38 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



and melted it on the stove in a liot 

 water bath. The wax rose at the top 

 and I drew the clear honey from a lan- 

 cet near the bottom. This same honey 

 has been sohl and no fanlt expressed 

 witli it; some even praising it hii^ldy. 

 This granulatinii' business, I tliink, is 

 an unfortunate leature all around. It 

 certainly detracts from the appearance 

 and sale of our commodity and creates 

 suspicion AviUi the masses as to its true 

 character, and ihis olyection, in my 

 opinion, will never be overcome. 



It is better to extract unfinished sec- 

 tions in autumn (if it can be done 

 without breaking out the combs) and 

 these will be all right for refiding. 

 Com!) honey may be safely exposi-d 

 for sale upon the sidewalk in winter — 

 as much so at least, as Iruit and vege- 

 tables. 



2. I generally overhaul and rearrange 

 my sections before placing them up- 

 on thehive the second time, and scrape 

 ofl" the most of the propolis, although 

 this is not at all important. If sections 

 are very badly soiled 1 break tUem up 

 for flrevvooil. 



3. By all means I would reenlist all 

 clean, empty combs in sections for a 

 second term on the hive. The bees 

 will finish these much sooner than 

 when tilled with foundation. 



4. The past season I did not work 

 for comb honey and of course did not; 

 get any pollen in the sections. I liave 

 noticed that my bees are very prone to 

 put pollen in sections when placed at 

 the sides of brood-nest, but have never 

 seen any in top storing. Side storing 

 with me is useless and I have entirely 

 abandoned it. 



Lynn, Muss. 



THE ALBINO BEES. ARE THEIR PECU- 

 LIARITIES PRESERVED, AND IS THE 

 HEALTH Ob' THE APIARY EN- 

 DANGERED, Br IN-BREEDING ? 



Query Wo. 6. Mr. D. A. Pike, the 



originator of the All>ino bees, says he 

 first saw these bees in a colony of pure 

 Italians in his apiary. He continued to 

 breed (in-breed of course) from that 

 particular colony, and the beautiful Al- 

 bino bee was the result. Considering 

 these facts, do you think the peculiari- 

 ties and other characteristics of tlie 

 Albino bee could be preserved except 

 by in-breeding? 



From Mr. Tike's apiary the Albino 

 bees were scattered all over the United 

 States. We will suppose that those 

 who purchased them kept them pure 



Now, should Mr. Pike procure a queen 

 from some one who purciiased bees of 

 him several years a^o and cross his 

 present stock by using the drones 

 from such a queen, w^ould this not be a 

 continuation of in-breeding? 



There is another point that comes in 

 here : Is there really any danger of in- 

 juring the health of the apiary (say an 

 apiary of 50 or more colonies) by in- 

 breeding? Or, in other words, to what 

 extent can in-breeding be practised 

 Without tietriinent to the apiary? In 

 order to avoid any possible danger 

 from such a cause is it not good policy 

 to infuse fresh blood into the apiary by 

 introducing a few strange queens, each 

 year? 



If frequent importation of Italian 

 queens is made for the purpose of 

 crossing our strain of American Ital- 

 ians, will not the results and benefits 

 from sucli propagation be as advanta- 

 geous as by hybridizing the different 

 races? 



ANSWERS BY PROF. A. .T. COOK. 



I had supposed that the Albino 

 bees arose from careful selection and 

 breeding of peculiarly marked Italians, 

 Whether the bees would lose their pe- 

 culiarities witliout great care in breed- 

 ing is a problem. They have not been 

 bred very long and so we should not 

 expect their characteristics so thor- 

 oughly fixed that they would be per- 

 manent unless unusual care was taken 

 in breeding. 



As to whether they are enfeebled by 

 close in-breeding is also a question 

 which could not be positively an- 

 swered. In-breeding has made all our 

 fine breeds of stock but it is done with 

 great care. I should fear more from 

 the fact that Albinos have been se- 

 lected with coloration, not general ex- 

 cellence, in view. If this be a fact, 

 then the All)ino variety has not been 

 created on the plan which may be ex- 

 pected to give the best results. As in 

 most cases, the eating must test the 

 pudding. What do practical beekeep- 

 ers say ? I procured Albinos only once. 

 They were very handsome and the 

 most amiable l)ees I ever had in our 

 apiary : but for real work they were 

 tlie poorest bees we ever had. Though 

 I had four or five queens the experi- 

 ment was not sufficiently extended to 

 prove that all Albinos are ol like pecu- 

 liarities ; but so far as I have seen them 

 they have excelled in beauty and tem- 

 per but have failed decidedly in business 

 characteristics. I do not believe that 



