October, 1915. 



American l^ee Journal 



give satisfaction. Here is the real test 

 as there is considerable misapprehen- 

 sion of the qualities of a queen on the 

 part of the customer. So many do not 

 realize that a queen which has spent 

 several days in the mail will not appear 

 to the best advantage. Should she be 

 introduced during a dearth of honey, 

 she is not apt to display a very prolific 

 disposition. Not all people who order 

 queens are members of beekeepers' 

 associations, nor do they all attend 

 conventions, consequently it is some- 

 times difficult to impress them with the 

 good qualities of the queen. These are 

 only superficial qualifications and are 

 not any indications of the real worth 

 of the queen. 



In the first place, a good queen has a 

 right to be well born and well reared. 

 These are the prime requirements, and 

 every queen has an equal right with 

 human beings in this respect. Being 

 well born means to be reared from 

 strong, healthy stock of good breed- 

 ing. And to be well reared is to be 

 carefully nurtured during the different 

 stages of her life up to maturity. 



Being well born brings up the ques- 

 tion of what a good queen is. In the 

 first place I hold that she should be 

 very prolific, and prolificness means 

 strong colonies, and this of course 

 means plenty of honey which is the 

 main object to be attained. The bees 

 from such a queen should be hardy; 

 that is, the colony should winter well. 

 This is very important in the colder 

 parts of our country, as most of us 

 will attest. The bees should also be 

 reasonably gentle. Nearly every one 

 will agree with me in this also. Al- 

 though there are a good many other 

 points which are desirable, it is pretty 

 hard to combine many of them in the 

 same queen, and so I consider the be- 



fore-mentioned points the main re- 

 quirements of a good queen. This will 

 hold good in most any race of bees. Of 

 course, a queen should be well marked 

 and of good color. This is understood. 

 Also she should be fairly good size. I 

 have had small queens that were satis- 

 factory, but always discarded them at 

 the first opportunity. 



While the breeding of a queen is very 

 important, it is the rearing which has 

 the greatest influence on the quality of 

 her ladyship. To be well reared means 

 that the cells must be built in strong 

 colonies which are maintained in the 

 most prosperous condition. I begin 

 preparing the cell builders as early in 

 the spring as possible, and aim to have 

 them strong enough to fill two hive- 

 bodies by the first of May. I use the 

 double story system exclusively, and 

 after trying out one or two other sys- 

 tems, I liave found it the most satis- 

 factory one for my use. While it may 

 have drawbacks it has advantages over 

 other systems which more than offset 

 these faults. On the other hand, its 

 good points are not to be ignored. The 

 principal advantage to my mind is that 

 of giving the whole lower story to the 

 queen to lay in. Hence, she is not 

 crowded, and brood-rearing goes on 

 under most favorable conditions. The 

 whole colony is together on the same 

 stand in a normal condition, and is 

 much easier to maintain. This cannot 

 be said of many other systems. Sealed 

 combs of brood are shifted from the 

 bottom story to the top one as often as 

 is required, and the young bees are 

 thus hatched right where they are 

 needed to furnish plenty of chyle for 

 the cells. This is the object of all sys- 

 tems, and is more satisfactorily attained 

 by this means than by any other I have 

 seen advocated. 



IIG. 52-DOGBANE 



For grafting I use the smallest larva- 

 which it is convenient to handle. By 

 using very small larv;e, they are fed 

 longer before being sealed than is the 

 case when larger larv.e are used, and 

 while they do not hatch as soon after 

 being sealed, still they have a better 

 chance of being long lived and prolific 

 than the others have. In practice I use 

 a queenless colony for accepting the 

 freshly-grafted cells. The grafting is 

 done early in the morning or late in 

 the afternoon. The early morning 

 grafts are allowed to remain in the ac- 

 cepting colony until late afternoon 

 when they are transferred to the cell- 

 building colony. Since adopting this 

 plan I have been able to secure a very 

 large percent of accepted cells, often 

 having all of them accepted. 



In order to secure large, well fed 

 cells, it is necessary to have a good 

 flow or to stimulate bees by feeding. 

 During the past summer there was no 

 flow of consequence, and so I was 

 compelled to feed straight through. 

 The cells are caged usually about the 

 10th or llth da>, as I hatch most of the 

 virgins in captivity. It is preferable 

 to hatch them directly into nuclei, and 

 I do so as much as possible, but cir- 

 cumstances do not always permit it. 

 Also there is some advantage in hatch- 

 ing the cells in cages, as it allows one 

 to sort over the virgins and select the 

 best ones for mating. 



For mating the virgins I use the 

 baby nuclei. I find that I can produce 

 as good queens with these little mating 

 boxes as by any other method. While 

 it is inexpensive it produces first-class 

 queens in every respect. They are 

 comparatively easy to manipulate, and 

 one can locate the queens at once, 

 saving much time in caging. One pint 

 of bees is sufficient for each of the 

 boxes, and in a good flow these little 

 colonies will often store considerable 

 surplus, becoming honey bound so that 

 it is necessary to exchange full combs 

 for empty ones. The behavior of these 

 twin nuclei is not as reliable as that of 

 the larger mating nuclei, but if they 

 swarm out, as they will do on the 

 slightest pretext, the loss is not large 

 and is very readily replaced. During 

 the dearth of honey or before the 

 honey-flow, I have found the candy 

 fondant as per the direction in Glean- 

 ings in Bee Culture, published a year 

 or so ago, to be very nice for stimulat- 

 ing these mating nuclei. The other 

 colonies are prone to rob out these 

 boxes at the first opportunity, and feed- 

 ing sugar syrup always causes some 

 muss and aggravates this trouble. Be- 

 sides, there is no very convenient way 

 of feeding it. Also the fondant being 

 dry does not attract robbers like syrup 

 will. Some kind of feeders adapted to 

 feeding these little colonies is very 

 badly needed. 



In introducing the virgins to the 

 mating boxes I use t'le candy method 

 most exclusively. It is the best relia- 

 ble metiiod brought out so far. The 

 smoke method is all right in some 

 cases, but I do not recommend it for 

 gen 'ral use. Soon after the method 

 was given out last year by Mr. Miller, 

 I used it successfully, but this year it 

 wouldn't work at all. There was a 

 world of difference between the condi- 

 tions last year and this year, and so I 



