718 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 1920 



were examined on Aug. 4, but when exam- 

 ined again on Aug. 14 eleven of the queens 

 were found to be laying and four lost. On 

 Aug. 14, out of the eleven laying queens, 

 seven had their most advanced brood 

 capped, two had large larvae, and two had 

 larvae about two days old. It was subse- 

 quently found that all the eleven queens had 

 mated perfectly. In every case large, even 

 patches of all-worker brood were produced. 

 Nine more virgins that had emerged Aug. 

 1 and 2 were brought to the island in twin 



It is dense and bushy on Duck Island, 



nuclei without more drones on Aug. 4. Seven 

 of these virgins were mated perfectly and 

 two were lost. 



Twelve more virgins that had emerged 

 Aug. 7 to 11, were brought to the island in 

 similar nuclei without drones on Aug. 14. 

 The result was nine perfect matings, two 

 matings producing partly drones and partly 

 workers and one queen lost. 



In all, there were 27 perfect matings, two 

 imperfect matings and seven queens lost 

 from the 36 virgins brought to the island. 

 The remaining queen was lost by accident 

 and her workers were not examined. 



The workers produced from 26 of the per- 

 fect matings were examined; they were 

 lightly colored enough to show that the 

 queens had been mated with Italians. This 

 helped to support the evidence that they 

 were ^nated with the drones brought because 

 the colonies on the nearest mainland. Point 

 Traverse, Ont., were found to be mostly 

 black bees. 



After the removal of most of the queens 

 on Aug. 30 and 31, queens and drones were 

 raised fortuitously in some of the nuclei, and 

 when the nuclei were removed from the 

 island on Sept. 23, it was found that a 

 honey flow from aster was proceeding and 

 that several of these queens had begun to 

 lay. 



When the successfully mated queens were 

 introduced into colonies at Ottawa their 

 wings were clipped in a particular way, by 

 which it will be possible to recognize them 

 next spring. 



Future Plans. 



It is planned to test the island-mated 

 queens for non-swarming and honey produc- 

 tion in 1921, and from the best of thejn to 

 rear queens and drones for mating on Duck 

 Island during the basswood honey flow at the 

 end of July and possibly also during the 

 aster flow in September. Precautions are be- 

 ing taken to avoid inbreeding. 



It is also planned to begin next summer 

 the distribution of virgin queens raised from 

 the best Duck Island stock. Special direc- 

 tions for safe introduction to newly formed 

 nuclei will be sent out with the virgin 

 queens, and it will be possible for a bee- 

 keeper to raise a sufiicicnt number of drones 

 from a few of these queens the following 

 year to mate a proportion of any further 

 virgins we may obtain. In this way it is 

 hoped that these breeding experiments may 

 soon become of practical value to Canadian 

 beekeepers, and that their value will increase 

 as the work develops. 



JUST now we 

 all feel sorrow 

 at the death of 

 Doctor Miller, 

 yet we all wish 

 to remember 

 him, just as he 

 was in everyday 

 life and with all 

 of his delightful 



human characteristics. At the risk both of 

 intruding a frivolous vein into our thoughts 

 at this time and of writing quite personal 

 things concerning my j-elationship with him, 



ABOUT DR. MILLER 



Thumb-nail Sketches Furnished by 

 Himself in His Letters to a Friend 



By E. F. Phillips 



it seems only 



sharing a joy to 



record here some 



things from his 



letters. It is not 



the intent of 



this sketch to 



transmit the 



good things in 



these letters, but 



rather to allow Doctor Miller thru these 



notes to reveal his charm as a letter-writer 



and his warm sympathetic nature. 



(1) The first letter that I received from 



