72 



EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



read the report of the minutes of the 

 last rmeetingr. 



The Secretary, Mr. Moore, then read 

 the minutes of the last meeting, and 

 also the Treasurer's report, both of 

 which was moved and seconded that 

 the minutes stand approved. 



Presidertt York: I will appoint as 

 Auditing Committee Messrs. Dadant, 

 Wrilcox and Smith; and as a Com- 

 ittrlttee on Resolutions, Dr. Miller and 

 Messrs. Kimmey and Kluck. 



President York: The Secretary has 

 a few letters which he will now read. 



Mr. Moore then read letters of re- 

 gret from Mr. E. D. TownsenJ, Mr. 

 France, Mr. J. A. Stone and Mr. 

 George E. Hilton. 



(Recess.) . > 



n 



Breeding Different Races of Queens 

 In Same Yard. ' 



"Is it honorable and good business 

 policy for a queen breeder to breed 

 two or more races of queen bees for 

 sale in the same yard, or in yards so 

 near together that there is danger of 

 the races mixing?" 



Dr. Miller: I don't think that is a 

 thing for a queen breeder to answer. 

 If I were buying, I should want to 

 know that those conditions existed, 

 and I would want to know in some 

 way howTi could be assured that they 

 did exist. From the standpoint of a 

 queen breeder, I should say it was 

 very poor policy, because he could not 

 be certain of anything. 



Mr. Kluck: I would simply say that 

 if I knew of a queen breeder that 

 would have two or three races of bees 

 in the same apiary, I would not buy 

 any bees of that man. I should not 

 want them at any price. 



Mr. "Wilcox: If he advertised that 

 he would furnish all kinds and gave 

 his prices, would you not suppose he 

 was producing them in the same 

 apiary ? 



, Mr. Kluck: No, I would not know. 

 He might have them five or six miles 

 apart. 



Mr. Wilcox: This question suggests 

 to my mind a question I have been 

 thinking of a good imany years. In 

 buying queens, whether it is good 

 policy for a man to sell us queen^ of 

 so many kinds, select tested, tested, 

 warranted, and not tested. I have 

 made it a rule to buy from a man who 

 selects all of his kinds and at one and 



the same price, if I buy untested 

 queens. If a man is buying tested 

 queens he will get good ones any- 

 way, or ought to. 



Dr. Bohrer: I would not like to 

 say that it was strictly dishonorable, 

 because a man imight send out mon- 

 grel stock and not be aware of it. 

 Some breeders think they can rear a 

 lot of drones in an apiary of one kind 

 and give them their liberty, and have 

 everything else in the same yard con- 

 fined, and if they watch and have a 

 lot of queens of the same strain ferti- 

 lized they would hun^ up the other 

 drones and not let them Joose, except 

 the desired ones to have queens ferti- 

 lized by. But to my mind no man 

 would be so systematic and enforce 

 this rule so carefully and constantly 

 as to do anything of that kind. I 

 have even gone so far as to write to 

 men who breed queens of different 

 kinds and ask them how far apart 

 their apiaries are, and unless they are 

 from six to eight imiles apart I will 

 not buy of them, as you cannot tell 

 how far a queen will go frofh the 

 hive. I have timed them by my watch 

 and found them to be away three- 

 quarters of an hour, and there is no 

 telling how far they have been from 

 the hive, and no telling how far the 

 drones will go; and I would advise 

 men, and I think the different States 

 ought to enact a law requiring men 

 who breed queens or stock of any kind 

 to arrange matters so that amalgama- 

 tion will be utterly impossible. If you 

 have different queen-breeding apiar- 

 ies ten miles apart I think there would 

 be no danger, yet I am not sure of it. 

 Bees have been known to go five miles 

 from their hive in search of food, and 

 how far a queen will go from her hive 

 I don't know, and no one knows how 

 far a drone will go from a hive. One 

 man informed me that he knew of a 

 man who was breeding queens and 

 would rear two kinds of queens in 

 one hive and four kinds in one api- 

 ary. You will be sure to get a mongrel 

 stock if you patronize a farmer like 

 that — absolutely certain not to be a 

 pure queen. 



Mr. Dadant: I used to rear queens 

 for sale, but have not for years. I 

 would like to say something for the 

 queen-breeder who rears queens of 

 different races in the same apiary. 

 When we began to import Italian 

 queens forty years ago and rear Italian 

 bees we had nothing but black bees. 



