914 



Nov. 1, 1906 



American Dee Journal 



out bottoms the hives set on a rack 

 made of 6-inch fence boards, or 2x8 

 scantling, will be about one-fourth of 

 their depth above the top of the ground. 

 Then I set the hives in close together, 

 and cover them with straw to the 

 depth of \ l / z or 2 feet. Then throw on 

 all the dirt from the trench, and dig a 

 good ditch along each side, throwing 

 the dirt over the bees. This ditch 

 must have an outlet so that all the 

 water will be carried off. This will 

 generally give dirt enough; but if it 

 does not cover all the straw 4 or 5 

 inches deep, and make a good peak on 

 top, put on until it does. 



The first year I tried only 19 colonies 

 this way, and they all came out in 

 good shape. Last winter I put in 45, 

 and all wintered nicely except those in 

 the too-deep end of the trench. Some 

 colonies that had old queens came out 

 queenless last spring, but the bees 

 were there all right. 



The man of whom I learned this told 

 me that in 20 years he had not lost a 

 colony of bees that had plenty of stores 

 in the fall. It was hard for me to be- 

 lieve this after all I had read about 

 ventilation, but it is a good way to 

 winter bees, and I doubt whether I 

 shall ever go to the expense of making 

 a cellar. 



Bellevue, Mich. 



The Breeding of Good Queens 



BY GRANT STANLEY 



The American Bee Journal has given 

 its readers some very timely as well 

 as valuable suggestions in " Editorial 

 Notes and Comments," under date of 

 Aug. 23, on the subject of the " Honey- 

 Producer Improving His Stock." In 

 fact, it seems such a valuable subject 

 that more light should be thrown on 

 it, and, if possible, show the absolute 

 necessity of improvement with our 

 bees in the line of breeding, the same 

 as is being done with all other stock. 



It has been said, "Improvement is 

 the order of the age," and this cer- 

 tainly applies well to bee-keeping, as 

 it is true that if the best results are to 

 be obtained from our bees — such as 

 storing surplus, good tempers, excel- 

 lent winterers, and the like — we must 

 look into the matter of improvement, 

 and not allow them to go on in an in- 

 discriminate manner as has been done 

 entirely too long already. This Jour- 

 nal says : 



" Two courses are advised. One is to breed 

 always from the best; the other is to buy from 

 time to time a queen of pure blood from 

 which to breed." 



In an apiary of 20 or 25 colonies and 

 upwards can be found the very best 

 queens from which to breed. The 

 owner of such an apiary is a long step 

 ahead of the beekeeper who purchases 

 his queens, for the reason that he has 

 the knowledge in advance as to what 

 each colony has done during the sea- 

 son. He knows which colonies have 

 stored the largest amount of surplus. 

 He also knows which colonies do little 

 at swarming ; or which have good tem- 

 pers ; or which build no brace or burr 

 combs; or which do not run or sprawl 

 all over the tops of the hives when the 

 covers are off ; or which are good win- 



terers ; or which do not everlastingly 

 stick everything full of propolis, or 

 any other objectionable feature. In 

 fact, as he looks over the apiary at the 

 close of the season, the behavior of 

 each colony comes to mind in a mo- 

 ment. 



Purchasing queens may be well for 

 the bee-keeper with but a few colonies, 

 where possibly no attention has been 

 paid to improvement for a number of 

 years ; but I believe a little caution is 

 necessary in purchasing queens to in- 

 troduce in any apiary of a number of 

 colonies, or quite likely the head may 

 be pinched off the queen that " lays the 

 golden egg." It is encouraging, how- 

 ever, to note that much more attention 

 is being paid to this branch of apicul- 

 ture at present than formerly, and 

 much more can be accomplished in this 

 direction. I believe Mr. McEvoy, one 

 of the foul brood inspectors of Ontario, 

 Canada, said at the last National Con- 

 vention that 90 percent of all queens 

 should be killed. This is certainly a 

 broad statement, but I am inclined to 

 believe there is a great deal in it. The 

 truth of it can be seen in most apiaries. 

 There is one thing about our queen- 

 rearing system that is certainly all 

 wrong, and that is, too little attention 

 is paid to the drone. As long as we do 

 not see that our queens meet desirable 

 or selected drones, we will not have 

 any better queens than at present. If 

 we should rear ever such good queens, 

 and they meet with undesirable drones, 

 our labor is lost. The drone is of fully 

 as much importance as the queen, and 

 in many instances more so, as we shall 

 presently show. However, this is very 

 noticeable in the young bees of an 

 Italian queen that has met with a black 

 drone. 



The question of the male is fully as 

 important in queen-breeding as in 

 other stock. The stockbreeders of the 

 country would certainly laugh at the 

 queen-breeder, or, rather, queen-rearer, 

 who will exercise such great care in 



the selection of his queens, and then 

 allow them to mate with drones indis- 

 criminately, or, more properly speak- 

 ing, by chance. The drones should in 

 no case be reared in the same colony 

 employed for rearing the queens, not 

 only on account of too close inbreed- 

 ing, but no single colony can be found 

 possessing every desirable feature. So 

 we see that the features lacking in 

 the colony in which the queens are 

 reared can be had by wise selection of 

 colonies from which to rear the drones. 



The rearing of drones in all unde- 

 sirable colonies should be reduced to a 

 minimum, while those of the selected 

 colonies should predominate in such 

 numbers as to fly freely. 



Now, while the methods employed in 

 modern queen-rearing are possibly 

 well enough for the queen-breeder, 

 they require too close attention, and 

 are too complicated for the average 

 bee-keeper with a large number of 

 colonies, and possibly several out- 

 apiaries. He has no time to tinker 

 with baby nuclei, or the like. Some 

 method should be employed in the rear- 

 ing of queens so that frames of the 

 same size and style as those used in the 

 apiary can be brought into use — in fact, 

 frames should be interchangeable any- 

 where in the apiary. By the use of a 

 standard frame the nucleus would be 

 much more self-sustaining, provided 

 there was honey coming in, and this 

 would not require such close attention 

 on the part of the bee-keeper, as we 

 know that when the queens must be 

 reared is the time also when the bees 

 are doing good work at storing surplus. 



Another thing : As these small col- 

 onies build mostly worker-comb, the 

 frames would be valuable in an apiary 

 run for extracted honey. This is one 

 of the most important subjects con- 

 nected with our business, and we cer- 

 tainly should have all the light on it 

 that it is possible to get. 



Nisbet, Pa. 



'oufhern 

 'Beedom 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl, New Braunsfels, Tex. 



The National's Mexican Supper 



In the October issue of The Apiar- 

 ist, the editor has the following to say 

 about the Mexican supper, to be given 

 the National at San Antonio : 



" and the following is the menu: 



Tamales, Chile Conearne, Mendo Enchila- 

 dos, Polo Canaros, Corbreto Langua Lam- 

 priodo, Frejoles Tritos, Con Tartillas. When 

 you have eaten the above, and are strong 

 enough to digest it, you will be able to tell 

 what you have eaten, and can be able to 

 speak the Mexican language, and can hollow, 

 ' Hoope la Mona Bravo.' " 



Starts Cells With Queenless 

 Bees— Other Subjects 



On page 816, our old time friend (once a 

 Texas bee-keeper), W. C. Gathright, of Cali- 

 fornia, wished to know if I used queenless 

 bees in getting cells built from drone-comb, 

 as I gave on page 701. 



I do, as I find from practise that queenless 

 bees are the only ones that can always be 

 depended upon to start cells. After they are 

 well started they can be transferred to an 

 upper story of any colony, with a queen-ex- 

 cluder below, placing a frame of brood on 

 either side of the frame containing the cells, 

 so as to attract plenty of nurse-bees to the 



