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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



llVlien Breeding Bees, breed 

 for business. Keep a steady eye, all the 

 time, to the best results. Beauty is but 

 one of the characteristics of the "coming 

 bee," and though it is very desirable, it 

 is not the only thing to be sought after. 

 In developing new strains of bees, the 

 most important thing is to be able to 

 transmit to progeny, for an unlimited 

 time, the desirable characteristics at- 

 tained. Mr. D. A. Jones, who has had 

 much experience in breeding bees, gives, 

 in our Canadian contemporary, a very 

 valuable article on this subject, which 

 we here present to our readers in its en- 

 tirity. He says: 



New strains and new-fangled notions 

 in reference to bees, seems to be the 

 order of the day. Mention a way in 

 which bees may be improved, and it will 

 not be long before you will find somebody 

 advertising something, which they claim 

 possesses wonderful merits. 



There seems to be a disposition in the 

 direction of a: craze for bees that will 

 Winter well. If memory serves us cor- 

 rectly, it was not many years ago that a 

 certain gentleman in the United States 

 advertised that he had wonderfully hardy 

 bees for sale, that would Winter in or 

 out-doors, in good or bad hives, under 

 any and all circumstances. The follow- 

 ing Winter proved conclusively, however, 

 that ?uch was not the case, and that a 

 person, to be convinced, had only to gaze 

 upon his empty hives in the Spring. 



Now we fancy there is a disposition 

 on the part of someone, to make a boom 

 for a season or two on a special kind of 

 bee, and by the time the public learns 

 that this new bee is a hollow mockery, 

 they can jump off that hobby onto a dif- 

 ferent one. 



We would suggest that, as a public 

 safeguard and a guarantee of good faith, 

 any one having bees which they claim to 

 be superior to all others in any respect, 

 should send a colony or two to Professor 

 Cook, or some of the leading apiculturists 

 of the North American Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, appoint a committee to test 

 their qualities, and if they are superior 

 in the various points claimed, that they 

 be either awarded a diploma and the 

 right to charge so much a colony, for a 

 certain number of colonies, these to be 

 distributed at the various convenient 

 points throughout North America for 

 breeding purposes, or that the party 

 receive suitable Government recompense, 



and give them to reliable queen-breeders 

 at special rates. The breeder in turn, 

 to sell the queens at a price that will be 

 within the reach of every bee-keeper. 



Now, friends, we do. 'not mean to say, 

 that he who has succeeded in securing 

 such a race should not be paid — far from 

 it. Our experience in the breeding of 

 bees, leads us to the firm conviction that 

 bees cannot be bred properly and care- 

 fully, unless they are located in isolated 

 localities. W^e have spent a great deal 

 of money and time, in trying to rear 

 superior races of bees, and he who can 

 secure a fixed race in one, two or three 

 years, is deserving of a high position in 

 bee-keeping circles, and will accomplish 

 what our most experienced bee-keepers 

 have failed to do. 



We shall be pleased to hear from any 

 bee-keeper who claims to have a supe- 

 rior race of bees, and if, after corre- 

 spondence, we fancy there is something 

 extra-good about them, we shall be 

 pleased to purchase a colony or two and 

 give a good price for them. We have 

 known colonies of bees to Winter in 

 splendid condition for a great many 

 years in the same hive, and a novice 

 might have thought that they had some 

 specially good qualities in this respect, 

 but he would have been mistaken. 



We recollect going to a place to pur- 

 chase bees, which were in old box-hives. 

 The gentleman refused to sell one colony, 

 on account of its superiority to all others. 

 He expatiated on the number of years 

 that colony had stood, and said that it 

 had cast from one to three swarms every 

 year ; that the swarms had issued sooner 

 than others; that it never was without 

 honey ; that the bees were also good 

 honey-gatherers, and in fact were every- 

 thing that could be desired, and he put 

 more value on that colony than he did 

 on half a dozen others in the yard. 



He did not realize that the very claims 

 he was making for that one colony of 

 bees did more harm than good, for the 

 swarm of bees that issued from that 

 colony from year to year proved to 

 Winter no better, nor gather more honey 

 than ordinary bees. 



From his own statements there ap- 

 peared to be nothing to recommend them 

 beyond the good points of the one colony 

 which he would not sell. 



We afterward had the satisfaction of 

 transferring that colony to a movable- 

 comb hive, for the gentlemen in question, 

 and the secret was not hard to discover. 

 The peculiar way in which the combs 

 were built in the hive, enabled the bees 

 to form a cluster in the center, and move 

 out in any direction to get stores, and 



