1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



83 



settle the question. Let me suggest an experi- 

 ment that is easily tried, and can be completed 

 in two or three months. Suppose A is a colony 

 remarkable for its vicious disposition, and B a 

 colony equally remarkable for its mildness of 

 temper. Remove the queen of each; let A raise 

 a queen from an egg taken from B, and let B 

 raise a queen from an egg taken from A. If 

 inheritance is thi'ough the queen, then we may 

 expect, at the end of three months, that the 

 two colonies have exactly changed characters; 

 but if through the nurse-ijees, then each colony 

 should remain its former self. 



In spile of the difficulty of anssvering some of 

 the questions asked, especially the one raised 

 by myself as to the hardy bees in the mountain 

 region. I confess that I am loth to make an un- 

 conditional surrender. 



Thei'e are everyday facts on the other side 

 that are hard to get over. Take the very case 

 that I last supposed. Does not the experience 

 of all practical bee-keepers teach them to ex- 

 pect a change in the disposition of the two col- 

 onies wher. the queens are changed, provided, 

 of course, the young queens meet the same kind 

 of drones? In that case it seems pretty clear 

 that the principal factor in the case is the 

 queen herself. 



But it does not prove that the nurse-bees 

 may not have some influence, however slight 

 that influence maybe; and if we are to raise 

 the very best queens, it may be worth while to 

 institute careful experiments to try to decide. 

 It seems to me that here is an important field 

 of inquiry for our experiment stations. 



Marengo. 111.. Jan. 2. C. C. Mim.ek. 



HIGH-PRICED QUEENS. 



DOOLITTLE DISCUSSES WHO SHOULD AND WHO 

 SHOULD NOT INVEST IN THEM; VAL- 

 UABLE HINTS. 



If fathers Langstroth and Quinby had been 

 told, in the fifties, that a trade in queen-bees 

 would have sprung up within forty years to 

 such an extent that, during the year ]892. fully 

 30.000 queens would have been reared and sent 

 by mail to nearly all parts of the world, it 

 would have been hard for them to believe it; 

 yet such are the facts, as we find them in the 

 history made last year. This wonderful traffic 

 in queens has sprung up for two reasons, the 

 first of which is a desire for the improvement of 

 stock; and the second, the call for queens by 

 those who do not wish to raise their own, but 

 wish queens to keep as a reserve force, ready to 

 use in case of queenless colonies, or in giving to 

 the queenless part of a divided colony, whether 

 divided by the apiarist or by natural swarming. 

 This latter class have in view only one object, 

 that of procuring fairly good queens at a mini- 

 mum cost, expecting no more of them than that 

 they will produce plenty of good worker-bees to 

 secure a bountiful harvest of honey, and pre- 

 side over their colonies as all good queens 

 should. The first, or other class, buy queens, 

 or should do so, with a different object in view; 

 that is. they want queens which have a vajue 

 beyond being " fairly good queens." as they 

 wish them for "breeding purposes," with a 

 view to the improvement of the stock they now 

 possess. The greater the improvement which 

 can be obtained by rearing young queens from 

 the one purchased, and crossing them with 

 drones from the bees we already have in our 

 apiaries, the greater the value of the individual 

 queen; for therein lies nearly all of the extra 

 value there is in such a one above those of the 

 other class. Mr. Alley told us, a year or two ago, 

 of having a queen worth ^=100; and A. I. Root has 



told us in the past of his red-clover queen, 

 while others have spoken of queens of extra 

 value as giving bees which were hardy for win- 

 ter, giving bees capping their combs so as to 

 present a snowy whiteness, etc.; but had you 

 asked any of these if they considered there was 

 $100 worth in such queens to place in a box 

 hive, or in a frame hive which was worked 

 only for the honey which could be obtained, 

 they would have told you at once that their 

 worth did not consist in the amount of honey 

 the bees from this individual queen would 

 produce, but in the good qualities she pos- 

 sessed as a breeder, which good qualities 

 were expected to be perpetuated in her prog- 

 eny, and in this way multiplied by 10, 35, 

 100, 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 times, just in accord 

 with the number of queens reared from her. 

 No one queen can be worth even five dollars for 

 what extra honey her bees will produce over 

 the ordinary run of queens; hence it comes 

 about that a costly queen should be procured 

 for only one purpose; which is, the Improxie- 

 inoit of stock. 



I have been led to write this article because 

 many, apparently, do not seem to understand 

 this, especially those just entering the enchant- 

 ed field of bee keeping. Why I say "enchanted 

 field '■ is because many go wild over the pur- 

 suit when they first begin, paying out money 

 earned in other lines, that is needed in the 

 family, for high-priced queens, when such 

 queens are of little if any more value to them 

 than would be a queen costing not over one- 

 fifth to one-twentieth as much. Nor is this 

 thing confined wholly to beginners. To illus- 

 trate: Two parlies in California ordered queens 

 of my $6.00 class, one ordering a single queen, 

 and the other three. Not knowing any thing 

 of either par'ly I filled their orders without a 

 word of advice to either. About a year after, I 

 got a letter from each, one writing that he had 

 kept the queen I sent him from laying all he 

 possibly could, keeping her in a nucleus hive 

 similar to what friend Alley does his choice 

 queens, so that her life might be lengthened to 

 its utmost limit, having reared about four or 

 five hundred queens from her. These queens 

 were giving him much pleasure, and they were 

 not only the best queens for business he ever 

 had in his apiary, but he was satisfied that the 

 amount paid for the mother of them was the 

 best investment he ever made. The other par- 

 ty wrote me that he thought I was unreasona- 

 ble in charging ^(i.OOeach for such queens as I 

 sent him; that he had tested them side of the 

 queens which he already had, and that he 

 could not see that they produced enough honey 

 above what his own queens gave to compensate 

 for the large price he paid for them. Further 

 correspondence brought out the fact that he 

 had not reared a single queen from eilherof the 

 three; and as one of them was not very prolific, 

 he would not breed from any of them, for he 

 believed they came from an unprolific race. 



I might give many other instances somewhat 

 similar; but as all would only illustrate the 

 same thing, I will not. further than to state 

 that a party in Australia took all the risk on 

 queens of this class, getting only one there alive, 

 and allowed her to die some months after- 

 ward, without rearing a fiingle (picen from her. 

 If parties are not going to rear queens from 

 those which they purchase, the lower-priced 

 queens are just as good for them as any; and 

 the purchasing of those of the costly grade is 

 simply throwing away their money; and I ain 

 sure that friend Root and all other queen- 

 breeders desire that all should understand about 

 this. 



One other point I wish to notic(! is the fact 

 that some (jueens, after being shipped to dis- 



