OCTOBER 1, 1916 



I feel sure is the right way, I tliink I can- 

 not do better than to close by quoting from 

 an article I wrote lately for The American 

 Bee Journal, as follows : 



"A certain colony in the apiary, in an 

 average season, yields a surplus of 100 

 pounds, and we call the queen of that col- 

 ony a 100-pound queen. Of course, it is 

 the workers that do the storing, and a work- 

 er of that colony depends for her character, 

 not only upon her mother, but also upon the 

 drone with which her mother mated. In 

 other words, that worker is the daughter of 

 her mother and also of her father, her 

 father being the drone with which her 

 mother mated. While it is true that the 

 worker is the daughter of her mother and 

 of the drone with which her mother mated, 

 it is not true that the drone is the son of 

 his mother and of the drone with which his 

 mother mated. As the drone proceeds from 

 an unimpregnated egg, he is not at all in- 

 fluenced by the drone with which his moth- 

 er mated. He is the son of his mother 

 alone; or if you insist that he must have a 

 father, then he is the son of his grandfather, 

 the drone with which his grandmother mat- 

 ed. He is of the same blood as his mother 

 was, without any reference to her mating; 

 that is, his blood is the product of the com- 

 bined blood of his gi-andmother and the 

 drone with which she mated. 



"As his grandmother gets her rating from 

 that combined blood, whether she be a 50- 

 pound queen, a 100-pound queen, or what- 

 ever she may be, the drone will have pre- 



915 



cisely the same rating as his grandmother 

 on his mother's side. If his grandmother 

 is a 50-pound queen, he is a 50-pound drone. 

 His mother may be a 25-pound queen, a 75- 

 pound, or something else. That doesn't 

 make any difference; he is a 50-pound 

 drone because his grandmother was a 50- 

 pound queen. 



"Now let us see how it will work out to 

 have half a dozen of the best queens, using 

 one for rearing virgins and the others for 

 drones. Suppose they are all 150-pound 

 queens. Any one of them is all right for 

 rearing queens, but how about drones? One 

 of them may be the product of a 200-pound 

 queen and a 100-pound drone, and her 

 drones will be all right. Anotlier may be 

 the product of a 100-pound queen and a 

 200-pound drone, and drones will not an- 

 swer. Just remember that, in considering 

 the value of a drone, we are not to consider 

 his mother but his gi-andmother. 



"With this view of the case we have the 

 comfort of knowing that the problem of 

 securing the best drones is made immensely 

 simpler and easier. For if all our queens 

 are reared from our best stock, the matter 

 of drones takes care of itself automatically. 

 No matter if a queen has mated with the 

 poorest scrub stock of . a neighbor, her 

 drones are just as good as any, for they 

 come from the same grandmother. 



"So, rear queens persistently from best 

 stock, and suffer no drone that has not a 

 respectable grandmother." 



Marengo, 111. 



MID -WINTER BREEDING 



BY J. E. HAND 



Occasionally a progi'essive beekeeper be- 

 comes quite enthused about winter breeding 

 in cellars when stimulated by feeding with 

 hard candy. It is well to understand in 

 this connection that a moderate amount of 

 voluntary breeding in winter is a purely 

 normal function ; but feeding to stimulate 

 excessive winter breeding in cellars is ab- 

 normal, because it is always accompanied 

 by an abnormally high temperature, exces- 

 sive activity, and excessive consumption of 

 carbonaceous food — a combination that, 

 without frequent cleansing flights and free 

 access to water, is likely to culminate in 

 exhausted vitality, distendea abdomens, dys- 

 entery, and death. While this calamity 

 may, perhaps, be averted by carrying them 

 out and giving them a mid-winter flight, in 

 my opinion the labor involved is in excess 

 of the advantages gained, aside from the 

 risk incurred. 



Winter is a season of rest and compara- 

 tive inactivity of bees; therefore any condi- 

 tion of abnormality that causes excessive 

 activity of bees in winter should be regard- 

 ed as a possible and probable calamity. An 

 experienced beekeeper can manipulate bei's 

 with impunity during a warm spell in win- 

 ter; but a wise beekeeper will jirovide am- 

 ple food and adequate protection in Octo- 

 ber, and let his bees severely alone during 

 winter and early sjiring. In my opinion, 

 winter meddling and spring tinkering, erro- 

 neously called "stimulation," is not a com- 

 ponent principle of a competent inetliod nor 

 a necessary qualification of a thoroly com- 

 petent beekeeper. 



I would not convey the idea that vintcr 

 breeding is an undesirable function, except 

 in cellar wintering, for it lias been ascer- 

 tained beyond a doubt that a moderate 

 amount of normal voluntary winter breed- 



