September, 19U7. 



i^Am^rican Hee Journal 



individuals (workers and queens) that 

 were quite dark, and others that were as 

 t'xtensively bright-colored as, or even 

 more so than, individuals of the original 

 American Golden Italian strain. Of 

 course these bright individuals had no 

 more of the American Golden Italian 

 blood in them than the dark individuals. 

 It is therefore plain that it is impossi- 

 ble to judge th? amount of foreign blood 

 in cross-breds by the extent of the bright 

 color they show, especially in the ease 

 of individuals that are the result of se- 

 lection by color. 



Although the bees now bred by color- 

 selection in Kipple Court Apiary dififer 

 entirely in nature from any foreign bees, 

 jet in appearance they closely resemble 

 American Golden Italian bees: the 

 queens are superficially indistinguishable 

 from imported American Golden Italian 

 queens, and in many colonies the workers 

 can only be told from American Golden 

 Italian workers by their much more act- 

 ive running over the combs when the 

 hive is opened, and by their generally 

 more distended bodies and sometimes 

 larger size. 



To distinguish the brightly-colored 

 bees bred in Kipple Court Apiary for the 

 improvement of the honey-producing 

 character, the name of "British Golden'* 

 has been given to them. This name was 

 first applied to the 1906 selections. 



As regards the results of the breeding 

 by color-selection in Ripple Court Api- 

 ary, it is too early to say much. The 

 honey-producing results of the 1906 se- 

 lections will not be known until the sum- 

 mer of 1907. so the results of only one 

 season's work, that of 1905, have so far 

 been obtained. These were very satis- 

 factory, and it has become evident that 

 selection by color has already changed 

 the bees from variable cross-breds into a 

 distinct variety with many characters 

 that are fast becoming fairly constant; 

 at the same time a great improvement in 

 the temper has been noticed. 



There is a difficulty in the transmis 

 sion of worker characters through drones 

 besides that of selecting the drones. 1 

 refer to the difficulty — by no means great 

 or insurmountable — that results from the 

 theory that the drone is produced par 

 thenogenetically. The workers of a col 

 ony inherit their characters through the 

 drone that fertilized the queen of the 

 colony, as well as through the queen her 

 self, but the drones that are produced 

 in the same colony by the same queen 

 inherit their characters through the 

 queen only. The said workers therefore, 

 having a mixture of fresh blood, give a 

 very unreliable indication of the worker 

 characters the drones will transmit to 

 their offspring, and in order to find out 

 what worker characters the drones are 

 likely to transmit we must go back to 

 the colony that produced their mother. 

 In the case of -x fixed race or variety, the 

 workers of the colony that produced the 

 drones ' mother show fairly accurately the 

 characters that the drones are likely to 

 transmit, but in the case of variable 

 cross-breds, they are not likely to do so 

 on account of variation. In the latter 

 case, if a large number of sister queens 

 are employed to produce drones, the 

 drones may be expected, on the average, 

 to transmit the characters exhibited by 

 the colony that produced the drones' 

 mothers, but drones produced by indi- 



vidual queens might sometimes transmit 

 ditferent or opposite characters: the 

 workers produced by these individual 

 queens would give some indication as to 

 whether they v ould be likely to do so 

 or not. Therefore in breeding drones it 

 may be well to state, on the assumption 

 that the drone is always produced parthe- 

 nogeniticaily, that the characters shown 

 by the grand-parental colony are always 

 of great importance, and that those 

 shown by the parental colony are of some 

 importance in cross-breds, but of very 

 little importan.?e in pure-breds. 



—British H^e .I'.nrnal. 



Poor Honey Crop. 



The honey crop is poor liere. Bees will 

 prohably get enough, however, for themselves 

 through the winter, — but no more. 



Jules Belknap. 



Sulphur Springs, Ark., August 3. 



Working for Comb Honey. 



I have 16 colonies of bees, and am working 

 them for comb honey this season. 



I like the American Bee Journal very much. 

 I would not be without it. I find many 

 useful hnts and suggestions in it. 



M. D. Dickinson. 



Springfield, Mass., August 6. 



Nothing from White Clover. 



So far white clover lias yielded just about 

 nothing. What has been gathered has been 

 used in brood-rearing. Basswood is just open- 

 ing now, so there is a chance of gettting some 

 surplus yet. 



The monthly American Bee Journal is a 

 dandy. If it doesn't succeed it will certainly 

 not be the Editor's fault. 



Chas. O. Bergstrand. 



Amery, Wis., August i. 



Good Honey-Flow. 



We have had a good honey-flow for about 

 10 days. A day or so ago it seemed to stop 

 suddenly, but it has started again, and we 

 have quite a little honey from the second crop 

 of alfalfa. We have an average of about one 

 super i>er colony on 175 colonies. This has 

 been a cold, backward season, and I am 

 afraid the honey-crop will be quite a little 

 below the average. We have had 3 swarms 

 from 175 colonies, and they were small ones. 



Rifle, Colo., August 3. Johx Stotts. 



Disappointing Bee-Season. 



The bee-season here has been very disap- 

 pointing up to the present time. We got 

 nothing from the first cutting of alfalfa, 

 but there is a fine scope of bee-pasture here, 

 and the bees are doing splendidly. If it con- 

 tinues good weather for a reasonable time, 

 strong colonies will produce a large surplus 

 of honey. * 



The American Bee Journal is a good help 

 for the bee-keeper. J. E. Patton. 



Deeth. Nev., August 7. 



Worst Spring — Non-swarming Bees. 



After the worst spring in the memory of the 

 "oldest inhabitant" the white clover and bass- 

 wood harvest has come . and gone, giving us 

 about 5,000 pounds of honey — about one-half, 

 or a little more, being extracted — from about 

 155 colonies. The prospects are fair for win- 

 ter stores, though there may be a little fall sur- 

 plus honey. 



It seems Mr. Hasty does not believe ex- 

 actly in non-swarming bees, does he? I won- 

 der if he ever had a colony that did not 

 swarm when rightly attended to. And if he 

 bred his stock from it, did the bees swarm 

 as much as those that were bred in the time- 



honored way of taking a swarming cell from 

 a swarming colony? 



When a man is always expressing doubts, 

 it seems to me he ought to give a reason 

 for the doubts that are in him, once in a 

 while. I have never been called an optimist 

 even by my best friend, but I have seen 

 enough of bees to believe thoroughly that a 

 practically non-swarming strain of bees can be 

 bred, and will be developed within the near 

 future. They will save a lot of labor for the 

 apiarist. E- S. Miles. 



Dunlap, Iowa, August 2. 



Fair Honey Crop Promised. 



The honey crop promises to be fair at pres- 

 ent. Thunder showers and hot weather pre- 

 vail. John Semmens. 



Prowers, Colo., August 5. 



Bee-Keeping Slow. 



With us bee-keeping is slow. It looks now 

 as though the bees might go into winter with 

 plenty of stores. I am having my surplus 

 honey stored in brood- frames, in shape for 

 feed next spring. N. P. Whitmoke. 



Gardner, 111., August 12. 



Not Much Honey. 



I have 13 colonies of bees, and have had 8 

 swarms. I put 3 back into the hives they 

 came out of, and they are staying all right 

 as yet. They are working on sweet clover. 



There has not been much honey taken here 

 so far. I have about 100 pounds in sections. 

 It is fine. I have sold all I had and could 

 sell more, to neighbors and friends. 



P. S. FoULK. 



Arrowsmith, 111., August 10. 



Bees Have Done Well. 



The bees have done very well so far. Some 

 colonies having stored over 100 pounds, and 

 are still rolling the honey in. White clover is 

 yet in bloom, and the prospects are for a 

 very good fall flow, if the weather permits. 

 B. F. Schmidt. 



N". Buena Vista, Iowa, August 3. 



Honey from Alsike Clover. 



I have had 12 swarms from my 44 colonies, 

 spring count, and the majority of them have 

 been, and are, doing some work in the su- 

 pers. They stored some section-honey from 

 alsike clover, which is quite plentiful here, 

 and they are now working on every little 

 patch of white and sweet clover they can 

 find; but the total product will he small at 

 best. A. F. FoOTE. 



[Mitchell Co., Iowa. August 12. 



Bad Year to Work with Bees. 



My bees are getting honuy now from the 

 goldenrod. The comb honey is nice that I 

 have taken so far. I expect my bees will 

 average about 100 pounds per colony this 

 year, but I do not know exactly yet. 



This has been the worst year I ever saw 

 to do anything in the bee-yard. Either the 

 wind blows, or something else interferes. It 

 has also been the worst year to mate queens. 

 I have reared all young queens this year, and 

 am in a bad place to mate them. There are 

 Carniolans on three sides of me, and I think 

 they have a little yellow mixed in with their 

 gray. Mine are all pure Italians now, and 

 I am hoping to Italianize all of the bees 

 around here next spring. 



Perlev S. Smith. 



Strong, Maine, August 15. 



Yields of Honey. 



Some correspondents seem to take exception 

 to some of the honey-yields I quoted in my ar- 

 ticle to The Farmer, as mentioned on page 

 534. This is only what might be expected, 

 as every bee-keeper measures the yield of 

 every other bee - keejier by his own yields. 

 But the honey crop more than any other crop 

 is apt to vary according to the management of 

 the bee-keeper. 



The yield of honey from a field of buck- 

 wheat, which I mentioned, is an actual ex- 

 perience. The honey came in so rapidly from 

 the field that the bees having access to it — 

 a trifle over 30 colonies — would completely 

 fill the hive with thin, newly-gathered honey 

 in a single day. 



In that article I was giving the possible 



