41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL,, JUNE 27, 1901, 



No, 26, 



\ * Editorial. * I 



What Is a Tested Queen?— The an- 

 swer will probably be that it is a tiueen whose 

 worker progeny have three yellow bands. At 

 any rate, that was what the term ■' tested 

 tiueen'' originally was understood to mean, 

 and with that meaning it served a good pur- 

 pose. It was understood that when the three 

 bands were shown on the workers the queen 

 was of pure descent, and had l:>een fecundated 

 by an Italian drone, and so when one pur- 

 chased a tested queen he was sure of pure 

 Italian stock. The value was not in the 

 three bands /)«■ 5«, although beauty has value 

 to some extent, but the bands were the O. K. 

 mark, showing that the colony was of pure 

 Italian blood, and, therefore, possessing cer- 

 tain valuable traits belonging to Italian 

 blood. A tested queen, then, was a pure 

 Italian queen. 



Taking the same test to-day — the three yel- 

 low bands — is a tested queen an Italian ; 

 Perhaps. There are queens to-day whose 

 worker progeny have live yellow bands. We 

 can also find workers with four yellow bands; 

 some with two, and some with one. It is not 

 difficult to find colonies whose workers have 

 for the most part three bands, some of them, 

 however, having only two Ijands. Possibly a 

 colony might be found whose workers showed 

 uniformly two bands. In either case, with 

 any considerable number of workers having 

 only two bands, the colony would be con- 

 demned as possessing black blood in some 

 degree. Now, suppose a queen from one of 

 these colonies whose workers showed the 

 presence of some blacK blood, but in no case 

 showed less than two bands, should mate with 

 a drone of five-banded stock, would not the 

 worker progeny of such a queen be likely to 

 show three or more bands ? Clearly, she is 

 not of pure Italian blood, but according to 

 the rule she is a tested queen. 



The test of three yellow bands has no 

 longer the same value it originally had, and 

 there is a possibility that there may be a 

 shaking up of the whole matter. 



Ijong Tongues Not Always Best. — 



Gleanings in Bee-Culture reports that A. T. 

 McKil)ben found upon measuring the tongues 

 of his bees that some of his scrub colonies 

 had just as long a tongue-reach as his best 

 honey-gatherers. This is the first case re- 

 ported in which it appeared that bees with 

 long tongues did not excel. 



Questions for Discussion at the Buf- 

 falo convention may be sent in at any time 

 from now till Sept. 10, to Secretary A. B. 

 Mason, Station B, Toledo, Ohio. For more 

 than one reason it will be better to mail your 

 questions in advance than to wait until you 

 are present in person at the great meeting of 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Association. You 

 may forget a question if you wait, and if sev- 

 eral offer the same ciuestion the duplicated 

 can be thrown out in advance. This feature 

 of the convention is a very commendable one. 

 The live discussions in a convention are what 

 give it its greatest value. 



your manipulations, by way of spreading of 

 the brood, giving colonies which are short'of 

 stores frames of honey, etc. . O^J 



Repression of Drones. — Perhaps no 

 one has kept hammering away on this subject 

 more than G. M. Doolittle, and no one has 

 gotten it down to more practical shape. He 

 discusses the matter in the American Bee- 

 Keeper, and although there may be little he 

 has not already said in this journal, it is 

 worth repeating for the sake of some of the 

 beginners, and more especially for some who 

 are not beginners, but have not given the 

 matter sufficient heed. He says: 



I have yet to see the hive containing a pop- 

 ulous colony, one strong enough to send out 

 a prime swarm during June and July, that 

 had not a few cells of drone-comb in it ; and 

 I do not believe that these few cells can be 

 kept out, for worker-comb will be cut down 

 and drone built in its place it a few cells can 

 not be gotten otherwise. From my experi- 

 ence in the past, I would say that it is not 

 practical to try to keep all drone-comb out of 

 any hive, but rather have just one frame in 

 each and every hive, having from 10 to 20 

 square inches of drone-comb in it, and have 

 such comb in a certain place in each hive, so 

 that the apiarist may know just where it is; 

 then every 20 days open the hives from which 

 it is desired that no drones shall fly, and 

 decapitate them, thus making a sure thing of 

 the matter, and fully satisfying the bees. In 

 this way you will not have a few drone-cells 

 scattered all through the hive, nor will you 

 have to use a drone-trap at the entrance of 

 such hives to catch undesirable drones, the 

 same making quite a cost and much work for 

 the bee-keeper, in putting them on and 

 emptying the same; besides a general bother 

 and disgust to the bees, when first put on, 

 and at times of the flight of drones and young 

 bees. 



If this comb with drone-cells is placed near 

 the outside of the liivc, and the drone-comb 

 is near the top-bar of the frame, you will not 

 have to decapitate the drones more than two 

 or three times during the season, for the 

 queen will be slow in depositing eggs in it; 

 and when honey conu-s in so the bees begin 

 to prepare for winter stores, they will fill it 

 with honey, thus keeping the queen from 

 depositing any more eggs in it that season. 



If, in addition to the above, the top-bar to 

 the frame, directly c.mt this spot of drone- 

 comb, is painted wliitcor red, you will know 

 just where this I'onili is without taxing your 

 memory with the matter; and this will tell 

 you exactly where such frames are, should 

 they become displaced at any time through 



Is It Profitable to Use Foundation ? 



— S. E. Miller discusses the question in the 

 Progressive Bee-Keeper, and while not ques- 

 tioning its use in sections, be does question 

 the profit of using it in the brood-chamber. 

 He figures that an 8-frame hive filled iwith 

 medium-brood foundation, freight and all, 

 will cost 55 cents or more, and thinks |in 

 many cases the 55 cents is never gotten back. 

 In reply to the claim for straight combs with 

 no drone-cells, he says. 



I have in my apiary as nice all-worker 

 combs built on starters as any one can show 

 built on full sheets. I have others that con- 

 tain partly drone-comb, and some nearly all 

 drone, but these are by no means useless, as I 

 use them in the upper story for extracting 

 from, or, if I wish to, I can cut out the drone- 

 comb and fit in worker-comb, as Mr. Doolittle 

 does, but I must confess that I have never 

 done this as thoroughly as I should have 

 done. 



Mr. Miller argues that he can cut out the 

 drone-comb and replace it with worker, and 

 then with charming frankness confesses he 

 has not thoroughly done this. Ay. there's 

 the rub ! Bee-keepers can cut it out, but do 

 they i Those who have had much practice in 

 the job know that it is some time and trouble, 

 and it is easier and surer to prevent than to 

 cure. The probability is that if Mr. Miller 

 would count what he has done, he would 

 admit that his 55 cents came back with in- 

 terest. 



Suppose, however, that we take the case of 

 a man who promptly cuts out all drone-comb, 

 or removes it to the extracting-chamber. 

 Before that drone-comb is cut out it must be 

 built, and that building costs wax and labor 

 for the bees, to say nothing about the time of 

 the bee-keeper in repairing. But the waste 

 of the drone-comb is not all. As fast as it is 

 built it will be more or less filled with drone- 

 brood — generally more — and that brood is a 

 waste. Unless the man is very careful and 

 prompt, a good deal of the brood will arrive 

 at the sealing stage before it is cut out, and 

 that will be much the same as throwing away 

 a comb of honey of the same size. 



The argument that drone-comb can be put 

 in the extracting-chamber may have some 

 weight where there is an extracting-chamber 

 in the case, but can not apply in comb-honey 

 production. 



After all this is said in favor of foundation 

 in the brood-nest, it should be added that 

 there are good authorities who think it 

 economy to use for a swarm nothing but 

 starters for the first half of the frames. If 

 hived on these there will be very little, pos- 

 sibly no drone-comb built, the building of 

 drone-comli coTiiniencing after the first halt of 

 the hive is filled. To preveut the building of 

 drone-comb in this second half, full sheets of 

 foundation are given after the first half are 

 filled. 



