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GEORGE W. YORK. Editor. 







39th YEAR, 



CHICAGO, ILL, JANUARY 26, 1899, 



No, 4, 



Imported Queens Better than Home-Bred. Etc. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



HAVING been laid aside for some time with fractured 

 ribs and la grippe, a lot of correspondence, by way of 

 questions, has accumulated, and with the Editor's per- 

 mission I will answer some of them througrh the columns of 

 the American Bee Journal. 



The first one I come to reads : " What do you think of 

 the claim made by some that imported queens are superior 

 to those bred in this country ?" 



From years of experience with both imported Italians 



the pains in breeding- that the Americans do ; for, if I am 

 correctly informed, the most of the queens sent over here, 

 unless it is very lately, are from a pi'omiscuous selection, 

 mostly taken from second and third swarms, on account of 

 these swanns not being- likely to build up to make good 

 honey-gathering colonies for the next season. 



How much different the mode practiced hy our best 

 breeders ! Queens are selected for generations, each selec- 

 tion being- made from those which are the most hardy, and 

 give the best results in every way ; then the verj^ best speci- 

 men is selected from the next generation, and so on, always 

 selecting the queen each time which scores the highest 

 number of points, till perfection is well nigh reacht. It 

 seems strang-e that any one can believe that queens from a 

 promiscuous importatioii will equal queens bred with such 

 care and painstaking. 



Where people are not satisfied with the stock thej' have, 

 m_v advice would be for all tho.se so situated, to buj- an im- 

 ported queen if they think them superior, and a home-bred 

 one from some reliable breeder, and try the two equally, 

 rearing as many queens from one as from the other, when 

 thev soon can tell which is the best for them. If thev do 



Croup of Queen-Cells. 



Bees at ll'or/c Build i>!g Comb. 



and home-bred queens. I do not think that any proof can be 

 found to substantiate such a claim. In fact, I believe the 

 balance of proof is on the other side. Very manj- have 

 written me that they would not exchange their home-bred 

 queens for imported stock on any account, and their yields 

 of honey are much increast above what they were when 

 they first obtained Italian queens from the old country. 

 Queen-breeders on the other side of the water d^ not take 



not choose the home-bred queens, then they will be different 

 from the majority of cases coming under my notice. 



GERM.iX BEES — HOW LONG DO THEY LIVE ? 



Another correspondent wishes me to tell how long the 

 German (or black) bee will live. Well, about as long as the 

 bees of any other variety, tho I used to think that the Cyp- 

 rian bees were a little long-er lived than any of the other 



