AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



81 



Mr. Root asked Mr. Heddon if he prac- 

 ticed artificial fertilization ? 



Mr. Heddon — No, and I believe it to 

 be impossible. 



Mr. Root — In our locality, Italians are 

 much superior. I have observed, how- 

 ever, that the majority let the queens 

 take their own way, and consequently 

 many of our largest honey-producers 

 had hybrids. As to honey-production, 

 he found that Italians and their crosses 

 were superior. He did not know that 

 pure black bees ever led the Italians ii> 

 honey-production. 



Mr. Moore — I have bees in three locali- 

 ties, and in my home yard I succeed in 

 keeping them comparatively pure, but 

 in my out-yards I could not, and the 

 Italians always out-did the hybrids. 

 Then, the pleasure in handling the Ital- 

 ians, compared with the others, was 

 enough to pay for the trouble of keeping 

 them pure. 



Mr. Berg said he had hybrids, and he 

 thought they were "high-breeds," for, 

 nothstanding the smoke, they invariably 

 aimed at his head, as soon as the hive 

 was opened. He said he was a German, 

 but did not like German bees ; still he 

 had a hybrid colony that had filled 128 

 sections, for two years in succession. 

 Then he pinched off the queen's head, 

 and- replaced her with an Italian. He 

 would not do that again. 



Mr. Heddon said that he must sand- 

 wich in, or he would get buried. Those 

 present, who were not bee-keepers, would 

 wonder what any one wanted to handle 

 such "pesky things" for. He would 

 explain that it was for the money there 

 was in it. 



Mr. Holtermann asked — "Cannot a 

 man, making a specialty of rearing 

 queens, afford to pay more attention to 

 keep his stock pure, than to gathering 

 honey ?" 



James Heddon — Yes, and still the 

 German bee is the best-natured bee of 

 them all ; but, it being their nature to 

 take wing more readily than the others, 

 we receive more stings from them as the 

 result. 



Dr. Mason said he wished he could 

 believe everything everybody said. He 

 did not believe that it was as easy to raise 

 wheat as thistles. He was constantly 

 striving for Italian blood in his apiary, 

 and always had more black blood than 

 he wanted. His experience was that he 

 received more stings from the crawling 

 bees than those on the wing, but so far 

 as the production of honey was con- 

 cerned, he would as soon have hybrids as 

 Italians. 



Mr. Walker — Are these decisions 

 drawn from long experiences, or other- 

 wise ? 



Mr. Heddon— I have had 21 years' 

 experience, and if I had the object of 

 producina: comb-honey alone in view, I 

 have black queens that I would breed 

 from. 



Dr. Mason — I have neighbors who are 

 just as good bee-keepers as I am. They 

 keep black bees, but my Italians pro- 

 duce more honey than they do, every 

 time. 



Mr. Moore — My experience is that the 

 Italians are superior to the blacks, both 

 in points of honey and wintering. 



Mr. Walker — I have purchased many 

 colonies of bees, and have found much 

 difference in both races. I have pro- 

 duced as high as 200 pounds of comb- 

 honey from a single colony of black 

 bees, and in consideration of the differ- 

 ence in price, I should buy black bees. 



Mr. Timpe preferred the "golden Ital- 

 ians," for they wintered better. He had 

 never lost one colony in wintering, and 

 had secured more honey than his neigh- 

 bors, who kept hybrids. 



Mr. Graden— What is the difference 

 between the black and brown bees ? 



Mr. Heddon — There is but one race of 

 black bees, but there are many strains, 

 and the difference is in the strains. I do 

 not believe that the difference in color 

 makes any difference in wintering. My 

 bees would winter with Mr. Timpe's, and 

 Mr. Timpe's would die with mine. 



On a vote — 9 were in favor of Italians, 

 and 8 were in favor of hybrids. 



An essay by Mr. E. R. Root, was then 

 read, entitled, "Are apicultural inven- 

 tions in demand or excess ? " 



Mr. Heddon— I think that the question 

 is an important one, and we should dis- 

 cuss it thoroughly. I think that Mr. 

 Root is a practical man. I also think 

 we have not an extractor worth the 

 name, to a practical producer. In points 

 of priority of invention, no one was more 

 pained than the original inventor. A 

 person who had brought out something 

 that would enable one to manipulate two 

 colonies instead of one, was a blessing to 

 the fraternity, and the man who first 

 gives it to public, deserves the credit, 

 and if the inventor keeps it a secret, he 

 is guilty of criminal neglect. 



Mr. Holtermann could not see the 

 justice in this, but was in sympathy with 

 the theory. 



Mr. Root liked Mr. Heddon's sugges- 

 tion, but feared it would bring about 

 complications. 



President Cook said that this was a 

 very important matter, but he believed 



