THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



253 



apiaries in our land with more or less 

 run-away swarms, the results must 

 be worse. 



I find that virgin queen bees do 

 not fly far at any time of the season. 

 Although the thorax of the queen is 

 larger than that of the worker, and 

 no doubt contains more powerful 

 muscles to propel the wings, I doubt 

 if they fly usually over one-fourth 

 mile from the apiary, and often not 

 over one hundred yards away. The 

 drones with their large chests, pow- 

 erful muscles and large wings, not 

 only fly exceedingly swift, but are 

 able to make long flights, and re- 

 main on the wing for three hours at 

 a time without ever alighting once ! 

 There is every reason to think that 

 in swarming time, and the warm still 

 days of mid summer, they often fly 

 five miles away and meet queens. In 

 the fall of the year and early spring, 

 I have found that, owing to the cooler 

 air and winds, drones do not often fly 

 over one-half mile. At all events, at 

 such times, an isolated mating sta- 

 tion, one mile from other bees, is not 

 troubled with drones of hives at a 

 distance. 



In producing my strain of Syrio- 

 Albino bees, late fall mating, the use 

 of drone-traps and an isolated mating 

 station in the country have been the 

 only measures at my command 

 against promiscuous in-breeding. I 

 have found that queens mated to 

 brother drones, and all close in-breed- 

 ing has proved highly detrimental. 

 The queens lose prolificness and the 

 workers energy. I have, with few 

 exceptions, been obliged to kill hun- 

 dreds of queens mated in the home 

 apiary during the swarming season ; 

 some mismated to undesirable drones 

 from other apiaries, and many from 

 close in-breeding, resulting often in 

 pretty bees but worthless workers. 

 But five years of careful selection of 

 both queens and drones, avoiding 

 all close in-breeding, has accom- 

 plished all I could ask, and has shown 

 greater possibilities in the future. 



I have produced the largest drones 

 and the largest bees I have ever seen. 

 The former have wings a little over 

 ^^2- of an inch broad and -^-^ of an 

 inch long. The average black drone, 

 including Carniolans is not over one- 

 half inch long, and few Italian drones 

 exceed ihis by ^'j- of an inch. In 

 addition to being large, they have 

 presented every desirable point of 

 beauty and are the offspring of the 

 best working colonies I have ever 

 owned. I only allude to these facts 

 as an encouragement to others in 

 their efforts to improve their strains 

 of bees, and that it can be done by 

 well-directed effort. But there can 

 be no success from haphazard mat- 

 ing and other disappointment from 

 close in-breeding. 



It has become evident to me that 

 a cheap and practical method of 

 mating queens, to select drones would 

 prove of inestimable value to bee- 

 keepers, and I shall hope that Pro- 

 fessor McLean, with the facilities at 

 his command, may be able to find a 

 reliable method. His efforts, already 

 crowned with partial success, deserve 

 the encouragement of all beekeepers. 



At present, I know of {ew queen 

 breeders that are giving the question 

 of in-breeding the attention it de- 

 serves. The advantages resulting 

 from the crossing the best strains of 

 unrelated Italians, or of either of the 

 yellow races with each other, is fully 

 as great as in the radical crosses of 

 black to yellow ; and the effect of all 

 such crosses is, first, more prolific 

 queens, and secondly, greater activ- 

 ity in the workers. 



Neia Philadelphia, O. 



For the. Amtrican Apiculturist. 



THE SEASON IN IOWA. 

 FEEDING BEES. 



C. W. DAYTON. 



This has been the poorest season 

 for bees known for many years. 



