444 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



THIS IS Mi:irDi:i.'s i.aw. 



The following, with diagram, providing the black coloring mat- 

 ter is dominant* will give some idea of the value of Mendel's Law 

 in reference to the breeding of bees : 



Blacli Drone 



Italian_Virgin 



First and second year 

 queen mother. Pequeen 

 all hives \7ith daughters 

 of this queen. 



These queens are t(b be the mothers 

 of the drones for the comins season. 

 It makes no difference what they 

 mate with. The queens shpuld show 

 all "black, yet they ore really by 

 blood strain *• black ar.d -5 Ital- 

 ian. Both drones and virgins 

 are of the same blood strain. 

 Black \ yet they appear to be blacj-s 

 in looks. 



Dominence means that if in mating two (2) strains or races, if 

 the issue resembles one parent to the exclusion of the other, that 

 parent would be dominant, but the hidden or recessive character 

 will show itself in the following generation : 



This will give the issue of three generations of crosses, begin- 

 ning with a pure black drone and a pure Italian virgin. 



Cross of pure Italian virgin to black drones earl}^ in the season. 

 From the mated queen produce a sufficient number of virgins to 

 re-queen all your colonies with the exception of the hive containing 

 the first queen crossed. Next season trap down the drones from this 

 colony, and you will have nothing but drones from the daughters of 

 the first queen crossed flying from your yard. 



This season you will again use the first queen crossed to pro- 

 duce your virgins, which will mate with the drones from the daugh- 

 ters of the queen used for breeding last season ; both the virgin and 

 the drones are of the same blood strain. 



Now comes the queer part, the Alendel part, the issue of the 

 last matings will be, out of every four (4) eggs : 



*It has not so far been satisfactoril}- demonstrated that either black or yellow 

 is dominant in the races of bees, so the above proviso. 



