182 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 1 



"I see much in the bee-papers about the 

 purity of bees. What do you think in the 

 matter?" 



"Yes, much has been said in the years 

 that are past about a standard of purity 

 for our bees; and some of the practical bee- 

 keepers of the country have been led to ask 

 the question, 'Can we adopt a standard of 

 purity that will always secure to us the 

 best working- qualities in our bees?' " 



"Did they receive an answer? " 



"I do not remember any one fully answer- 

 ing that question in print; but I remember 

 one of our most practical men saying in 

 a bee convention once that he could see that 

 it would be easy for those who follow noth- 

 ing but queen-breeding as a business to 

 adopt a standard of purity, or secure some- 

 thing which would be called thoroughbred 

 at least. But he thought that, for the rank 

 and file of the honey-producers of the coun- 

 try to adopt the same standard, would be 

 quite another thing." 



"Why did he talk like that?" 



"I do not know that he told the why; but 

 I suppose his reason was that the workers 

 from different queens of the same color and 

 general appearance show a vast difference 

 as to their working qualities." 



"Has such been your experience?" 



"Yes. And I think the same has been 

 the experience of hundreds if not thousands 

 of others." 



"Will you tell me something of this ex- 

 perience so that I can understand how you 

 have worked, and from this gather a course 

 of work for myself?" 



"I did not pay very close attention to the 

 improvement of my bees until the year 1877. 

 That spring, when changing a colony from 

 one hive to another I noticed a very fine- 

 looking orange - colored queen, with the 

 workers all well marked. A neighbor, who 

 happened to be present, remarked that he 

 would prefer a darker-colored queen for bus- 

 iness, and I agreed with his decision. No 

 further notice was taken of the colony till 

 just before July, when nearly every other 

 colony in the apiary had swarmed but this 

 one, and so I went to see why it had not 

 swarmed, as it seemed fully as strong in 

 numbers as the best of those which had 

 cast swarms. This revealed about sixty 

 pounds of section honey all ready to come 

 off, while scarcely another colony had a 

 single completed section." 



"No wonder they had not swarmed. But 

 did they not swarm that year?" 



" Yes, July 3d they sent out a very large 

 swarm which was hived in a separate hive. 

 But that was all the swarming it did, al- 

 though I never cut an}^ of the queen-cells in 

 the parent colony." 



" What was the result in honey? " 



" The parent colony gave 195 lbs. of nice 

 section honey, and the swarm gave 114 lbs., 

 or 309 lbs. from the old colony in the 

 spring." 



"Well, that was a wonderful yield, and- 

 I judge you thought more of that queen in 



the fall than you did when you and the 

 neighbor looked at her in the spring." 



" Yes, you are right there. And I 

 thought still more of her the following 

 spring, for both the colony she was in, and 

 thiit from her daughter, wintered with the 

 loss of but few bees, while many of the oth- 

 er colonies came out spring-poor." 



" What did they do the next year? " 



"They showed the same disposition not 

 to swarm till late; and from the colony with 

 the old queen I obtained 151 lbs. of section 

 honey, while there were very few other col- 

 onies that gave Dver 100 lbs." 



" Did you consider this queen pure? " 



"Not fully so. Nor do I consider any 

 Italian queen as pure; but she was so good 

 every other way that I then raised all of 

 my queens from this old one, as long as 

 she lived, and found that, while the major- 

 ity of them did not duplicate their mother 

 as to color and markings, they did do this 

 verj' nearly as to their being good in every 

 other way." 



" After she died, what then?" 



"I now began to procure queens from 

 other parties who reported good honey- 

 yields through our bee-papers, to cross 

 with these bees, as in-and-in breeding was 

 then considered to be very injurious to bees. 

 But the most of these queens did not prove 

 nearly so good as those I had, and so the 

 growth in improvement was very slow, as I 

 had to weed out these as soon as they 

 proved inferior. Occasionally one would 

 prove good, and was used in connection 

 with this strain; but I have kept it very 

 largely in the majority ever since." 



" Do 3'ou think you have gained any in 

 their purity? " 



" No, I should not want to say that; but 

 by this mode of working I have bred up a 

 strain of bees that pleases me, and, after 

 years of getting queens from other parties, 

 I believe them to be second to none as hon- 

 ey-gatherers, although for purity I can give 

 no guarantee, neither do I think it necessa- 

 ry to guarantee any positive purity of 

 stock, except that it be good in every spot 

 and place where you wish goodness." 



" Then you do not think that purity of 

 stock is the greatest essential in bees? " 



"No. That is not what I am working 

 after. But I am still striving to advance 

 further along the honey-gathering line, so 

 each year finds me securing queens from ^ 

 the most approved sources, although it is 

 seldom I find one I care to use as a breed- 

 er; but as this ' seldom one ' is of great 

 value, I consider myself well paid for all 

 m}'^ trouble. ' ' 



" Then you like to work along this line 

 of improving stock." 



" Yes. There is nothing in all the realm 

 of bee-keeping that gives me more pleasure 

 than does this work of improvement of stock 

 for its honey-gathering qualities; and as 

 we have at this time several of our most 

 prominent apiarists at work on this great- 

 est of all problems to the honey-producer, 

 if perfection can be obtained with bees I 



