DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC BEE-CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF PURE HONEY. 



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JULY 20, 1881. 



No. 29. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor ant> Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 



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For the American Bee Journal. 



How to Produce the " Coming Bee." 



C. J. KOBINSON. 



Among progressive bee-keepers 

 there seems to be various speculative 

 ideas concerning the " coming bee," 

 or the manufacture of a breed of bees 

 superior to those obtainable at the 

 present time. Now that the produc- 

 tion of honey is looming up as one of 

 the most lucrative branches of indus- 

 try adapted to many regions of the 

 world, it behooves the producers of 

 that commodity to look about for the 

 best servants to gather in and store 

 the crops of nectar. The soaring 

 bee-keepers are not satisfied with the 

 "scrubs" (bees) of either Continent, 

 or Islands yet explored, and none 

 others exist unless it be the Ameri- 

 canized Italian bee. 



The American bee-breeder now has 

 at hand types of all the different spe- 

 cies or distinct races of bees from all 

 climes, and in the near future the his- 

 tory of the American merino sheep is 

 to be repeated in the improved Ameri- 

 canized honey bee. The fine-wooled 

 sheep of Spain had been famous for 

 centuries. The "Traushumantes," or 

 traveling flocks, were known as me- 

 rino sheep. Prior to the introduction 

 of merinos into this country (their ex- 

 portation was prohibited up to 1802) 

 there were several distinct families, 

 such as Spanish merinos, French me- 

 rinos, Saxon merinos, and Silesian 

 merinos. In 1802 Chancellor Living- 

 ston, American Minister at France, 

 sent to his farm in New York 2 pairs 

 of merinos from the French national 

 flock at Chalons. Col. David Hum- 

 phreys, of Conn., American Minister 

 at Spain, in 1802 brought home with 

 him a flock of Spanish sheep. In 1810 



Mr. Jarvis, Consul at Lisbon, shipped 

 3,850 to the United States, to be dis- 

 tributed : 1,500 in New York; 1,000 

 in Boston and Newburyport ; the re- 

 mainder to Philadelphia, Baltimore, 

 Alexandria, Norfolk and Richmond, 

 reserving 350 for himself. Just at 

 that time those Spanish sheep were 

 obtainable in consequence of the 

 French invasion of Spain, and the 

 confiscation of the flocks of the gran- 

 dees, who had bred these sheep con- 

 formable to the natural laws for im- 

 provement, as they fancied, during a 

 long period. Each grandee, such as 

 the Prince of Peace, kept a flock of a 

 strain differing somewhat from either 

 of the others. For instance, the said 

 Prince owned the Taulars ; the Conde 

 Campo de Alange, proprietor of the 

 Negrettis; then there were the Eseu- 

 rials, Infantados, and Montarcos, be- 

 sides the Aqueirres. From these sev- 

 eral families sprung the improved 

 American merino. And what of the 

 improvement ? The best sheep of 

 Spain or the highest bred sheep of 

 Europe only yielded 10 pounds of wool 

 per fleece, as the highest — about one 

 pound of wool to 12 pounds of car- 

 cass, while " Gold Drop," the famous 

 §10,000 buck, a good type of the 

 American merino, gave a yield of 40 

 lbs. of wool annually— 4 lbs. of wool 

 to 11 of carcass. This great improve- 

 ment is a triumph of the American 

 breeder, through a continued " sur- 

 vival of the Attest, "by the "relentless 

 hand," through the agency of man. 

 The census return shows a progres- 

 sive improvement in weight per fleece 

 during each decade for more than half 

 a century. 



The history of the improved Ameri- 

 can merino is parallel with the his- 

 tory of the Americanized breeds of 

 the representatives of domestic hus- 

 bandry. That which has been done 

 by skillful breeders of domestic ani- 

 mals in this country in the line of im- 

 provement may be wrought by the 

 American apiarists. England is no 

 longer the nursery of improved stock, 

 nor has Italy, the Oriental Isles, jun- 

 gles of Ceylon, Holy Land, or other 

 country ever been the nursery of sci- 

 entific bee-culture. The whole field 

 for improvement in bee-breeding is 

 yet unoccupied, except, perhaps, a 

 few Americans who have attempted 

 to enter the broad domain of im- 

 proved breeding. 



Upon few subjects connected witli 

 domestic economy, probably upon no 

 single one, is there greater need of 

 diffusion of knowledge than in regard 

 to the principles of breeding. Even 

 with professed scientists, who write 

 upon the subjectoccasionally.thealpha 

 and omega of their philosophy is em- 

 braced in the axiom that a "survival 

 of the fittest" by "the relentless hand" 

 of chance is the road to improvement of 

 race or breed. Now, if this axiom be 

 a good one, and our farm animals 

 were now in the condition which na- 

 ture produced them, and if this con- 

 dition best subserved the wants of 

 the agriculturist, it would approxi- 

 mate nearer to a sufficient guide in 

 breeding, but with domestication came 

 the disturbing influences, and the ef- 

 fects of these have been deviations 

 numerous and great, changes external 



and internal in form and in construc- 

 tion. 



By virtue of some of these changes 

 great improvement has been attained. 

 Our most valuable animals are, in 

 some sense, a manufactured article — 

 a creation through the agency of man. 

 The object of the bee-keeper, like 

 that of men engaged in other avoca- 

 tions, is profit, and, like other men, 

 the bee-keeper may expect success 

 in proportion to the skill, care, 

 judgment and perseverance with 

 which his operations are conducted. 

 The improvement of domestic ani- 

 mals and insects so as greatly to en- 

 hance their individual and aggregate 

 value to render the rearing of them 

 more profitable to all concerned, is 

 one of the achievements of advanced 

 civilization and enlightenment, and is 

 as much a science of triumph and 

 skill as the construction of a railroad, 

 a steamship, an electric telegraph, or 

 any work of arhitecture. The truth 

 is, and it is of no use to deny or dis- 

 guise the fact, the improvement of do- 

 mestic animals (including insects) is 

 one of the most important, and, until 

 of late and even now, one of the most 

 neglected branches of domestic econ- 

 omy. Let the ill-favored, chance- 

 breed mongrel,so common, testify. To 

 assert that Dame Chance is the 

 scienced breeder is advocating doc- 

 trines countering the teachings of 

 science — scientific bee-culture, and be- 

 littles the intelligence and attributes 

 of mankind. If it is true that the 

 Ajjis mellifica of any clime has been 

 perfected by a beautiful " letting 

 alone " and "the severe pruning of 

 the relentless hand of nature," why 

 is it that there should be any differ- 

 ence between the bees of Italy, Cy- 

 prus, Syria, and America ? Each have 

 been left to the " pruning which na- 

 ture practices with relentless hand " 

 during centuries. No attempt has 

 been made to interfere with said 

 hand other than to hide domiciled 

 bees in a box of straw or chaff, which 

 beats entirely the hand of nature in 

 ■relentless pruning. And if it is the 

 fittest that survive such relentless 

 pruning, those that survived the stern 

 ordeal of last winter's pruning must 

 be doubly fittest for perpetuating the 

 race, and the fancied reasons for im- 

 porting bees that have been " bred 

 under the most trying circumstan- 

 ces," in order to keep "our apiaries 

 from deteriorating," is absurd. 



In the case of creating the improved 

 American merino, the breeders did 

 resort to importing the survivers of 

 nature's scrubs, with which to couple 

 in the breeding to give intensity of 

 vigor or preponderance of any de- 

 sired superiority. And if, as in the 

 improved sheep, bees can be bred that 

 will produce 4 times the amount of 

 honey gathered by the fittest native 

 and European races, it is worth while 

 to give attention to the subject. The 

 improvement of bees by breeding in 

 accordance with the laws of nature, 

 applied scientifically by the hand of 

 skillful physiologists, is as promising, 

 and presents as wide a field of opera- 

 tions, as was that of the sheep. 



We cannot say what might have 

 been the original type of the several 

 races of bees, for the inquiry would 



carry us beyond any record of history 

 or tradition regarding it. but, few 

 doubt that all the varieties sprang 

 each originally from a single type, and 

 that the many variations are due to 

 causes connected with their domesti- 

 cation, and influence of climate and 

 other circumstances. 



Now that the renowned tourist, Mr. 

 Benton, has obtained the famous ele- 

 phantine honey bee (I ignore or drop 

 the Latin), which is said to be a dis- 

 tinct species, why not breed mule and 

 hinny hybrid honey bees V Comrades 

 Jones and Benton have acquired a 

 valid title to fame as enterprising 

 philanthropists. Thanks to their con- 

 tributions to scientific bee-culture, 

 which opens a wide field for the im- 

 provement of races and originating 

 new breeds. 



The space allotted me will not allow 

 of my writing of the principles in- 

 volved in the philosophy of breeding, 

 but in a future article I may attempt 

 to do so briefly. 



Richford, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Getting Rid of Fertile Workers. 



J. M. VALENTINE. 



Yesterday, from 8 a. m. to 4 p. m., I 

 took off, all alone, 110 section boxes, 

 trimmed them up and pu ,them away, 

 then took out and extracted 2ii gallons 

 of honey, and cleaned up and put the 

 things in the honey house in order, 

 the thermometer ranging from S7° to 

 97° in the shade. I do not know 

 whether it was a big day's work, as I 

 have not heard others say what they 

 can do ; at any rate, I know I was tired 

 enough. Bees are doing well. We 

 have had a good run on white clover, 

 and the bees are now gathering from 

 both clover and basswood. I have ta- 

 ken from 40 to 00 1 J£-lb. sections from 

 a number of hives. I did not double 

 up as I should have done in the spring. 

 There are colonies that just now are 

 in good working condition, which, had 

 they been doubled together would 

 have given me 60 lbs. of honey, after 

 which they could have been divided 

 and be as good as they are now. It 

 will not pay to keep a weak colony. I 

 found a colony a few days ago that had 

 a fertile worker. They cast a swarm 

 June 1st, and a few days after a second 

 swarm. As I did not want to use the 

 young queens that were with them, I 

 pinched them all (0 in number) and 

 the bees returned to the old hive. A 

 few days ago I examined them and 

 found they had a fertile worker. I 

 took two empty hives, set one on either 

 side of the old one, and lifted out a 

 frame and put in one, and the next 

 frame in the other, alternating them 

 till all were transferred. After shak- 

 ing out all the bees I moved the old 

 hive away, and gaveeach colony a ripe 

 cell. Now each have a fine young 

 queen. Let some one who has a fer- 

 tile worker try the same process, and 

 report. 



I like the Weekly Bee Journal 

 first rate. There is just enough in 

 each paper for one dose — I can digest 

 it all nicely. 



Carlinville, 111., July 2, 1881. 



