1885 



GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



819 



They don't sting me much, hut they crowd me out, 

 and beat me up in the morning-, and can see later at 

 ni^ht. There is something- in the bee business that 

 reminds me of fishing with a hooli. 1 used to fish 

 half a day without a bite, when I would think of 

 quitting. I would then think, " May be a great 

 whopper is just ready to take hold." When I get a 

 poor crop (which I am sure to do), I think next year 

 I shall "strike oil." Next year some little thing is 

 wrong— perhaps the wind is from the east (as it usu- 

 ally is), but I think the ne.\t year will be all right. 

 Next year it is a little too cold, but the next year 

 will certainly be the year. But with all these little 

 things, I like it as well as fishing, and I am spoiled 

 for any thing else. If I don't succeed with tiecs, I 

 am "gone up," sure. 



From my house apiary, 80 spring count, I got an 

 average of 22i'2 lbs., or 13.'j5 lbs. extracted, 4!)0 comb. 

 Total, 1825 lbs. 



From an apiiny of ,5 on shares, ;il5 lbs.; my share, 

 1.57 lbs. 



From my River .A piary, 1/iack bees, 12 colonies, av- 

 erage 5^.3 lbs., eS lbs. Total, 2050 lbs. 



RUFl'S KOBl.NSON. 



Laclede, Fayette Co., 111., Nov., 18S5. 



Friend E., you say you had quite a fair 

 crop of alsike and wliite clover, and that 

 linn ■was never better. Now, if the results 

 per colony you mention are the l)est you got 

 from all these sources. I should he inclined 

 to call your locality a rather jioor one. A 

 good tlow from linn alone ought to give at 

 least 100 lbs. per colony, in an" apiary of» not 

 over fifty colonies. 



GIVING A LAYING QUEEN TO A COL- 

 ONY HAVING JUST CAST A S-WARM. 



IS THE ri.A.V ADVIS.VIW.E? 



BN page 739 of Gleanings for Nov. 1, L. W. Gray 

 asks questions for Doolittle to answer, which 

 I will try to do. In the partial answer the ed- 

 itor gives, I see he does not comprehend the 

 question asked, only to a limited extent. The 

 question mainly does not refer to the safe iiUroduc- j 

 tion of queens, although that is indirectly touched 

 upon, but to the erroneous idea (as I consider it) 

 which has been advanced so many times, that there 

 is a great gain made by giving a colony which has 

 just cast a swarm a laying queen, instead of allow- 

 ing it to perfect a queen from the queen-cells left 

 after the swarm has issued. As it must of necessi- 

 ty take from 1.5 to 20 days for the embryo (jucen 

 which is left in one of these cells to get to laying, 

 we have been told that the bee - keeper who 

 wishes to secure the best results from his bees 

 should have a laying queen ready to give each old 

 colony as soon as they swarm, as the time lost to 

 them, by reai-ing a queen, is equivalent to a swarm 

 of bees. Being eager to know for myself all the 

 plans which would give the best results, I have ex- 

 perimented largely; and the truth of the statement, 

 that the time lost to the bees by rearing a queen in 

 natural swarming is equivalent to a swarm of bees, 

 is the first reason it has not proven a success. If it 

 were bees I were after, the case would be different. 

 With me, white clover yields enougli honey to keep 

 the bees breeding nicely, and prepares them so that 

 they swarm mainly from June 20 to July 5. Our 

 honey harvest is from basswood, which blooms from 

 July 10 to J(B. JSTpw, all Tvho aro familiar with nat- 



ural swarming know that the bees are compara- 

 tively few in numbers in the spring, and increase 

 by the rapidly increasing brood produced by the 

 queen, which, iu due time, hatch into bees, until a 

 swarm is the result. By giving a laying queen to a 

 colony immediately after it has cast a swarm, we 

 bring about the same result (swarming) as before, 

 for we place the bees in the same condition. The 

 only difference is, that, having plenty of brood, 

 they build up quicker, and are prepared to swarm 

 in a shorter time. As this second swarming, 

 brought al)Out by giving the laying queen, comes 

 right in our basswood honey harvest, it cuts off the 

 surplus honey; for it is well known that bees, hav- 

 ing the swarming fever, do little or no work in the 

 section bo.xcs; and if allowed to swarm, the object 

 we have sought after (section honey) is beyond our 

 reach. 



' REASONS K()l{ PREFEKKIXG A YOUNG QUEEN. 



Now let us look at how the same colony would 

 work had we not given the bees a laying queen. 

 Eight days after the swarm has issued, the first 

 young (jueen will have emerged from her cell, as a 

 rule, when the apiarist should remove all the other 

 queen-cells Jrom tlie hive, so that second swarming 

 is entirely prevented. In 8 or 10 days more our 

 young queen is ready to lay, which is about the time 

 the basswood begins to yield honey largely. Dur- 

 ing this period, between the time the swarm issued 

 and the j'oung queen commences to lay, the bees, 

 not having any young brood to nurse for the last 

 half of the time, consume but little honey; hence, 

 as fast as the young bees emerge from the cells 

 they are filled with honey; for bees not having a 

 laying queen seldom build comb in the sections. 

 Thus, when the young queen is ready to lay she 

 finds every available cell stored with well-ripened 

 honey. At this point the instinct of the bees 

 teaches them that thej' must have brood, or they 

 will soon cease to exist as a colony, and a general 

 rush is made for the sections; the honey from be- 

 low is carried above, so as to give the queen room, 

 and in a week we have, as a result, the sections 

 nearly filled with honej'. I have often had such 

 colonies conu>!ete CO pounds of section honey in 

 from 8 to 12 days, while those to which I had given 

 the laying queen innnediately after swarming, did 

 little else than swarm during the same time. Bear 

 in mind, we are talking about producing comb hon- 

 ey, not extracted. Different locations may give 

 different results; still, I think that nearly all sec- 

 tions give a large tlow of honey at a certain period 

 during the season, rather than a steady- continuous 

 honey harvest the whole season. To such sections 

 these remarks are especially applicable. 



My second reason is, that after basswood we have 

 a honej- dearth, hence the bees from the introduced 

 queen are of no value, but, on the contrary, become 

 consumers. On an average it takes 21 days from 

 the time the egg is laid, to the perfect bee ready to 

 emerge fiom the cell. Then, if the colony is in a 

 normal condition, this bee does not commence 

 labor in the field till 16 days old; hence, the eggs 

 for the honey-gathering bees must be deposited in 

 the cell 37 days before the honey harvest ends, or 

 else they are of no value as honey-producers. As 

 the basswood is all gone before the eggs of the in- 

 troduced queen become honej'-producing bees, and 

 as the larger part of them die of old age before 

 buckwheat and fall fiowers yield honey, it will be 

 seen that a gi-eat gain is made by letting each old 



