Milt P^^-P^^p^^ra' 3^$ii«ttt 



(ESTABLISHED 1888) 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE 

 NATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



Office OF Pu BLicATiON - - - 230 Woodlan d Aven u e 



VOL. XXV. DETROIT, MICHIGAN, JUNE 1, 1912. No. 6. 



Breeding and Inbreeding Bees. 



D. STAD. MENHALL. 



-•Jl^ EAR MR. TYRRELL: I thank you for the ^larch Review- 

 JZI/ it is just simply fine. I must tell Air. Howe how I would 

 inbreed bees, at the same time first bringing out one or two 

 other points that may be of interest to others. 



FOUNDATION FOK STSAIN OF BEES. 



Suppose I have only two colonies, one with a pure Italian 

 queen, which we will call colony A, the other colony B, with a black 

 queen that gave 200 pounds of honey, and I wish to establish an 

 apiary combining the honey-gathering' traits of both colonies. 



In the spring I would feed them coiitinua'ly until a flow. Just 

 as soon as possible I would give colony B two frames of drone comb 

 and remove queen from colony A, allowing it to mature one queen 

 cell (really ten — I say one because I think I will be better under- 

 stood) in time to mate with drones from B. 



Note right here this virgin is capable of transmitting all the 

 working traits — blood — of colony A. if she could lay worker eggs 

 before mating, but after mating her workers will have only half 

 the blood, etc., of colony A and half — not of colony B — ^but of drones 

 from colony B, the father of which we know nothing of. but we do 

 know positively that these drones can not transmit all the w^orking 

 traits, etc., of colony B. Therefore, our queen might as well have 

 mated with a drone in Africa so far as combining the working traits, 

 etc., of both colonies. Parthenogenesis with a vengeance — mavbe ! 

 (Truly a blessing in disguise for the bee-keeper, as I will show — 



