THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



119 



Can Our Bees Be Improved ? 



BY HENRY ALLEY. 



This is a problem that our practical 

 bee-keeper is constantly at work upon. 

 Various ways and methods have been 

 suggested for accomplishing this most 

 desirable result, but none seem to be 

 practical, or to meet the approval of 

 our "scientific " bee master. 



The effects of inbreeding as the 

 most fruitful cause of degeneration of 

 our apiaries was long since decided 

 and proclaimed. All practical bee- 

 keepers admit that cross-breeding is 

 the only safeguard against the almost 

 total destruction of our apiaries or 

 certainly the honey qualities of our 

 bees. 



While cross breeding seems to keep 

 our colonies up in a fairly prosperous 

 condition, there is not that improve- 

 ment in the working qualities of our 

 bees so much desired by all, especially 

 by those who make bee culture a 

 business. Now what the bee-keeper 

 of the present day needs is a larger, 

 more active and stronger bee, one that 

 will fly twice as far from the hive as 

 our small bees, and a bee that will re- 

 turn from the fields with double the 

 honey or nectar that the common 

 brown bee takes home. 



Then, again, we want bees with 

 "tongues " so long that they can sip 

 the nectar from the blossoms of the 

 first crop red clover, bees that possess 

 a gentle disposition, as well as many 

 other points that might he mentioned 

 here. How are we to attain these 

 much desired feature.- seems to lie the 

 problem. The following method has 

 been practiced for many years in the 

 Bay State apiary. If there are fifty 

 or more colonies in an apiary ami hut 

 half of these colonies are good honey 

 gatherers, what is the practical thing 



to do? Why, propogate from the best 

 colonies, that is, rear queens from 

 them and weed out and replace with 

 good queens every worthless one in 

 the apiary. That is the proper thing 

 to do in all cases. 



The practical, (perhaps I should -ay 

 the scientific), bee-keeper knows it is 

 the drone bee that transmits to its off- 

 spring the good or bad qualities of its 

 peculiar strain, breeders of golden 

 queens look to the male bee for high 

 color and size of the queens he is 

 rearing, and also to the father for the 

 working and other qualities of his 

 bees. While the mother bee must be 

 of the best ami most beautiful, the 

 dione bee must also be handsomely 

 marked, and perfect as well in all 

 other points. 



The colony in which the drones are 

 reared should be the best in the 

 apiary, great workers in the field and 

 possess good wintering qualities, and 

 in fad possess all feature- that make 

 a perfect colony of bees. Drones from 

 such a colony are the ones to use in 

 fertilizing our queens if improvement 

 is wanted. 



Right here comes another point 

 that puzzles many bee-keepers. How 

 can an apiary be managed so that our 

 queens can be mated to the drones of 

 our choice? It can be done and with 

 but little trouble, too. 



Pardon me if I mention the drone- 

 trap. It is not generally known that 

 there is perforated metal in use that 

 will let a queen and worker j>a<s, but 

 not a drone. Well, now what is need- 

 ed is traps provided with metal of 

 this description for each hive that 

 contains drones that are not up to the 

 standard, while the colonies having 

 desirable drones should have an un- 

 obstructed entrance. This will do the 

 business in ail apiaries where new 

 queens are not introduced. Does any 

 one see anything impractical in this ? 

 It is no theory. It is practical and 

 will work successfully in a small, as 

 well as in a large apiary. 



Werikam, Mass. 



