THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



21 



IMPROVEMENT IN THE RACES OF 

 BEES. 



I would like to see discussed in your 

 valuable journal, by the bee breeders of 

 America the subject 



now CAN TIIK SIZK OF TIIK WOUICKU IIKK 

 UK INCKKASKU? 



I have purchased queens of many 

 breeders who advertise lari;^e cjueens, 

 hoping to get one that would produce 

 /ar^c ivoikt r bees, as well as many of 

 them. While I am satisfied as to the 

 quantity of young ones, I cannot see 

 any material increase in the size of the 

 worker bees. There must be a method, 

 correctly followed, that would produce 

 a larger race. 



Double the size of the bees, and you 

 double the distance it could go for hon- 

 ey. Double the length of its probos- 

 cis and the red clover crop of honey 

 would be at his commmd. 



Horse breeders of France have given 

 the world the "Normandy ;" cattle 

 breeders have the "Durham ;" poultry, 

 dogs', cats, etc., all have their large 

 strains. Now let the bee breeders of 

 America try their hand how to breed 

 THE LARGEST workcr bee : let beauty, 

 three or five bands, go ! that is only 

 skin deep. Color ! what is that? Only a 

 vision ot the eyes. Italian^ Carno tohat 

 not! Only a name ! Give me the larg- 

 est worker in a honey flow tliat drops 

 heavy on to the alighting-board, and 

 with active limb walks into the hive and 

 instantly out again and, with widespread 

 wing, is off to the fields once more. 



That is the bee of the future, I am 

 looking for. I believe the great obsta- 

 cle in the way is that we use over and 

 over for years, the combs in our -brood 

 frames; that we cramp the space for 

 drones. A drone raised from an en- 

 larged vvorker cell I don't believe is the 

 best father for our bees ; yet he is just 

 as likely to reach the queen as any. 

 Would we select a stunted bull and ex- 

 pect to increase the size of our cattle? 

 No ! Vet we go on using full sheets of 

 foundation, and every other device to 

 get whole brood combs without any 

 drone cells. "Cut it out," all the writ- 



ers say. I believe, if we are going to 

 improve the race of bees we have got 

 to turn back, and start new ; right at 

 the brood frames (empty) with new 

 swarms of bees, in the spring, and first 

 select the /<?/;;,'<?.>■/' queen that can be pro- 

 cured ; introduce her to the swarm, 

 then run them into a hive, on to frames, 

 with as narrow a starter as possible, 

 and leave the bees to build such comb 

 as in their judgment is proper. Now 

 bring this colony to the condition of 

 swarming naturally : select the largest 

 daughter, send her to a breeder, say one 

 hundred miles away, to be mated with 

 drones raised from a like colony (you 

 doing the same for him) and return her 

 to be introduced to a swarm and run 

 on to empty frames, etc., repeating as 

 before. 



If too many colonies of bees are 

 produced, hatch out the young bees 

 from old comb, unite them with the last 

 queen and melt the combs. Never al- 

 low the bees to use combs for breeding 

 more than one season old, and less if 

 convenient. I would like to be one of 

 an association, say of twenty-five bee- 

 keepers to chip %\Q a year for five years. 

 $250 per year to employ a suitable per- 

 son (like Henry Alley) to truly follow 

 out a line like above and report the re- 

 sult each month in the Apr, and giv- 

 ing the information to the world. Take 

 a colony and run it solely to improve 

 the size of the bees, feeding all the time 

 if necessary and changing the combs of- 

 ten. If the association after debate, 

 decided upon any other plan to obtain 

 the result, I waive my idea and go with 

 the majority. Come, friend A, organize 

 us into a bee improvement society, and 

 we will find our bee of the future at 

 home. Calvin W. Smith, Wellesley 

 Hill, Mass. 



BrothtM' Smith lias struck out in a new 

 vein. We are personall3' acquainted with 

 this j^iMitleinan. He can l)e found at liis 

 store, 117 Lincoln St.. Boston, on niostiiny 

 d;iy. He is tlu- liveliest and one of the 

 most eiUhusiasiic bee men w'itii whom we 

 are acquainted. 



One of our plans in order to get larger 

 cells and larger bees would be to let the 



