428 Beekeeping 



that the bee breeder may hope to modify his bees along 

 these lines by proper care in selecting his breeding material. 

 The actual results of practical beekeepers also show that 

 improvement may be made, as indicated by increased crops. 



Study of breeding needed. 



It is not practical in this place to enter upon an elaborate 

 discussion of the methods and results of modern breeding. 

 To what characters of bees Mendelian inheritance is oper- 

 ative has not been shown by the work so far done although 

 color is probably so inherited. Bee breeding has not been 

 subject to the researches of the theoretical breeders but work 

 of this character is greatly to be desired. Certain funda- 

 mental facts should be mentioned, however, and they are 

 chosen here because they have been misunderstood by bee- 

 keepers writing for bee journals. The fact that a queen is 

 poorly developed because of inadequate care during develop- 

 ment does not make her undesirable as a breeding queen 

 and, conversely, prolificness induced by extra care and 

 manipulation does not make a queen more valuable for 

 breeding, because characters acquired during the life of the 

 individual are not inherited. 



Selection of drones. 



As great care should be exercised in choosing the drones 

 as is employed in selecting the breeding queen, but most 

 beekeepers fail to give this subject adequate consideration. 

 In general the drone (father) is just as influential in deciding 

 the character of the offspring as is the queen (mother). 

 Drones may be selected by allowing drones to fly only from 

 the colony or colonies which are up to the breeding standard 

 and drone production in these colonies may be increased by 

 providing drone comb. Drone rearing in other colonies 

 may be restricted by giving only worker comb or the un- 

 desirable drones may be trapped by a queen and drone trap 

 (Fig. 30). While the beekeeper cannot choose the indi- 

 vidual drone with which a queen mates he can increase the 



