664 



Aug. 2, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



gested or known truth." There are plenty of unknown things 

 in apiculture even if some contributors to bee-keeping jour- 

 nals write as if this were not so, if they would but tell all 

 they know! Our knowledge of bees is really very limited. 

 Little is known concerning the parthenogenetic development 

 of drones and the determination of sex; practically nothing, 

 of the finer structures of bees, and verv little concerning the 

 principles of breeding. There is an abundance of good and 

 valuable work yet to be done on the purely scientific side of 

 bee-life, but Experimental Apiculture, as I understand it, 

 deals with a dollars-and-cents proposition, and the thing 

 which appeals most strongly to the bee-keeper is more pounds 

 of honey. In discussing this subject I propose to deal en- 

 tirely with the practical side; and the work suggested is in- 

 tended to lead t,o commercial results. The bee-keeper can, 

 for the present, do without much theory, but he needs 

 money. I firmly believe that a greater theoretical knowledge 

 would be of benefit to bee-keepers, and more work of this 

 kind would benefit apiculture, at least indirectly, but there 

 is still so much of vital interest to be done along practical 

 lines that we can confine ourselves to that in the short time 

 allotted for this discussion. What is wanted, then, is more 

 honey, and to this we must bend our energy. Instead of 

 speaking about Experimental Apiculture in general, it may 

 be better to give special instances of desirable experimental 

 work in apiculture. 



One of the first things which seems to warrant men- 

 tion is the need of better methods of queen-rearing. Enor- 

 mous strides have been made in this branch of the apicul- 

 tural industry in late years but, after all, the methods are 

 crude and too uncertain. During the past summer I have 

 tried, several times, every method of queen-rearing of whicfi 

 I knew, in the apiary of the Bureau of Entomology, and 

 have succeeded in rearing good queens with all of them, 

 but there seem to be some faults in all, and every point at 

 which there remains a chance of failure should be exam- 

 ined, and the method improved if possible. After these 

 trials, I conclude that artificial queen-cells will yield more 

 uniformly good results than natural cells, because the en- 

 vironment is more under the control of the operator; and 

 that mating in nuclei is much preferable to the use of 

 large colonies in decreasing the labor necessary; but we 

 need improvement in our appliances and methods of manipu- 

 lation. We want more uniformity of result, a decrease in 

 the necessary manipulation, and greater assurance of suc- 

 cess, and these, it seems to me, are the things for which to 

 work. The most urgent present need, it seems to me, is 

 an improved combined nursery-and-introducing cage, and a 

 style of mating-box which will rarely require refilling dur- 

 ing the entire season, and practically no feeding; and these 

 two things will receive the first consideration in our apiary. 



Bee-keepers should know that bees, left to themselves, 

 will not always rear good queens, and the only safe method 

 is to re-queen at least every 2 years, and preferably every 

 year. This is preached enough, I know, but a small per- 

 cent of honey-producers practice it, I fear. It need scarcely 

 be added that, a sure method of introducing queens — not 

 necessarily one said to be sure, whereby there would be no 

 failures, or even fewer — would result in the saving of sev- 

 eral thousand dollars a year to bee-keepers. 



The improvement of forage is another thing which needs 

 attention, but this must be dealt with by some one else, for 

 my present work is necessarily confined to entomology, and 

 botanical subjects do not come directly under my supervision. 

 I feel, however, that there is much to be done here. New 

 plants can be imported which will be of great value, no doubt, 

 and, above all, our present forage can be improved in nectar- 

 secretion. 



There is room for improvement in hive-appliances, ex- 

 tractors, forage, and other things, but the age place where 

 there is the greatest need for improvement nas been gen- 

 erally neglected by bee-keepers ; I refer to the improvement 

 of the bees themselves. All bee-keeping is pre-eminently 

 breeding work. The honey is the product and the ultimate 

 object of the industry, but the working problem is strictly 

 one of breeding. The bee-keeper can increase his output 

 by improvment in two places: first, in the manipulation and 

 food supply; and, second, in the bees themselves. Manipu- 

 lation and food supply are being discussed continually, but 

 we get very little real information on the improvement of 

 bees. I do not refer now so much to the introduction of new 

 races, but, particularly, to selection of breeding stock. 



The Italian race of bees was introduced into this coun- 

 try about i860, and the credit for this important introduc- 

 tion need not concern us at this time. The important thing 

 now is to examine the situation to see how much this race 

 has been affected by breeding in the hands of the bee- 

 keepers of this country since its introduction. From about 

 i860 on, there has been, in some quarters, an interest in 

 breeding this race for color and this has been done very 

 successfully, several different breeders having taken up this 

 line of work and succeeding, by selection, is producing 5- 

 banded Italians. As an example of what can be done by 

 careful selection among bees this work is of value to us. 

 Other breeders have selected for gentleness, and, since this 

 character is not as measurable as color, it is harder to make 

 definite statements concerning the results obtained, but it is 

 evident that, either intentionally or accidentally, some good 

 has been done along this line. 



But the main object in the keeping of bees is honey- 

 production ; how much has the average output per colony 

 been increased in the past 45 years? Every bee-keeper knows 

 that the more populous the colony during the honey-flow the 

 more surplus honey stored, other things, such as honey-flow 

 and weather, being equal. The problem, then, reduces itself 

 very largely to the fecundity of the queens, and the question 



DB. E. F. PHILLIPS. 



may be changed so as to ask how much the prolificness of 

 Italian queens has been increased in the past 45 years. 



Another very important factor in honey-production is the 

 eagerness with which bees go after nectar ; and a third is 

 the tongue-length, enabling them to reach the nectar in long 

 corolla-tubes. Italians lack the eagerness which is possessed 

 by Cyprians, but there are Italian colonies which have it to 

 a marked degree. Several strains of long-tongued or "Red 

 Clover" Italian bees have arisen in the past few years, but 

 what is the history of the strains? When a queen is sold 

 and introduced into a honey-producer's apiary, before many 

 generations, the progeny cease to work on red clover, if 

 they ever did ; for the reason that proper selection is 

 scarcely ever practiced, and there is not close enough in- 

 breeding. This is certainly due to lack of proper methods 

 in following up the breeding. 



We may conclude, then, that prolificness, vigor, and 

 tongue-length, which frequently appear in Italian bees, are 

 not ordinarily used to proper advantage by the majority of 

 bee-keepers. Anyone reading the reports of the early Italian 

 importations will see that the average per colony, throughout 

 the country, is not much better than it was 45 years ago, and 

 in some strains there is reason to believe that it is less. 

 Of course this is not true in certain apiaries, but I teel 

 sure this holds for the country in general, and I am inclined 



