284 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



® 0r ri^sp onxljcntjc* 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Drones. 



In a paper published in Tiii; American 

 Bee Journal for July, page 188, Mr. Geo. 

 Thompson urges the importance of looking 

 more to the drone, as a means of improving 

 the Italian bee. His conclusions are proper 

 enough for him to maintain, and would 

 probably do but little or no harm were it 

 not for two reasons, which impel me to 

 claim some sjiace in the Journal, for the 

 purpose of showing their fallacy. 



First. He supports his theory by quota- 

 tions from Dzierzon. Berlepscli, Vogel, and 

 Langstroth, which are, to some extent, in 

 point. Now I assume that the opinions and 

 theories of any and all of those eminent 

 apiarians are valuable, just in proportion as 

 they are the result of actual experience and 

 careful observation; and to no greater ex- 

 tent. If those men have sliown how, and 

 especially why we should, as Berlepsch 

 says, "constantly endeavor to presevere and 

 breed from the finest, that is, the most 

 brightly colored drones," tlien we should, 

 at least, test the matter thoroughly before 

 rejecting their theories. But if experience 

 teaches us that "briglitly colored drones" 

 are not a test of their purityj then we 

 should not hesitate to reject their theories 

 as readily as if it was tlie whim of the 

 veriest novice in bee-keeping. My experi- 

 ence is that Italian (pieens tiiat produce 

 pure worker progeny, and whose daughters 

 are of unifoim color, invariably produce 

 drones of a uniform color, but not as a rule 

 of the bright siiades — not " brightly colored 

 drones." I can see but very little difference 

 in the shade of the drones produced from 

 over thirty pure Italian queens; while 

 queens which are hybrid, although from 

 pure mating their worker progeny may ap- 

 pear pure, are more likely to produce 

 "brightly colored drones." Those that are 

 not pure, and that have mated with black 

 drones, almost invariably produce tinely 

 marked, bright drones. 



A friend of mine, who is surrounded by 

 black bees, introduced tin-ee or four (pieens, 

 which I removed in 18T4 on account of ma- 

 ting badly, and 1 never saw a tiner lot of 

 drones than he has from the daughters of 

 the queens I gave him; while the drones of 

 the old queens are not unusually bright. 

 Another instance:— In May, 1875, I sent a 

 colony of bees, whose queen had mated 

 badly, to a friend wdio was surrounded by 

 black bees. It swarmed twice, and as her 

 worker ])rog('ny was hybrid, so was her 

 queen progeny. They in turn mated with 

 black drones. The drone i)rogeny of those 

 young (iiicens, product'd this year, are very 

 bright — the wlioh- abdomen being of a 

 bright golden hue. Would these be i)roper 

 drones for bee fathers? Certainly they 

 would if "bright colored drones" are the 

 only ones to breed to, to insure pure Italian 

 bees. If the color is not a test in one in- 

 stance, can it be relied upon in any case? 



Secon<i.— Mr. T. insists that the" nude bee 

 should be looked to as much as the female. 

 He says: "Let me draw your attention to 

 the fact that cattle and fowl breeders give 

 as much, if not more heed to the male, and 



they are very successful in their opera- 

 tions." Why select "cattle and fowls" 

 only, unless he intends to term "cattle" to 

 include all domestic animals, which 1 think 

 he did. But let us take him literally, and 

 see if the parallel exists between cattle 

 breeding and bee breedine. In the first 

 place, in cattle breeding, the male as well 

 as the female has a sire. This is not 

 true of tlie bee. In the second place, if 

 the breeder wishes beef, he has the muscu- 

 lar developments of both male and female 

 to guide him in his selections. In this no 

 parallel exists in the honey bee. If he 

 desires milk, he must, in selecting the 

 males, select only from breeds that are the 

 best milk producers, must be controlled by 

 the qualities of the mother and ancestors; 

 just as in getting good honey-gathering 

 bees. The stock breeder looks to the male 

 for the reason that in it, as a general rule,he 

 can see the qualities which he most desires, 

 while the bee-breeder cannot see a single 

 quality in the drone which he would desire 

 to perpetuate, unless it be the color. The 

 queen should be healthy and prolific, and 

 from the best honey-gathering stocks. The 

 bees should be good honey gatherers, and it 

 is desirable that they be docile, and bright 

 colored, at least uniform in color. The 

 drones should be of stocks possessing the 

 qualities desired and that is all that can be 

 attained. If bees are pure I find no difficul- 

 ty in their disi^osition. If they are a cross 

 with the black bee I always find them allied 

 closely in temper to the hornet. The dis- 

 position will call attention to impurity 

 wiiere the eye will not detect it, save in the 

 queen progeny. 



If so much depends upon the color of the 

 drone, then my friend Thompson should be 

 very careful in selecting not to get those 

 which evince any irritability of temper, lest 

 by mating with a queen of a cross breed she 

 might produce bees that would be a terror 

 to the nations. He should select only large, 

 lusty, fat drones (good feeding develops the 

 finer qualities) and make a specialty of tak- 

 ing those (if honey is his object) which 

 have an ability to "gather in" the largest 

 amount of honey in the shortest space of 

 time, and if the color is all right we may- 

 look for results. J. E. Richie. 



Lima, O., Aug. 16, 1870. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Alsike Clover as a Honey Plant. 



Dear Editor:— As you desire the ex- 

 perience of your readers with alsike clover 

 as a honey plant, I will say, I have tried it 

 on a stiff clay soil and it has not given satis- 

 faction, and 'I much prefer white clover; in 

 fact the alsike soon disajipears and the 

 white clover takes its place. It may do on 

 wet bottom land. It is certainly a fine 

 honev plant, and by sowing every year 

 would produce a fine crop of honey, but the 

 white clover is as good and holds its own 

 from year to year without i-e-sowing. 



My "bees are now gathering honey from 

 honey-dew, and are filling up rapidly. I'l* 

 is the first li(mev-dew we have had this 

 season. I am glad you are calling the at- 

 tention of bee-keepers to the importance of 

 cultivating honey-producing ))lants. lobe 

 successful in bee-keeping we must have 

 pasturage for our bees. If all our bee- 

 keepers would plant linn, poplar, tulip, and 



