THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



41 



IMPORTED QUEENS. 



Query Wo. 7. Does the continued 

 importation of Itiilians improve our 

 bees, or not? In jour opinion, would 

 the Italian race of bees deteriorate 

 should no fresh importation of queens 

 be made for ten years? 



ANSWERS BY DR. G. L. TINKER. 



I believe that we require no further 

 importation of Italian queens to pre- 

 vent deterioration of the stoclc we now 

 have; but breeders will have to infuse 

 fresh blood into their apiaries often if 

 they would continue to improve their 

 stocli. This can now be done for we 

 have more Italian bees in this country 

 than they are in Italy. 



I could not recommend "hybridiz- 

 ing the difierent races," nor is it neces- 

 sary in order to maintain a steady 

 improvement of our stock of Italians, 

 thouich we discontinue to import them. 



It has got to be with imported Ital- 

 ian queens as with many other things, 

 it is all in the name. We now have 

 better Italian bees than they have in 

 Italy ; and the apiarist, who gets a first- 

 class home-bred queen and crosses di- 

 rectly with his own stock of Italians, 

 will invariably see an improvement in 

 the new stock, and my belief is, that 

 the result is as favorable in developing 

 working qualities as in the cases of hy- 

 bridizing. We hear much about the 

 superior working qualities of hybrids 

 because beekeepers fail to cross tlieir 

 stock as much as they should with un- 

 related stock. I am a strong advocate 

 of crossing the different races of yellow 

 bees and believe grand results will fol- 

 low selective and well directed crossing. 

 I would again respectfully refer the 

 apiarist to my answer to query No. 1, 

 for an intelligent and reliable system 

 of procedure. 



New Philadelphia, Ohio. 



ANSWERS BY J. E. POND. 



As I have never bred queens to any 

 great extent, I cannot answer this 

 question save from the basis of infor- 

 mation and observation in the apiaries 

 of others. Mr. Henry Alley and I\Ir. 

 G. M. Doolittle have both been breed- 

 ing for years from home strains, and I 

 deem it safe to say that both of them 

 produce bees that cannot be excelled 

 by any in the world. As a matter of 

 fact, the purely bred Italian is Italian 



still, neither more or less, no matter 

 where bred; but when we know that 

 our home breeders use far more care 

 and skill in breeding and mating than 

 is done in Italy, we are perfectly war- 

 ranted inassumingthat, as arule, home- 

 bred queens kept pure as can easily be 

 done, are superior to the imported, and 

 that by infusing pure blood at times 

 from the best home breeders, we can 

 keepourstocksuperior forany length of 

 time. I say by "infusing pure blood at 

 times, etc.," not because I really believe 

 that in-and-in breeding will do any 

 damage, but, because so many do be- 

 lieve this, it is well to keep on the 

 absolutely safe side. 



When i am assured that cross-mat- 

 ing or hybridizing as it is miscalled, 

 results in benefits, then I may be able 

 to answer; as yet, I have never found 

 any permanent benefits result there- 

 from, and do not believe it possible 

 that such can be the case. 



ANSWERS BY C. W. DAYTON. 



The continued importation of Ital- 

 ians does not improve our stock and 

 should there be no fresh importation 

 our stock would not deteriorate, as I 

 believe the crosses to be preferable 

 to pure Italians and that the Italian is 

 the predominating race of America at 

 present. 



It would be as advantageous as the 

 hybridizing of the difierent races. But 

 the benefits of such propagation would 

 fall behind that propagation that in- 

 volved the selection of breeding stock 

 possessing the most valuable and nec- 

 essary characteristics for the promo- 

 tion of our welfare. 



Now that we have searched the earth 

 and secured the best race of bees and 

 therewith produced the best strains, 

 future development depends upon arti- 

 ficial improvement of the bees whose 

 traits we thoroughly understand. 



These queries are altogether too 

 broad for one or even a dozen persons 

 to ascertain their certainty : there- 

 fore I have spoken from my limited ob- 

 servations and practice coupled with 

 the general knowledge of like condi- 

 tions in nature. 



Bradford, Iowa. 



SHADING HIVES. 



Query Not 8. Is it necessary to 

 shade the hives in the hot mouths of 

 summer? I have no natural shade and 

 use a 2-story hive for comb honey. 



G. SlEBOLD. 



