366 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 26, 1906 



Wire-Cloth Separators. 



Ah Kitson asked if any one used wire-cloth for sep- 

 arators. 



.Mr. Kirkpatrick had used them. Air. Root did not think 

 they were a success in general, but that there were bee- 

 keepers in Xew York State who use them successfully. 



Mr. Smith asked how much more we should get for comb 

 than for extracted honey. Answer — Twice as much. 



Mr. Coveyou asked how we could get people not to break 

 sections in handling. Nothing definite given. 



Adjourned to meet in East Jordan some time in April. 

 1907 Ira D. Bartlett, Sec. 



Southern 

 * 23eeboni * 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholu New Braunfels, Tex. 



The Improvement of Our Bees 



Time and again our attention has been called to the 

 improvement of stock in bees, and just as often have our 

 eyes met in print such terms as " Improved Races," " Im- 

 proved Honey-Gatherers," " Superior Stock," etc. We are — 

 most of us, at least — well aware of the fact that such im- 

 proved stock, as the above terms would mean to imply, 

 would be just what is wanted for the betterment of our in- 

 dustry and an increase in honey-yield, to swell our pocket- 

 books. It remains to be seen, however, whether in reality 

 quite as much improvement has been made as is claimed by 

 many of the bee-keeping craft. I have always been just a 

 little afraid that more claim is made for such a thing as 

 "improvement of stock of the honey-bee " than is really 

 warranted. 



It is true that there are a Jew intelligent bee-keepers 

 who have given much time, study and attention to the 

 breeding part of their apiaries for the production of such 

 queens as will really be superior to the "common run." 

 This can be done by careful selection, keeping a close record 

 of the breeding queens, both from which to rear the daugh- 

 ters and those that are selected for the production of the 

 male sex. This part of the matter in question will be taken 

 up a little later. At present the question confronting us is 

 whether any great improvement of stock of the honey-bee 

 has been made by man in the length of time his attention 

 has been paid to bee-keeping, and with the opportunities he 

 has had for doing so. 



My opinions are so much in accord with those of J. A. 

 Green, in Gleanings in Bee Culture, that it is given here. 

 It is a criticism on some statements made regarding the 

 extent of improvement made by man with the honey-bee : 



Improvement of Bees. 



Is the optimistic tone of the article by R. B. McCain, page 1236, 

 entirely warranted? Is it true that " the 6tock of the honey-bee has 

 been wonderfully improved by man's management in the application 

 of the principles of scientific bee-culture?" It is true, indeed, that 

 there is a great difference in the working qualities of different strains 

 of bee6, and that in some cases we may, perhaps, fairly claim to have 

 accomplished improvement by intelligent selection; but, as a whole, I 

 must say that the results have been pitifully small and inadequate, 

 considering our opportunities. We have frequently had our attention 

 called to the fact that we have exceptional opportunities for improve- 

 ment by breeding and selection on account of the shortness of the 

 generation of the bee ; but have we really made as much improvement 

 in bees as has been made in other domestic animals in the same time? 



It is true that most of us believe that the Italian bee is better than 

 the German-brown or black bee it has superseded in nearly all locali- 

 ties, and that there can be found those who express a preference for 

 each of the other races that have been brought to this country, but the 

 importation of these races is not to be considered as improvements in 

 bees due to man's management or the application of principles of 

 scientific culture. The only thing that can be considered in that light 

 is the change that has been made by breeding and selection since they 

 have come to this country. How much real improvement has there 

 been? I think there has been some; but leaving out the claims of 

 advertisers, many of which are not substantiated by results, and re- 

 membering how many there are who believe that bees from newly 

 imported stock are superior, it does not really seem that anything verv 

 wonderful has been done. 



Too much of our breeding has been done hap-hazard, and without 

 any intelligent system or direction other than the production of yellow 

 bees and nice-looking queens. Will Mr. McCain, or any one else, 



point out where bees have been produced which are better adapted to 

 ptrticular localities, or to particular kinds of work, or where the 

 quality of the honey, other than an improvement in appearance, has 

 been affected by improvement in the stock? 



We must remember that many people have bees that, from one 

 cause or another, are very inferior. W hen one of these gets new 

 stock, no matter where, he is quite sure to get something superior to 

 what he has had. Accordingly he writes a glowing testimonial, which 

 the queen-breeder publishes, and plumes himself on having something 

 really superior, whereas his stock maybe quite ordinary. My own 

 experience with some of this so-called superior stock has been very 

 disappointing. 



My experience has been very much like that of Mr. 

 Green's. Referring to the changing of queens from one 

 country to another, or from one locality to another, yea, 

 even if a queen is taken and introduced into another colony 

 from one in the same yard, it causes a certain stimulus that 

 very frequently results in that the colony with such a 

 change of queens outstrips, or at least does better, than the 

 others. And the consequence is " one of those glowing tes- 

 timonials " for the queen-breeder whence the queen came, 

 no matter who he may be. 



I also agree with Mr. Green when he says that a bee- 

 keeper may have very inferior stock in his apiary. By in- 

 troducing stock of only average quality it may far surpass 

 the old stock. Another testimonial for the queen-breeder, 

 and yet that same queen-breeder has only such stock as be- 

 longs to the common run, or it may even be inferior. 



Many queen-rearing apiaries have heen visited by me 

 in my travels, some of these belonging to some of our largest 

 and foremost queen-breeders (?). The result has been a 

 feeling of disgust whenever the glowing advertisements of 

 some of these chanced to meet the eyes of ye reader. 'Tis 

 true that there are able men among the craft who spend 

 much study upon the subject of queen-rearing, and also to 

 that of breeding, but entirely too many of them, I fear (at 

 least out of the number I have visited), leave off the very 

 important part — that of breeding, and pay all their atten- 

 tion, or too much of it, to the methods of rearing and mat- 

 ing the queens and getting them off for the money. Such 

 could hardly be called queen- breeders t Queen-rearers 

 would be more appropriate for this class, and there should 

 be a distinction between the two. 



A queen-breeder who merely selects a nice-looking 

 mother-queen, that produces nice looking honey-gatherers, 

 even if they are better than the rest in the apiary, and rears 

 his daughter from her to be mated to any drones in the 

 yard, can hardly be held up as a breeder. Queen-breeding 

 and queen-rearing are two things, in my mind, at least. 



This also brings us to the fact that " too much of our 

 breeding has been done hap-hazard, and without any intelli- 

 gent system or direction other than the production of yel- 

 low bees and nice-looking queens." These many, of course, 

 have a record as honey-gatherers. Selection of the queen- 

 mothers receives its share of attention by many breeders, 

 perhaps, but the breeding part of this matter could be much 

 advanced. Is even this much attention given the subject 

 of drone-mothers — mothers that will produce drones of the 

 desired qualities ? This matter of drone-breeding (?) and 

 their control for mating the selected-bred queens should re- 

 ceive more attention. 



I am of the opinion that great results could be obtained 

 if the right and proper steps are taken in the breeding of 

 both our queens and the drones for mating them. Just 

 what the procedure should be will have to be studied out. 

 With the help of discussions on this subject, from the many 

 able bee-men throughout the country, it should be possible 

 to arrive at conclusions that would be valuable. Improved 

 stock would mean a great deal ; it would be worth dollars 

 and cents to the bee-keeper, hence it should be considered 

 thoroughly. 



National Association to Meet in Texas 



San Antonio, Tex., March 24. — The National Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation will hold its 1906 session in San Antonio. 



The low rates offered by many railroads for the annual Grand 

 Army of the Republic convention to be held in Minneapolis almost 

 succeeded in inducing the Executive Board of the bee-keepers to hold 

 the session for this year in the North. A former promise made to 

 Texas, however, led the Board to decide upon San Antonio for the 

 place of meeting, the time to be Nov. 8, 1906. 



This was the first notice of the time and place of the 

 next National Convention that I received. It appeared in 

 Dallas (Tex.) Semi-Weekly News. There will be a three- 

 days' session extending to the 10th. More particulars will 

 be given out from time to time as soon as we learn of them. 



We Southerners are hoping that a good meeting will be 



