THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



441 



intestines of the bees, as well as of all 

 animals, made to carry o£E these same 

 particles '( if bees pass, in conline- 

 ment, under favorable conditions, 

 their feces regularly as there is every 

 evidence that they do, from the time 

 they are put into winter quarters 

 whether they may have llights or not, 

 judging from the amount of the ex- 

 crement that may be raked from the 

 bottom board of a hive every few days 

 during tho winter, in what manner 

 are we to conclude that the indigest- 

 able particles are capable of causing 

 disease 'i 



Now the fact is just this, bees hold 

 an intermediate place between warm 

 and cold blooded animals. They are 

 more or less active, and develop heat 

 at all times. There is, therefore, al- 

 ways tissue waste, and as a part of 

 the excrement of all animals is made 

 up of this tissue waste, it cannot mat- 

 ter what the bees may subsist upon, 

 there will be formed excrement, and I 

 contend that this excrement is passed 

 regularly by them throughout the 

 winter, and the passage is only inter- 

 fered with by unfavorable conditions 

 to the life of the bees. 



But if there is tissue waste in win- 

 ter, there is also a necessity for nitro- 

 genous food, and so I believe, as be- 

 fore stated, that bees eat a little pollen 

 all winter,andthat that little is just as 

 necessary for their well-being to eat 

 as is honey. I. therefore, stand for 

 the wise and intelligent provision in 

 nature of honey and pollen for the 

 bees, and hold that they constitute the 

 best food it is possible for them to 

 have under all circumstances, and 1 

 re-assert that it is no more probable 

 that pollen should be a cause of dysen- 

 tery than that honey should be, and 

 that it is impossible for any one to 

 comprehend how either can be, as- 

 suming that both in any case are of 

 good quality. 



I had supposed that Mr. Ileddou 

 had abandoned the pollen theory, but 

 from a recent article in the Bkk 

 Journal it appears that he still ad- 

 heres to the old flame. The above is, 

 therefore, very respectfully submitted, 

 for there is no one, perhaps, more de- 

 serving than Mr. H. for the zealous 

 and persistent effort to unfathom the 

 mysteries that have heretofore sur- 

 rounded the causes of bee dysentery 

 in winter. 



New Philadelphia, O. 



For the American Beo JoumaL 



Bees Injured by Heat. 



M. BRAY. 



I think that the bees with deformed 

 ©r crippled wings, that Mr. J. D. 

 Enas speaks of, on page 371, must 

 have been caused by over-heating. 

 On July 8, 1882, the thermometer 

 went up to 108° in the shade, in this 



Elace. This day ruined all of the 

 rood in my apiary. 

 The young bees were very much 

 dwarfed in size, with only rudimen- 

 tary wings, and would leave the hive 

 much as Mr. Enas describes their 

 leaving. The queens stopped laying 



for some two or three weeks ; the 

 bees, being mostly field hands, during 

 this time Hooded the brood-chamber 

 with honey. When the queens com- 

 menced laying, it was only a small 

 patch of eggs at lirst, and increased 

 slowly, as in early spring. We have 

 had some extreme heat during the 

 present season; the mercury going as 

 high as IKP. By raising the hives 

 from the bottom boards, and keeping 

 them well shaded, I have escaped in- 

 jury to the brood from heat; but the 

 old bees have been injured by heat 

 wnile clustering on the outside, for 

 soon the shiny or hairless bees put 

 in an appearance, in quite large num- 

 bers. There had been no robbing 

 among my bees for the season, and I 

 claim that this smooth appearance 

 was caused by heat. 



These hairless bees are short lived, 

 about two weeks, and the most of 

 them lie dead in front of the hives. 

 A neighbor of mine has had brood 

 ruined and old bees scalded in the 

 same hives, and now some colonies 

 are very weak. I hear persons say 

 that all "of this talk about wintering 

 in the North amounts to nothing to 

 us in California ; this is a land of per- 

 petual bloom; but I think a little 

 protection from cold in winter, and 

 protection frotii heat in summer, 

 would not be amiss. 



I am now devising a double-walled 

 hive to secure my bees both from heat 

 and cold. To-day, as I write, the 

 mercury stands at 104°. The bees 

 have come through with a light har- 

 vest, but the bees are in good condi- 

 tion. 



New Almaden, Cal., Aug. 18, 1883. 



Heud belore the Maine State Association. 



Breeding the Best ftueens. 



I. U. MASON. 



In no department of animal life is 

 it so easy to make rapid progress to- 

 wards perfection iu breeding, than 

 with the honey bee. With our stock 

 generally, it requires a series of years 

 to add such qualities as are deemed 

 desirable, or to get rid of those we 

 wish to eradicate. This, of course, is 

 owing to the fact that conception and 

 uterine growth is a slow process, 

 when compared with reproduction in 

 the insect class. With the bee, sev- 

 eral generations can be produced in 

 the same time that would he required 

 to bring forth a single specimen 

 among the mammals. 



Knowing these facts, and imder- 

 standing as we all may, that 16 days 

 only is required to produce a queen 

 from the egg, and only 25 to 30 to 

 have it fertilized and ready to rejiro- 

 duce itself, it will be seen that the 

 possibilities in the matter of perfect- 

 ing our colonies, are incalculable. 

 While in the past considerable atten- 

 tion has been given to matters of 

 queen breeding, the chief attempts 

 have been to work for color ; why it is 

 1 know not, that a bright yellow color 

 has been considered the type of beauty 

 in the Italian bee, or why a rich, dark 

 brown has not been accepted as the 

 stvle. But such has been the fact. 



and the aim of queen breeders has 

 been to produce handsome bees, often- 

 times at the sacrifice of those other 

 qualities which alone can make them 

 a source of profit. In a state of na- 

 ture such is not the case; as a rule, 

 the strongest and hardiest become 

 the fathers and mothers, while lb 

 weaker must necessarily go to the 

 wall. The result is invariably, tliat 

 all animals reared in a wild state, are 

 as nearly perfect as it is possible to 

 have them, while it remains with man 

 to produce inferior specimens from 

 superior stock. In the breeding of 

 cattle and stock generally, the rule 

 now is to strive to improve. 



We first ascertain or determine 

 what particular points we desire to 

 maintain and perpetuate, and to bend 

 our best energies to the work. Al- 

 ready we have made vast jirogress in 

 this direction. As an evidence, I can 

 point to the vast size of our Short- 

 horns, the milk, butter and cheese 

 qualities of our Jerseys, and horses 

 for speed, while ten years ago a mile 

 in three minutes for a horse to travel 

 was considered fast. We now think 

 we are getting a slow rate of speed 

 imless we can drive that distance in 

 2:25 or less. The time has come, 

 however, when beauty of color alone 

 in our bees is a matter of secondary 

 importance. Bee-keepers are de- 

 manding something more ; they have 

 found out that beauty alone will not 

 secure them a big crop of honey, and 

 as but few keep an apiary for experi- 

 ment only, they desire, regardless of 

 color, such stock as will guarantee 

 them a good surplus crop, not that 

 they object to beauty, but unless they 

 can obtain it in connection with those 

 other qualities which make their bees 

 fairly remunerative, they decidedly 

 prefer to take color as itcomes, rather 

 than to please the fancy at the ex- 

 pense of the pocket. How, then, 

 shall we lear such queens as will 

 prove the Uiost remunerative, and 

 which perpetuate those qualities that 

 will give us bees for business? In 

 the first place, then, we must select 

 for the queen mother such as give us 

 hardy, long-lived, industrious, strong 

 winged and peaceable bees. If such 

 a colony is of the right color for style, 

 so much the better. 



A queen reared from the egg of 

 such a colony, must necessarily prove 

 a good one, liiid if she becomes ferti- 

 lized by a drone from another such a 

 colony of different strain, we have so 

 far done all that is necessary to im- 

 prove in the rightdirection. Keeping 

 the above points in view, and breed- 

 ing only from strong colonies, we wiU 

 get the best queens possible. If we 

 wish to rear queens, however, at a 

 time when no honey is being gath- 

 ered from the fields, we must feed 

 our bees liberally while cell building 

 is going forward, as there is no doubt 

 that better queens are reared while 

 the bees are getting stores plentifully, 

 either frimi the Held at large, or from 

 the feeder at home. I do not think it 

 makes any difference whether queens 

 are reared umler the swarming im- 

 pulse or not, as regards their value, 

 piovided we supply artificially and in 

 plenty the stoi'es which they naturally 



