1911 



U LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



269 



picked last. The plants are thus allowed to 

 blossom, each one bearing hundreds of in- 

 dividual flowers, and they continue to 

 bloom from August 1 until frost, which 

 usually occurs some time in September, 

 perhaps not until October. Thus we have 

 thrown open to our bees hundreds of acres 

 of tobacco, containing myriads of flowers. 

 The bees swarm on it, some days more 

 than others, and the honey comes in as fast 

 as during some of the earlier flows. 



This year it is reported that much tobac- 

 co will be raised under cloth, or "shade 

 grown," in this vicinity, and the towns ad- 

 joining, Simsbury and Bloomfield. Prob- 

 ably 3000 acres will be raised. Whether 

 the bees will find easy ingress to these 

 fields remains to be seen. The flowers will 

 be allowed to bloom, and doubtless the bees 

 will find plenty of places in the cloth where 

 they can get to and from the source of nec- 

 tar. 



"Tobacco honey?" did I hear some one 

 say? It's fine, and I am going to mail 

 Gleanings a sample within a short time 

 and let the "editor " pass upon it. 



Granby, Conn., March 18. 



[Mr. Shattuck has promised to send some 

 photographs illustrating certain phases of 

 the industry in his part of the country, and 

 we understand that "tobacco honey" will be 

 treated more at length a little later. — Ed.] 



ARTIFICIAL SELECTION AND THE HON- 

 EY-BEE. 



BY G. W. BULLAMORE. 



In discussing the possibility of producing, 

 by selection, a non-swarming strain of bees 

 the distinction between natural selection 

 and artificial selection is not always observ- 

 ed. Natural selection is "the survival of 

 the fittest," or the preservation of those in- 

 dividuals that are most advantageously 

 equipped in the struggle for life. It concerns 

 itself solely with those characteristics that 

 are advantageous to the individual and to 

 the race. When man removes a plant or an 

 animal from its natural environment, and 

 proceeds to improve it by artificial selection, 

 the struggle for life is far less keen. The 

 bodily wants of the animal are attended to 

 by the breeder, and selection ceases to occu- 

 py itself with details which are advanta- 

 geous only when there is a fight for subsis- 

 tence. The art of the breeder perpetuates 

 strains which would be hopelessly outclass- 

 ed in a state of nature. 



The sitting tendency in hens has been 

 compared with the swarming instinct in 

 bees, and it is interesting to consider the 

 difference in the treatment of domesticated 

 fowls and of domesticated bees in the past. 

 Among the thrifty inhabitants of the coun- 

 tries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea a 

 desire on the part of a hen to "keep the 

 race from dying out" after she had laid a 

 few eggs was often rewarded with a broken 

 neck. The hen that continued laying was 

 the favorite, and escaped the cooking-pot 



for the longest period. This would inevi- 

 tably lead to a modification of the incubat- 

 ing instinct, and the non-sitting Leghorns, 

 Spanish, and their sub-breeds have resulted. 



But when we turn to the bees, how differ- 

 ent is the tale! We find that, under the 

 sulphuring system, the heaviest skeps were 

 condemned because of the quantity of hon- 

 ey they contained, and the lightest skeps, 

 because the bees would not live through the 

 winter. Now, if a primitive bee-keeper pos- 

 sessed stocks of about equal strength and of 

 different swarming tendencies, the stocks 

 that did not swarm would always be among 

 the heaviest, and would be taken to the sul- 

 phur-pit. ]f this has been done regularly 

 for hundreds of years (and there is little 

 doubt that the ancient method systematical- 

 ly exterminated the stock that failed to 

 swarm) , we can not wonder that a non- 

 swarming bee now requires a lot of finding. 



As I understand the matter, swarming is 

 brought about by the reaction of the bees to 

 certain sets of conditions. To control swarm- 

 ing, we modify the conditions. If we wish 

 for non-swarming bees we must modify the 

 reaction to the conditions. I do not know 

 exactly why bees decide to swarm; but an 

 old English writer (Nutt) attributed it en- 

 tirely to temperature. There may be some 

 objections to this view; but if we look upon 

 it as proven, then ventilation and supering 

 restrain swarming by lowering the tempera- 

 ture. The non-swarming bee, however, will 

 experience the critical temperature without 

 commencing queen-cells or manifesting any 

 desire to send off a colony. 



Under present conditions such a colony 

 would be heavily handicapped. Unless it 

 got into the hands of a scientific queen-rear- 

 er who was interested in the subject, it might 

 remain one colony as long as the world en- 

 dures, provided it did not die out altogether 

 from improper wintering, disease, leaky 

 roof, or some such calamity. The swarm- 

 ing colonies also suffer from these mishaps, 

 but some win through and perpetuate the 

 race of swarmers. 



In England at the present time much of 

 the increase is obtained by natural swarm- 

 ing. W^here artificial swarming is practiced, 

 and a queen-cell is given from a swarmed 

 stock, the product is really a "cast" so far 

 as heredity is concerned. If artificial queen- 

 rearing from the strain with the best honey 

 record ever becomes general, the swarming 

 instinct must necessarily undergo consider- 

 able modification. Heavy supers are not 

 yielded by the swarming hives; and in work- 

 ing for the improvement of the bee I am in- 

 clined to think that the comparison of su- 

 pers is the best that will always yield the 

 most satisfactory results. Systematic re- 

 queening from the best hives will correct all 

 our errors as to color, tongue-length, etc., if 

 continued for a long enough period. 



If the red-clover bee ever arrives, it will be 

 heard of in a red-clover district where the 

 disparity in the weights of supers will be- 

 tray its presence. Although it is possible 

 to measure the tongue-length of bees, I have 



