THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



167 



to become an eminent breeder. If gifted 

 with these qualities, and he studies his 

 subject for years, and devotes his hfetime 

 to it with indomitable perseverance, he 

 will succeed; if he lacks any of these 

 qualities he will assuredly fail. Few 

 would readily believe in the natural ca- 

 pacity and years of practice requsite to 

 become even a skillful pigeon-fancier. ' ' 



It may be objected that the breeder of 

 bees can not control his male bees, con- 

 sequently his work is largely one of chance ; 

 and there is some ground for this objec- 

 tion, but, on the other hand, the queen 

 breeder can raise several generations in a 

 single season, or raise and thoroughly 

 test two or three generations, while the 

 breeder of domestic animals can rear only 

 one; which will largely compensate for 

 his inablity to control the mating of his 

 queens. 



Before the advent of movable coiub.s 

 the breeding of bees or the improvement 

 of bees was attended with far greater dif- 

 ficulties than at present; and we are not 

 surprised that they have changed less 

 than other animal life under domestica- 

 tion; but now with the improvements of 

 the last fifty years, and the light these 

 improvements have given us, may we not 

 expect that future improvement vnW be 

 rapid? 



The separation of l)ees into several well 

 known breeds, and the tendency of these 

 breeds to vary, aided by the skill of some 

 of our queen breeders, leads me to be- 

 lieve that we may some day have a dis- 

 tinctively American breed adapted to our 

 hot simimers and cold winters, and great 

 variety of flowers. Already I believe we 

 have much lighter colored bees than may 

 be found in Europe. As there has been 

 a demand for light colored bees, the 

 change in this direction has been more 

 marked than in any other, but we must 

 not forget that the amount of hone}' gath- 

 ered by a hive of bees does not depend 

 upon their color, but rather upon other 

 and more valuable points of excellence. 

 I do not object to color, for bright color- 

 ed bees give pleasure to our love of the 



beautiful, and our climate and flora seem 

 well adapted to such a race of bees, but 

 I believe this matter of color has been 

 carried far enough for the present. Let 

 us rather select for queen breeding those 

 varieties the workers of which show the 

 greatest ability to gather honey; white 

 honey if it is to be had, and if not, can 

 gather that which is darker; and those in 

 which the swarming impulse is but feebly 

 developed. Strength of constitution, 

 gentleness, comb-building, prolificness 

 and other qualities should not be neglect- 

 ed in making up the scale of points. A 

 stream can not rise above its fountain. 

 Let our ideal bees be far in advance of 

 our present breeds, and let us do what we 

 can to bring our bees up to our ideal 

 standard. " Bring the flag back to the 

 ranks " was the command of the Captain 

 to his color bearer who had planted his 

 fl^g in advance of his company. "Bring 

 your ranks up to the flag" was his heroic 

 reply. How shall we reach our ideal ? 

 Says a popular writer: "The key is man's 

 power of cumulative selection; nature 

 gives successive variations; man adds 

 them up in certain directions useful to 

 himself. In this sense he may be said to 

 have made for himself useful breeds." 



Doubtless honey producers must de- 

 pend to a considerable extent upon the 

 queen breeder for these improvements. 

 His experience, the time at his command, 

 and the skill he has acquired, gives him 

 greatly the advantage of those who are 

 working for honey alone. The efforts of 

 the queen breeder may also be greatly aided 

 by the honey producer. Both must work 

 together for a connnon object. The hon- 

 ey producer from his larger number of 

 colonies has a better chance to test the 

 value of queens than has the queen breed- 

 er; while the latter can do more to multi- 

 ply and make valuable qualities perma- 

 nent. Sometimes a single colony will be 

 very marked in almost every good quality, 

 in a yard of one hundred hives. Such a 

 colony came under my observation some 

 years ago in one of my yards. Quiet, 

 gentle, business-like in brooding and 



