OCTOBER 15, 1915 



srio 



Conversations with Doolittle 



At BorodiDio, New York. 



R COLORS AND QUEENS. 



"Do bees dislike black? Will 

 Ihey try to sting an animal that is 

 black any sooner than they will 

 one that is gray, brown, red, or 

 while? 1 am told that bees have 

 tliis special antipathy." 

 ill my younger years in apiculture I ac- 

 cejited tiie idea as the truth. One day four 

 of ns met at one of the apiaries, 1 wearing 

 T black felt liat, the otlier three wearing 

 -^traw hats. It was not long before Doolit- 

 lle was the target for apparently all of the 

 cross bees in the apiary, the bees getting on 

 that black hat and singing and stinging 

 ver}- much as they will in one's hair. Of 

 coujsc the trouble was in the color. 



A few weeks later we met in another 

 apiary, T wearing a white felt hat, and the 

 others had hats of various shades, but none 

 black. To my surprise, I was again the 

 target for the cross bees, as the hat I wore 

 seemed to di3])lease the bees much moi"e 

 than the hats of other colors. They sang 

 and stung away at that hat the same as they 

 had done when I wore the black one. 

 Again we met at my own apiarj-; and as 

 this was a very warm day we all wore straw 

 hats of about the same color. To my sur- 

 )inse, I was again the target for nearly all 

 the cross bees we happened to stir up — not 

 that the bees attacked my liat more, but 

 they seemed to want to sting Doolittle more 

 than any of the other three. 



Then I concluded that their dislike was 

 for my person. And I have found this to 

 be so in the majority of cases wherever I 

 have visited with beekeepers at different 

 apiaries. I have often felt almost ashamed 

 of myself when being obliged to hide my 

 head in a bush or call for a veil when oth- 

 er." had no trouble. But of this 1 am cer- 

 tain : Bees ha\e a great antipathy toward 

 any clothing that is fuzzy or of a hairy 

 nature, and such should be avoided when 

 work is to be done in the apiary. 



" Is the practice of cutting out queen- 

 cells at the beginning of the swarming 

 season, to pi-event swarming, a good one 

 where one works for section honey ? " 



Quite a few of our practical apiarists 

 have given that plan as a good one; but 

 from years of experimenting along that 

 line T cannot help thinking that much hon- 

 ey is lost in the attempt to stop prime 

 swarming by destroying queen-cells. And 

 I also think that the attempt to stop after- 

 swarming by the same practice often in- 



creases the number of after-swarms. Es- 

 pecially is this true when the cells are cut 

 before all the unsealed lan'a) are too old to 

 be coaxed into something that will tempo- 

 raiily answer for a queen. Under the 

 swarming impulse, bees do not take kindly 

 to being allowed just one queen-cell; there- 

 fore, Avhen they have any larva3 which can 

 possibly be transformed into something 

 which will take tlie place of a queen they 

 will do this, and so issue as a " second 

 s.varm " Avith the queen emerging from the 

 cell we have chosen for them, thus leaving 

 the parent colony with but a poor apology 

 for a mother. It is better to wait eight 

 days after the issuing of the prime swarm, 

 and then at night listen at the side of the 

 hive, with the ear pressed against it, for 

 the piping of the first young queen that has 

 emerged. When the young queen is twen- 

 ty-four hours out she will tell you herself 

 that "there will be a hot time in the old 

 town " tomorrow by the fuss she is making 

 inside during the gathering darkness. In 

 the morning you can sliake the bees off every 

 comb in the hive, so that you can see every 

 queen-cell, and miss none ; and when all are 

 out off you are sure of no after-swarra. 



'' Would not the following be a good way 

 to requeen each colony everj' year and pre- 

 vent all increase? Allow the prime swarm 

 to come out naturally. Have all wintered - 

 over queens' wings clipped. When the 

 swarm is in the air, cage the clipped queen 

 and go through the hive, cutting off all 

 fjucen-cells. Lay the caged queen at the 

 entrance, and two or three of the best cells 

 ai'ound the cage containing the queen. When 

 the swarm returns, place an open-mouthed 

 box over the caged queen and cells, thus 

 allowing the bees to cluster over and about 

 them. Eventually the old queen is to be 

 killed, and the first queen emerging from 

 the cells at the door reigns in the hive for 

 another year." 



The question would be whether doorstejj 

 foundlings would be as good as lawful ones 

 nursed and brought up in the genial warmth 

 surrounding them in the old homestead. 

 Even if a small bunch of bees stays there 

 faithfully, would not the temperature inside 

 the bunch get low on a cool rainy night? 

 Then, what would there be to hinder the 

 bees inside the hive, with mother and em- 

 bryo sisters gone, starting more queen-cells 

 from the brood remaining in the hive, which, 

 nmch of it, would be of right age to change 

 to queens? 



