. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 337. JtkA^^^At ^'?'^'.^?'?^?^^??^?' Introducing New Blood to Our Apiaries. Written for the American Bee Journal BY DR. G. L. TINKER. The best time of the year to supersede undesirable queens is in August and September. They may be old queens or hybrid queens, or queens that may be objectionable from some other cause. Each apiarist will have his own notions of improvement of his stock of bees. While some will want only 3-banded yellow bees, others seem satisfied with a mixed strain ; and it will have to be admitted that for honey-
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 337. JtkA^^^At ^'?'^'.^?'?^?^^??^?' Introducing New Blood to Our Apiaries. Written for the American Bee Journal BY DR. G. L. TINKER. The best time of the year to supersede undesirable queens is in August and September. They may be old queens or hybrid queens, or queens that may be objectionable from some other cause. Each apiarist will have his own notions of improvement of his stock of bees. While some will want only 3-banded yellow bees, others seem satisfied with a mixed strain ; and it will have to be admitted that for honey-producing, a mixed race, and particularly the Syrio- German hybrid and the Italio-German hybrid, are unexcelled as workers. Many bee-keepers deny this statement, but if they have good reason to do so, they have been every year introducing several queens of unrelated pure Italian stock, and so have kept up the vigor of the queens and activity of the workers— a steady improvement being the result. Hence, it may be admitted that pure, well-bred Italians are fully the equal of the best hybrids for honey, but not that they are better. The fact remains that the constant infusing of new blood into an apiary tends to the development of the highest producing qualities of the bees; and this may be said of hybrid bees as well as of pure Italians. My brother, C. O. Tinker, residing in Ashtabula county, Ohio, has as good a strain of bees for practical honey-pro- ducing as there is in the world to-day. They are only Syrio-German hybrids, the mother-stock being of Syrian origin, and hence every queen is a Syrian by direct descent. His start was made from my Syrio-Albino bees. However, they are now quite dark, from having every year mated to the common black drones of the locality. These bees are now great swarmers, because so highly prolific, and still they produce a large amount of honey of the finest quality every year. They are not only the finest comb-builders, but are energetic to a hi
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
