1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



201 



pure bloods. I ignored that for years, but 

 finally concluded that I would not lose my 

 chance on increased yields by being too 

 much of a stickler for pure blood, and I be- 

 gan breeding from the best storers without 

 regard to color. The result is that I think 

 my stock is considerably better than the 

 average pure stock. But don't understand 

 that I am entirely sure I have taken the 

 wiser course. It is just possible that, if I 

 had always insisted on pure stock, I might 

 have reached the same degree of excellence 

 in the end without the disadvantage of mix- 

 ed blood. I wish I knew. You ask me to 

 tell you, Mr. Editor, what my present stock 

 will do, and then you think you can pick out 

 ItaHans that will do as well. That's hardly 

 germane, for you have no stock that have 

 been working under the same conditions as 

 mine, so how can you compare? But I'll 

 gladly tell you any thing you want to know 

 about the results I get, and perhaps it will 

 answer your purpose to say that the best I 

 ever had was 300 sections (not pounds) from 

 one colony. 



Now let me ask you a question: Suppose 

 that at that time no pure stock gave me 

 more than 250 sections; would you advise 

 m^ to breed from the pure or the mongrel? 

 In any case, go ahead, and see if you can 

 "pick out pure Italian stock that will aver- 

 age as much as my er— well— mongrels." 

 I'll be more pleased than you if you can. 

 [I am glad you indorse my views. But look 

 here, doctor, are you not to blame because 

 your locality is made up of black bees and 

 hybrids rather than all pure stock? If you 

 had, twenty years ago, every year raised a 

 large number of pure Italian drones, trap- 

 ping out all other undesirable stock, you, the 

 largest bee owner, would have so Italianiz- 

 ed your locality that it would to-day, and 

 for that matter years back, be one of pure 

 stock. The only trouble is, you simply fol- 

 lowed along with the swim, not making any 

 effort to introduce pure stock. As I remem- 

 ber, your policy has been to get an imported 

 Italian queen, not to Italianize, but to keep 

 up a fair grade of hybrids. Nearly all the 

 queen- breeders in the country have Italian- 

 ized their localities by simply raising more 

 Italian drones than the neighbors would be 

 likely to raise of blacks. The result would 

 be that the yellow stock would run the infe- 

 rior blood out. Some bee-keepers go further 

 and give their neighbors young virgin Ital- 

 ian queens. During the swarming season 

 most of them will be liable to have a surplus 

 of these, which, together with a large num- 

 ber of Italian drones, will soon change the 

 complexion of the bees. If you had done 

 this, then all these years you might have 

 enjoyed a larger immunity from bee-glue 

 and stings, and you would have had the 

 further advantage that your breeding stock 

 would be more liable to duplicate itself, be- 

 cause, as you say, it would have been of a 

 fixed type. If I didn't have pure stock to 

 equal the work of my mongrels, I would get 

 a pure queen from some queen-breeder or 

 bee-keeper that would.— Ed.] 



We shall have to beg the indulgence of 

 some of our correspondents for our delay in 

 publishing matter which they have sent in. 

 Just now we are overwhelmed with copy, 

 some of which we are holding for a more 

 seasonable time, and other portions until 

 such time as the makeup and other conditions 

 admit of their insertion. We hope to catch 

 up in two or three issues. 



LIVE BEE DEMONSTRATION WORK IN YORK 

 STATE. 



It is but fair for me to acknowledge that 

 I got the idea of giving live- bee demonstra- 

 tions inside of a wire cloth cage from S. D. 

 House, Camillus, N. Y. He has been prac- 

 ticing this method of advertising his honey 

 business at the Syracuse fair for several 

 years. I have asked him to write up his 

 experience, which he has promised to do. 

 Mr. L. F. Wahl, another York State man, 

 has also worked on the same plan, and he 

 likewise will tell us his experience. I know 

 of no method in the world that will popular- 

 ize honey any quicker or any better than 

 this live-bee work. To an outsider it looks 

 like a piece of dare- devil work; but to an 

 experienced bee-keeper it is no more than 

 playing with a kitten that will use her claws 

 if not handled properly. 



Since writing the foregoing I have return- 

 ed from the Michigan convention, and learn 

 that it was Mr. R. F. Holtermann who first 

 practiced this live-bee- demonstration work 

 in a cage in Canada. While visiting Mr, S. 

 D. House he communicated the idea to him. 

 I picked it up from Mr, House, and Mr. 

 Holtermann learned it from his British cou- 

 sins. There, now you have the chain of 

 connection. 



DEATH OF two PROMINENT BEE-KEEPERS. 



I VERY much regret to have to announce 

 the death of Mr, Ira Barber, of Eddy, N. Y,, 

 which occurred the 27th of January, Years 

 ago Mr, Barber was a frequent contributor 

 to the bee journals, especially on the subject 

 of wintering. He advocated wintering in 

 high temperatures with little or no venti- 

 lation, and was very successful in bringing 

 his bees out in the spring. This would seem 

 to be contrary to the teachings and experi- 

 ences of the most of us to-day; but evident- 

 ly there were some conditions which he had 

 that made his method of wintering a success 

 where it would have been a failure with oth- 

 ers without those conditions. 



I also regret to record the death of Mr. 

 J. M. Hooker, on January 31, at the resi- 



