June 20, 1907 



543 



American IBae Journal k 



Mr. Taylor — My object in keeping 

 bees is to make something out of them. 

 I want to make the largest percent on 

 my labor, efforts, and expense, that I 

 can, and I think 1 can make more by 

 letting the bees do the work ; and now- 

 adays I do not practice meddling with 

 the queens except in an occasional — very 

 exceptional case. Of course, once in a 

 while, when I see that there is any need 

 of a new queen, and that the bees are 

 not likely to supersede the queen them- 

 selves immediately, I may interfere ! but 

 I let the bees do that work, and 1 do 

 not believe that I could improve much 

 on it any way. 



Mr. Whitney — If you find you have 

 an old queen, and she is liable to be 

 superseded, perhaps in the fall, it seems 

 to me it would be a good deal better 

 to supersede her in August than to let 

 the bees supersede her in October when 

 there are no drones flying, when you are 

 liable to have a virgin queen there, to 

 be a drone-layer in the spring. 



Mr. Taylor — That is not likely to be 

 the case. Bees supersede their queens 

 in the summer-time. Of course, that is 

 the time to do it, and they seem to know 

 that that is the time to do it. Of course, 

 there may be exceptional cases, but I 

 should very much dislike to overhaul 

 50 colonies of bees to find out whether 

 there was one queen that needed super- 

 seding, because the bees were going to 

 supersede her in the fall. It doesn't 

 pay- 

 Mr. Whitney — Keep a record of the 

 age of the queens. 



Mr. Taylor— That makes lots of 

 work. 



Mr. Wilcox — I am astonished, and I 

 want to know if anybody else has ever 

 thought of such a thing as queens be- 

 ing superseded in October, a month or 

 two after the season's harvest was over. 

 I did not know that such a thing ever 

 happened except by accident. 



Mr. Abbott — I confess I am aston- 

 ished. I am like Dr. Miller now. I 

 arn more astonished than he was, to 

 think that any one would advocate at 

 this time that we should let nature alone. 

 Let me give you an illustration from 

 the dairy business: The Babcock test 

 has eliminated from the dairies of this 

 country about half the cows that were 

 in the hands of intelligent dairymen, be- 

 cause they were eating more than they 

 produced. It is not necessary to over- 

 haul a colony to see how old the queen 

 is. It is unnecessary to "count the 

 rings on her horns" as vou do on a 

 cow to see how old she is. It is only 

 necessary for the intelligent manipulator 

 to know that there is a colony, No. 22, 

 that is not paying its way. If 22 is 

 not paying its way, 9 chances out of 

 10 the queen is responsible for the non- 

 payment. An intelligent answer, it 

 seems to me, would be to take off the 

 head of No. 22's queen and put one in 

 there that you thought was better. That 

 would be improving on what we call 

 the "natural method," just as the dairy 

 people by selection have improved the 

 Jersey cows and the Holstein cows un- 

 til they have nearly doubled the but- 

 ter-production of the Holstein herds. 

 If they can double the butter-produc- 

 tion of the Holsteins by careful selec- 

 tion, can not the bee-keepers and queen- 



breeders eliminate the poor queens and 

 double the production of the colonics 

 of bees in the country in the same way? 

 It seems to me we can. This is an 

 age of progress and scientific investiga- 

 tion, and we ought to take advantage 

 of it, it ^ecms to me. Take the heads 

 off the queens whose colonies are not 

 paying their way. 



Mr. Taylor — I do not like to take up 

 the time of this Association in talk- 

 ing. I like to say a word once in a 

 while, but I do not like to talk so much. 

 If you are willing to bear with me a 

 few minutes, 1 will try to explain this 

 thing that Mr. Abbott seems to be en- 

 tirely astray on. Now the two cases are 

 not parallel at all. 



Dr. Miller — Correct. 



Mr. Taylor — I am glad you are with 

 me. Doctor. They are not parallel at 

 all. It will take me 2 or 3 minutes to 

 explain why they are not parallel. Take 

 cattle. I suppose originally they were 

 in a wild state, and they had long horns 

 and they were fleet of foot, and they 

 had great courage, and they were rust- 

 lers. That is, they \vere fitted to their 

 environment. They were so " ct- 

 ed and so developed that they were 

 able to survive under the hard circum- 

 stances in which they were placed. They 

 were able to fight. They were able to 

 escape their enemies by flight, when it 

 was really necesssary. They were able t ) 

 hunt their food in difiicult places. Now, 

 then, suppose Mr. Abbott had some of 

 those cattle and he wanted to develop 

 them in the line of fighting and rustliiig 

 for their food and fleeing from enemies, 

 and this sort of thing. Would he be so 

 particular about picking out animals 

 that were not fleet and not fighters? 

 Why, no. He would not expect to de- 

 velop them very much. They have been 

 developing for ages and ages. The weak 

 ones have gone down always. They 

 could not get food. They could not 

 escape their enemies. They could not 

 repel their enemies, and they have de- 

 veloped, I may say, to the highest pos- 

 sible stage of that sort of existence. 

 Now take bees. The bees have not been 

 developed as fighters particularly, ex- 

 cept what was necessary to keep out 

 certain enemies, but they have been de- 

 veloped from the very first for the pro- 

 duction of honey, because upon that 

 alone has the existence and continuance 

 of the race depended. Now I know it 

 is against the generally received opin- 

 ion among bee-keepers, but bee-keepers 

 are all astray in this everlasting talk 

 about improving the honey-gathering 

 qualities of bees. Why, we can do a 

 deal better than that. They are de- 

 veloped. Of course, we may do a lit- 

 tle something in the way of increas- 

 ing that, but we perhaps better do it 

 negatively. We ought to let those that 

 are not doing well perish of themselves, 

 as they will. We make a mistake in 

 nursing up those that are not able to 

 survive of their own efforts, and feed- 

 ing them and trying to get them through 

 the winter, and all this sort of thing; 

 but if we turn our attention to develop- 

 ing bees in the way of right capping of 

 honey, in the way of making white 

 comb honey, in the way of properly fill- 

 ing their <i ctions, making straight 



combs — for there is quite a difference 

 in that — and in some other points that 

 1 might mention if I could take the time 

 to do it, I tell you we would make a 

 big improvement in bees, for the rea- 

 son that the bees have not found it 

 necessary to develop in these lines. It 

 didn't make any difference to them 

 whether the comb was white or dark, 

 or what was the matter with it, only 

 that they had honey where they could 

 get it. Now I say, if I had any influence 

 among bee-keepers I would have them 

 turn their attention to doing something 

 that there was some prospect of their 

 being able to acomplish. 



Dr. Miller — I want to apologize to 

 Mr. Taylor for agreeing with him. 

 [Laughter.] I am very sorry I said 

 a friendly word toward him. Mr. Ab- 

 bott, I tlimk, switched off entirely from 

 the question, and when Mr. Taylor 

 followed and drove the wild cattle, he 

 went still farther. The question was 

 raised whether it is better to allow the 

 bees to supersede, or for the bee-keep- 

 er to take the matter in his own hands. 

 Then Mr. Abbott raises a very import- 

 ant question and he did not say too 

 much about that, and I am with Mr. 

 .■\bbott and dead set against Mr. Taylor, 

 that he can not improve the bees. But 

 they are both away from the question. 

 The question is not whether we are go- 

 ing to improve our bees, but whether, 

 with the bees we have, it is better for 

 us to take the matter of superseding 

 into our hands or leave it in the hands 

 of the bees. I regret to say I am with Mr. 

 Taylor in thinking it is best to leave it 

 to the bees! [Laughter.] 



Mr. Wheeler — I stand for Mr. Taylor. 



Dr. Miller — Keep to the question now. 



Mr. Wheeler — No, I think for the 

 benefit of the convention, if you will 

 allow us a word about this very im- 

 portant question — 



Dr. Miller — Yes ; but let us finish this 

 other question first, and then go to that. 



Mr. Wheeler — Mr. Taylor and Mr. 

 Abbott have been talking on a ques- 

 tion that I think is very vital to bee- 

 keepers. 



Mr. Todd — Take it up after lunch. It 

 is a big question they are discussing. 



Mr. Wheeler — Just as you people say. 

 I would like to say a word about the 

 requeening of bees. 



Mr. Taylor — I would su,ggest to wait 

 until it comes up. We will have it up 

 after this, I presume. 



Mr. Whitney — I simply wish to re- 

 ply to Mr. Wilcox in regard to super- 

 seding. Perhaps I made a little strong 

 statement, but when I close up my hives 

 with a clipped queen and in the spring 

 I find a young queen with two good 

 wings, I conclude that the queen has 

 superseded. 



Mr. Wilcox — I asked that question 

 for the interest of the published report, 

 not particularly for the bee-keepers 

 present, but it will be read by the 

 people all over the world, and I did not 

 want it to appear, unless it was true, 

 that the queen was superseded in Oc- 

 tober. I did not know it was. 



The report of the Committee on 

 Resolutions was read by Mr. Hutchin- 

 son, which, on motion, was adopted. 



A photograph was taken of those 



