162 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 17, 



of the nature of these insects, and is a guarantee of the suc- 

 cess of Intelligint, persevering efforts for their improvement 

 in the future. 



The first thing for the man who would strive for the im- 

 provement of our common races of bees should be to determine 

 along what lines his efforts are to be put forth. Second, he 

 should have a clearly-defined idea of the end he wishes to at- 

 tain. Third, he should have a settled, definite plan by means 

 of which he expects to reach the desired end. 



Suppose he wishes to improve his bees along the line of 

 honey-gathering qualities. This end he hopes to reach by 

 developing a strain of bees with longer tongues than ordinary 

 bees have, that they may gather nectar from flowers with 

 corollas too deep for ordinary bees to reach. There is doubt- 

 less a minute difference in the length of the tongues of differ- 

 ent strains or colonies of bees. Our breeder would naturally 

 select for the beginning of his experiment the colony with the 

 longest ligula that could be secured. 



Now the bee-keeper finds himself at a disadvantage as 

 compared with the breeder of common races of farm stock. It 

 is quite probable that in their efforts to reach to the bottom 

 of deep flower-tubes the tongues of worker-bees often become 

 more or less elongated. Now, if these same workers could 

 propagate their species this lengthened ligula would probably 

 In some cases be transmitted to their offspring, as is often the 

 case with acquired properties. But the worker is sterile, so 

 we must go back to the mother-bee, that probably never 

 makes any effort to increase the length of her tongue. Any 

 progress along this line must be sought in the drone and queen 

 progeny, and can result only from such slight variations as 

 are spontaneously or naturally produced by the operation of 

 unseen and unknown forces influencing the systems of the 

 parent bees. When a queen is found whose worker progeny 

 show superiority over other bees she is to be used for rearing 

 other queens, some of which we may expect will give workers 

 with still longer tongues. 



By continuing this process of breeding and selection it is 

 reasonable to suppose that in a few generations a strain of 

 bees may be developt that will readily work on red clover and 

 other deep-celled flowers, to the great benefit of the bee- 

 keeper. Selection may be made by measuring the tongues of 

 the workers or by observing those bees that work on the 

 longest-tubed flowers, and finding the hive to which they be- 

 long, and choose it for a starting point in improvement. Im- 

 provement in any other direction may be secured by pursuing 

 the same course towards any other desired end. 



San Diego Co., Calif. 



^ 



A Few Comtueuts " Pro Bono Publico." 



BY "COMMON-SENSE BEE-KEEPING." 



I am not employed to answer questions nor to criticise 

 articles, but I feel constrained to make a few remarks, and 

 with the clemency of the editor, here they are : 



That Gbafting-Wax Recipe on page 22 seems wide of 

 the mark, compared with what I learned from a grafter about 

 40 years ago, and I have also seen it publisht in nursery 

 recipes, and have also talkt about it with nursery-men and 

 grafters at various times, and supposed it was the univer- 

 sal rule. The proportions are (whether taken in pounds or 

 ounces) four of rosin, four of beeswax, and one of tallow. Too 

 much tallow will make it melt easily by the sun, and drip off 

 from the tree. 



Teansferring Bees. — In that new way of transferring, 

 given on page 5, the danger is that when the box-hive was set 

 in the ground, full depth, to stay for several weeks, bottom 

 end up, with the new hive over it, a big rain storm might come 

 along and fill the hole and old hive itself full of water, and 

 drown everything therein that couldn't climb for the new hive. 

 That would be "drowning out," and not transferring. The 

 delusion lies in supposing that the bees decampt from the old 

 hive, and went to the new one on account of the way they 

 were fixt. It will be noticed that Mr. Delmotte's job was put 

 up right in the bight of the swarming season, and more than 

 likely the old colony was about to cast a swarm, and it did, 

 and the swarm went to the new hive rather than to a tree, 

 just as they might have done if the old hive had not been dis- 

 turbed. Then in 25 days, when the young brood would all be 

 hatcht, the old hive could be shaken out clean, and the bees 

 put into a new one or united with the other swarm with less 

 than half the labor that was consumed in fussing with the 

 other way. 



Bees Freezing — It is a great mistake to say that " bees 

 can't freeze to death." Many thousands could testify to the 



loss of weak colonies in cold winters with no visible cause but 

 that thei/ peris/ii by reason of the cold. In such cases they 

 creep into the cells as close together as possible, like persons 

 covering their heads in a cold sleeping-room. It may be said 

 that " bees hibernate," but the proof is all on the other side, 

 and every living creature that does not hibernate may be 

 killed easily by the frost below their powers of endurance. 

 Stiffness and numbness of the cold does not prove hibernation 

 with the bee any more than it does with man. 



The Section Department. — Mr. Hutchinson, important 

 changes are needed in the section department of the bee-hive. 

 When the right thing comes before the public the bees will fill 

 the sections as readily as they now seek to put their honey 

 above the brood and at the sides of the hive. If the near 

 future confirms what the past has proven, the rightly con- 

 constructed " anti-bae-space hive" will figure largely in the 

 reform. - Pennsylvania. 



Feeding Bees — When, What and How to Feed. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



I once sold a colony of bees to a friend in the month of 

 May. The aople-bloom was just over, and the weather had 

 been cold and disagreeable most of the time. (By the way, 

 take notice that when the weather is unpleasant during fruit- 

 bloom, there is much less quantity of fruit than when the 

 weather has been warm and the bees and insects have helpt 

 the fertilization.) This colony of bees was strong and full of 

 brood, but had very few stores. After delivering the hive and 

 placing it in a selected spot in this man's orchard, the bees 

 were liberated, and I gave the beginner a few instructions. 

 Among other things I said : 



The season is a little backward, the weather cool, and be- 

 tween now and clover bloom you will perhaps have to feed 

 these bees. This remark came like a cloud in a fair sky : 

 "Feed them! What? Feed them now ? In May ? If they 

 can't feed themselves in the month of flowers, what will they 

 do in winter ?" 



Friend novice, every old bee-keeper will tell you that the 

 most dangerous time for the bees to starve is just at the eve of 

 a big harvest. An indifferent observer may readily believe 

 that there are plenty of blossoms in the fields from the begin- 

 ning of spring till the drouth of July without any intermis- 

 sions. This is not correct. Our gardens may be sparkling 

 with blooms of all colors, and roses without end, but the busi- 

 ness-blossoms, those on which the honey-flow depends, do not 

 always or in all places follow one another in close rotation. 

 After the willow, the maple and the hazel, there is an inter- 

 ruption. There is another after fruit-bloom. These different 

 plants furnish the colonies just about enough nectar to induce 

 them to rear brood to their utmost capacity, and more honey 

 is consumed than at any other season. Hives that were rich 

 in the fall may have been examined in February and found 

 still heavy with stores, but in March the hive is already much 

 lighter, and by May 1 it often happens that the last drops of 

 old honey reach scarcely to the fresh nectar. A difference of a 

 few degrees in latitude will only change the time of breeding, 

 and the time of blossoms, by a few days or a few weeks, but 

 the result is similar. There is a scarcity just when the colony 

 is most in need of a plenty, and if the queen is very prolific, 

 and the winter supply has not been very great, more attention 

 is needed at the time when it would seem that care was superf- 

 luous. 



Between fruit-bloom and clover-bloom, in this latitude, we 

 often see three or four weeks when very little is to be had. In 

 favored locations the locust, the gooseberry, the raspberry, 

 and some other shrubs may keep up the larder of the bees, 

 but a few rainy days, when the hive is full of bees, will often 

 cause them to use up their last drop, and, if no succor is at 

 hand, they may be compelled to throw out the brood. Tho 

 the drones are still in the larval state, they seem already to 

 know that they will be useless and fit only to eat the surplus, 

 for they methodically begin by casting these out first. When- 

 ever you notice them carrying out these white drone-grubs, 

 you may know something is wrong, and if nothing is done, and 

 the weather continues unpleasant, or the bloom continues 

 scarce the worker larvas will go next. Even tho I am an 

 enemy of drones, as my readers have surely perceived ere this, 

 I do not think it well to advise any one to let this hecatomb 

 continue, for while they are destroying the drones, they are 

 stinting themselves, and their queen is likely to relax or per- 

 haps discontinue her laying at a time when her eggs are 

 worth three times more to the colony than all the honey they 

 will need. Bees are not wasteful creatures, and if too much is 



