APRIL 1, 1914 



g'o into winter (luarters the following fall. 

 No matter how good the queen is, she could 

 not possibly build up so small a nucleus to 

 be ready for a honey-flow in the spring. 



These pictures also explain the great 

 difference in the amount that some colonies 

 store. All must be strong if one expects to 

 get any surplus honey during the honey- 

 flow. The colony that has plenty of good 

 winter stores and some left over when the 

 next honey-flow arrives is the one that will 

 make the most surplus. Such a colony 

 is in ideal condition to winter perfectly 

 and be ready with the " tub right side up " 

 when the next honey " rain " comes. This 

 is the kind of colony that counts, and better 

 breeding lielped to make it what it is. 



After breeding by selecting I find that 



tlie poorest of my colonies are ahead of the 

 best of those belonging to beekeepers who 

 have not paid any attention to the question 

 of breeding. Yes, every once in a while 

 some one says that we can not improve on 

 the average strain of bees — that the bees 

 will revert back to the starting-point, etc. I 

 do not find that this is tlie case after ten 

 years of careful selection from the best. 

 When I first started 1 had little black bees. 

 Later on I ordered several breeding queens 

 from the most noted queen-breeders in 

 America. I also got some imported queens, 

 for I wanted the best that money could buy. 

 Please understand that I am not trying to 

 breed a better race, only a better strain of 

 the old three-banded Italians. 

 Mathis, Texas. 



SUCCESSFUL BREEDING OF QUEENS DEPENDS ON A GOOD MANY 



THINGS 



BY W. L). AOHORD 



A queen reared from the egg or from the 

 young larva, in a full-sized cell, and sup- 

 plied with more royal jelly than she will 

 consume, I call a normal queen. Such queen, 

 I contend, will give good results in honey, 

 and she will live, perhaps, two or more 

 years. She will also be large and strong. 

 An egg or larva of the same age in a small 

 cell supplied with more royal jelly than can 

 be consumed will result in a small queen. 

 Nevertheless her colony will give good re- 

 sults in honey, and she will live, perhaps, 

 two or more years. An old larva in a full- 

 sized cell, supplied as above, will result in a 

 full-sized queen, but her colony will be no 

 good for honey, and she will live but a short 

 time. An old larva in a small cell, and not 

 well fed, will result in a queen not so large 

 nor as good as the last one mentioned, and 

 slie will soon be dead. What is worse, often- 

 times the bees will fail to supersede her 

 successfully. The last two queens mentioned 

 will not commence to lay as early as the 

 first one. These conditions often prevail 

 when colonies are left to rear their own 

 (jueens. 



In the foregoing I have ignored the stock 

 or strain of bees. Do I believe there is a 

 difference in the stock or strain? Yes, I 

 believe that " blood will tell " in bees as 

 surely as in people, horses, or hogs — if we 

 can control the mating. There are a great 

 many things for a queen-breeder to remem- 

 ber when trying to produce nothing but 

 good queens — the stock to select, the way 

 the work is done, the locality, etc. Here I 

 confess that I do not confine my ]3ractice 

 to noticing all tlie minor details wlien se- 



lecting my queens to breed from. I have five 

 outyards, 600 colonies in all, which I run 

 for honey. On the hives I mark the age 

 of the queen, the amount of honey taken, 

 whether the colony tried to swarm, etc. This 

 I have done for the last three years, and 

 from these colonies I select the queens to 

 use in my queen-yard at home for drone 

 mothers as well as for queen mothers. 



In color I prefer the dark three-banded 

 bees, and they must not be wanting to sting 

 all the time, though I do not expect to rear 

 a stingless strain. I find that, if bees do 

 not have energy enough to resent an insult, 

 they do not have energy to gather a big 

 crop of honey. 



Cell-starters, finishers, and nursers must 

 be two-story colonies, the hives being filled 

 with bees from top to bottom and side to 

 side. Not all colonies in the same yard ai'e 

 the best cell-builders. On this account poor 

 queens may be reared if one does not select 

 the cell-builders. The larvae must be young, 

 and supplied with more royal jelly than 

 they can consume. 



Nectar must be coming in every day for 

 best results. I much prefer natural nectar 

 to artificial feeding. Some localities are 

 good for honey but not for queen-rearing. 

 Others are good for queen-rearing and 

 honey, while still others are good for queen- 

 rearing but not for honey. It is also true 

 that some are good for neither (this is 

 something that I have experienced as well 

 as read about). A commercial queen-breed- 

 er should have a good locality for his busi- 

 ness or else quit the business. 



Fitzpatrick, Ala. 



