1902 



THE AMEIUCAN BEE-KEEPER 



21 



\cry best we can do is to select the 

 mothers of our drones. 



It lias (slanderously I been said, and it 

 is generally believed that the drone has 

 no father. If true, then he cannot 

 transmit other properties and qualifica- 

 tions than those his mother possessed 

 (without taking back to a second or 

 third generation), and what they are, 

 there is a possibility of knowing. 



The next "snag" we run into, is ''the 

 lack of surety of mating our queens 

 with drones of desirable parentage. 

 This is a problem not yet satisfactorily 

 solved. We may confine our drones 

 and queens till late in afternoon, when, 

 perhaps, the other drones, etc., have 

 ceased flying. Possibly a large tent 

 could be used advantageously. Either 

 one of these methods are not absolutely 

 to be depended upon. 



It is my opinion that if an isolated 

 spot could be found where no bees 

 were present, and this spot be stocked 

 with selected bees, and some one there 

 engage in rearing queens, something 

 might be accomplished. I verily be- 

 lieve, this would be a safe course, per- 

 haps the only one. It would be unim- 

 portant whether this spot was a good 

 location for honey gathering; w-e could 

 get along with that, or attend to it. 

 The principal conditions would be: en- 

 tire absence of bees and favorable cli- 

 matic conditions The queens produced 

 would have to be tested in diflferent 

 parts of our land, and by honey pro- 

 ducers of reputation. The best queens 

 should then be selected and used as 

 breeders, and this selection be carried 

 on from year to year. If the selected 

 spot should prove to be a good honey- 

 producing location, the undertaking 

 could almost be made self-supporting 

 under proper management. 



If our national government is intend- 

 ing to do anything for apiculture — and 

 it seems it is — then there is the field for 

 its labor. 



To import queens from Europe for 

 the purpose of improving our bees is 

 absolutely useless, for there are no bet- 

 ter bees in Europe than we have here, 

 unless we go to Norway and Sweden, 

 where we might hope to find a hardier 

 honej^ bee. than we possess. To begin 

 with, let us take our best and breed 

 from them. 



We. the bee-keepers, are not so sit- 

 uated that we could carry out a plan 

 as outlined; the government could do 



it. It might be necessary to select a 

 small island of our possession; in fact 

 I favor this, as we could thus control 

 all stock on our breeding ground. 



The breeding of no other stock is as- 

 sociated with such difliculties as that of 

 bees; and yet these difficulties could be 

 surmounted with a comparatively small 

 outlay of money. 



Let us put our shoulders to the wheel 

 and work together in unity. 



Naples, N. Y.. Dec. 21, 1901. 



Too Much Pollen— How Can It Be 

 Removed ? 



(By G. M. Doolittle.) 



A CORRESPONDENT writes as 

 follows: "I had several colonies 

 of bees which became queenless 

 after swarming last summer, through 

 lack of attention on my part, and before 

 I was hardly aware of it the bees were 

 so reduced in numbers that I did not 

 think it worth w-hile to procure queens 

 for them and so united them with other 

 colonies. By so doing I have quite a 

 few combs stored away which are pret- 

 ty w^ell filled with pollen. What I wish 

 to know is, how I can remove the same 

 before I give the combs to the bees 

 another season. Will you please an- 

 swer this question through the columns 

 of the American Bee-Keeper"'*' 



Most certainly I will, with the Edi- 

 tor's permission; but before doing so 

 permit me to say a few- words about al- 

 lowing colonies to become queenless 

 after they have cast swarms, for. from 

 the much correspondence 1 have on 

 this subject, it would seem that hun- 

 dreds, and thousands of colonies are 

 lost each year through their owners al- 

 lowing them to become queenless in 

 this way, "through lack of attention," 

 as our corresoondent puts it. 



As a rule, a colony casts its first or 

 prime swarm upon the sealing of the 

 first queen-cell. Seven days later the 

 young queen in this cell emerges, and, 

 unless the colony decides to send out 

 after-swarms, this queen should be lay- 

 ing from ten to twelve days later, or 

 about seventeen to twenty days after 

 the prime swarm issued. If after- 

 sw^arms are allowed by the colony, then 

 this first young queen leads out an af- 

 ter-swarm, so that, should there be no 

 other queen-cells which were capped 

 over at as earlv a date as was the first. 



