194 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 15. 



has been kept up for generations uncounted. 

 These tendencies, having thus existed, have 

 become one with the instinct of the bee. Can 

 we even doubt that they were implanted there 

 at the creation to be for ever the means of pre- 

 serving and extending the species ? The swarm- 

 ing fever is not present, we know, except as de- 

 veloped by external causes. But have not the 

 natural laws of selection weeded out those colo- 

 nies swarming under adverse circumstances, 

 till, as before, swarming under certain outside 

 conditions has become coexistent with the nat- 

 ural instinct? The possibility of partially 

 overcoming this tendency is not disputed. All 

 who have tested the Carniolan bees acknowl- 

 edge that they are great swarmers. Black bees 

 do not, I am sure, swarm as much as Italians. 

 Oh, yes! ''there is a difference in strains of 

 bees." Now, does not the existence of this dif- 

 ference prove that it is possible to breed out 

 somewhat this habit of swarming? We have 

 non -sitting strains of poultry; some breeds of 

 sheep nearly always produce twins; and so it 

 is, that, wherever an attempt has been made to 

 breed with this end in view, progress has been 

 made. 



The greatest obstacle in the path of the apia- 

 rist desiring to breed carefully is the mating 

 habits of the queen-bee. Whirling away on 

 the wings of the wind, she seeks a suitor per- 

 haps far from home, and the breeder hopes she 

 has mated with a drone of a certain colony — 

 perhaps knows she has mated with a yellow 

 drone in localities whei-e none but yellow bees 

 are kei)t. The rest is generally all guesswork. 

 The drone-trap can be made to control the 

 flight of drones in an apiary; but great care and 

 labor are necessary; and even then one does not 

 know that a certain queen is mated with drones 

 of a certain colony. From facts and incidents 

 recounted often in our bee-papers, we (ind that 

 the queen seems to prefer to mate with a drone 

 from a distance. I have often found it so in my 

 own experience. 



Cari-ying out the Dzierzon theory of partheno- 

 genesis we see that the drone is the son of its 

 mother only, and may have quite different 

 characteristics from the worker-bee of the same 

 colony. To become acquainted with the drone 

 and his character we must go back to the grand- 

 mother and her colony. This fact is worth re- 

 mem b<M'iiig; yet how few, even of the most 

 careful breeders, give it any attention! 



Some years ago, as most of us remember, 

 N. W. McLain conducted some experiments in 

 the fertilization of queens in confinement. He 

 rer)orted success, both in a screen house and in 

 a block held in the hand in certain cases. One 

 successful oi)eration is enough to give great 

 hope, and furnish ground for future work; but 

 the failure of careful queen-breeders \n even 

 obtaining one success by these methods, and 

 the incredulity. I might almost have said 

 ridicule, with which many regard the whole 

 matter, has deterred me from undertaking any 

 thing along this line. I have searched most 

 thoroughly for other methods by which to ac- 

 complish the mating of (jueens with desired 

 drones. No plan seems to me to promise moi-e 

 than that of compelling the queen and drones 

 to tly earlier or later in t\w. day than they would 

 if allowed to (ly when nature or instinct told 

 them the mating would be surest. 



If any way can be sugscsted, aside from the 

 one just, mentioned, as prol)ul>leor even possible, 

 to attain success. I should hope to devote my- 

 self most earnestly to making its success an a"s- 

 sui'ed fact. 



As there is, without doubt, much more to be 

 learned about the mating of the queen, we may, 

 by a more careful study, discover something 

 that will shed light upon the subject, and open 



a way to success. I should be glad to receive 

 and arrange reports of such observations, and 

 present the results to bee-keepei-s, and will try 

 to learn something new in this direction myself. 



Should control of reproduction ever be secur- 

 ed, all these points in breeding, toward which we 

 are striving, would become easy, and real im- 

 provement in the races of bees would be made; 

 honey would be cheaper, and adulteration less. 

 But who can tell the train of results that would 

 follow? J. H. Larkaber. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



THE GOOLD REVEESIBLE HONEY- 

 EXTRACTOR. 



A NEW KEVEKSIBI-E AUTOMATIC 

 TRACTOR. 



IIONKY-EX- 



Herewith is an illustration of a reversible 

 honey-extractor made and patented by E. L. 

 Goold & Co., Brantford, Ontario. It can be 

 made either as a two- frame or four-frame ma- 

 chine. For a two-frame Langstroth a can 233i 

 inches in diameter is required; for a four-frame 

 the diameter must be 37 inches. The baskets 



GOOLI) S NEW ];i:VEI!SlHI>E EXTRACTOR. 



holding tlie combs have attached to them aa 

 eye thiough which a rod passes. Joining the 

 upper and lower arm upon tills rod the basket 

 swings from side to side. There is. therefore, 

 no loose hinge which can be thrown out of 

 place. The method of reversing is by means of 

 a rod running from the center of the can and 

 center-shaft to basket, turning up and running 

 in a groove shown in the basket lying outside 

 of the can in the illustration. The end turned 

 up has a snuill roller on it, which lessens fric- 

 tion. This is the part that does the reversing. 

 The baskets are reversed as the motion is re- 

 versed, and the process with the two or four 

 frames, as the case may be. must be simultane- 

 ous. This machine took the first prize at the 

 Toi'onto industrial exhibition last fall for thn 

 liest and most practical invention not hereto- 



