146 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



again, do not use a queen for a breeder whose daughters do not 

 average over seventy-five per cent extra good queens, for you are 

 taking a step back if you do. Eighty and ninety per cent are good 

 breeders. Ninety-seven per cent is the best 1 ever had a queen do. 

 This is a fact, and can be done again. Of course, I had the right 

 drone mothers for that queen's daughters to mate with. I want a 

 queen for a breeder that will reproduce Jiersclf, so strong in all good 

 points, and that her daughters are very even in honey production. 



IKEV PRESENT BBEESER. 



The foundation of my strain now, after breeding these bees for 

 eleven years or more (and I have the best queen mother I ever 

 had), is a Robey queen, or from that strain on her mother's side, 

 and everything leads me to believe that she was mated to a Robey 

 drone, 



I have the color fairly fixed in this strain. The bees are easily 

 detected from any queen mated to these drones. This queen is No. 

 58. She has wintered perfectly every winter. She will be four 

 years old in August, 1910, and has produced a large crop of honey 

 every season. Yes, and did in 1910. Had some d^aughters that pro- 

 duced more, but was one of the best at four years old, and is the 

 mother of more extra good queens than any two breeding queens 

 I ever had. 



I do not know just how many hundreds of queens I have 

 reared from her, and scarcely a poor queen in the whole lot of them. 

 Even the queens that are mismated are good honey gatherers. Some 

 were hard to beat. 



I can not boast of beauty in my bees ; but, when it comes to 

 honey, I will leave that to some one who has tested them to tell. 

 Not only are these bees superior in a good season, but show their 

 breeding in a poor season, producing a fair crop of honey, while 

 some other strains scarcely make a living. 



I bought 70 colonies of 'black bees in the spring, 1909, putting 



them 3^ miles from the home apiary, which has 250 colonies. 



Mind you, I run the out-yard using full sheets of foundation in most 



of the shallow extracting supers, running them mostly for extracted 



honey, and they produced a little less than one-half as much per 



colony as the home-yard did, run for comb honey. I said mostly 



full sheets of foundation. The rest was drawn combs. There was 



more work and care to each colony than at the home-yard. 



{Continued in May issue.) 



(Judging by the flood of letters I have received, Dr. Bonney and Mr. 

 Howe have started something. I have been very much surprised to learn 

 what a live subject this question of "better bees" is. Many letters and some 

 articles have been received which I would like to use, but I am afraid of 

 drawing out the discussion so long that it will become tiresome to my readers. 

 However, as you are the judge, if you would like it continued through several 

 months more, just drop me a postal card to that effect.) 



