are only occasional days when the Aveatbev 

 is suitable for drones and queens to fly, in 

 which case the time of their mating is 

 wholly dependent on the weather. 



At the present time, after years of breed- 

 ing from the best queens and along the lines 

 given, if we put the standard for a good 

 nectar season as 100 pounds, very few are 

 the colonies which give less than 80 lbs., and 

 efjually few are those which give more than 

 120 lbs., all colonies being given the same 

 attention by the one who " leaves no stone 



GLEANINGS IN BKK CULTURE 



unturned" that success v. -.r: !e allained. 

 With a year such as Dr. Millei' had in 191;;, 

 these figures might be easily doubled, while 

 in a very poor year 30 pounds might be the 

 standard, with 20 lbs. for the i^oorest and 

 40 pounds for the best. 



In this striving, and in a measure attain- 

 ing, has come a whole lot of pleasure, far 

 ahead of gossip at a country store, which 

 so many consider necessary as a " rest from 

 their labors." 



Borodino. N. Y. 



THE LACK OF A STANDARD OF MARKINGS TO DETERMINE THE 

 DIFFERENT STRAINS OF ITALIANS 



BY H. G. QUIRIN 



There is no doubt in our estimation that 

 the Italian bee has been improved to quite 

 an extent; but we feel equally confident 

 that there is still plenty of room for im- 

 provement. The progress toward a better 

 bee has been rather slow — the chief reason, 

 in our estimation, being that nearly all 

 queen-breeders ha\e a particular standard 

 toward which they are Avorking. The qual- 

 ities considered as most important by one 

 breeder may not be considered as such by 

 another. A bee best suited for a southern 

 climate may not be the best for our north- 

 ern States, and vice versa. 



Mr. Hooper makes a statement in the 

 latter part of his article with which but few 

 breeders in the United States will agree; at 

 least we don't quite agree with him where 

 he says that those virgins which mate on 

 the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth daj^s gener- 

 allv turn out to be drone-lavers, or start 



laying drone eggs before they commence to 

 lay worker eggs. We know nothing about 

 the weather conditions in Jamaica. Prob- 

 ably the weather does not interfere with the 

 natural inclination of the virgins to the 

 same extent it does here; but in our own 

 experience, where nice days are the rule, 

 virgins will mate (the majority of them) in 

 from six to nine days. A small per cent 

 will mate both before and after that time. 

 On the other hand, where weather condi- 

 tions interfere, or where a virgin is other- 

 wise prevented from taking her flight, she 

 may be mated considerably after the twelfth 

 day, and turn out to be as good and long- 

 lived as any queen. However, circumstances 

 alter cases. Where a virgin is kept in a 

 cage till ten or twelve days old she may 

 turn out to be a failure; while the same 

 queen, if kept in a nucleus and j^revented 

 from taking flight for two weeks merely by 

 inclement weather, 

 has a much better 

 chance for becoming 

 a good queen. 



An old beeman 

 from whom we got 

 our first pointers on 

 bees many years ago 

 (he was a doctor and 

 a close student of 

 nature) told us that 

 he would a little rath- 

 er have queens reared 

 so late in the fall 

 that t h e y o u n g 

 queens would not be- 

 gin laying till the 

 next spring. When 

 we asked him why he 

 ]) r e f e r r e d such 

 queens he claimed 



Mr. and Mrs. .Tohn Stevensen among their bees in Everton, Mo. thai they were hard- 



