March, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



151 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



were uniform in coloring. They did not 

 have three yellow bands such as workers 

 have; but their bands, while yellow, were 

 uniformly clouded. One drone was as much 

 a duplicate of another as one worker of 

 another. It does not seem to be so today. 



About two years ago I bought a breeding 

 queen of one of our leading queen-breeders. 

 Last year she proved a good queen, so this 

 past spring I prepared to use her for re- 

 queening my yard. Her worker bees were 

 uniformly marked. I could see no indication 

 of an intermixture of foreign blood. How- 

 ever, when the drones began to appear I 

 was astonished to find a great difference 

 between them, the color varying from that 

 of the typical yellowish Italian drone to one 

 without a hint of yellow upon it, being in- 

 stead a solid, shining, metallic black. There 

 were more black than yellow drones in the 

 hive. I discarded the queen as a breeder. 



Shortly after this, in company with Frank 

 Aten (whom some of the readers of this 

 magazine will remember as a Texas queen- 

 breeder) and a number of other beekeepers, 

 I visited the apiary of one of the leading 

 beekeepers of Travis County. He tried to 

 maintain the purity of his Italians as a 

 whole, but he had one colony of which he 

 was particularly proud. The bees were as uni- 

 formly marked, and, in appearance, identical 

 with the bees of my colony above referred 

 to. So were the drones. Most of them were 

 shining, metalic black. I called attention to 

 tlio fact and was informed by several bee- 

 keepers present that this is not at all un- 

 usual, and that there is no uniformity in the 

 marking or coloring of drones. 



Returning witli Mr. Aten, T asked him 



privately for his observations. He replied: 

 ' ' When I was in the bee business several 

 years ago, I imported hundreds of queens 

 from Italy; and my recollection of the 

 drones tallies with yours, that all drones 

 showed yellow and were quite uniformly 

 tho not so clearly marked as the workers." 

 I am quite sure of the accuracy of my rec- 

 ollection. I raised a good nmny queens from 

 the impoi'ted mothers referred to and do not 

 recollect having seen a black drone among 

 the offspring of the purely mated queens. 

 Austin, Texas. E. P. Stiles. 



CONCRETE HIVE -STANDS 



Their Many Advantages Described by a Beekeeper 

 of Long Experience 



I am sending two views that show a part 

 of our home apiary, which contains 132 

 hives with concrete stands for the same 

 number, and one view of our concrete hive- 

 stand at close view. 



The hives are the double-walled ten- 

 frame Jumbo, and when the photo was 

 taken they were ready for winter. After 35 

 or more years' experience with other sizes 

 of hives and other modes of jtreparation for 

 winter and of management in general, I find 

 that these are by long odds to be preferred. 

 Material for these concrete hive-stands is 

 cheaper than that for any other satisfactory 

 hive-stand, but the labor, of course, is more. 

 In the end, however, labor is saved; for they 

 remain level, stay in their places, and will not 

 rot. Grass and weeds cannot grow up be- 

 tween and around the liives, and tlie apiary 



A close-up view ot one of Mr. Clirysler's concrete hive-stands, which he says give excellent sati.sfaction 



for several reahoiis. 



