Sept. 19, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



599 



into outer darkness, if some phj-sical defect unfits it for 

 duty- a queer kind of love, indeed I 



In the fourth parag^raph Mr. Whitney virtually denies 

 the correctness of his position by saying- that the honey- 

 bee 7.? " governed by a law in Nature that means simply 

 the ' survival of the fittest.' " Now what does the survival 

 of the fittest mean in Nature but that the strong shall 

 oppress the weak ? This is exactly what I said was the rule 

 of action with the honey-bee — that it's impelling power 

 was greed and not love. 



Mr. Whitnev's idea of love becomes " amusing " when 

 he tells us to look to the bees for the " highest type of love 

 and patriotism." 



Does Mr. Whitney favor a return to those primeval cus- 

 toms for the betterment of social conditions? We will be 

 ■' sjracious " enough to suppose that he does not. 



There is at least a shadow of inconsistency in the 

 exceptions Mr. W. has taken to those statements of mine. 

 Believing as he says he does, that the honey-bee is gov- 

 erned bv the law of the " survival of the fittest," or, in 

 plain language, the law of selfishness and might, wherein 

 is Mr. Whitney justified in telling the readers of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal that said statements of mine were all fol- 

 de-rol ? Would it not stand to reason that since being 

 guided by such a law the queen that is in the best physical 

 condition, or when she is in her best condition to serve her 

 colony, she would receive the kindest treatment from the 

 bees of a stranger colony ? Then, why should Mr. Whit- 

 ney seek to ridicule my instructions for introducing a 

 queen-bee by a method that is in perfect harmony with the 

 law which he says governs the honey-bees ? This he does 

 not only with a laugh, but speaks of the plan as being an 

 •■ experiment." and a " misfortune " to any who would dare 

 to put it in practice. 



Now the truth of the whole matter is, Mr. Whitney 

 knows naught whereof he essays to speak. If he is disin- 

 clined to give any credence to the practicability of intro- 

 ducing a queen-bee by running her in at the entrance of 

 the hive as quickly as possible after taking her from the 

 combs of another colony, but wishes to pursue the old-fogy 

 method of caging the queen, I feel sorry for him. 



From my experience with, and knowledge of, the habits 

 of bees, I feel like saying that the greatest folly bee-keep- 

 ers in general are guilty of is the habit of caging the queen 

 when wishing to introduce her into a stranger colony of 

 bees. This caging of the queen takes from her the bloom 

 which is her greatest safe-guard in the midst of stranger 

 bees. 



The method I here advise using is so free from fussi- 

 ness that I can not see why any one should want to bother 

 ■with a cage when introducing a queen-bee. All that is 

 required to make it a success is. to take away the reigning 

 queen and then thoroughly frighten the colony immediately 

 and run the queen into the hive from the entrance. Never 

 let the colony realize for a moment that it is queenless, but 

 get the stranger queens into its hive before she, too, real- 

 izes what is being done. Smoking the colony while pound- 

 ing upon the hive with some object is the most practical 

 way of frightening the bees. This does not pervert the 

 sense of smell so much as it diverts the attention of the 

 bees till the queen has time to reach the combs. Then 

 when the Misses Bees have wiped their mouths and turtied 

 about, Mrs. Bee is " at home " to them upon their own 

 combs ; and they don't care a tinker what she smells like. 

 I do not advise introducing laying-queens into colonies 

 having capped queen-cells. The queen can be introduced 

 all right, Mr. Whitney notwithstanding ; but too often the 

 young queens are allowed to hatch, and a laying queen has 

 no chance in a fight with a virgin. 



Let those who wish to try the method, use their more 

 inferior queens first, till they become conversant with tlie 

 regulations. It will require but a little time to determine 

 how much smoke and how much pounding upon the hive is 

 necessary to insure the queen's safety. 



I believe that the readers of the American Bee Journal 

 will not be long in learning the practical beauty of this 

 quicker and better way of introducing a queen-bee. 



Scioto Co., Ohio. 



: Convention Proceedings. \ 



Please send us Names of Bee-Keepers who do not now 



get the American Bee Journal, and we will-send them sam- 

 ple copies. Then you can very likely afterward get their 

 subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable premiums 

 in nearly every number of this journal. You can aid much 

 by sending in the names and addresses when writing us on 

 other matters. 



From the Report of the Last Colorado Convention. 



ABOUT BKE8 AND BREEDING. 



Question. — Should we have good queens, and what con- 

 stitutes a first-class queen '? Drones should cut a large figure 

 in a first-class apiary. 



Mr. Gill — No other point is more neglected and is more 

 profitable. I now have a strain of bees that has been care- 

 fully selected for 16 years. I don't care if they are not so 

 prolific. I want them long-lived, with strong wing-power. 1 

 want them to live three months, and they will do it. The 

 sources of success lie with the queen. 



Mr. Harris— If a iiueen is weak in honey-production, the 

 quicker you get rid of her the better. We do not dwell on 

 this subject in our meetings as we should. I kn^iw, by my 

 own experience, that one (jueen excels others. The trouble 

 with many queen-breeders is that they do not pay enough 

 attention to the drones. 



Mr. Collins — We are all inclined to overlook some things 

 in condemning a queen. Often, when some colony has pro- 

 duced a big crop, it is nearly out of honey. Some of my best 

 colonics have honey in their outside combs, and no brood at 

 any time. 



Mr. Lytle — Have we a right to expect brood in the outside 

 combs? The idea is to get a large force in each hive. I have 

 gradually drifted into using Heddon hives, but in my Lang- 

 stroth hives I usually get eight or nine frames of brood. I 

 put the honey-combs on the outside of division-boards. 



Mr. Dodds— I have noticed that colonies that did not 

 breed so much produced more honey. One colony, in particu- 

 lar, bred but little brood last season, but produced nine supers 

 of honey. I think there is more in longevity than in numbers. 

 Mr. Harris— How does Mr. Gill know that some bees live 

 three months in the working season ? We can have queens 

 that are both prolific and have long-lived progeny. We should 

 take both into consideration. 



Mr. Gill — I once got an imported queen from Mr. Heddon. 

 I introduced her in a full colony, and thus had two strains of 

 bees in the hive at once, which it was easy to tell apart. I 

 have done so several times. It is easy to tell the old bees, 

 with their black, shiny appearance and ragged wings. I have 

 noticed many times that the colonies of long lived bees are the 

 best lioney-gatherers. Some colonies get to the lowest ebb in 

 spring, 90 days before .lune, and yet come to the front. 

 Mr. Lytle — I am not quite convinced. 



Mr. Gill— To one (|ueenless colony I gave a frame of brood 

 with a queen-cell on it. They tore it down and would not 

 accept any others, and remained queenless all summer, longer 

 than 90 days, and yet had bees left. 



Mr. Lytle— That is not the point. Those bees were not in 

 a normal condition. 



Mr. Adams— Their longevity is largely accounted for by 

 the fact that weakling colonies can not do much work. 



Mr. Collins— You could settle that by making a swarm 

 artificially, by removing all the brood and only leave the new 

 queen to furnish brood. 



H. Rauchfuss— How do you know that bees from other 

 hives would not enter? The front row of colonies in an 

 apiary is always the strongest and produces more honey than 

 the other rows. In a heavy wind bees will alight at the wrong 

 hive without knowing it. 



Mr. Collins— In one of my yards the hives face every way. 

 The bees would not go in the wrong hive there. 



H. Rauchfuss— 1 set a hive with a pure Carniolan queen 

 away off from the others, at one side, and still it showed some 

 yellow bees. In testing queens I frequently notice this mix- 

 ing. We also know that bees live long in (lueenless hives. I 

 believe it wears them more to rear brood than to gather honey. 

 Mr. Gill— I used to cage queens in the basswood flow in 

 Wisconsin, and have had (lueens caged from .lune to Septem- 

 ber, and made observations in that way. I agree that the 

 front rows mark more strongly than the others. 



Mr. Harris— We need to have pedigrees with our queens, 

 and should make queen-breeders furnish them. It would 

 make them more careful. 



Mr. Devinny— A number doubt that any change can be 

 made in the nature of insects and other animals. Hut it can 

 be done. Look at the silkworm and the canary bird. The 



