1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



475 



From the fifth, also a frame cage, the bees came 

 tumbling- out with a whizz, queen and all, and flew 

 to the window. About ten cells of honey were left, 

 and the honey not candied. Both queen and bees 

 were looking- as black as though daubed with honey. 



In the sixth package, a frame box, all were dead 

 but the queen. She was able to fly to the window. 

 About one-third of the honey was gone, and the rest 

 was candied in the comb. 



Now, Mr. Root, the bottle cage is king. About 

 half of the candy was gone, and "but a teaspoonful of 

 water left in the bottle. 



I introduced them all according to instructions in 

 A 15 C, and to-day 1 opened the hives and found all 

 of the queens all right. All but one were laying-. 



HOW TO FIND BLACK QUEENS. 



Now I should like to tell you how I found the black 

 queens. I tried according- to instruction in ABC; 

 that is, I lifted the frames out without smoke, set 

 them in the comb-basket, and looked them over 

 again when I returned them, but it was "no go"; I 

 could not find her. I waited half an hour, and tried 

 again with no better success. The weather was 

 cbol, and the bees all in the hive. I bpgan to think I 

 should have to give it up, or try Quinby's plan of 

 sifting. At this stage of affairs, my wife came to the 

 rescue. We laid some boards, about four feet long, 

 from the alighting-board to the ground, and, on the 

 boards, spread a table-cloth. Now we took the 

 frames, one at a time, and shook the bees on the 

 cloth, and with the smoker drove them up the cloth 

 to the hive. After looking them all over, we shook 

 what was left into the hive, and then took the next 

 frame. On the third shake, we found Iter ladyship 

 marching up the cloth with her children, and had no 

 trouble in securing her with a dozm young bees, 

 and put her in a Root candy-cage for safe keeping. 

 In that way we found live queens in less than an 

 hour, and had our Italians in the hive. 



The bees, by the time we were through, had be- 

 come so demoralized that they seemed to think the 

 Italian queens always belonged there. They showed 

 no disposition to cluster over the cage, and only one 

 hive f mined queen cells. I never saw the above 

 plan in print, but it's the only sure way that I know 

 of to find a Hack queen. In one bive, we failed to 

 lind the queen, after shaking all of the frames. We 

 then took the section -boxes, smoked and shook 

 them, and there found her. H. A. March. 



Hidalgo, Whatcom Co., Wash. Ter., Sept. 15, 1879. 



I always rejoice at an order from a great 

 distance, for it enables me to try my skill. 

 The six queens spoken of above were put up 

 in three different ways. As Miss Andrews' 

 case, shown on page 209, had never failed, 

 we allowed her to put up 4 of them; the fifth, 

 I put up in the section cage shown on page 

 210; the last was in a section cage, with no 

 honey, but with a large bottle of water, and 

 a large cake of candy. Perhaps 200 bees 

 were put in this. 



QUEENS FROITI THE EGG, AGAIN. 



Mit. EDITOR:- In your remarks under our artii 

 ule headed "Queens from the Egg versus 

 ~ Queens from Worker Larvae" (page 430), you 

 look for experience to prove the position there ta- 

 ken. This we had intended to give, but, finding it 

 so lengthy, decided to leave it for another article, to 

 fall back upon, yoti know. 



In the first place, we wish to be " classed " as an A 

 B C scholar of 22, wishing rather to learn than to 

 teach, giving our humble opinion upon this question, 

 backed by a few facts and observations, that it may 

 pass for what it is worth. We began bee-keeping on 

 the improved system seven years ago, and have 

 practiced artificial swarming, etc., ever since. Our 

 bees, until the present season, in spite of our sys- 

 tem, have suffered much more from winter malady, 

 spring dwindling, and swarming out, than those of 

 our neighbors who have kept 100 or 200 on the old 

 plan. Many of ours have also balled and killed their 

 own queens, while we have never known their bees 

 with natural queens (with which we have worked 

 somewhat) to do so. We have also found their 

 queens more uniformly large and prolific. 



Five or six years ago a neighbor got six or eight 

 queens of Mrs. Tupper, and began raising (artificial- 

 ly) queens and bees for sale, and sold many in the 

 neighborhood. About seventy-five per cent of those 

 sold died the first winter, and the remainder are con- 

 sidered no better than the natives. 



Last summer, we purchased eight swarms of him. 

 One queen was dead the next morning, three turned 

 "drone-layers" before spring, and three out of the 

 other four were superseded. For the past two sea- 

 sons, he has allowed them to swarm naturally, and 

 this summer they have done much better than be- 

 fore, while others have not done so well. 



This spring, the only black queen we had among 

 22 was also the only natural one, and the best one In 

 your remarks, you say: " We often raise queen cells 

 by giving a oueenless stock nothing but newly laid 

 eggs to build them over." Exactly so, and that is 

 what we call " queens from the egg." If we had seen 

 no better way, we should not have objected to the 

 old plan. This summer, in Italianizing our own api- 

 ary of 50 colonies and some for our neighbors, we 

 hnd the cells built upon strips of comb from which 

 all larvae were destroyed, leaving only eggs. As the 

 queens were removed the day before, the bees were 

 all ready to begin. The result is, we have the finest 

 lot of queens and the best lot of bees that we have 

 ever had. Instead of hatching in eight or ten days, 

 it took these queens from fifteen to seventeen days to 

 hatch ! A waste of time, eh? But give us one such, 

 rather than a half-dozen of the former. 



Let natural queens be raised from as carefully se- 

 lected stock as the forced ones, and then see if there 

 i3 not a " difference." But, has not Quinby's state- 

 ment been contradicted by "actual practice," to 

 some extent? What American apiarian with his 

 forced queens (we mean queen3 from partially de- 

 veloped worker larva?), has been able, for the past 

 seven years, to bring forward an annual report like 

 that of friend Doolittle, with his natural swarms? 

 You think the secret of his success lies not in his 

 hive or in his locality, but in the man. Yes, it is the 

 man who complies most perfectly with nature's re- 

 quirements, who will succeed best, we think. If 

 "queens from larva? that are nearly ready to seal 

 are one-half workers," and worthless, how about 

 these from larvae one-half or one-fourth ready to 

 seal? I think we will agree on all points, but should 

 we not follow nature as nearly as possible I Pardon 

 us for speaking thus boldly. It is our object to 

 bring out the truth of the subject, and then accept 

 it, even though it is contrary to our theories. 



Oliver Foster. 

 Mt. Vernon, Linn Co., la., Nov. 6, 1S79. 



