AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



563 



dorsed by the editor of Gleanings on 

 page 713, of a September issue. 



The writer on page 408 of the Bee 

 Journal, complains of receiving a dollar 

 queen. His language is, "A small yel- 

 low queen, but little larger than an 

 average leather-colored worker," and 

 "bees sent in the cage correspondingly 

 small." This same experience many 

 others doubtless have had. The writer 

 thinks that perhaps he obtained an old, 

 played-out bee. My opinion is it was a 

 queen bred after the vicious manner re- 

 ferred to in Gleanings, page 635. No 

 breeder of domestic animals would pur- 

 sue a course of breeding from " runts," 

 with the expectation of producing a 

 superior animal. Whoever produces 

 these runts of queens and sends them 

 out, is ignorant of the requisites to pro- 

 duce excellence, or is lamentably lack- 

 ing in the practice of the Golden Rule, 

 even by sending out "golden bees." 



If a large, well-formed animal of its 

 species has more prepotency to transmit 

 to its progeny its own superior excel- 

 lence than the "runt," then why not 

 the same law be operative in the bee ? 

 That the bee is governed by the same 

 laws in the transmission of an excellence 

 of themselves is patent in the fact that 

 all good queen-breeders, and expert api- 

 arists, are asking greater prices for 

 some than others ; because they are 

 more prolific, and transmit their qualities 

 of excellence. 



If man, by skillful manipulation, can 

 improve upon the natural selection of 

 the hive, is it not a sin against the 

 Author of the bee, to employ any 

 method that enforces the bees to produce 

 queens by methods other than improv- 

 ing on natural methods, retarding effects 

 to produce superiority? 



Des Moines, Iowa. 



Use of Comb Foundation in the 

 Brood-Chamber. 



Results of Experiments at the Michigan Apiary, 

 BY E. L. TAYLOR, APIARIST. 



I desire in this article to set forth 

 briefly the character and results of the 

 experiments made in the apiary to test 

 the comparative value of comb, founda- 

 tion and starters when used in the brood- 

 chamber for swarms, and in addition 

 thereto to call attention to what the 

 experiments seem to disclose touching 

 the comparative advantage of swarms of 

 different sizes. In the main, all this 

 can be best accomplished by the use of 



tables which I have prepared and which 

 are presented herewith. 



It was not till the 2Tth of June that I 

 was able to put into operation my plans 

 for making these tests. I prepared 12 

 hives, four of which were furnished 

 with comb, four with foundation, and 

 four with starters only. The hives pre- 

 pared with comb were designated by the 

 numbers 1 to 4 inclusive with the letter 

 A, those with foundation in like manner 

 with the letter B, and those with start- 

 ers with the same numbers and the 

 letter C, and each hive was marked with 

 the proper designation and its weight. 

 Then in each case when a swarm issued, 

 which was to be used for making this 

 test, it was secured in a basket and 

 weighed before hiving : the supers also, 

 whether taken from the old hive at 

 swarming or supplied subsequently, 

 were carefully weighed before they were 

 put in place and a record made on the 

 spot of all items. By referring to table 

 A, all these will be found in the three 

 columns following the date of hiving 

 except of course the weight of the cases 

 subsequently adjusted which appears 

 further along. 



I ought also to say that in each case 

 the hive with the bees and cases was re- 

 weighed early on the morning subse- 

 quent to the hiving in order to detect 

 and thereby correct any change which 

 might chance to take place before the 

 swarm became settled in its new home. 

 The only change it was found necessary 

 to make was the addition of the fraction 

 of a pound to the weight of the bees 

 which may be supposed to be accounted 

 for by the presence in the morning of 

 bees which at the time of swarming 

 were afield. 



Other data for table A were obtained 

 by weighing the several hives, bees, 

 supers and all upon three different 

 dates, viz., the 6th, 12th, and the 19th 

 of July (thus dividing the time of the 

 test into three nearly equal periods) and 

 by weighing the cases of honey sepa- 

 rately on July 19th, at the end of the 

 time given to the test. These data with 

 the previous ones enable me to state the 

 exact total gain of each colony for each 

 of the three periods, the gain of each 

 colony in the amount of comb honey to- 

 gether with the gain in the weight of 

 the hive for the entire time. From 

 these I deduce the gain per pound of 

 bees of each colony for each of the three 

 periods as well as for the entire time, 

 and also the gain in the weight of the 

 hive and the gain in the amount of comb 

 honey for the whole time. 



It will be noticed by reference to the 



