20 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



Februarv 



queen dealers, would have us believe. 

 Not but that they are sincere in the be- 

 lief that they have a superior strain, 

 but do they know it? Who among 

 them that have a trade of any great 

 size have the time to truly test their 

 strains? An echo answers — Very few! 

 Before we try to improve our bees 

 we must know exactly what their quali- 

 ties are. To learn these requires care- 

 ful, painstaking observation, extending 

 over several seasons; it requires full re- 

 cords carefully classified, and I believe 

 it is first of all necessary for the apiar- 

 ist to teach himself how and what to ob- 

 serve. 



So far my advice is much like the re- 

 ceipt for "rabbit pie"' — first catch the 

 rabbit. Well, that is about the status 

 of the question of improving our bees 

 — first find out where they need im- 

 pJroving. Next? Well, until we find 

 some feasable way of controlling the 

 mating of the queens there is but little 

 we can do in the way of improvement. 

 We can select for our propagating 

 stock those colonies which seem to pos- 

 sess the greatest number of desirable 

 qualities; we can suppress the drones of 

 all other stocks. We can use the ut- 

 most pains and care to rear strong, 

 vigorous drones and queens. We can 

 stick to the stock we have in our apiar- 

 ies, not constantly putting in new blood 

 to upset what we have, by selection, 

 accomplished. There is little danger of 

 close, or in-breeding, for in most apiar- 

 ies there are all too many chances of 

 "out-breeding." and too. the bee gen- 

 erations succeed each other very rap- 

 idly, so close relationship does not last 

 long. If it is desired to test other 

 strains, make sure that no drones are 

 permitted to fly from it until their su- 

 periority, if they possess it, is assured. 



There is one other thing — some races 

 do better in a given location than other 

 races. Be sure you possess the race 

 best suited to your section of the coun- 

 try and then proceed to select. 



Beyond this. Mr. Editor, do not feel 

 that I can. as yet. offer much encour- 

 agement to the maiority of bee-keepers, 

 for improvement in their bees. And I 

 would go even farther and impress upon 

 them the exceeding slowness of all im- 

 provements by selection and breeding. 

 Deterioration is generally so apparent 

 and so rapid that many persons think 

 improvements are equally rapid. But 

 deterioration is due to weakened con- 



stitutions, a falling below the normal, 

 while improvement means a rising 

 above the average, which is a slow pro- 

 cess. And to advance where we can 

 only control the females is a doubly 

 slow process. 



I can, however, offer just this encour- 

 agement; scientific men and careful 

 painstaking bee-keepers in various parts 

 of the country are now at work on the 

 problems of controlled mating, queen 

 rearing, drone rearing, and some oth- 

 er problems looking toward the im- 

 provement of the honey bee. and from 

 the many some progress surely should 

 come. 



Providence, R. I., Jan. 4, 1902. 



How Can We Improve Our Honey 

 Bee — A Proposition. 



(By F. Greiner.) 



SOME writers hold that the drone's 

 influence upon offspring is greater 

 than that of the mother — the 

 queen: this, of course, having reference 

 only to the female offspring. 



It seems to me, it is very difficult to 

 decide which one of the two parents is 

 of greater importance in the matter of 

 reproduction. I cannot see any reason 

 why one's influence should be greater 

 than that of another, taking the aver- 

 age; but, even should the drone's in- 

 fluence be of less consequence than that 

 of the queen, it would be desirable to 

 select the drone for mating; providing 

 we could foretell which drone was real- 

 ly the superior one, the one that would 

 transmit the most desirable qualities, 

 Mr. Doolittle hand-picks his drones. In 

 my opinion it is extremely doubtful that 

 any (other) man will be successful in 

 picking out the drones which are su- 

 perior. Is there any bee-keeper any- 

 where who can with any degree of cer- 

 tainty pick out a superior queen from 

 a batch of them, just by their looks? 

 She may be yellow; she may be large 

 and beautiful; she may be without fault 

 and blemish as to her outward appear- 

 ance; but who can tell what her work- 

 ers will be? Is it any different with 

 the drone? "By their work ye shall 

 know them." But in case of the drone, 

 he is gone when you see his work. It 

 seems improbable that we will gain 

 anything by hand-picking. In all prob- 

 ability nature will attend to that part 

 better than man can hope to do. The 



