THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



123 



than a thousfind years of natural se- 

 lection have failed to breed out. So 

 much for the staying qualities of 

 the black race. It is vigorous and 

 strong in vitality and the drones 

 are large and active and adepts in 

 tlio art of wooing young queens, 

 but the black worker i? sluggish 

 and indolent as compared with the 

 average yellow worker. 



If I am right in the above con- 

 clusions, there is little hope of es- 

 tablishing a fixed strain of hybrid 

 bees by natural selection that will 

 duplicate themselves in markings. 

 The intelligent queen breeder, 

 however, has the power to select 

 the drones and queens and to breed 

 to a t3'pe in almost any direction, 

 so that what cannot be acconi- 

 l)lished in a thousand years of nat- 

 ural selection can be accom[)lisheil 

 in less than one man's lifetime 

 through artificial selection. I have 

 proved to my full satisfaction that 

 it is possible to produce a distinct 

 strain or race of bees having defi- 

 nite markings in a reasonable time. 



Labor in this direction has been 

 (]uite limited, but we m^y expect 

 in the near future great progress 

 in developing new strains of bees 

 as well as in cultivating their most 

 desirable traits. The survival of 

 the fittest will not be left wholW 

 to natural selection, we may be 

 sure ; for, in that case, the fittest 

 for the purposes of man may not 

 survive. The use of porforatcil 

 zinc and drone traps is going to 

 aid us in this work materially. 



New Philadelphia, 0. 



QUEKNS BY MAIL. MKTIIODS KOI! 



TREATING THEJI WHEN UECEIVED. 



Query No. 23. About 25,000 (|ueeu- 

 bec'S are reared aud sold in the United 

 States and Canada each year. 



Many of those who purchase queens 

 are inexperienced l)eekcepers and do 

 not understand how to treat a queen 



in order to preserve her hfe tilJ she can 

 be introduced. 



Please give your method for carinir 

 for queens that were shipped by mail 

 as hundreds of beekeepers will appre- 

 ciate the favor and be greatly benefited 

 thereby. Sometimes queens sent l)y 

 mail are in bad condition when re- 

 ceived. Some arc daubed by tlie food, 

 others are chilled or injured by rough 

 usage. Please consider these points 

 in reply. Novice. 



ANSWER BY P. R. RUSSELL. 



It is true that valuable queens 

 are often received in bad condition 

 from various causes, and it is very 

 important to give them proper 

 treatment as soon as possible after 

 being received. 



I have practised the following- 

 method with good results. When 

 a queen arrives and is badly 

 daubed with hone}'^, or nearly 

 starved, or chilled, or exhausted or 

 is out of condition from any cause, 

 I allow her attendant bees to es- 

 cape one by one, by holding my 

 thumb over the hole in the cage ; 

 any dead bees are also shaken out. 

 I then take the caged queen out to 

 some hive in the yard and put in 

 about a dozen fresh bees. If bees 

 are getting honey, I prefer to pick 

 them up from the alighting-board 

 as they return from the field. 

 These fresh bees will give the queen 

 proper attention and the cage is 

 then placed in the hive where the 

 queen is to be released in the usual 

 manner. I have never known 

 strange bees to attack or injure a 

 queen when introduced into an or- 

 dinary shipping cage, and I do not 

 think they will. In case a queen 

 is chilled, first take them into a 

 warm room and they will often re- 

 vive, even when apparently dead. 

 In any case, I think it is well to 

 cage her with fresh bees. Try it. 



Lipin, 3Iass. 



ANSWER BY J. E. POND. 



In this matter I am not posted. 

 I have received but few'qucens by 



