44 



THE BEE-KEEPERS* REVIEW. 



for us to decide how far inbreeding will 

 be of use or a detriment. I therefore be- 

 lieve that if the bee-breeder will let in- 

 breeding alune, commercially, until it 

 has been investigated experimentally, he 

 will in a measure save the industry from 

 the ill advised inbreeding which has been 

 done, for instance, among trotting horses, 

 and which causes apparently "spontane- 

 ous" variations which can only be refer- 

 red to an ancester that should not have 

 been thus bred. This incidental inbreed- 

 ing is one of our greatest difficulties in 

 breeding horses. With the very rapid 

 breeding and maturity among V)ees, to- 

 gether with the fact that we may yet obtain 

 a large number of individuals of excellent 

 quality, and practically unrelated, two of 

 the chief reasons for inbreeding are prac- 

 tically eliminated; and the comparatively 

 slight expense at which we can test bees 

 bids fair to keep these reasons from be- 

 coming a menace. 



I use "inbreeding" in the sense of con- 

 tinuous and consecutive mating of close- 

 ly related individuals; and not in the 

 sense of originally vinrelated individuals 

 eventually producing, by crossing, bees 

 which may be related by reason of a com- 

 mon ancestor in a remote generation. 



The latter case is one in which the 

 small bee-keeper will often find his bees, 

 and he should not fear the result, provid- 

 ed his careful selection is based on useful- 

 ness. And if he has started with a fair 

 number of individuals which are unrela- 

 ted, he need not introduce new blood un- 

 til he finds degeneration commencing. 

 It is, of course, only the very extensive 

 bee-keeper who can follow my plan con- 

 tinuously without any inbreeding, but 

 what I wish to give a warning against, is 

 the advice to inbreed from the start with- 

 out further knowledge. 



Barring that "great and scientific" 

 bouquet, which is far too large and frag- 

 rant for me, the contribution which Mr. 

 Doolittle makes to the January number, 

 is very encouraging so far as it discusses 

 my opinions; and it is just such a criticism 

 as will tend to make my efforts of .some 

 account. Mr. Doolittle bases his ideas on 



his own actual experience without doing 

 great violence to scientific facts. 



Nineteen out of twenty is not "narrow," 

 but judging other localities by Borodino 

 is what I referred to. We evidently dif- 

 fer in opinion only, and we must wait for 

 controlled mating to give us the facts. 



With a control of 50 per cent, or less, 

 of the colonies ( controlled colonies Ital- 

 ian — others black) in mating distance, I 

 obtained pure mating? in 80 per cent, of 

 the queens I reared. The number of 

 queens reared has been small, and there- 

 fore, no principle is proven by the above 

 figures; although I feel certain that I 

 would have obtained very nearly equal 

 results if I had reared a larger nimiber. 



But this matter seems greatlv dependent 

 upon the number of drones reared; and 

 the commercial breeder must decide just 

 how much honey he is willing to sacrifice 

 for pure matings. 



I believe in Uzierzon so far as he refers 

 to virgin queens, but after the queen 

 mates I do not consider his opinions as 

 sufficiently established. How Mr. Doo- 

 little can reconcile the contamination 

 theory with the drone being the son of 

 his mother, is beyond my comprehension. 



While it is doubtless true that the rank 

 and file of beekeepers care little 

 for absolutely pure mating, there is 

 bound to be a time when some of 

 the "rankest" will be willing to pay more 

 money for pu-e queens than for slightly 

 mongrel ones. We should not exactly 

 attempt to breed to a "feather, " nor should 

 we ignore golden bands entirely, but, 

 other things being equal, we must obtain 

 uniformily marked bees if we expect to 

 gain any great degree of iini/onnify. 



DRONK INKI.IENCE AND CONTROI.r^Kn 

 M.^TINC;. 

 I am glad to know that IVIr. Dooliltle's 

 opinion on drone influence, was from ex- 

 perience, but his experience in this mat- 

 ter does not prove thefacf, as there are 

 too many factors concerned; and without 

 a comparison of the breeding we can gain 

 little information. My mismated queens 

 have given me a much larger proportion 



