1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



6H5 



unsealed diseased brood you would be pret- 

 ty sure to find diseased brood. You did not 

 say whether you were successful in treating 

 foiil brood by McLaiu's method. 



With Replies from our best Authorities on Bees. 



All queries sent in for this department stiould be briefly 

 stated, and free from any possible ambiguity. The tjuesiion 

 or questions should be written upon a separate slip of paper, 

 and marked, " For Our Question-Box." 



IVhen Should ivf tjo ti> irovU to Raise tin- liv.it 

 Queens '.' 



Question No. 1. If the bees supersede their queen 

 in the fall or spring, is such queen as good as one 

 raised in the swarming season ? M. E. W. 



Yes. 

 Yes. 

 Not with nie. 



Dadant & Son. 



Paul L. Viallon. 



Dr. a. B. Mason. 



Yes. I thinlj they are, providing there is a good 

 strong colony of bees at the time. E. France. 



I have but few queens superseded. Their suc- 

 cessors, even when raised in the spring or fall, have 

 shown no signs of inferiority. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. 



If raised in a strong colony, the old queen being 

 present till the young one is raised, I thinlc ihe dif- 

 ference, if any, is slight. C. C. Miller. 



Theoretically, no; yet I have had queens super- 

 seded in the interims of the honey-harvest which 

 ■were among the best 1 have ever had or seen. 



A. J. Cook. 



Yes, providing the old queen keeps laying or 

 stays in the hive till the queen-cells are capped 

 over. If the supersedure comes from the death of 

 the old queen, no. G. M. Doolittle. 



Yes. Mr. Langstroth said at Detroit, that he had 

 noticed, when bees superseded their queen, that it 

 iuvariablj' proved to be a good one. They are dis- 

 satisfied with their queen, and undertake to rear a 

 better one, and do it. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Under certain circumstances, such a queen might 

 be good, and no doubt as good as many of the 

 queens raised in the swarming season; biU as a 

 rule, governed by natural principles, such a queen 

 will not be as good as one raised in the swarming 

 season. James Heddon. 



I have watched this point closely for a number of 

 years, and have been able to detect no difference, 

 unless it was that such queens are not usually as 

 long lived as others. O. O. Poppleton. 



It would be well if we had more positive data than 

 seem to exist at present as to the value of queens 

 reared out of season. In default of this it will help 

 some for bee-men to give their impressions, as I 

 proceed to do. 



1. Queens reared too early are worthless for lack 

 of fertilization. 



2. Queens reared late enough to be fertilized will 

 average a little below, but not very much below, 

 queens reared under the swarming impulse. 



3. Queens reared after swarming is over are liable 

 to ho <|iiit(' inl'orinr, but not certain t<i be so. 



K. E. Hastv. 



It seems to me, friends, there is one point 

 in the above that you have not touched up- 

 on. It is this : Some colonies, as you know, 

 will rear an extra queen to work side by side 

 with her mother ; and as fast as these extra 

 queens are taken away they will rear more. 

 At different times, when this suljject has 

 been up, the importance of developing this 

 trait has been mentioned. Now, these 

 queens, no matter when they are reared 

 (providing, of course, the weather is warm 

 and the bees are getting pollen and honey), 

 are among the best and longest lived we 

 have had. Have you not found it so V 



ffoir mnny fouiuls per Colony <lo our Best 

 liee-keepers fjet, on an Arerat/e'.' 



Question No. 2. Wliat do you consider an average 

 yield of honey per colony (mention whether comb 

 or extracted) in your locality V S. J. M. 



Extracted, 50 lbs.; comb, 2.5 lbs. 



Sixty lbs. of extracted. 



Dauant & Son. 

 Dr. a. B. Mason. 



100 to 135 lbs. extracted; 75 to 100 lbs. comb honey. 



Paul L. Viallon. 

 Fifty lbs. of comb; 80 of extracted. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. 

 Fifty lbs., spring count, taking an average of sev- 

 eral years. I have had little experience with ex- 

 tracted honey. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



About 75 lbs. of extracted, or .50 lbs. of comb hon- 

 ey, and an increase of nearly 100 per cent, would 

 perhaps be about an average in all the years I have 

 kept bees here. James Heddon. 



My own average for over a dozen years past in 

 Northern Iowa was 110 lbs. per colony of extracted 

 honey. My experience is too small in this locality 

 to give any estimate. O. O. Poppleton. 



According to my records for the past 12 years, my 

 bees in different parts of this, Ventura Co. (Cal)., 

 have yielded me about S5 lbs. per hive annually, 

 spring count, all extracted honey. I suppose mine 

 will about average with others of the county. 



R. Wilkin. 



My average yield has been not far from 75 lbs. 

 comb honey, and 1.50 lbs. extracted, according as 

 worked for, each year for the past 14 years, a larger 

 average yield for the first 7 years than the last 7. 

 G. M. Doolittle. 



In estimating 50 lbs. comb and 75 extracted, I 

 should think 1 was quite low. 1 have takcn'KXl lbs. 

 of comb several years in succession; lut a few 

 such years as the present will bring it away down. 



A. J. Cook. 



For 18 years the average yield has been 39(2 lbs. 

 comb honey. Greatest yield per colony in anyone 

 year, 117 lbs.; least, 0. With good management and 

 no overstocking, I think the average might be .50. 



C. C. Miller. 



We have run for extracted honey for several 

 years past. Taking the years 18h;j, "84, '85. and 'SB- 

 four years in succession- our average was 103 lbs. 

 per colonj', spring count. But this year our yield 

 was only .5t)40 lbs., or about 12 lbs. per colony, as we 

 had 415 colonies, and we are not sure but we shall 

 have to feed back all we got, if not more, to winter 



