170 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



in the shallow hive. At the close of the 

 season the bees are united. Then we 

 have a nice set of combs that are used for 

 extracting combs in the future. 



I honestly believe that for a producer 

 of comb honey, there is more in this 

 management, to bring success, than in 



anything else; aside from the question of 

 good or bad seasons and locality. Give 

 the proper management^ and if there is 

 any kind of a crop the results will be good 

 with any ordinary healthy strain of bees. 



Monroe, Wis. May 24, 1902. 



BY. F. B. SIMPSON. 



Why we Should not Breed from Freaks. Why Locality 

 has a Bearing. Uniformity. Nurse-Influence. 



'Slow but sure wins the race." 



^^WO years ago I attempted to pur- 

 ^- chase a number of unrelated queen 

 bees of the quality known as "best 

 breeders." I was very much surprised to 

 find that it was impossible to obtain a 

 large number, and that in most cases the 

 "strains" put forward as the best by 

 many breeders, carried in many cases 

 fifty per cent, of the blood of about three 

 strains from as many breeders. 



IN-BREEDING SHOULD BE DONE ONLY 



EXPERIMENTALLY. 



The significant point I wish to make is 

 that bees have improved, and yet the 

 most salable queens represent the most 

 ultra out-crossing, within the variety. 

 But the reverse is almost in sight; for the 

 end of an action or state, being its oppo- 

 site, we find that as a result of this out- 

 crossing, we are compelled to purchase 

 queens with some identical blood lines, 

 and that we are, therefore, in a measure, 

 forced to inbreed — and this as a result of 

 outcrossing ! ! Now suppose the unquali- 

 fied advice to inbreed is taken up, the 

 result will be that we will have no choice 

 in the matter, and, like the horse breed- 

 ers, we must in some cases inbreed. I 

 therefore suggest that it be done experi- 

 mentally only, until we have further 

 knowledge, and even then it will be well 



if we reserve some unrelated queens and 

 keep them from inbreeding so far as 

 possible. 



WHY WE SHOULD NOT BREED FROM 

 FREAKS. 



If the best was necessarily the fittest, 

 the assertions of some who have "an 

 elementary knowledge of physiology" 

 (and presumably of evolution?) would 

 have some truth in them In attempting 

 to treat a broad subject in a brief man- 

 ner, I have had to consider many things 

 as understood, which would have been 

 better if stated. Possibly I have over- 

 estimated the intelligence of queen breed- 

 ers, but I believe not. I assumed that, 

 as a general proposition, breeders kept 

 races pure so far as they were able; for 

 with few exceptions pure races are adver- 

 tised rather than hybrids of any two races. 

 I further assumed that by taking advan- 

 tage of all the known methods of con- 

 trolling fertilization, the breeders could 

 practically (though not absolutely) know 

 the breeding of their breeders, at least. 

 Under these conditions, I said, breed from 

 something near the average and not from 

 "freaks." Why? Man has made a 

 standard for bees which Nature fails to 

 recognize. If we fail to recognize Na- 

 ture's standard we will keep up a con- 

 tinuous fight. Shall we do so, or had we 



