174 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



from which the}' had swarmed to 

 escape. Some swarms, if tlie 

 queens were okl, would start queen 

 cells and swarm again in five or 

 six days. Others would "sulk" 

 and do hut little good, while a few 

 would light out for the woods in 

 high disgust ; others would do very- 

 well. I hope the plan will be 

 tested, thoroughly tested under the 

 experienced eye of brother Alley, 

 and we shall be favored with a re- 

 port. 



Christianshnrg, Ktj. 



For the American JpicuUurist. 



BLACK BEES FROM PURE 

 ITALIANS. 



A. L. SwiNSOX. 



In the Api, page 115, Mr. Pond, 

 (J. E.) takes Dr. Tinker to task 

 for asserting that black bees may 

 be produced of pure Italians by 

 selective breeding for that particu- 

 lar object, and calls on the Editor 

 of the "Api" to sustain the fact 

 that the}' have reason to believe 

 that no such demonstration can be 

 made, as they both had directly the 

 contrary experience. Mr. Alley 

 did not sustain Mr. Pond's asser- 

 tion, at least did not do so in con- 

 nection with the aforesaid article. 



In reply to Mr. Pond, I desire to 

 say I think Dr. Tinker is pei-fectly 

 correct, and ray opinion is leased 

 on practical experiments all made 

 since 1884. I think this is so with 

 any race of bees and I have im- 

 ported direct, and bred myself, the 

 Cyprian and Syrian. I find the 

 same rule applicable to them. On 

 the other hand, I can take any 

 strain of black bees and breed them 

 up to three- banded workers. I 

 have had two Carniolans, imported, 

 from Benton ; then I have had 

 plenty of Germans to observe. 



The queen of any race of yellow 



banded bees, that will produce any 

 dark-colored queen progeny, can 

 be run into black bees, by se- 

 lective breeding, and I have never 

 found a single queen of any race 

 clear of that fault. I advanced 

 these deductions to Dr. Tinker in 

 the fall of 1886, and also another, 

 that I could breed workers that 

 were clear of all dark rings around 

 their abdomens; leaving the color 

 of the abdomen yellow, of various 

 shades ; and the usual rings of fuzz 

 alone, to make up the marking of 

 the abdomen of the workers. 



Dr. Tinker replied that so far 

 as running the yellow races into 

 blacks, he could, or had had the 

 same experience as myself. That 

 in the breeding out of the black 

 rings of bees around the abdomen 

 of the workers, he had never 

 thought of and could notsay. Since 

 advancing the said theory, I have 

 practicall}' demonstrated that it is 

 a certain fact that it can be done. 

 And 1 have done it. Novv, if Mr. 

 Pond wants to paj' for workers 

 that show no black rings around 

 their abdomens, I will send him 

 some and go over and select 

 every one I can find in my apiaries. 

 I say ??i?/, for I don't think any 

 one else has such workers in Amer- 

 ica. All tliat is needed in this 

 case is to show the bees. In the 

 other case, when black l)oes would 

 be produced, Mr. Pond could easily 

 say they were not kept out of reach 

 of black bees, and it could not be 

 proved in hardly a single instance 

 or case that they were. 



Goldsboro, N. C. 



For the American Apiculturist. 



CARE NEEDED. 



Prop. Geo. G. Groff. 



In the June number of the Amer- 

 ican Apiculturist, Mr. Cornell 



