Vol. LVIl.— No. 2 



HAMILTON, ILL, FEBRUARY, 1917, 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YEAR 



COMMERCIAL QUEEN REARING 



Methods of Wholesale Production of Queens at the Davis Apiaries 



as Seen by Our Staff Correspondent 



BEEKEEPING is getting more 

 highly specialized every year. 

 Where formerly the beekeeper 

 produced both comb and extracted 

 honey for market and also reared his 

 own queens and a few to sell, the 

 beekeeper now is either a comb or 

 extracted honey producer or a queen- 

 breeder. The larger the business the 

 less the inclination to cover too much 

 ground. 



Since the demand for queens is 

 growing so rapidly, we have a double 

 purpose in mind in presenting this 

 article to our readers. First, we 

 wish to supply the information as to 

 how good queens can be reared on 

 a large scale and second we feel that 

 our readers would like to know some- 

 thing of the methods of the men with 

 whom they deal. Accordingly we 

 have decided to describe the queen 

 rearing apiaries of some of the bet- 

 ter known breeders from time to 

 time as opportunity offers. 



Since J. M. Davis, of Spring Hill, 

 Tenn., is probably the oldest queen- 

 breeder in the United States, having 

 been in the business for 44 years con- 

 tinuously, it seems fitting that his 

 work should be the first to be de- 

 scribed in this series. While Ben. 

 G. Davis, his son, conducts his busi- 

 ness entirely apart from that of the 

 father, the two can best be considered 

 in a single article. 



As a young man J. M. Davis was 

 employed as a telegraph operator for 

 the L. & N. railroad. The business 

 of the road was not heavy at the lit- 

 tle town where he was stationed, and, 

 having much time on his hands he 

 became interested in bees. Like 

 many another who has taken up bee- 

 keeping for the fun of it, he soon 

 found in it the possibilities of a 

 serious business. Because of the un- 

 certainty of the honeyflow in his 

 locality, he decided to follow queen 

 rearing to insure a reasonably cer- 



tain income. Although in the begin- 

 ning he cared for his small business 

 in connection with his job, he shortly 

 found it to his advantage to devote 

 his entire attention to his bees. The 

 name Davis has appeared so fre- 

 quently in the bee journals for so 

 many years that few names among 

 the beekeeping fraternity would sound 



more familiar to our readers. 



THE DAVIS LOCATION. 



Middle Tennessee is generally con- 

 sidered as one of the finest agricul- 

 tural sections of America. It is a 

 most beautiful country and the mild 

 climate makes it a desirable section 

 for a home. Spring Hill is located 



FIG. I.— A CORNER OF THE J. M. DAVIS QUEEN-BREEDING APIARY 



