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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apiary of Clem Le Moine, Luton, la., that was nearly destroyed by a flood last spring. 



APIARY NEARLY DESTROYED BY A FLOOD 



BY CLEM LEMOINE 



My apiary was nearly ruined by a flood 

 last spring which entered in the cove. The 

 picture shows some of the bees which were 

 saved on April 23, 1912, when it was still 

 very cold. This apiary had to be worked 

 for increase only this season. 



Luton, la., June 7. 



THE CRAZE FOR COLOR 



Breeding for Appearance has Resulted in a Poorer 

 Strain of Italians 



BY MAJOR SHALLARD 



I have been asked which I prefer — the 

 light Italians or the dark. My experience 

 leads me to believe that there is no com- 

 parison. I think the dark leather-colored 

 are as much ahead of the light goldens as 

 a draft horse is ahead of a saddle back 

 for plowing purposes. 



Many years ago, when I first started 

 beekeeping, somewhere about the time A. 

 I. R. used to tell us all about Blue Eyes in 

 Gleanings, I started to breed a race of 

 utility bees based on dark leather-colored 

 stock. After ten or twelve years of breed- 

 ing from only those queens whose progeny 

 showed marked ability to get honey, I 

 had a breed of bees which I can since see 

 were superlatively good. I did not ap- 

 preciate just hoAv good these bees were un- 

 til the last few years. I got splendid 

 crops, and my hives used to be always 

 boiling over with bees. I did not care 

 how dark a queen was as long as the mark- 

 ings on her progeny were even; but she 



had to have certain qualities. First, her 

 progeny had to be exceiDtionally good 

 honey-getters; then she herself had to be 

 large and well proportioned. She had to 

 lay good plump eggs, and all in the same 

 position in the cells. I get letters like 

 this every now and then from old cus- 

 tomers : 



Send me another leather-colored queen. The last 

 I had was a great honey-getter, and her daughters 

 are just as good. 



I have to return the money and tell them 

 I have lost the breed. My output got so 

 big that I started a bottling business in 

 Sydney, and I had to leave the care of 

 ray bees to some one else. 



Then the craze came in for golden Ital- 

 ians. I -wish I had never seen them. I 

 got some, and between carelessness on the 

 part of my beekeeper, and breeding from 

 golden stock, my choice breed of leather- 

 colored bees was a tiling of the past, al- 

 most before I recognized the fact. I have 

 got back to the bees myself since, and I 

 have tried many times to get a new start 

 on dark leather-colored stock; but I have 

 never succeeded. I have got leather- 

 colored (?) queens from breeders many 

 times, but they were all too light. It seems 

 to me there are no leather-colored bees left; 

 no one seems to have any. I do not know 

 a single apiary where there are any of 

 the old stock. I have walked through 

 every apiary I know of, looking for the 

 old sort, and have never found them. I 

 have had beekeepers offer me any queen I 

 liked in the apiary for nothing; and after 

 looking at all the "golden beauties," I 

 have come away without any. Now you 

 will, perhaps, say that I am prejudiced. I 

 am not. I am a man who cares nothing for 

 looks, and that is all I think the goldens 



