March 1908.] 



253 



Apiculture'. 



cropper.' For the practical and thought- 

 ful wheelman it is a splendid plan. Any 

 bicyclist bee-keeper that would let a lot 

 of poor, hard-working bees within a 

 radius of ten miles of him be consigned 

 to fire and brimstone, and not rush to 

 the rescue, is a poltroon and a savage, 

 and would richly deserve a scent of the 

 brimstone himself. The ten miles radius, 

 and he in the centre, means over 300 

 square miles, and that area he should be 

 able to guard against such rascality. 

 Unless, indeed, there be an old curmud- 

 geon beekeeper about, who would hardly 

 talk to a body, it should be absolutely 

 safe. But as no such individual ever did 

 or ever does take kindly to beework — 

 genuine apiary men are all fine fellows — 

 the area mentioned, with a' bee-man,' a 

 halfpenny postcard, and a bicycle in the 

 centre, and a tablecloth and an old skep 

 anywhere about, should be as secure 

 against dastardly bee-destruction as 

 against a German invasion." — Studley 

 College Agricultural Journal, Vol. II. 

 No. 8, Sept. 1907. 



APICULTURE IN CEYLON. 

 (2nd Series.) 

 By An Amateur. 



{Continued from page 208, Vol. XXIX.) 

 I. 



Having allowed a little time to elapse, 

 during which, I hope, some of the lessons 

 contained in my former papers may 

 have sunk into the mind, I now propose 

 to touch lightly on what we may call 

 "higher apiculture." And I am going 

 to begin at the very apex of the scieuce, 

 partly because it is deeply interesting, 

 but chiefly because the sooner it is widely 

 understood the more successful will the 

 industry be in the Island, I refer to 

 queen-rearing. 



It should be borne in mind that, owing 

 to the peculiar circumstances under 

 which queens are mated, breeding by 

 selection must (at any rate until man 

 has contrived a means of controlling it) 

 always be somewhat of an uncertainty. 

 We can select the queen ; but so far we 

 are seldom able to select the drone with 

 which she is to mate. I say seldom, 

 because, by isolating the queen and 

 drone (or rather, hive containing the 

 selected drones) on an island removed 

 by some distance from any land where 

 bees already exist, we can say with cer- 

 tainty that that queen, when mated, has 

 been fertilized by a drone out of the select- 

 ed hive ; and further, by the stongest 

 flying drone of that hive. But there are 

 few islands handy for such an experiment. 

 Therefore, as a general rule, our attempts 

 at selective breeding are at the mercy of 

 our neighbours -to say nothing of the 

 33 



wild bees in the vicinity. It will thus be 

 seen that the more we can insure our 

 neighbours having good strains of bees, 

 the more likelihood is there of our queens 

 being mated with suitable drones. 



So far aS present observations go, ferti- 

 lity and energy in honey-gathering are 

 inherited from the queen ; while temper 

 is derived from the drone. Since, there- 

 fore, we can choose our queens from our 

 most prolific and energetic stocks, we 

 can insure improvement on these two 

 lines. But to most of us it is of the ut- 

 most importance to have quiet-tempered 

 bees. And here we can insure little. 

 Still, it will be to our advantage to in- 

 crease the numbers of good-tempered 

 stocks in our districts, as pointed out 

 above. Therefore it will be to our 

 advantage to give away queens to our 

 neighbours whose progeny is known to 

 be gentle. 



Now, here we come to a point that 

 should be remembered. Queens and 

 workers are produced by the union of a 

 queen with a drone. But drones are 

 produced parthenogetically — that is, a 

 drone has no father. But since the tem- 

 per of a stock of workers is inherited 

 from their father, the drones in that 

 hive, not having inherited from their 

 sisters' father, are not to be depended 

 on. Their temper is derived from their 

 mother's father ; and so our drones 

 should be selected from hives whose 

 queens' sisters were good-tempered. In 

 other words, decide on your drones by 

 judging of the temper of their grand- 

 mother's progeny. 



Suppose you have 30 or 40 hives, how 

 are you to remember from which one 

 you bred the queen of another ? There 

 is only one way. You must take copious 

 notes. Every hive must be numbered, 

 and the date (or at least, the month) of 

 birth of its queen entered, where known ; 

 and you should also state from what 

 hive you bred her. Thus, suppose you 

 bred a queen from hive No. 1 and formed 

 a new stock in No. 7 with her at the 

 head of it— she having been hatched 

 from the cell about March 10, and found 

 to be laying eggs about March 18— you 

 will write up your notes somewhat on 

 these lines : — 



"No. 7 Queen from No. 1 hatched 

 10th March, laying 18th March, 1907. 

 Fertility good. Energy fair. Tem- 

 per good." 



You can add other notes as you see fit ; 

 and when you replace that queen by 

 another, you will carefully enter that. 

 Then, suppose you take one of No. 7's 

 progeny and make her queen over No. 

 16, you proceed in the same way. Thu 

 you have a complete record of all your 

 observations in apiculture. And, unless 



