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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



tion, tliat, 400 years B. C, we have an inter- 

 esting case of lioney-poisoning, as mentioned 

 by XenopIioM in Ills Anabasis. Tlie honey 

 mentioned i)n>dnced a violent form of diar- 

 rhnen. and it was oidy tiironsh strenuons 

 efforts of Xenophon that numbers of his 

 soldiers did not die from the effects of the 

 honey. 



INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



SOME VALUABI.E SUGGESTIONS FHOM FHIEND DOO- 

 I.ITTI,E. 



J^l V request ot several I will give the i-eadcrs of 

 Ob Gleanings all I know regarding the intro- 

 ^^ duciiig of virgin queens to nuclei or full 

 ■"^ stocks, hoping that, by so doing, others may 

 be drawn out until a plan which may prove 

 successful in the hands of all shall be brought to 

 light. Friends Root and Hutchinson tell us that 

 all they do is to let the virgin queens run in, as soon 

 as a laying queen is taken out; but from the letters 

 I receive, and the scores of queens I have lest, I 

 judge that not one out of a hundred can do it suc- 

 cessfully. 



A few years ago, when I had a lot of 25 very 

 choice queen-cells (which had been sealed about 

 three daysK a colony cast an after swarm; and by 

 my trying to save one of the virgin queens which 

 was with the swarm, she got away and went into 

 the colony where these cells were. The result was, 

 that in less than 24 hours the whole 25 cells were de- 

 stroyed. Here was a case of a virgin queen intro- 

 ducing herself without any ceremony; and after a 

 trial of several years I find that any colony that has 

 been queenless long enough to have queen-cells 

 sealed and one which does not desire to swarm, will 

 accept of a virgin queen every time; but if given 

 before the cells are sealed, she will be destroyed in 

 nineteen cases out of twenty, unless some pre- 

 caution is taken more than to let her run in at the 

 entrance or at the top of the hive. As Mrs. Harri- 

 son says, " As soon as the queen-cells are sealed, 

 the bees seem to be expecting a queen at any mo- 

 ment, and so accept a virgin queen; while before 

 the cells are sealed they think the queen must be 

 an intruder." 



After carefully observing the above I concluded 

 time could be gained bj' caging a virgin queen two 

 or three days old in the queenless colony or nucleus, 

 leaving her there four or five days until the cells 

 were sealed, when she was liberated, and so far I 

 have rarely failed to get her introduced successful- 

 ly, and to laying in a little more than one-half of 

 the time required by the cell plan. Again, this has 

 some other advantages over the cell plan; for in 

 this case we can know whether our queen can tly 

 or not, for it often happens that queens have de- 

 fective wings, myself and others having such 

 queens in hives for a long time, they defeating 

 every attempt we made at getting a laying queen 

 into the colony. 



The present season I have been trying a now i>hin, 

 which is, ml.xing the bees from several colonies in 

 the wire-cloth box I use in forming nuclei, as given 

 in a former number of Gleanings. As soon as the 

 bees are in the box, put in the virgin queen while 

 all are yet strangers to each other, and she will be 

 accepted. Let the bo.x stand a few hours in some 

 cool dark place, when they are to be hived on a 

 frame having a little brood, and one of honey ; for 



to work well a nucleus should have at least two 

 frames. If a queen five or six days old is used, 

 the nucleus will have a laying queen in a few days 

 more, and the first (lueen from that nucleus is soon 

 ready to be shipped. 



Well, so far I am all right; but what I want, and 

 what all raisers of queens wish, is a plan by 

 which a virgin queen five or more days old can 

 be introduced to a nucleus already formed, or 

 to any colony, and have her laying in five days 

 more without danger of having her killed. We 

 have just disposed of a laying queen from our nu- 

 clei, and we go and shake one-third of the bees out 

 of each of three into one cage, so as to form one as 

 at first. Put in the virgin queen, and have her ac- 

 cepted. The other two thirds arc put in two other 

 cages, so we have three virgin (jueens introduced, 

 and the bees to put back into our three nuclei 

 again. All works well till I come to put them back 

 into the three hives again, when, during the first 

 twelve hours, five out of six will be killed. This 

 seems to come about by there being bees left in 

 each nucleus, some of which were in the field when 

 the rest of the bees were taken out, and the rest 

 remained sticking to the hive, or Hew out when 

 shaking from the combs down through the tun- 

 nel. This part of it I do not see how to overcome; 

 and after experimenting and losing many virgin 

 queens, I feel like going back to the cell (or caging 

 virgin queens) plan. 



Who will solve the matter for us, so it will be suc- 

 cessful every time? If those of us who get a good 

 crop of honey generally are to raise queens for $1.00 

 each, we must have a less expensive plan of rear- 

 ing them than any heretofore given, or we can not 

 make it pay equal to honey, and might as well quit 

 first as last, giving the trade over to those who do 

 not get the honey. This I might so far profitably 

 do; but when I get so many letters saying, "1 here- 

 by inclose for queens of your own raising; re- 

 member, Iwant no others," I dislike to do aught 

 else than to accommodate, and will try to do so, if I 

 can get any plan by which I can raise queens and 

 make it as profitable as raising honey. 



Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



Friend I)., the matter you bring np is a 

 very important one indeed ; for queen-rear- 

 ing' has advanced (jnite a step when we are 

 able to take a queen out of a nucleus and put 

 a virgin queen in her place, so old that she 

 may take her wedding-tligiit . say. the day aft- 

 er she is introduced. The matter was up 

 several years ago, and we succeeded in doing 

 it a part of the time, but it required pretty 

 close care, and a good many mishaps came 

 in. The plan we used was by having a 

 frame of cages for the cells, something sim- 

 ilar to the invention of J)r. .lewell Davis, 

 ami since adopted by friend Alley, as de- 

 scribed in his book.^ These (jueens were 

 kept caged in a tjueenless colony, and let out 

 of the cages one at a time. As soon as the 

 (juecii released began to lay slie was remov- 

 ed, and tlie next one let out, and so on. 

 Tliis \v(M ked pretty well while a How of hon- 

 ey lasted ; but when it ceased, robbers in- 

 terfered, and linally the young bees got to 

 pulling the legs and wings of the young 

 queens through the cages. A double wire- 

 cloth covering might have prevented this, 

 but it seemed then almost too much ma- 

 chinery. Many of these things worked 



