February, 1908. 



American Hee Journal 



Mr. Whitney said that on introducing 

 a queen he found a queen balled. 



Dr. Bohrcr declared that balling a • 

 queen is one of the puzzles to him. He 

 thinks it is an indication of a dislike 

 for the queen. 



Mr. Wheeler said that stray bees dis- 

 like the queen and ball her. 



Mr. Dadant asserted that bees are up- 

 set by some unusual occurrences when 

 thev ball the queen. 



Dr. Miller declared that bees never 

 sting a queen to death unless the human 

 interferes. Cold smoke blown on the 

 ball of bees will release a queen at once. 



M. M. Baldridge said that bees ball 

 the queen because they think she is a 

 strange queen, by her actions. To pre- 

 vent balling the queen always smoke the 

 bees, or rap on the hive to cause them 

 to fill themselves with honey, when in- 

 troducing her. A young and active 

 queen in spring is apt to be balled, 

 owing to her running about in the hive, 

 frightened by the opening of the hive. 



Mr. Dadant said that bees seldom 

 make a practice of balling queens. 



Mr. Taylor said that bees must not be 

 fussed with too much, and then not 

 much balling will result. 



Renewing Queens. 



A majority do not renew queens at 

 all. 



Mr. Dadant advised replacing queens 

 when they become inferior. He men- 

 tioned a queen 5 years old, and still vig- 

 orous. 



Dr. Bohrer agreed with Mr. Dadant. 



Mr. Whitney claimed that bees would 

 not always supersede a queen at the 

 best time. 



Dr. Miller said it may be an advan- 

 tage to supersede queens and breed from 

 stock that is long-lived. 



Mr. Dadant declared that workers 

 wear themselves out, an-d the best bees 

 live the shortest time. 



Mr. Wheeler said we are not so de- 

 pendent upon the long life of the queen. 



Dr. Bohrer then spoke on whether 

 more than one queen in the colony is 

 useful. He said that one queen lays 

 all the eggs a colony can warm and 

 hatch. 



W. B. Chapman said that 2 queens 

 cause no swarming, according to Mr. 

 Alexander. 



Mr. Whitney related that he tried to 

 use 2 queens in the hive. He got no 

 surplus in the double hive, and one 

 queen was killed during the winter. 



Mr. Taylor thought it was hardly to 

 be believed that Mr. Alexander runs 2 

 queens in one hive successfully. 



Mr. Whitney mentioned a case where 

 5 colonies were in one box — one in each 

 corner and one in the center — and they 

 worked all summer harmoniously. 



Mr. Dadant has found 2 queens in one 

 hive occasionally, even on the same 

 comb. 



Mr. Wheeler said he had seen the 

 same thing. 



Dr. Miller stated that it is the rule 

 that when the queen is superseded, the 

 mother and daughter are together in the 

 hive. He mentioned cases where bees 

 had got tired of trying to supersede the 

 queen. 



Mr. Kimmey gave instances of the 

 same thing. 



(^Continued next month) 



WHIP 



Rcflcctionif 



lifomia Bcc-Keeper 



ByW. A.IPRYAL, Alden Station, Oakland. Calif. 



An Open Winter. 



The winter so far has been an open 

 one ; while the atmosphere has, at times, 

 appeared a trifle colder, the fact is that 

 it has been mild. Tender vegetation in 

 this portion of the State has not been 

 damaged by the frosts. I have seen to- 

 mato plants in this county to-day that 

 are yet green and nice — something al- 

 most unusual at the end of January. 

 We may have a touch of a cold snap 

 in February, but it is doubtful if we 

 have any real cold weather this winter. 

 I have noticed for years that if we do 

 not have what we might call a "killing 

 frost" by the end of the last week in 

 January, it is pretty certain the winter 

 will be a mild one. 



The rainfall for this portion of the 

 State has been a little below normal. 

 The past fortnight has been rather a 

 rainy one, and the prospects at this writ- 

 ing are that another storm is brewing, 

 so it is safe to predict that our rainfall 

 for the season will be up to, if not 

 above, the average. Owing to the past 

 two years being fairly good ones from 

 an agricultural point of view, it is not 

 necessary that this year's rains be exces- 

 sive. In the southern portion of the 

 State, as far as I am able to learn, the 

 rainfall has been short. Already pray- 

 ers for rain have been offered in the 

 churches there. I believe seasonable 

 rains will come, and with warm weather 

 during the nectar-secreting time, the bees 

 will wing in the sweets, so that later the 

 bee-man and his gasoline-driven honey- 

 extractor will take care of the crop. 



A Yellow Cytisns. 



In the January number I mentioned 

 that there is only the white variety of 

 Cytisus proliferus, and that Prof. Bailey 

 notices no other. Having called Prof. 

 Wickson's attention to the fact that the 

 University of Canifornia labels its speci- 

 mens of this shrub Cytisus proliferous 

 albus, that gentleman writes me to this 

 effect: 



"We have always written Albus in 

 connection with Cytisus proliferous, be- 

 cause there is a yellow variety which we 

 received under the name fiavus. The Al- 

 bus is the Tagasaste, or tree alfalfa. 

 It is quite possible that the botanists 

 have given the two colors different spe- 

 cific names." 



Mercy Like Chunk Honey — It's 

 Good. 



Poor old Billy Shakespeare has caused 

 our dear old friend. Dr. C. C. Miller, to 

 believe that "the quality of mercy" lays 

 in the comb. (He did not say "lay" for 

 the reason, I suppose, that the queen lays 



in the comb (but he used "is" instead.) 

 No, Doctor, I think "the quality of 

 mercy" may have been strained, but it is 

 now "candied" — just the nicest and 

 sweetest way it could be. The Bard of 

 Avon was not up on modern bee-keep- 

 ing. Doctor, or he would have taken the 

 trouble to say that mercy might be run 

 through a strainer or even an extractor 

 and come out better than before. In 

 such shape it might be soon found in 

 great, big "chunks" of candied honey. 

 Just think! Yum, yum! 



The California Bee. 



So different is the climate of Califor- 

 nia from that of any other place in the 

 world, that animal and plant life here 

 seems to be different, too. By careful 

 breeding it is relatively an easy matter 

 to produce offspring that is better than 

 the parent. The State is becoming noted 

 for its new creations — for its new and 

 worthy varieties of plants and flowers. 

 Of recent years a sort of combination 

 of interests have sought to give all the 

 credit for work in plant-breeding to one 

 man, namely : Luther Burbank. The gen- 

 tleman named has become a specialist in 

 this line, and successful results must 

 necessarily follow, though he is not the 

 pioneer nor the only investigator in that 

 direction in the State. There were new 

 varieties of fruits, flowers and vegeta- 

 bles originated in California before Mr. 

 Burbank came to the State, and he is 

 not the only one to have produced hy- 

 brids that have attracted attention. But 

 it is not of these producers of new kinds 

 and varieties of plant-life that I intended 

 to write of. 



Much has been done in the way of 

 breeding finer grades of domestic ani- 

 mals. The fame of our fine horses have 

 encircled the globe. Those who have 

 systematically bred cattle, swine and 

 poultry have been meeting with satisfac- 

 tory results. But what have we been 

 doing in the bee line? Echo answers 

 from the valleys, canyons and mountain 

 sides — nothing. And yet the field for 

 improvement is a large one. Climate, 

 coupled with scientific work, will surely 

 bring forth a bee that may be better than 

 any now known race. I believe the old 

 line of bees that were brought to this 

 State a half-century ago, has been so 

 acclimated and so mixed with the blood 

 of Italians, that what we now call 

 "blacks" is an entirely different bee from 

 the so-called blacks of the East. Our 

 "blacks" are not of a. color that warrants 

 them being so called; rather, they are a 

 brown bee ; and as large, generally, as 

 the best Italians. I have had some colo- 

 nies of them that were superior to any 

 Italians I ever had. Probably if I bred 



