286 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' u^v. 



servation will deny. One colony or a major- 

 ity of the colonies of an apiary may yield 

 satisfactory returns while others jast as fa- 

 vorably situated and in equally as good con- 

 dition in the spring will give no profit. The 

 only legitimate conclusion that I can arrive 

 at is that there is a great difference in the 

 bees even of the same variety. (Viz.: Ital- 

 ians, German, Carniolan, etc.) Neither is it 

 8 irprising that such should be the case. We 

 find the same condition of things among 

 other domestic animals. There are cows 

 kept which are au absolute bill of expense 

 to their owners. 



Most dairymen realize that there are cows 

 in their dairy that are not for sale, while 

 others are. 



We will not lengthen this article by par- 

 ticularizing, but simply say that the same 

 degree of merit and demerit obtains among 

 horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry, and 

 an effort is being constantly made to prop- 

 agate the good qualities and eliminate the 

 bad. 



That is just what we should do with the 

 honey bee, but we should start with the 

 best. 



The three banded Italians I take as the 

 best domesticated honey bee yet brought to 

 public notice, and I understand such to be 

 the verdict of the world's best apiarists to- 

 day. By way of practical experience I will 

 say that I k-^pt black bees for about twenty 

 years and would have given up bee-keeping 

 in disgust had not new hope dawned on the 

 pursuit by the introduction of the Italian 

 bee. When the seasons were Jitsf rj^/fi re- 

 sults wore satisfactory, but it took about 

 three years of favorable conditions, (rain- 

 fall, etc.), to produce one good honey year, 

 and the blacks couldn't stand grief. The 

 wax moth was troublesome with the blacks. 

 They were much disposed to rob. Like 

 some people they must do a big business or 

 nothing. And then in spring they were 

 prone to desert their hives, leaving brood, 

 honey, and all the conditions one would 

 think favorable to contentment, viz. : clean 

 combs, clean hive, and sometimes 10 to 12 

 pounds of honey, and after flying like a 

 natural swarm would try to force an en- 

 trance into some other hive already occu- 

 pied, and if they succeeded in gaining an 

 entrance they were sure to be killed to the 

 last bee. 



In July, 1866, I procured two Italian 

 queens which were safely introduced, and 

 the work of Italianizing an apiary of sixty 

 colonies of blacks begun, which was accom- 

 plished in 1867 and the apiary increased to 

 120 colonies. 



I found the Italians proof against the wax 

 moth. They would never desert their hives 

 in early spring, and whenever a small 

 amount of honey was obtainable, they would 

 secure that, and gain in stores, while the 

 blacks would require feeding. 



Bat when tha black bloT 1 was all elimi- 

 nated, I found that the Italians were not 

 all alike profitable. I supposed that the 

 queen that would lay the most eggs must be 

 the best. That 1 7fH0?<; was a mistake. Some 

 queens producing one-half the number of 



eggs that the other did, gave much better 

 results in surplus hoiey. The solons of 

 bee culture told us to introduce new and 

 fresh blood to avoid the evil effects of in 

 and in breeding. For fifteen or twenty 

 years I secured by purchase and exchange 

 queens from the North, South, East and 

 West, but cross as I might, the same fact 

 presented itself, that some colonies were 

 ot worth keeping and some queens were 

 worth their ' weieht in gold.' I said why can 

 not all be as good as the best. We can rear 

 queens from only the best stocks, but we 

 cannot be sure of the young queens being 

 fertilized by drones from colonies we might 

 desire. 



When the Italian bees brought fifteen dol- 

 lars per colony, every colony was saved, the 

 bees having a commercial value. But for 

 several year-! past the bees themselves had 

 no value in the fall of the year from the 

 fact that bees in the spring were worth no 

 more per colony than the hives, comb and 

 honey in the fall. 



So it has been my practice for a number 

 of years to reduce my stock by killing the 

 colonies that did not come up to ray ideal of 

 what a colony ought to be. 



But some men will say : ' What is your 

 standard of excellence ?' First I would 

 prune out every colony that shows any signs 

 of black blood. 2ad, I would kill all the vi- 

 cious bees, I w'luld no more keep a vicious 

 colony of beesthau I wouhl a vicious cow or 

 horse. Any of them would endanger a hu- 

 man life. 8rd, another class of colonies are 

 those that fail to give satisfactory results 

 though in appearance and temper they may 

 be faultless. Such colonies also must van- 

 ish. This sreat difference in productive- 

 ness is probably more observable in large 

 apiaries. I cannot account for the great dif- 

 ference's in colonies only in this way : 1st, 

 the shorter proboscis of the workers of some 

 colonies whereby thev are unable to reach 

 the nectar of certain flowers which are ob- 

 tainable by others. 2nd, shorter or weak- 

 ness of wing, or .3rd. greater vitality and 

 lonerevity of queen and workers. I incline 

 to the opinion that in this the secret lies. 



We do knoiv that it is not the most prolific 

 queens that have the strongest colonies in 

 the early spring or give the most substan- 

 tial results for the season. These facts be- 

 ing known it remains for bee-keepers to 

 solve the reason why. If we cannot account 

 for the fact of one colony collecting two or 

 three times as inuch as another in the same 

 yard, we can take the short cut and abolish 

 the less productive ones and thus secure the 

 • survival of the fittest.' 



This has been my practice for several 

 years and results show the correctness of 

 the theory. When the maximum number of 

 cilonies desired by the bee-keepers is not 

 yet reached, the same results may be ob- 

 tained by killing undesirable queens and 

 supnlying the colonies with better ones. 

 Abundant new blood ' is secured by bring- 

 ing home stocks from two out apiaries. If 

 this plan followed persistently for a term of 

 yeirs will not develop 'Apis American' 

 what will ?" 



