138 



THE BKE-KKHPERS" REVIEW. 



On October 10th I came into posses- 

 sion of tlie nucleus, and, upon exam- 

 ination, found the queen still caged 

 (without an escort) and that the bees 

 liad evidently built comb over the open 

 end of the cage— had, in fact, impris- 

 oned the queen instead of liberating 

 her at the proper time. 



Thinlving the queen had been con- 

 fined long enough I liberated her. The 

 bees at once balled her, and would 

 have killed her had I not smoked them 

 with tol)acco smoke until they fell 

 from the combs. 



On the following morning I found 

 the bees and queen in a passive mood, 

 and at once commenced stimulative 

 feeding to see if the queen still retained 

 her natural functions. On the third 

 day I found her laying. I increased 

 the feeding and she proved to be a pro- 

 lific queen. By Christmas she was the 

 mother of a good colony. 



Does this not show that it's not the 

 length of time that a queen is caged 

 tliat makes successful introduction 

 possible; also that long confinement 

 does not always make a queen incap- 

 able of being a good layer; also that 

 45 days is not quite long enough to fix 

 as the average length of a bee's life 

 during the working season? For, sui'e- 

 ly, this was during the working sea- 

 son, and the nucleus was still a fair, 

 three-frame nucleus. There was no 

 doubt some brood in the nucleus when 

 the caged queen was introduced, but 

 there is still nearly 70 days left as the 

 age of the younger bees. 



I have thought, for some time, that 

 we have families of bees whose natur- 

 al life will reach GO days; and if this 

 be so, here is a trait that can be and 

 should be established by careful breed- 

 ing. 



Never mind the number of gold 

 rings, nor the length of tongue, nor 

 how bad they sting— but a queen breed- 

 er who can assure me that his bees 



have an average life of GO days can 

 sell me a lot of queens. 

 Longmont, Col., April 13, 1903. 



Bee-Keepers'Review 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Publisher 



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PI i lit, Michigan, May lo, 1903 



Twelve hundred and two bee-keep- 

 ers are now members of the National 

 Association. 



Four supers to each colony is the 

 number that Dr. Miller gets ready in 

 advance of the season; and even with 

 that number prepared he was oncti 

 ciuight short in harvest time. 



■».»^i^*^u»«'»t» 



Tlie Wisconsin Legislature has in- 

 creased tlie appropriation for State In- 

 spector of Apiaries from .$500 to .$700, 

 which was greatly needed. $500 is 

 not enough to pay for the needed work 

 that an inspector can perform during 

 the season. 



A seat in an apiary is a great saving 

 of fatigue. If a (ineen is to be hunted 

 up. for instance, it is much easier to 

 sit down while doing it. Dr. Miller 

 mentions in his book the use of a com- 

 mon glass-box. The box being of 

 three different dimensions, one has a 

 choice as to height of seat. 



