1879 



GLEANINGS IN 13EE CULTURE. 



435 



Another thing-: To try the value of feeding- at 

 such ii time, we fed two swarms all the syrup they 

 would carry during the whole three weeks, but they 

 reared no more larvae than any of the rest that were 

 only fed to keep them from starving. During warm 

 weather, we can do better; but we have come to the 

 conclusion that it does not pay to feed for brood 

 rearing-. We are sorry to go against our old teacher, 

 E. Gallup, in his last article, but this is the conclu- 

 sion to which we are driven after years of experience. 

 Perhaps, if we fed the Hour candy we might change 

 our mind, yet we hardly think so, as our hives are 

 always well supplied with pollen. 



In my report, your compositor made me say that 

 7-12 of my honey for the past 7 rears was box honey, 

 while it should have read, 11-13 was box honey. 



Borodino, N. Y., Oct, 13, "!'.). G. M. Doolittle. 



lam very glad, friend 1)., that you have 

 taken up this subject, although I cannot at 

 present feel sure you are not mistaken. For 

 many years. I have noticed that eggs did not 

 always produce larva', and, like yourself, I 

 have' seen eggs daily, for many days, with- 

 out any larvae, or at least so few, that it was 

 very plain the eggs were not hatching. My 

 explanation of it was the lack of pollen (see 

 p. 48, Gleanings for 1873, and p. 116, G lea x- 

 .ings for 1874) ; and many experiments seem- 

 ed to indicate that when other conditions, 

 such as plenty of food, plenty of bees, etc., 

 were not wanting, every egg, or at least 

 nearly every egg- produced a bee. The flour 

 candy and chaff packing seem sufficient to 

 raise any amount of brood, even in winter, 

 as Mr. Langstrotlfs experiments of last 

 winter and spring abundantly show. 



Now, in regard to the point that eggs 

 winch have remained in the hive more than 

 3 days unhatched may. after a longer period, 

 hatch out into larvae : If this is so, we may 

 remove the queen after she has fdled a comb 

 witli eggs, and find eggs in the combs for a 

 longer period than 3 days, and yet they may 

 hatch into larva-. If this is possible, I must 

 still think it a very rare occurrence. In our 

 experiments of sending eggs and larva; by 

 mail, we have gone over this ground a great 

 many times, and I have never known an egg 

 to produce larva*, after it was 3 days old. I, 

 too. have noticed the large number of larva 1 

 immediately after a sudden yield of natural 

 pollen, but I ascribed it to the queen's hav- 

 ing laid a large number of eggs in a very 

 short time. If a comb containing eggs is 

 taken from the hive, the eggs, if kept warm, 

 will preserve their plump, fresh appearance, 

 for the three days, but after that they shrivel 

 up. and present the appearance of a wilted 

 vegetable. The microscope makes this very 

 plain. If we can have good eggs after the 

 queen has been removed from the hive for 4 

 days or more, I shall be fully convinced, 

 friend 1). 



TESTED QUEENS TIBMJK; 1IV»KIDS, 

 ANU TWO QUEENS IN ONE HIVE. 



- r_\ BAR NOVICE, or GldEAHHraS (OT both, just B£ 



/ILJy ) you like best, for it gives me the greatesl 

 pleasure to read your valuable paper):— On ac- 

 count of poor health, I am not able to do bard work, 

 so am assisting my uncle in his apiary, and I enjoy 

 working with the bees very much. Our minister 

 borrowed the Gleanings, awhile ago, and you will 



think me selfish, but I declare I would rather he had 

 | taken the Bible, for we happen to have more than 

 , one copy of that book. I like to read your "Our 

 Homes" very ninth. 



As regards what L. R. Jackson says on page 392, 

 of Gleanings, about tested queens producing hy- 

 i brids, I would say, I think we have had a similar 

 ' case. I can not accept your theory that a queen 

 bee can meet a drone the second time at all. Excuse 

 ! me for differing with you, as my experience has 

 ; been rather limited compared with yours. I will 

 give you some facts that happened the past sum- 

 mer, to show how a frstrrf queen may produce hy- 

 brids, and also how two queens lived in peace for 

 some 25 days in one swarm. I give the dates as the 

 facts occurred, so you can see there was no mistake. 

 A tested queen with her wing clipped was win- 

 tered on stand 14; June 13th, removed queen to 61; 

 27th, removed queen to 40; July 5th, removed queen 

 to5, and concluded to let her remain. When we 

 took her out of 40, we found queen cells nearly 

 1 ready to seal over. These I destroyed, of course, 

 as we were not sure they were from the tested 

 queen. July 16th, I began to take brood from 5, to 

 raise queens from, but had some difficulty in find- 

 ing enough of the right age. The bees now began 

 to make small queen cells, and the queen would lay 

 In nearly every one. In a number of cases, I allow- 

 ed them to remain till they were capped over, and 

 then removed them to nuclei. I now made up my 

 mind the queen was about failing from old age, and 

 that the bees were going to supersede her. One 

 day, I found several large cells destroyed. As the 

 old queen was all right, I supposed the bees hud 

 changed their mind. 



Sept. 8th, I concluded to make a final "post hkh- 

 tal" examination of the swarm, and see if it was 

 best to try to winter the old queen once more, and 

 was pleased to find plenty of brood in all stages, also 

 the old queen apparently doing her duty like a man : 

 but, just as I bad concluded that everything was ac- 

 cording to— "Dr. Watts," I discovered another large 

 laying queen, not more than 5 inches from the old 

 one, on the same flake of eomb. To say I was some- 

 what astonished, would come far short of the truth. 

 The next day. 1 took the old queen away. I wish, 

 now, I had let her remain and watched the proceed- 

 ings on that line the rest of the fall, but my wits 

 come in streaks, and 1 often think of what might 

 have been. I watched the hatching brood for six 

 days, before the hybrids began to come out, so you 

 see the young queen had been laying 15 days when 

 the old one was taken out. Allowing her to be 10 

 days old when she began to lay would make 25 days 

 that two queens were together in the same swarm. 

 in peace and harmony, in my opinion, those hybrid 

 bees in Mr. Jackson's swarm, or any other swarm, 

 did not come from a tested queen. 



Vim perceive I am not a man of few words (my 

 friends could have told you that before). You must 

 not crowd out valuable matter, but if there are any 

 facts here that you can make use of In your inter- 

 esting paper, I should be pleased. Thomas It. 

 Putnam. Conn., Oct. 14, 18TO. 



Thanks for your compliment, friend R., 

 but you are too late in your belief that queens 

 do not meet the drones more than once. It 

 is comparatively a frequent thing to find a 

 queen returning with the marks of having 

 met the drone, and then to have her go out 

 next day. and return again in the same way. 

 Would it be strange that she should meet a 

 black drone at one time, and an Italian at 

 another V Your explanation of the matter, 

 that there may have been two queens in the 

 hive, is a good point, and it may have been 

 the case in some instances. As it is almost 

 impossible to be able to affirm with absolute 

 certainty that there are not two queens in 

 almost any hive, the suggestion is certainly 

 a valuable one. 



