763 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



pans, and, in my opinion, just as good as to 

 buy or make feeders especially for this pur- 

 pose." 



"How did you fill these feeders the second 

 time when the bees were in them?" 



"I took off the cover, and with the smok- 

 er I drove the bees off one edge of the cheese- 

 cloth, when that edge was raised up, the feed 

 poured in at that side, and the float would 

 be raised by the poured-in feed, together 

 with the cheese-cloth and bees which were 

 on it, till the amount I wanted in the pan 

 was given, when the side I had raised was 

 put back where it belonged and the cover 

 put on again." 



"When you fed at the bottom, how did 

 you do that?" 



"I took the back cleat off the bottom-board 

 of the hive, and this same cleat off another 

 bottom- board, when this last was put up, back 

 to back, and level with the bottom-board of 

 the hive the colony stood on, when an empty 

 super was set on this last-prepared bottom- 

 board, and a cover on top of that. This left an 

 entrance the whole width of the hive under 

 the back of the same, and into this empty 

 super, into which the bees could come for 

 the feed as soon as the pan of feed was plac- 

 ed therein. As I said before, this seemed 

 the most natural way for the bees to take 

 and carry the feed; but so far as I could see 

 there was very little difference in the results, 

 and very little difference in regard to the 

 amount of labor that had to be performed." 



' ' Did you feed the honey as it came from 

 the extractor?" 



' ' No. The honey must be thinned to about 

 the consistency of nectar as it comes from 

 the fields to secure the best results. If the 

 feed is too thick the bees will gorge themselves 

 till they become sluggish, and the work goes 

 on slowly. With thin feed the bees carry 

 and evaporate it very nearly the same as 

 they do nectar from the fields, though you 

 are to do the feeding at night, so as to insure 

 against robbing." 



"Would feeding back work with your plan 

 of swarm control as given in your serial in 

 last year's Gleanings?" 



' ' Just as well as with other colonies, though 

 if you work your bees as there given ( and 

 more fully given now the serial is published 

 in book foi-m, through additions thereto), 

 you should have very few unfinished sections 

 at the end of the clover harvest; and I doubt 

 about feeding back being a paying operation 

 except to finish up unfinished sections. I 

 did not have enough unfinished sections left 

 over from last year to give me the needed 

 baits for this year's use with the same num- 

 ber of colonies so worked last season." 



"In your opinion, which are the best bees 

 for comb honey?" 



"All things considered, I believe a good 

 grade of hybrids the best." 



"What kind of cross do you mean by a 

 good grade of hybrids?" 



' ' I mean the first cross between the best 

 Italians and the common black or German 

 bee." 



"But are not such very cross?" 



"Yes, the larger part of them are. But 

 you did not ask any thing about their temper, 

 but which were the best bees for comb honey. 

 And adding a little to the best part I will 

 say that years of experience at the out-apiary 

 leads me to believe that, the crosser the bees 

 with such a grade of hybrids, the better work 

 they do in the sections, and the more of it." 



"But you would not advocate the purchase 

 of hybrids, would you?" 



"No. You can not build up in that way. 

 for the tendency is to grow worse. I would 

 use the best Italian queen I could get for the 

 mother, and then let her daughters mate with 

 whatever drones on the blacK side they hap- 

 pened to, were I working wholly for comlj 

 honey, regardless of careful breeding for the 

 improvement of stock. Stock improvement 

 can not be brought about by breeding from 

 hybrids, even though I have to admit that a 

 good grade of hy]:>rids seems to give the bet- 

 ter yield of section honey." 



"I have a strain of Italian-Carniolan hy- 

 brids, and one of leather- colored Italians 

 which have done well for me, both in quanti- 

 ty and in capping of their section honey, 

 though the latter do not cap quite as white as 

 the other. Now, how would it do to raise 

 queens from the former and drones from the 

 latter, so as to produce a strain of bees that 

 would give the largest yield with the whitest 

 capping?" 



' ' That would be all right, if — ' ' 



"What do you put that if in for?" 



"That ij is about your being able to mate 

 queens that way. If you could control the 

 mating of queens as you can that of poultry, 

 then you could make progress. But with A, 

 B, C, and D raising thousands of drones to 

 where you would raise a score of your dark 

 Italian drones, and all those drones flying 

 with your score, what chance do you think 

 your Italian-Carniolan virgin queens would 

 have in mating one of the drones you want 

 them to?" 



' ' That is an if, sure enough. How would 

 it do to raise some early queens from the 

 above colonies, and introduce them into my 

 other colonies at the beginning of the white- 

 honey flow, according to Mr. Alexander, and 

 thus stop swai'ming? If this plan would 

 work, wouldn't it be easier to stop swarming 

 this way than by your plan?" 



"Yes, possibly, if — " 



"That if again. What about it now?" 



' ' There are two ifs in the way now. The 

 first is, ij your early queens would be good 

 queens, which is very doubtful; for really 

 good queens can not be reared in your local- 

 ity much before the clover flow begins, to 

 say nothing about having them fertilized, in- 

 troduced, and laying at that time, nor the 

 spoiling of colonies in raising them thus early. 

 Then the second if lies in the fact that a 

 young queen introduced as soon as the old 

 one is taken away does not materially lessen 

 the swarming problem. If a colony raises 

 its own queen at this time of ther year, then 

 su(^h a young laying queen is a sure preven- 

 tive of swarming, but not where a young 

 queen is introduced in such a way that there 



