S34 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



DISCUSSION of QUEEN PROBLEMS 



How to be Sure of a Good ^een ; 



faring One's 0-wn ^eens ; Best 



and Cheapest Way to Requeen ; 



Notes on Controlled Mating 



JUNE is the 

 time of year 

 when the 

 queen in most re- 

 gions of the 

 United States 

 holds the center 

 of the bee stage 

 — perhajis she 

 always holds it, 

 but it is during this month that the test of 

 her quality and worth is proved. So Glean- 

 ings is here going to print some recent views 

 of a number of well known beekeepers con- 

 cerning the queen and her activities as well 

 as the beekeepers' treatment and handling 

 of the queen. 



A Breeding Queen, and How to be Sure of 

 Having a G-ood One. 



BY J. E. CRAXE. 



In recent years I have noticed a tendency 

 to advertise breeding queens or ' ' breedei's ' ' 

 as they are often called. The jjrice is usual- 

 ly five or ten times the price of ordinary 

 queens. It is rarely, indeed, that I have seen 

 the good qualities of these high-priced 

 queens enumerated or described. You pay 

 your five or ten dollars for a ' ' breeder ' ' and 

 get what the dealer chooses to send you. 

 This business has many times reminded me 

 of a trick we used to play as children: 

 "Open your mouth and shut your eyes, I 

 will give you something to make you wise." 

 Now I have opened my check book and in- 

 vested in some of these ' * breeders ' ' and 

 been made wise. Not that I have never re- 

 ceived any choice queens — I have — but I 

 have also found that the chances of getting 

 all I desired, are not very large. 



I have wished that 

 the queen-breeder 

 would tell us what 

 we may expect from 

 his "breeder." If I 

 go into a store to buy 

 a suit of clothes, the 

 obliging proprietor is 

 rea.ly to enlighten 

 me. I may find a 

 suit for $15 that fits 

 me very well, and 

 perhaps I am ready 

 to purchase when ^ ^ 

 shows me a suit with 

 a price of $20 or $25. 

 I enquire wherein the 

 difference consists 

 and he explains that 

 the higher-priced suit 

 is of finer material, 

 will never fade, and 

 contains no cotton. 

 He will point out thS 

 better quality of lin- 

 ings, the more nearly 

 perfect fit, and the 

 color most becoming 

 to a man of my years. 

 I buy the higher-pric- 



.TUNK, 1918 



ed suit and tako 

 my p u r c h a s e 

 home for my 

 wife to admire, 

 thinking the 

 while of the 

 good trade I 

 have made. It 

 is guaranteed to 

 be all right and, 

 I can return it to 

 buy a ' ' breeder, ' ' 

 in a 



It's the queen he's looking- for. 

 body. 



if it does not prove so, 



the dealer. But when I 



it is like buying the provei-bial * ' pig 



poke" — a very uncertain commodity. 



THE QUALlTIiJ.S A " BREHDIiU " SHOULD HAVE. 



Have the workers of this queen jn'oved 

 themselves of unusual vigor? Are thoy 

 longer lived than average workers? Has 

 the queen a pedigree of many generations of 

 good honey-gathering stocks? Is she of 

 pure Italian blood? Do her workers build 

 their surplus combs white and free from 

 [jropolis or bits of dark wax carried up from 

 the brood-chamber? Is she, as well as her 

 queen ancestors, prolific. Or does her ex- 

 cellence consist simply in her beauty? Does 

 the breeder warrant such queens to be of 

 superior quality? Not that I am aware 

 of. If a qneen proves quite worthless or 

 even a damage to your yard, you can hardly 

 expect the dealer to replace her, for it can 

 not be shown that she is not a "breeder." 

 Until breeders of queens can show that 

 their ' ' breeders ' ' possess quality, as well as 

 l)rice, would it not be well to buy the aver- 

 age queens and run your chance of finding a 

 breeder among them? A queen can hardly 

 be fully tested in much less than a year. 

 Vv'lien we can buy ten or a dozen queens for 

 what we would have 

 to pay for one breed- 

 er, it would seem 

 good policy to buy 

 the larger number of 

 cheaper queens and 

 run our chance of 

 finding among them 

 a good queen to breed 

 from. 



Still I believe it 

 pays to buy queens 

 occasionally from 

 standard breeders, 

 for if they are no 

 better, it is at least 

 an advantage to in- 

 troduce fresh blood. 

 Besides, it gives us 

 an opportunity to 

 compare our stock 

 with that of those 

 who have been en- 

 gaged for many years 

 in breeding queens 

 and presumably have 

 done their best to im- 

 prove their stock. 



HOW TO SELECT A GOOD 

 B"rC5HDIXG QIIE15N. 



She interests every We may often find 



