616 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 1 



Conversations with 

 Doolittle 



At Borodino 



PROLIFICNESS IN QUEENS. 



"An old bee-keeper told me in the spring 

 that he valued prolificness in queens above 

 all other qualities. He wanted them so pro- 

 lific that lots of brood would be reared at all 

 seasons of the year when the weather would 

 permit. In other words, he wanted the hive 

 overflowing with bees spring, summer, and 

 fall. Now 1 could not get my queens to 

 come up to such a standard." 



"Well, Mr. Smith, if this old bee-keeper 

 had modified what he told you, and said 

 that he valued the prolificness of a queen 

 above all other qualities when it could be 

 regulated so as to be of the greatest profit, I 

 would hold up both hands for it. Here, 

 where we have but about six weeks during 

 the whole season in which the bees make 

 any gain in honey, what we want is a queen 

 which will fill the hive to overflowing with 

 brood during a few weeks previous to this 

 honey harvest, and lay just as few eggs at 

 all other times as is consistent with accom- 

 plishing this object. If Mr. Smith had a 

 piece of work that he had to finish by a cer- 

 tain time, if he intended to receive any 

 profit therefrom he would hire his help be- 

 fore that time expired or not at all. If the 

 help did not come until too late, surely he 

 would not keep and board them six to eight 

 months because it was not convenient for 

 them to come sooner. He would tell them 

 he did not want them, for it was too late. 

 So I say, when any one says he wants the 

 hives overflowing with bees in the fall there 

 must be a mistake somewhere." 



"But is there any race of bees that will 

 give the required number of bees just when 

 they are needed at the honey harvest?" 



"Probably not, unconditionally; but with 

 proper forethought the Italians come the 

 nearest to it of any race so far brought to 

 my knowledge. They are more susceptible 

 to coaxing so as to have the hive overflow- 

 ing with the bees at the right time than are 

 the blacks or any of the other races from 

 the Old World. Then what is of nearly as 

 much value, as soon as the honey harvest 

 arrives the queen will cease her extra prolif- 

 icness, and thus we do not have a lot of 

 hungry hands to board when they are of no 

 use. At first I did not fully realize the pos- 

 sibilities in the Italian bees. But in the 

 year 1884 I ran across something from the 

 jien of O. O. Poppleton, now in Florida, but 

 then in Iowa, which set me to thinking and 

 experimenting more largely than I had done 

 up to that time. Here is what he wrote, p. 

 50, 1884: ' I get very much the best results 

 from my purest and lightest Italians. They 

 seem to be much more disposed to stop 

 brood-rearing partially and bend all their 

 energies to honey-gathering, whenever there 

 is a heavy flow of nectar, than any other 



kind of bees I have tried, and this is a very 

 great advantage,' And all of the years since 

 then has proved that Mr. Poppleton knew 

 what he was talking about." 



"Then you consider this a trait of the 

 golden Italians, do you?" 



"I would not want to confine this matter 

 to the goldens entirely. They may possibly 

 be a little better along this line; but all 

 Italian bees have this same propensity. If 

 I were running for extracted honey I think 

 there would not be difference enough along 

 this line to pay for keeping the goldens un- 

 mixed from those termed dark or leather- 

 colored. But for section honey, the goldens 

 enter the supers more readily, and cap their 

 honey much whiter than do the others. 



" With the blacks, or German bees, which 

 were the first ones to get a foothold in this 

 country, there is little difference as to early 

 prolificness of the queen. But the trouble 

 with them is that they will continue to 

 breed during the honey-flow with little or 

 no slack; hence w^e have an extra lot of con- 

 sumers after the honey season is over — 

 enough so that often there are not enough 

 stores left for wintering without feeding. 

 But with the Holy Lands, Syrians, Cypri- 

 ans, Carniolans, etc., none of them seem to 

 care to go to brood-rearing to the maximum 

 extent until the harvest arrives. Then, in- 

 stead of bending every energy toward the 

 storing of honey, they go to brood-rearing 

 with a vengeance, ofttimes resulting in the 

 consumption of the larger part of the nectar 

 gathered during the harvest, with the maxi- 

 mum number of bees on the stage of action 

 when the harvest is closing, this great hoard 

 having to obtain their support from what- 

 ever was accumulated during the harvest. 

 In over half of the years during which I 

 tried my best to accomplish something with 

 them worth while, there would be very lit- 

 tle surplus fit lor market, and the hive near- 

 ly empty for winter. The Italians, during 

 these same years, furnished stores for these 

 other races, with frames of sealed honey 

 which they could spare in September, and 

 gave quite a fair crop of section honey." 



"Tell me about the management neces- 

 sary for the queen to be most prolific just a 

 few weeks before the honey harvest." 



"I used to feed, spread the brood, etc., as 

 recommended in the bee-papers of a quar- 

 ter of a century ago; but now all I do is to 

 know that each aolony has sufficient honey 

 so they feel no need for retrenchment dur- 

 ing any time of scarcity which may occur 

 from early spring till the honey harvest." 



"And do you find that this answers as 

 well as feeding and spreading brood?" 



"Equally well if given as advocated in 

 the serial* published in Gleanings of a few 

 years ago. There is nothing better by way 

 of encouragement of rapid brood-rearing pri- 

 or to the main honey-harvest than for the 

 bees to realize having 'millions of honey at 

 our house.'' " 



* A Year's Work in an Out-apiary. In book form, 

 paper cover, 50 cts. New edition just off the press. 

 For sale by the publishers of this journaU 



