SEPTEMBER 1, 1913 



609 



Melting-tank and Hershiser wax-press. 



c-ould be called a golden ; but that is not the 

 purchaser's idea of the variety. A queen 

 which will not throw a large percentage of 

 four-band yellow or 

 better should not be 

 classed as a golden. 



The best in the col- 

 or line which has so 

 far been produced is 

 a queen whose worker 

 progeny is practically 

 all yellow with the ex- 

 ception of the last seg- 

 ment or band which is 

 the tip or end of the 

 abdomen. 



A frame of bright 

 yellow bees looks very 

 tine to their producer, 

 and he really does not 

 know, as a rule, how- 

 many worker bees run 

 thi-ee, four, or five 

 band yelloAv. It is 

 necessary to confine a 

 number, not less than 

 100 workers, in a small 

 dark cage which has a 

 bee-escape attached ; 



then as the bees run 

 out they can be held 

 one at a time, and ex- 

 amined as to what 

 their coloring may be. 

 This is a safe way 

 of testing the amount 

 of color in your bees 

 The average exam- 

 ination is, no doubt, 

 made by examining a 

 frame of bees and try- 

 ing to count the bees 

 liaA-ing different num- 

 bers of yellow bands. 

 Such a method is too 

 uncertain, for the ten- 

 dency would be to 

 count the same bee re- 

 peatedly, and not 

 know it; and the 

 brighter the bee the 

 more quickly it takes 

 the eye, and the more 

 likelihood of such bee 

 being counted more 

 than once. 



A queen whose work- 

 er progeny runs 90 

 per cent five - band 

 golden is a very scarce 

 commodity, and it is 

 doubtful if there are 

 half a dozen such 

 queens in the United States. Such a queen, 

 or one not throwing such a good percentage 

 of yellow workers, will produce an all-gold- 



gibbald and Hatch presses, 



