1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



121 



stant selection of the yellowest bees to 

 breed from. The three bands have 

 been increased in numbers until a 

 solid yellow has been obtained. Then 

 there are Dr. Murdock's bees bred for 

 size. I had some natural comb of 

 their building, no foundation being 

 used, and the worker cells instead of 

 measuring five to the inch, were four 

 and a half, and some of them nearly 

 as large as ordinary drone cells. J. 

 Mc Arthur has secured a strain of bees 

 that do not sting under ordinary, or 

 even extraordinary, provocation, such 

 a thing as kicking over their hives not 

 serving to irritate them. 



Now what are the things to observe 

 in rearing bees? I don't think the 

 matter is too complicated for the very 

 inexperienced. Select your best queens 

 to breed from. Thai's one thing, and 

 that's about the only thing generally 

 looked after. But you'll get on twice 

 as fast if you'll pay attention to the 

 males as well as to the females. In 

 some cases a good deal more than twice 

 as fast, for only through the drones 

 can you make any impression on the 

 bees surrounding you, unless indeed 

 you can get your neighbors to intro- 

 duce the right kind of queens. 



I suppose any man would be called 

 foolish who should pay no attention 

 to what colonies he raised queens 

 from, but should be careful to suppress 

 all drones except those from the best 

 working colonies. But he might get 

 on full better than he who takes the 

 greatest pains as to his queens with- 

 out looking after the drones. 



In selecting colonies to breed from, 

 it isn't best to depend entirely on 

 those which produce the most bees. A 

 queen may be very prolific, but if her 

 bees do so little at gathering that the 



immense amount of brood prevents 

 accumulation of suri)Ius, what good is 

 she ? 



But it's pretty safe to go by the ac- 

 tual work accomplished by a colony. 

 If queens are raised from colonies that 

 have given best results in the matter 

 of surplus, and if the queens thus rais- 

 ed meet drones from other colonies 

 equally good, there is likely to be im- 

 provement, at the same time not for- 

 getting an occasional infusion of new 

 blood. 



Two or three writers have lately 

 urged the importance of attention to 

 the matter of longevity in bees. It is 

 claimed that some strains of bees live 

 longer than others. If this be true, it 

 is quite important. A colony of bees 

 whose workers should live a week 

 longer than the average ought to do a 

 fourth more work. For if the life of 

 a w^orker be 42 days, and if it com- 

 mences gathering when 16 days old, 

 that leaves 26 days for field work, and 

 a week would be more than a fourth 

 of that. But I confess it may not be 

 the easiest thing in the world to find 

 what your longest lived bees are. 



Much easier will it be to determine 

 another thing that in some localities 

 at least might be of very great im- 

 portance. I refer to the length of bees' 

 tongues. Glossometers have been in- 

 vented by which the length of bees' 

 tongues can be accurately measured. 

 A Frenchman, M. Legros, has invent- 

 ed perhaps the best, and he finds the 

 average length of a bees' tongue is a 

 shade more than a fourth of an inch, 

 and by careful selection he has suc- 

 ceeded in having a strain with tongues 

 about a sixth longer. At first thought 

 it may appear a difficult thing to 

 measure a bees' tongue, but the matter 



