J]^I,INOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



73 



Would you have us kill all our black 

 t>ees ? We had to rear queens in the same 

 apiaries having different races of bees, 

 and there were as good queens reared 

 as there are today. It is a bad policy, 

 ■when you can breed them apart, to breed 

 them in the same apiary, yet it can 

 be done. I think it is a mistake to 

 put more than two races in one apiary. 

 It is better with one race. The man 

 who succeeds will succeed better with 

 one race than with more than one, 

 but it is difficult to rear queens from 

 one race alone and be sure there is 

 no other race. If we put our apiaries 

 six, eight or ten miles apart, there 

 are probably bees belonging to other 

 people vithin a shorter distance. We 

 cannot be sure of that. Are we to 

 abstain from rearing bees if there are 

 others neair? We can breed from the 

 best and eliminate other races. I be- 

 lieve in trying new races, and not in 

 the same' apiary, but I don't believe in 

 condemning a man because he does 

 it, because he cannot usually help it. 



Mr. Wilcox: There is one point in- 

 troduced here that needs modifying 

 a little. I don't want it on record that 

 there is danger of amalgamation from 

 eight to ten miles apart, as suggested 

 by Dr. Bohrer. 



Dr. Bohrer: I don't think that there 

 is at ten. 



Mr. Wilcox: At five, even. I think 

 there is practically no danger at a 

 distance of three miles. I know bees 

 have mated three miles apart — where 

 Italians and black bees are located 

 three miles apart; but I have never 

 known of any serious mixing at a 

 greater distance than that. 



Dr. Miller: It is a very easy matter 

 to stand off and throw stones, and we 

 who are not professional queen-breed- 

 ers are very likely to get into that 

 list. Now, as I sat here thinking the 

 matter over, it looked to me an ex- 

 ceedingly difficult thing for any man to 

 rear queens and guarantee that they 

 should be pure, of any one kind. The 

 fact is, I don't know of any kind of 

 queens that L^ould guarantee as 

 pure unless I sh?mld guarantee that 

 they were puite hybri\^s, and I am sure 

 that the queenHDreeders who are trying 

 their best to get stock pure have done 

 a whole lot of good, and ,we ought 

 not to be too istrict in our requirements 

 of them. At the same time, if they 

 are honest, I am sure they ought to 

 try to give us what they represent 

 they are giving us; and when you get 



right down to the bottom the thing we 

 mostly want is honest men to deal 

 with, whether they are queen-breeders 

 or somehing else. 



Mr. Baxter: That is my question, 

 and I introduced it because I have 

 been very much provoked on this 

 score. I am not a queen-breeder, but 

 I am a producer of honey, and my 

 aim is to get the very best race of 

 bees that I can get for the work. That 

 race is the Italian; and when I send 

 to a queen-breeder and want an Ital- 

 ian bee I don't want him to send me 

 something else. I got some importa- 

 tions about twenty-five or thirty years 

 ago, and I am still breeding queens 

 from those importations, and I have 

 sent and got others to vary my stock 

 and possibly improve it, as I thought 

 tnine would degenerate, and I think 

 I have got Cyprians for Italians. I 

 know I have some from an importa- 

 tion of thirty years ago that have the 

 characteristics of the pure Italian more 

 definitely than those I have been get- 

 ting, and I know that some of our 

 reputable queen-breeders are breed- 

 ing two different races in the same 

 yard and in an adjacent yard. Some 

 of the queens I have got recently I 

 would rather have paid $5.00 to get 

 them out of my yard than to have 

 them in my yard. I can breed better 

 bees of my own stock. 



Dr. Bohrer: I would ask if any one 

 ever bred Italian queens from any 

 one queen that would duplicate her- 

 self invariably and not show almost 

 positive evidences of foreign blood? 

 I have never had one, and I purchased 

 a queen some forty years ago, paid Mr. 

 •Langstroth- $20.00 for the queen, and 

 after rearing twenty queens, the black- 

 est insect I ever saw hatched out from 

 her- brood, showing there was foreign 

 blood. There is no way of knowing 

 that the Italians are in the highest 

 grade of purity, and you cannot get 

 them in any distinct race. Mr. Lang- 

 stroth said they were not, and I said 

 I doubted it; I know they are a dis- 

 tinct race. What is a distinct race? 

 Where do the Goldens come from ? 

 Are they not our best grade of Ital- 

 ians bred up?"" 



Mr. Wheeler: I was wondering if 

 these men did not have the good of 

 the bee-keepers at heart more than 

 we give them credit for. If a man 

 would send me a queen bee that pro- 

 duced a touch of hybrid stock I would 



