68 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb. 1 



termined to rear some queens from this col- 

 ony by the Doolittle plan. 



The season proved poor, and I was bun- 

 gling in my operations, so that I succeeded 

 in getting only three colonies that season, 

 headed with queens from this stock. The 

 next winter I lost the original colony through 

 a blunder; and as the season following was 

 not very good I did not make much increase, 

 but did get three more queens from the 

 best of the first three queens that I reared 

 the season previous. However, it was a 

 couple of years before I began to notice that 

 the colonies having these queens seemed 

 not only capable of getting a living when 

 common bees had to be fed, but that they 

 did not swarm. 



For about ten years after starting with 

 this strain of bees, and until I probably had 

 forty or fifty colonies of them, I had no 

 swarms whatever, while fifty per cent or 

 more of the colonies having queens of other 

 stock in the same apiary swarmed, although 

 they had the same treatment in every re- 

 spect. 



It should be mentioned that I make no 

 effort to control the mating. I always try 

 to prevent a heavy production of drones of 

 undesirable stock, yet sometimes there were 

 a great many common drones flying. 



From 1901 to 1903 inclusive I reared a few 

 queens from colony No. 7-4, whose queen 

 was a granddaughter of the original queen. 

 I may have lost the record of a few colonies, 

 but I have a complete record of eighteen 

 colonies whose queens were reared originally 

 from No. 74. Of these eighteen, during 

 1901, '2, '3, fourteen did not cast a swarm, 

 the other four swarming once each — three 

 of the four casting swarms only when con- 

 ditions were more than ordinarily favorable 

 for swarming, and when all colonies of com- 

 mon stock were swarming excessively. 



Of the progeny of No. 74 I selected No. 32 

 for a breeder, and I have before me the rec- 

 ord of 79 colonies with queens from this No. 

 32, which were reared during the seasons of 

 1904 to 1907. Of the 79, 62 have not swarm- 

 ed to date; 14 have swarmed once each, and 

 3, twice. 



Now while it can not be truthfully said 

 that this stock is exactly non-swarming, 

 yet it must be remembered that, during all 

 this time, I purchased and brought into 

 this apiary over 50 colonies of common bees, 

 besides having 25 or 30 colonies of various 

 grades of hybrids. I have also purchased 

 of breeders over two dozen Italian queens of 

 different strains, and in addition to all these 

 drawbacks I have not tried very hard, as I 

 said before, to prevent common drones from 

 flying. 



Among these colonies that have not 

 swarmed are some that have superseded 

 their queen themselves, a few of which have 

 done this more than once. For instance, 

 the breeder No. 74 that was reared in 1900 

 was superseded in 1904, and the second was 

 superseded in 1908, the third queen still be- 

 ing in this same colony. No. 132 is a daugh- 

 ter of No. 74, reared in 1903, and was super- 



seded in 1907; and the second one is now in 

 this same colony, and they have never 

 swarmed. No. 9 is another colony which 

 has the same record. No. 3, one of the first 

 reared from breeder No. 32, never swarmed. 

 She was superseded in 1909. No. 24 is one 

 of the four daughters of No. 74 that I men- 

 tioned as swarming, yet this is hardly cor- 

 rect, for the original queen in No. 74 did not 

 swarm, and she was superseded when four 

 years of age; her daughter swarmed only 

 when I was forcing the colony to finish sec- 

 tions by feeding. This season this same 

 colony did not swarm, even under these con- 

 ditions. 



I also wish to say that, while I was breed- 

 ing these queens, I was working primarily 

 for bees that would do good work in sections, 

 and that were not too cross. If I had been 

 selecting queens especially for non-swarm- 

 ing alone I am quite certain I could have 

 made more progress, for I was obliged to 

 discard for breeders several colonies that 

 were non-swarmers but had some other ob- . 

 jectionable qualities. 



Now, I have no queens for sale, and please 

 let no one ask me whether I believe I can 

 breed the tail off a sheep or cat, for I have 

 never seen a bobtailed cat or sheep that had 

 not been operated on with the knife; but I 

 can produce a strain of hornless cattle if I 

 have a good muley heifer. Likewise, if I 

 tried to j^roduce a non-swarming strain of 

 bees I should want to start with a colony 

 that would not swarm under normal condi- 

 tions. I am convinced that a strain that is ^ 

 practically non-swarming is entirely pos- I 

 sible. " Like ])roduces like," whether color, 

 shape, or disi30sition. 



Dunlap, Iowa. 



AN INCREASING DEMAND FOR COMB HON- 

 EY IN CARTONS. 



The Opinion of a Comb-honey Dealer, 



BY H. R. WRIGHT. 



I should like to offer a few suggestions 

 which may be of value to bee-keepers who 

 have not yet ordered shipping-cases for the 

 coming season. We know that there is an 

 increasing demand for comb honey in car- 

 tons; and bee-keepers who use the proper 

 style of cartons get the best and first sales. 

 I do not recommend the closed thin paper- 

 box affairs, for they have brought cartons 

 into disrepute, as they are so quickly glued 

 fast to the bottom of shipping-cases by 

 the least dripping of honey, that they are 

 generally torn to pieces w^hen the honey is 

 removed from the case. A stout, heavy, 

 w^ood-pulp board carton, on the other hand, 

 ivith no top or bottom, never sticks fast 

 to the shipping-case. Such cartons pay for 

 themselves in weight, as the buyer does 

 not object to having the carton weighed 

 with the honey. They need no glass front 

 on the shipping-cases except on one section 

 to show handlers the contents. Such car- 

 tons can be ordered of any paper-box facto- 



