APRIL 1, 1914 



-B. M. C'ara-iva\''.s apiary of 175 colonies nil rea'ly for (lie lionpy-flow, Tlie iiiiiioi-iniiy shows 

 the result of breeding. 



that, and (lon't think I ever shall, except 

 where the hard conditions come naturally 

 and can not be avoided. 



Some think that swarming, stinging, 

 propolizing, etc., arfe merely signs of ener- 

 gy, and that we must put up with such bad 

 qualities if we are to get good workers. If 

 1 were going to buy a mule 1 would hardly 



pick a vicious kicker in tlie hope of getting 

 a good work animal. Kicking and stinging 

 are both manifestations of energ-y, to be 

 sure ; but in both cases it is energy misap- 

 plied, and our aim in breeding bees is to 

 get the living force of them applied for our 

 benefit. 



Newman, 111. 



WHAT I REQUIRE IN A BREEDING QUEEN 



BY D. M. CARAWAY 



At the outset I wish to say that I have 

 l)ut more thought on breeding for improve- 

 ment than on any other phase of beekeep- 

 ing. Every thing centers around breeding, 

 and around breeding centers the queen and 

 her subjects. For one I believe we can 

 improve bees and build them up to a higb.er 

 degree of efficiency. To prove this I have 

 been selecting my breeders for several years 

 past with this in mind. I select the colonies 

 that store the most surplus honey; and as 

 I have over 400 colonies to select from I 

 have an excellent chance to get the best. All 

 that make a high record I mark, and from 

 these record-makers I select the queens that 

 come nearest my ideal. 



I want a breeding queen to be yellow, of 

 good size, and slightly slender rather than 

 with too thick an abdomen. The queen that 

 is a trifle slender is, as a rule, the most 

 prolific; and a queen to be a breeder must 

 be prolific. Her bees must be evenly mark- 



ed, must show three yellow bands, must be 

 uniform in size and color (I prefer them of 

 medium size), and they must be gentle. I 

 would not use a queen for a breeder if her 

 bees were bad about stinging. I prefer to 

 have the bees cap their honey with an air- 

 space under the cappings, as this gives the 

 honey a much finer a^jpearance. 



The final test comes after the bees from 

 such a queen have graded well in all the 

 above points; and that test is that the queen 

 must be able to duplicate herself in cjueens 

 — that is, the larger per cent of her daugh- 

 ters must be jirolific, must have a slender 

 abdomen, and be yellow. It does not matter 

 whether they are yellow to the tip, but they 

 must be mostly yellow. I select the mothers 

 of the drones with the same care that I 

 select the mothers of the queens. This is 

 very important. 



Did you ever notice how much bees in the 

 same hive vary in size? A queen that pro- 



