Gleanings in Bee Culture 



find enough unrelated sports of a similar 

 nature to make an independent breed. 



In the few apparently unsegregating cases 

 which are known, the qualities take an in- 

 termediate form in the hybrid. At the very 

 worst, then, it would seem that this first hy- 

 brid form could be perpetuated. But wheth- 

 er inbreeding is necessarily injurious to bees 

 has yet to be proven. 



With ordinary behavior the results of 

 crossing such a sport with the normal form 

 could easily lead to the belief that the pe- 

 culiarity had deteriorated, or had been lost, 

 when such was not the case. If the quality 

 sought were completely recessive to the or- 

 dinary form it would not appear at all in di- 

 rect crosses with it, and in only one-fourth 

 of the offspring of its hybrids when mated 

 together. Whether recessive or not, this 

 second generation would contain all possible 

 forms, just as second-generation hybrids of 

 the black and Italian races of bees have all 

 combinations of their various characteris- 

 tics, and so the transmissibility of a quality 

 could not be fairly judged thus far in any 

 thing depending upon the behavior or per- 

 formance of the entire colony. But of 

 queens from such hybrid mothers mated 

 with drones, pure or hybrid, for the desired 

 quality some should give colonies pure for 

 the characteristic. 



The fact that a colony as a whole possesses 

 any quality not dependent upon environ- 

 ment is in itself reasonable proof of its trans- 

 missibility; and in the case of anything un- 

 usually valuable it ought to pay to take the 

 trouble necessary for its perpetuation. Aside 

 from this, the proportions of the different 

 forms and combinations seen in second- 

 generation hybrids, as of the black and 

 Italian races, would seem to show that some, 

 at least, of their characteristics follow Men- 

 del's law in inheritance, and so could be 

 quickly fixed in any desired combination 

 by suitable crossing and selection, for there 

 is every reason to believe that bees are just 

 as susceptible to change and improvement 

 as other forms of life if the right conditions 

 are given; and as these conditions become 

 better known there is no good reason to 

 doubt that such changes will come. 



Sports may be rare; but the existence or 

 even non-swarming colonies would not of 

 necessity be limited to the occurrence of 

 sports. The fact that a colony is not able 

 to swarm would not prevent its drones from 

 fertilizing queens of other colonies, and so 

 propagating its characteristic for a time in 

 this way, just as barren stalks of corn are 

 supposed to transmit their defect through 

 the pollen. Injurious factors which are 

 more or less dominated by the normal con- 

 dition may also be transmitted for many 

 generations by their hybrids, real or simu- 

 lated, with it. Thus certain plants give a 

 proportion of offspring without green color- 

 ing in their leaves, and which, consequent- 

 ly, can not live. 



In the human species two hereditary con- 

 ditions (haemophilia and Gower's disease) 

 are transmitted in a somewhat similar man- 



ner, though those in which it appears rarely 

 live to maturity. Among peas it is not un- 

 common to find defective plants which, in 

 nature, must usually be barren. When ar- 

 tificially fertilized they are found to trans- 

 mit their defect in regular manner. 



In many cases in plant and animal life, 

 more fatal defects than would be the loss of 

 the swarming instinct are produced as the 

 result of crossing different races or species. 

 Inheritance among bees has not been scien- 

 tifically worked out yet, so that the exact 

 nature and behavior of their various char- 

 acteristics can not be positively stated. 

 Scientists will see that this is done, whether 

 bee-keepers do it or not; for which reason it 

 is at present unsafe to undertake to say 

 what may not be done in modifying their 

 nature. 



The difficulties in the way of certainly de- 

 tecting and perpetuating such a variation 

 are entirely sufficient to account for the 

 failure to produce a non-swarming breed up 

 to the present time, but can by no means 

 be guaranteed to prevent it when such mat- 

 ters shall be taken up by scientific experts 

 not dependent on the bees for their bread 

 and butter. 



McConnellsville, O. 



[Our correspondent evidently knows this 

 subject of inbreeding, and how to secure 

 the development of desirable characteristics, 

 better than the most of us. We may, there- 

 fore, well sit at his feet and learn. 



In the mean time, one of the reasons why 

 we made a trip to Florida was to find some 

 island, at least ten miles from shore, where 

 inbreeding of bees might be practiced. But 

 on our last trip we did not find an island 

 that afforded the proper conditions. While 

 rearing queens in a commercial way is not 

 altogether satisfactory on an island, owing 

 to the loss in mating over the water,* we 

 believe it would be possible to develop cer- 

 tain desirable characteristics. We shall see. 



In the mean time we are glad to say that 

 our correspondent will have something more 

 to say on the question whether it is iwssible 

 to develop a non-swarming or a long-tongued 

 strain. — Ed.] 



«-•-» 



THE ORIGIN AND USE OF PROPOLIS. 



Dr. Kuestenmacher's Theory Attacked. 



BY J. E. CRANE. 



F. Greiner, Sept. 15, p. 568, gives a trans- 

 lation of Dr. M. Kuestenmacher's views on 

 the origin and use of propolis. While it be- 

 comes us humbler folk to walk softly before 

 those so far above us in scientific attain- 

 ments, yet Dr. Kuestenmacher's statements 

 appear so full of contradictions and absurdi- 

 ties that they can not escape notice. His 

 theory is that each grain of pollen is cover- 



*It appears that, after copulation takes place, 

 many times both queen and drone drop to the wa- 

 ter just as they do on land. The queen on dry 

 ground will take wing again; but she appears un- 

 able to do so from the water, and hence is lost. 



