26 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



of pollen would do no harm. So in 

 just the best cellar or in any condition 

 where the bees are kept just right, no 

 harm will result from tlie presence of 

 pollen. In the Soutli, too, where tlie 

 bees tly out often, tliere is no danger 

 from the presence of pollen in the 

 hive. Here in the North, on the other 

 hand, we often have a warm time in 

 January, and the bees, unless so pro- 

 tected that they do not feel the 

 warmth, will commence breeding if 

 they have pollen. They may get a 

 large area of brood. Now if there is 

 no chance for tliem to fly, or if the 

 weatlier becomes cold they are injured 

 by this activity wlucli came, we may 

 say, as tlie result of the presence of 

 pollen. The next Spring they are in 

 feeble condition, and there is more of 

 a tendency to tlwindle away as the 

 warm days incite them to tly forth. 



If bees can be kept perfectly quiet 

 in winter, they eat nothing but 

 honey, and do not need to void 

 their feces. With activity comes 

 more food-taking, perhaps, too, they 

 take some of the nitrogenous food, 

 and as a result they become diseased 

 and die. I have never found any 

 support of the theory of the late Mr. 

 Quinby, that bees excrete a dry 

 powder in winter. The facts that I 

 observed in our colonies wintered with 

 and without pollen have led me to the 

 above theory. Tlie theory may not 

 be correct, but the facts are still to be 

 explained. I am so much convinced 

 that I remove all of the pollen if I 

 can as I prepare the bees for winter. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Drones and Drone- Workers- 



S. S. BUTLEK, M. D. 



How can we get our queens fertil- 

 ized by tlie best drones V Every bee- 

 keeper has a few colonies that are 

 much superior to the rest. Wliy V I 

 claim that tliey have better queens 

 that liave mated with good drones — 

 the result is— tet colonies. I use the 

 word " best " to distinguish them from 

 others which are all the way from 

 '■ poor " up to " very good." 



What kind of drones do those best 

 queens give V Fine large ones, fully 

 one-third larger than drones from 

 those small active queens, wliich are 

 degenerates ; for all the imported 

 queens that were produced in natural 

 swarming, are of medium size. 

 CJueens that liave given me tlie most 

 industrious workers were of medium 

 size ; abnormal queens are very iiro- 

 litic, giving great quantities of what 

 I, for want of a better name, shall call 

 drone workers ; also quantities of 

 small, active, swift-liyiiig drones, for 

 our large, clumsy and slow best drones 

 to compete with. The consequence 

 is, that supposing tliere are as many 

 of tlie fine as of the poor drones, the 

 poor ones being so much swifter, 

 nearly all of our queens mate with the 

 poor ones, thus keeping our apiary full 

 of queens that, although tliey are pro- 

 lific enough, their eggs are so poorly 

 vitalized that the workers are short- 

 lived, make short flights, can stand 



but little labor, and amongst them are 

 great quantities of drone-workers, 

 amounting sometimes to fully one- 

 half. I am satisfied that they do no 

 work outside, among them are no 

 ragged-winged ones. 



That there are large quantities of 

 them in almost every apiary, 1 am 

 certain. How can you tell them V In 

 this way ; When honey is scarce, the 

 bees first kill off the" drones, and 

 towards the last of drone killing, you 

 will see the workers in front of the 

 hive licking and pulling certain ones 

 about, keeping tliem outside, and per- 

 secuting them nearly the same as they 

 do drones. I have seen it stated in 

 such cases that bees were robbing and 

 used to think it was so, but it is not ; 

 and you can prove it in this way : 

 Anyone who has blacks, hybrids and 

 marked Italians, will find, in front of 

 the different liives, the same kind of 

 bees that are in the hives (which 

 vv'ould not be the case if they were 

 robbers) that were killed olf , for blacks 

 and hybrids are great robbers. They 

 would be in front of Italians and hy- 

 brids, and Italians in front of the 

 blacks. 



These drone-workers, I am satisfied, 

 are the cause of the small amount of 

 lioney obtained by some colonies that 

 keep full of bees, in comparatively 

 good seasons, for it takes a large 

 amount of honey to keep the hive full 

 of those poor good-for-nothings, which 

 all has to be brought in by those bees 

 that have stamina enough to make 

 out-door workers. 



The remedy is to keep an abund- 

 ance of drones from the best queens, 

 and not to let any of the others rear 

 any, or, if tliey do get some, trap them 

 off. 



Here is the history of two of my col- 

 onies the past season, Nos. 2 and 37; 

 it has been a poor year. No. 2, a pure 

 Italian queen, medium size, quite an 

 ordinary layer, keeping only 5 or 6 

 Gallup frames full of brood during 

 tlie best of the season ; the workers 

 were perceptibly larger than any 

 others. No doubt they were longer 

 lived, as the hive was full of bees and 

 gave, before they swarmed, fully 100 

 lbs. of extracted honey, while the 

 average was but 42 lbs. There never 

 was any great stir about the hive, few 

 standing around the entrance, while 

 there were quantities about No. 37, 

 and others, that gave but very little 

 honey ; they were bringing in stores 

 while others were consuming what 

 they had brought in, during the early 

 part of the season, and her daughter's 

 bees had filled up the hive. 



The queen in No. .37 was of the 

 same a^e as the other, a very ))rolific 

 layer, had mated with a hybrid drone, 

 giving some black and a good many 

 two-banded bees ; tlie drone was no 

 doubt one of those poor ones ; she laid 

 nearly twice as many eggs as No. 2, 

 was full of bees, liut I extracted but 

 once, only 18 lbs. ; at the close of the 

 season they killed off nearly one-half 

 of tlie workers, while none were killed 

 in No. 2. Why this difference V One 

 of these two reasons made the differ- 

 ence : Either it is not a benefit, but 

 rather a detriment for a queen to be 

 what is called very prolific (we would 



not expect as good colts from a stal- 

 lion that had sired 20 colts in a season 

 as if he had sired but 10) ; why should 

 we expect as good workers from a 

 queen that lays 4.000 eggs, as from one 

 that lays but 1,500 or 2,000. 2. Or else 

 supposing the queens were equally 

 good, the quality of the eggs of No. 

 37 were spoiled by the poor drone she- 

 mated with. 



I have had, and no doubt every old 

 bee-keeper has had many such cases ;. 

 in :i good year they do not kill off 

 those drone workers (see Mr. Hed- 

 don's article, page 481, Oct., 1881,. 

 Gleanings). 



W. F. Clarke, in Oct. Gleanings, 

 page 494, says : " Mr. Jones says he 

 got 62 queens in one lot, only 2 or 3 

 imperfect ones."' I claim that the 

 only test of a perfect queen, and that 

 she has mated with a perfect drone,, 

 is the worker progeny, which miist be 

 very industrious, strong and long- 

 lived. I would as soon expect to get 

 00 No. 1 colts from a fine stallion in. 

 one season, as 60 fine qneens at one 

 time from a colony. Horsemen wish- 

 ing to get tip-top colts from extra 

 stallions, let him get but very few. 



II. Alley, in the Bee Journal, 

 May number, 1880, page 237 (one who 

 has had more experience than any 

 other person living raising queens),, 

 says : " Where too many are reared 

 in one hive, even though they are 16 

 days from the egg, do not live so long 

 as queens that are reared in hives- 

 where only a small number are reared- 

 at one time." 



P. L. Viallon (a young queen 

 breeder but a very observing man), 

 says in Nov. Gleanings, page 52.5 : " L 

 have experimented on this subject 

 several years, and have come to the 

 conclusion that it is an easy matter to- 

 degenerate bees, and there is no im- 

 provement to be made on the daugh- 

 ters of imported mothers." Further 

 on he says: " I have found my bees 

 a little less energetic after 2 or 3 gen- 

 erations." A frank acknowledgment 

 that by his management in rearing 

 them, they do degenerate, and he says 

 that he shall breed only from imported^ 

 motliers. 



I tliink the system of breeding is 

 radically wrong somewhere, that has 

 to send 'to Italy to get queens to keep 

 up his stock. Why does not the Ital- 

 ian stock run out V Any one that will 

 procure his stock from some locality 

 in Italy, say 10 miles away from any 

 one tliat is rearing forced queens, and 

 after getting them, raise all hisqueens 

 by natural swarming, keeping only 

 those cells that are perfected before 

 they swarm out, always breeding up, 

 need not, and will not have his bees 

 degenerate. 



It is a principle running througli all 

 nature, that in propagating, the less 

 in quantity, the more perfect in qual- 

 ity. Then who can say that the most 

 prolific queens are the most profitable? 



Greiner Bros., in the Bee Journal 

 of Sept. 21, seem to have the idea that 

 " I tliink that a common hive is better 

 than a frame hive." If they have fol- 

 lowed me in all I have said, they will 

 recollect that I said that it was not 

 the hive that made the quality of the 



