1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



537 



his bees have the best of care and attention 

 — in fact, he says he visits them every day. 

 How many of us have the enthusiasm arid 

 zeal to do this ? Another thing : He has per- 

 haps 100 or more colonies in each room. This 

 of itself would give a pretty even temper- 

 ature — providing, of course, the room be 

 properly ventilated. Then, again, he warms 

 them up judiciously and carefully by arti- 

 ficial heat. How many of us are willing to 

 take the pains to do this ? I do believe it is 

 a pretty wise idea to make the covering over- 

 head pretty close and warm, and then give 

 the principal part of the ventilation from 

 below, allowing a space for dead bees to fall 

 clear out of the neighborhood of the living 

 ones above them. You will notice that 

 friend Hasty is on pretty nearly the same 

 track with his " vestibule," as he calls it. 

 One thing is certain : We can not afford to 

 ignore the moral taught us every winter by 

 the reports of the bees that have wintered all 

 right in hives cracked, split, etc. By the way, 

 who has thoroughly tested the idea of winter- 

 ing bees in the open air, without any bottom- 

 board? Friend Hill, of the Bee- Keepers' 

 Guide, has for years advocated a hole 4 to 

 6 in. square in the bottom-board of all his 

 hives. Who will give us some reports in re- 

 gard to this matter of abundant lower venti- 

 lation y 



soitie: of the priivcipi.es of breed- 

 ing. 



THE COLOR-LINE, EIC. 



3ND1VIDUAL experiences with the different rac- 

 es of bees and their modifications, strains, and 

 crosses, may disagree materially. But, in all 

 probability, nothing in these experiences, or the 

 lacli of harmony among them, will affect theoretical 

 and established principles of breeding and develop- 

 ment by descent. Hence in comparing results and 

 arriving at a correct estimate of the experience of 

 others, it is well to inquire how far these principles 

 have been overlooked, and whether, in each case, 

 the judgment has been founded merely on the 

 ground beneath, or on a basis of broader extent. 



It is very easy, from the coincidence of a few 

 facts, to establish an impression that will circulate 

 and grow rather beyond the bounds of careful 

 reasoning; and a good example of this is the idea 

 that a preference for golden bands among Italians 

 must necessarily sacrifice the vitality, industry, and 

 business value of the race, which impression is 

 founded upon the coincidence of reports from 

 several quarters, that the lightest or the best band- 

 ed bees, while mild and harmless, are also inferior 

 or useless. It now seems in a fair way of being 

 generally taught, that we should disregard "bands" 

 in the pursuit of " business." None can gainsay the 

 fact, that profit is the main question at issue ; but, 

 let us consider whether that object lies in a different 

 direction from color, after all. Yellow bands are 

 not in themselves incompatible with hardiness, 

 courage, and industry. 



Of the four principal races of bees, three are 

 acknowledged to be, in most respects, superior to 

 the fourth. These three races are all golden-band- 

 ed; the fourth, and inferior race. Is black. This 

 does not prove that bands are either the cause or 

 tbe result of superior qualities; but it does prove 



that the two may be found together as contempora- 

 neous development in the same race of bees. 



If, then, the Italians can excel the blacks, though 

 having a tendency to yellow in varying degrees; if 

 the Syrians also can excel them, being even more 

 fixed in their yellow marking; if the Cypriaas, as is 

 claimed by some, surpass them all in length of flight, 

 and value in times of scarcity, while they arc 

 thought to be perhaps the brightest and yellowest 

 of all, how can we base the claim, that, to perpetuate 

 the color of the Italian race of bees, is to lose Its 

 vitality? and, conversely, if a darker-colored Italian 

 is worth more than a light one, why Is not a black 

 one worth the most of all? 



It is an established fact in science, that nature can 

 develop different characteristics of a species to- 

 gether, even though they have no dependence on 

 each other; and scientific breeding is but a more 

 rapid transit over nature's road. The feathered 

 legs in Asiatic breeds of fowls have no connection 

 with the size; and the " breeding-out " of vulture 

 hawks has not, therefore, involved any reduction of 

 vitality or of weight. The careful selection and 

 breeding of games and bantams into different races, 

 founded on strict standards of color and marking, 

 has not affected their well-known fighting tenden- 

 cies in the least. The gold-laced and the silver-laced 

 Sebright bantams, the most carefully and wonder- 

 fully bred of fowls as to coloring, are among the 

 most saucy of the race, not considering the regular 

 game-bantams. In the same manner, some of the 

 most golden and most tractable of the Italian bees 

 are also among the most industrious, and their 

 bright yellow mothers are among the most prolific 

 to be found. 



How, then, it may be asked, are we to account for 

 the inferiority of some of the brighter strains of 

 bees? and wherein lies the danger — as I admit 

 there is danger — in breeding for yellow bands? 

 Geo. E. Waring, deprecating the practice of breed- 

 ing too exclusively for black points in Jersey cattle, 

 said in substance that he did not charge that a 

 Jersey cow with black tips to her horns, a black 

 nose, black hoofs, and a black switch at the end of 

 the tail, could not be as good a dairy cow as any. 

 He only feared that fancy breeders who did not add 

 up their columns of profit and loss might, in their 

 craze for this peculiarity, forget all others. In 

 other words, that, being in possession of cattle with 

 good black points which happened to be inferior for 

 butter, they would breed from such stock just as 

 extensively as if its dairy qualities were the very 

 best; and that thus the strains with black points 

 were liable to deteriorate through carelessness, and 

 not from their actual demerits. This is exactly the 

 fact with Italian bees. Those breeders who do not 

 care for cash returns, or who care only to sell queens 

 and bees that will take well at first sight, may breed 

 from bright yellow bees, even though they are in- 

 ferior in other points, and strains may thus result 

 that will start a prejudice against bright-colored 

 bees in general. But we can breed for more than 

 one thing at once. When houdans first began to at- 

 tract the notice of poultry fanciers, the crest was in- 

 clined to be irregular and even scraggy, and many 

 straw-colored feathers were prone to show in the 

 hackle and saddle of the cocks. Breeders, however, 

 took the case in hand, and carefully bred out the 

 straw color till the average houdan cook of to-day is 

 of a beautiful pearly white and black, la the place 

 of straw and black; and right along witb tbls tbey 



