide, for if 

 we have a few of them, such sections 

 are worth much more to us when kept 

 for " baits " than we can get for the 

 honey in them. 



But if we have a large quantity of 

 them, more than is needed for the pur- 

 pose of starting the bees in the sec- 

 tions early the next season, then it will 

 do to sell them as suggested. Or, if 

 we wish, we can e.xtract the honey 

 from them and sell the extracted honey. 

 I have often done this to advantage, as 

 in this case I not only turn the honey 

 into cash, but have the sections ready 

 for baits as well. Some seem to think 

 that it is a great job to extract the 

 honey from such partly-filled sections, 

 but when you once know how it is 

 best done, this " job " mostly disappears. 



Make two light frames, which will 

 hold the greatest number of sections 

 that the extractor reel will take. Now, 

 when a day sufficiently warm comes, 

 one when the sun has produced a heat 

 inside the honey-room of from 90 to 

 100 degrees, till these frames with sec- 

 tions, and uncap whatever portion of 

 them that may be sealed, set the two 

 frames thus prepared in the extractor, 

 and, presto, you have the honey out the 

 same as you would in a hot summer 

 day when doing the extracting from 

 upper stories. It is necessary to use a 

 little more care in turning the extrac- 

 tor, as the combs in the sections do not 

 come out so as to touch the reel, as is 

 the case with combs in the frames, and 

 if you turn too hard or fast, the combs 

 may be partially loosened from the sec- 

 tions. After a little practice the right 



