June 13, 1907 



519 



American Hee Journal 



I said, "The honey is the thing I am 

 after; i can stand all the rest." They 

 convinced me after a while that I 

 couldn't stand all the rest. I had to 

 fight with my a-ssistant. I killed a queen 

 and she showed some temper. 



Mr. Ford— Which showed the temper, 

 the queen or the assistant? 



Dr. Miller — Both. She would insist 

 that if they only brought the honey the 

 queen must be allowed to live. If I 

 had it to do over again I would not 

 do exactly the same thing as I did, be- 

 cause I know that the matter of temper 

 is a thing that must be reckoned with. 

 They can go so far you can not stand 

 it; at least I could not, without a veil, 

 and I do not like to wear a veil all the 

 time. My assistant wears a veil all 

 the time. 



Dr. Bohrer — What kind of trousers 

 do you wear ? 



Dr. Miller — I don't handle them with 

 my trousers! [Laughter.] 



Dr. Bohrer — Don't the bees crawl up 

 your trousers ? They do mine. 



Dr. Miller — Answering your question, 

 I wear white trousers. It is a fact that 

 hybrids are much more variable in char- 

 acter than anything like the pure blood 

 of the Italians, and when you art 

 working and selecting to get the best, 

 as I suspect Mr. Taylor is — he was more 

 fortunate in it or else more careful than 

 I, and in his selections he has good-na- 

 tured hybrids and I have them just the 

 reverse. He shakes his head. How is 

 that? 



Mr. Taylor — I did not select. I have 

 killed just 2 queens in my time on ac- 

 count of the irascibility of the bees; that 

 is all. 



Dr. Miller — Perhaps I gave a wron^j 

 impression. When I have found one 

 especially cross lot, through the years, 

 I have killed that queen, always ; but 

 I have not paid as much attention as 

 I should have done to the temper of 

 queens. There is, I think, the whole 

 thing in a nutshell. The bees vary a 

 great deal, and if one man says the 

 Italians are better, and another says 

 the hybrids are better, they may have 

 different kinds of the same bees. I 

 believe, as a rule, that the hybrid bees 

 will give you more honey than the pure 

 Italians. Now it does not follow from 

 that that it is the best thing to breecT 

 entirely from hybrid bees, because they 

 will split all up and you don't know 

 where you are going, as I said before ; 

 if you keep trying to breed pretty near 

 pure Italians, you will get enough hy- 

 brid stuff in to keep up the black. 

 Try to keep them pretty nearly pure, and 

 you will have more or less black blood 

 in them. 



Mr.Taylor — Some reference was made 

 to the Doctor's trousers. I have often 

 been amused in the remarks he has 

 made in his writing about the bees get- 

 ting up his trousers. 



Dr. Miller — Please allow me to cor- 

 rect you. I did not say anything about 

 their getting up my trousers. 



Mr. Taylor — They don't -crawl up 

 my trousers. They fly. The trouble 

 with your bees, Doctor, is you have too 

 much Italian blood in them. They 

 won't fly at all. 



Mr. Kimmey — You speak of Italian 

 and hybrid. We started out to speak 



about golden. I understand there is a 

 difference between 3-bander and golden. 



Dr. Miller— Yes. 



Mr. Kimme\- — What is the difference, 

 in your experiince, between the 3-band- 

 cr and the golden? 



Dr. Miller — .\s I said before, the gold- 

 ens vary so much it would be hard to 

 answer that directly. Some of them 

 are one kind and some of the goldens 

 are another. They are a variation from 

 the pure stock. I do not count them as 

 pure. There may be black blood in 

 the golden stock, in the leather-colored 

 variety, or in the 3-banders. I would 

 not expect to find any black blood in 

 them, although possibly there might be 

 some there, and the thing has got where 

 I do not see how we are going to talk 

 about what pure queens are. If you 

 have golden stock with $ bands, and 

 then get a little black blood mixed in 

 and cut down to 3 bands, then you can 

 not say 3 bands is a sure sign of pure 

 stock. 



Mr. Wilcox — What is your standard 

 of purity, then? 



Dr. Miller — I haven't any. 



Mr. Lyman — I don't know that I am 

 correct in this, but it has seemed to me 

 that there is quite a little difference in 

 which way the cross is made, whether 

 you start with an Italian queen or a 

 black queen I think in my experience 

 that the black queen- cross, from an Ital- 

 ian drone with a black queen, produces 

 a gentler bee than the other cross. 



Mr. Sewell — I hate to hear the golden 

 queen slandered here. I would like to 

 speak right out in meeting and say 

 where the golden queen comes from, and 

 you will know what I am talking about. 

 A golden queen from one breeder and 

 one from another are different. If I 

 say it comes from Doolittle, you know 

 what it is. That queen led the yara, 

 after coming from New York State 

 by mail; but this year a leather-color- 

 ed queen led the yard. And so it is — one 

 year it may be one, and another year 

 another. But those golden queens have 

 decided advantages. One is finding the 

 queen; another perhaps is gentleness; 

 and those golden bees crossed with 

 some of the other blood are very prolific. 

 In managing and manipulating them, 

 getting hives for them, etc., I have an 

 idea that the S-framd hive would be 

 very much better for them than the 

 10. I have had leather-colored queens 

 from about 5 different breeders. Some 

 were not good for anything. Some have 

 been very good. They are very prolific. 

 They lay, all the year round, more than 

 the golden, but they lay in the spring — 

 they just fill the hive all at once, while 

 the golden queens will lay right straight 

 along through the year. Two years ago 

 the flow was a gradual one all through 

 the year, and tli.it is the reason I think 

 the golden prculuced more honey than 

 the other bees, whos*^ queens laid tb- 

 hive full of egss all at once, and then 

 later on perhaps were a little scant with 

 their brood. But I would like to hear 

 more of an expicssion, or, if the thing 

 was reliable, I would like to know just 

 exactly which t!:'- best bees are. 



Dr. Miller — I ii;U you will never learn. 



Pres. York — ^ ui will have to read the 



advertisements, and then try yourself. 



Mr. Sewell— 1 have read the adver- 



tisemenf;. I have had queens from at 

 least 8 breeders; I do not know but 

 from more. It is a very interesting 

 study to me, the more different fraits 

 from different breeders, what I can pro- 

 duce and what I can get from the dil- 

 ferent kinds of queens. 1 can not al- 

 ways get the same thing even from the 

 same man, of course. A golden queen 

 has very decided advantages on one 

 side, and perhaps the darker varieties 

 have advantages on the other side, and 

 it depends largely on the year, the 

 honey-flow, etc., just which kind is 

 wanted, and you can not always tell 

 just what it is going to be beforehand. 



Plain Section or Bee-Way? 



"Which is the better, the plain sec- 

 tion or the bee-way section?" 



Pres York — How many prefer ths 

 plain section? Raise your hands. None. 

 How many prefer the bee-way sec- 

 tion? About 10, I think. Do you 

 want to say anything about this? 



Pres. York— Why do you prefer the 

 bee-way section over the plain? I think 

 Mr. Taylor raised his hand on that. 



Mr. Taylor— Yes. One reason is that 

 they are at least as good as \ plain, and 

 I do not have to change. 



Miss Wilson— They are easier handl- 

 ed. 



Mr. Abbott— My reason is that you 

 have to have less traps. I do not use 

 separators. I could not use a no-bee- 

 way section without a separator. 



Dr. Miller— Why are they easier 

 handled? Miss Wilson has handled a 

 good many of both kinds. 

 ^ Miss Wilson— When the plain sec- 

 tions are filled right out plump to the 

 wood you are apt to break the honey 

 in scraping them and getting them ready 

 for market; and if they fall over, as 

 they tumble over easily, they are more 

 apt to break. 



Mr. Taylor— Let me ask Miss Wilson, 

 if they fall over, as they evidently are 

 bulged a little, and the comb strikes- 

 is that what you mean? 



Miss Wilson— Well, it may not be that 

 they strike that, but there may be a 

 little something on the board that may 

 fall on to them, just a little tiny bit. 



Mr. Taylor— In regard to cleaning 

 and packing them, if that was the case 

 the combs would touch. 



Miss Wilson— Yes, I think they would, 

 perhaps. You have to be very careful. 

 Mr. Taylor— It always seemed to me 

 —I have never tried them, I don't want 

 to try them— but it always seemed to 

 me that there would be "more or less 

 difficulty in that way, that thev would 

 be slightly bulged and interfere 'in pack- 

 ing. 



Miss Wilson— But in handling them 

 and scraping them you are so apt to 

 put your finger in them. When you 

 handle a great many in one dav it is 

 quite a drawback. 



Dr. Miller— You say when they fall 

 over. Do either fall over? 

 Miss Wilson — Yes, sometimes 

 Dr. Miller— Which one falls easier? 

 Miss Wihon— The plain section. 

 Pres. York— When I was in the honey 

 busmess I handled a good deal of honey 

 in plain sections, and they were put in 

 shipping-cases just the same as the 

 others, but I did not notice any scrap- 



