53 + 



GLEANTXGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



own hives cheaper than they can buy, the 

 editor of Gleanings will be glad 1o herald 

 the fact and tell how. The G. B. Lewis 

 Co. say their trade was never so great as 

 now, and Mr. York gives it as his opinion 

 that not many have found it cheaper to make 

 their own hives. But this is a question 

 that each one is at liberty to settle for him- 

 self by actual trial. It's a good deal like 

 making doors and window-blinds — a few 

 can do it by hand, but the most of us will 

 find it cheaper to buy. The severe lan- 

 guage used by some in criticising the ad- 

 vice of bee-editors is certainly uncalled for, 

 and always indicates a sense of weakness 

 on the side defended. "Kind words can 

 never die." Ugly ones have considerable 

 vitality sometimes. Right here is another 

 paragraph from a writer in Alabama, in 

 regard to home-made hives. It is in the is- 

 sue for May 12, the last one at hand: " I 

 think Mr. Gill and others are right in try- 

 ing to get bee-keepers to make their own 

 hives. Such goods are getting too high. I 

 can get all-heart, long- leafed pine, dressed 

 on one side, for about $13.50 or $15.00 per 

 1000 feet." 



HYBRIDS OR ITALIANS, WHICH? 



"My name is Jacobs, and I came to see 

 if you would give me a little of yotr time 

 for a bee ta k." 



"I have never refused to talk bees with 

 any one, and I shall not try to begin with 

 you. What is it you wish to talk about?" 



"If you were breeding bees especially 

 for honey-gathering purposes, which would 

 you prefer — the hybrids or the dark or gold- 

 en Italians?" 



"That depends somewhat on what kind 

 of honey I was working for. Volumes have 

 been written on this subject, and the mat- 

 ter is not fully settled in the minds of all, 

 even at the present time, some preferring 

 one and others a different bee from the first. 

 Some of our very best honey- producers tell 

 me that they do not know which is best; but 

 from my standpoint a true solution depends 

 upon which we are producing — comb or ex- 

 tracted honey." 



"Which would be your choice were you 

 working for extracted honey?" 



"If I were working for extracted honey 

 exclusively I think I would select the dark- 

 er Italians, or those produced from queens 

 reared from an imported mother, allowing 

 these queens to mate with whatever drones 

 there were in and about the apiary, paying 

 no attention to whether these drones were 

 from Italian, hybrid, or black stock." 



" Why do you say this?" 



"Because such queens, mated indiscrim- 

 inately, would be sure to give workers of 

 the most active kind, which would pile in 

 the honey if there was any to be had." 



"How would you breed for comb honey?" 



"If I were working exclusively for comb 

 honey, then I would procure as good a queen 

 of the golden variety as possible, and rear 

 all my queens from her, allowing them to 

 mate with any drones they might chance to 

 meet, the most of which would, without 

 doubt, be from an entirely different blood 

 from themselves, which would give a direct 

 cross, which always produces worker bees 

 of great vigor." 



"Why would you do this?" 



"Besides the vigor already alluded to, in 

 accord with the way you asked the question, 

 I should not care one cent whether my yel- 

 low queens mated with drones from black 

 or hybrid stock, as all of my experience 

 goes to prove that the thoroughbred golden 

 Italian queens, mated to drones of either 

 black or hybrid stock, give bees equal to the 

 very best for comb-honey purposes." 



"If this is so, why do we read so much 

 about allowing only drones from the best 

 Italian stock to fly? And why was the 

 drone-trap invented to catch and kill off all 

 drones, except from the colony or colonies 

 having the best Italian drones?" 



"If I am right, such advice comes main- 

 ly from the standard of a queen-breeder." 



"Well, why would you not rather take 

 that advice, instead of allowing a promis- 

 cuous mating of queens?" 



" The vigor part is one of the reasons. 

 And then I should prefer not to have these 

 voung queens meet drones from young 

 queens i eared from imported mothers, or 

 from drones reared from an imported moth- 

 er, if I could conveniently hinder the thing 

 — not because they would not give bees just 

 as vigorous, and of just as good honey-gath- 

 ering qualities, but for the reason that, as 

 a rule, workers having much imported 

 blood in them not only do not cap their hon- 

 ey nearly so nice and captivating to the 

 eye as do those having more of the golden, 

 hybrid, or German blood in them, but they 

 are prone to store as much as possible of 

 their honey in the brood-chamber, instead 

 of going into the sections readily, as all 

 honey-producers, having comb honey as the 

 objective point, want their bees to do." 



"I did not know that there was verj^ much 

 difference along this white capping and 

 brood-chamber honey-storing line." 



"Others have told me that they could see 

 very little difference; but I can only think 

 that these are not very close observers; for 

 with me there is a great difference, and an 

 experience with both of these strains of 

 Italian bees compels me to say that, for 

 comb-honey production, the golden Italians 

 stand twenty per cent ahead as to storing 

 in sections, and thirty to forty per cent 

 ahead of the dark Italians in whiteness 

 of capping, some of them almost if not 

 quite equaling the black in this respect, 



