1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



525 



keep tbe bive open to see how they received her, but 

 closed it as soon as possible to keep out robbers, let- 

 ting- her take her chances. After four or five days I 

 felt anxious to know how my queens sot along in 

 their new home, and how many had been sacrificed 

 by my not following- the directions for introducing-. 

 With some misgivings, I went in the evening about 

 sundown to make an examination. The first hive I 

 opened I very soon found the .queen all right, and 

 then went to the next hive. About the third frame 

 that I took out, the lirst thing that attracted my at- 

 t3ntion was four nice large queen-cells capped over. 

 Well, 1 thought to myself, I have "gone and done it 

 now," for T remembered having read somewhere 1 

 that one of the essentials to success in introducing 

 queens is to remove all queen-cells before releasing 

 her. I had about come to the conclusion that it 

 would be useless to make any further search for a 

 queen in this hive, when all at once I espied her, as 

 bright as a dollar, walking around among those 

 queen-cells as lordly as you please. I picked off the 

 queen-cells, placed the frame back in the hive and 

 closed it up, thinking that the theory of introducing 

 queens where there are queen-cells was exploded. 

 The next morning my wife and I went cut to search 

 for the other Ihrec queens. We were not long in 

 finding two of them. I began to think, by this time, 

 that we were capital hands at the business of intro- 

 ducing queens. We had but one more to find, and at 

 it we went. We looked at every frame in the hive, 

 but no queen con Id we see. On one frame were four 

 or five queen-cells. We looked the frames over 

 again, but with no better success than at first. By 

 this time the robbers were becoming quite plenty, 

 and we were obliged to close the hive, feeling very 

 much "down in the mouth." Thinking that the 

 queen was lost through my negligence in not remov- 

 ing the queen-cells before letting her loose, we con- 

 cluded we would take one more look for her. In the 

 evening we made the search; and, before we had 

 looked the frames half over, we found her walking 

 over the combs as independent as a queen on her 

 throne. Then I exclaimed, "Hurrah lor our side!' 

 Thus you have my first experience in introducing 

 queens. Dr. C. Abraham. 



Faj ettc. Wis., Oct. 13, 1880. 



It seems you succeeded very well, my 

 friends, without taking the second look, and 

 I agree with you, that such will be the re- 

 sult in the majority of cases ; but if we wish 

 to be sure, it will hardly do to take the risks 

 you did. Queens are sometimes balled, and 

 not killed; but in a great many instances 

 they are balled, and kept so until they die, 

 and nothing but recaging for a longer period 

 can save them. There is one point that 

 seems to be misunderstood by many, and it 

 is, that 



(^TEEN-CELLS ARE NOT ALWAYS AX EVI- 

 DENCE OF QUEENLESSXESS. 



For instance : when we introduce a queen, 

 she usually, sooner or later, destroys all 

 queen-cells found in the hive when she is re- 

 leased ; but she may not get around to it for 

 three or four days, and sometimes for a 

 week. In fact, it may be neglected until the 

 young queen hatches ; but in that case, she 

 usually kills the young virgin queen, and no 

 harm ensues, liut this is not always the 

 case, and it is, therefore, much better to tear 

 down all queen-cells, as you did, when you 



find the introduced queen has not done it. 

 Now. you may accuse me of contradiction if 

 you do not look into the matter carefully ; 

 but note this : when you look over a hive 

 and can find no queen, and wish to be sure 

 there is none, put in some unsealed brood, 

 and see if they will start cells. If they do, 

 your hive is queenless ; if they do not, a 

 queen is there,— or, at least, something they 

 call a queen. If a queen is lost by any 

 means, they also start queen-cells from the 

 brood she left. The first of these rules I 

 liave, I believe, only twice seen to fail. The 

 second fails oftener, but usually for some 

 reason we can see it we look closely. The 

 last fails so seldom that Ave may call it a 

 li.xed fact. 



««!>.«. <D— 



ANIITHEU GlfANDKKPOK'JTFKOIU WIS- 

 CONSIN. 



M S I am always .=o very glad to read reports from 

 7rf\\ others, I suppose the rule, "As you would," 

 J etc., binds me to make report of my season's 

 work. I commenced the season with 00 swarms in 

 Simplicity hives (improved, aslthink),and50swarms 

 in old boxes, wintered in cellar. All were the native 

 brown bees. I wintered more, but sold down to the 

 number given. I have now sold 5556 one-pound sec- 

 tions, white honey, at 15c., and dark at 12c. Per pound, 

 delivered on the ears at our station. I haveon hand 

 about TOO sections, partly filled, average about !i lb. 

 each, and I have extracted the honey from 7 Sim- 

 plicity hives, and have the combs put away for next 

 season, and I have 10 Simplicities full of nice sealed 

 honey. Shall I extract it, or shall I keep it for my 

 young bees next season? These combs and honey I 

 have obtained in doubling up for winter. I have 

 now ready for the cellar, 129 Simplicity hives (im- 

 proved) full of honey and full of bees, and 9 swarms 

 in box hives, to be transferred next spring. I trans- 

 ferred 40 swarms last spring. 



I am determined not to winter any swarm that has 

 not made 30 lbs! of surplus, and but few that have 

 made less than 42 lbs. Some of them have made me 

 over 100 lbs. of comb honey. 



One more fact 1 ought to notice: I have never 

 bought a queen, but have for many years disposed 

 of the queens that did not do well, selecting my best 

 workers to winter. Last year my bees were all 

 brown (or black). Now they are half yellow bees, 

 and have as much yellow on them as have Judge 

 Groty's, 2 miles from me, and he has no queens, but 

 daughters of imported mothers. He has nearly as 

 many as 1 have, as his drones are all full-blooded 

 Italians, according to accepted theory, and from 

 them I get my yellow bees, for there are no other 

 Italians near us. My bees have done very much bet- 

 ter than any 1 have heard of in this county. I want 

 to start this inquiry: Will wenotget better workers 

 by Italianizing by the use of drones than to use 

 queens? I believe it is a settled fact, that wo carry 

 the better qualities of stock more surely in tbe male 

 than in the female. May it not be so with bees? 



II. V. Train. 



Manston, Juneau Co., Wis., Oct. 15, 1880. 



AVhy, this sounds like old times, friend T. 

 If I am correct, Doolittle advises to extract 

 the honey remaining in the sections, but we 

 have generally put them on the hives at a 

 time when they were not gathering, and let 

 the bees uncap it and carry the honey below. 

 Your idea of Italianizing by the drones is a 

 rather novel one, but by no means an un- 

 usual one; for nearly all the common bees 

 in the vicinity of all our large apiaries are 

 fast getting Italianized in that way. 



