326 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



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THE ALLEY vs. THE DOOLITTLE METHOD OF 

 QUEEN-REARING. 



Grafting Queen -cells ; is it True that Artificial 

 Cell Cups Cause Queens to Fail ? 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



Some time ago I stated that the Alley 

 system of queen-rearing- was superior to 

 the cell-cup plan; that the latter, except in 

 the hands of a skillful manipulator, was 

 likely to produce many inferior queens. 

 Dr. Miller and some others questioned the 

 correctness of my position, and the doctor 

 called for my reasons. 



A careful perusal of the bee-papers will, 

 I think, plainly show a very noticeable in- 

 crease in the number of reports of "missing- 

 ([ueens," "superseded queens," "failing 

 queens," etc., since the introduction and ex- 

 tensive adoption of the cell-cup plan. It is 

 but fair to presume that part of the increase 

 in such reports is due to closer observation, 

 but that can npt be accepted as the reason 

 of the whole of the increase. A part of such 

 reports may be attributed to queens injured 

 in transportation by mail; but even with 

 such allowance there still confronts us an 

 increase which seems to be inexplicable 

 unless a large number of the queens pro- 

 duced in the last few years are inferior to 

 those produced previouslj^ Is or is not 

 that the case ? During the past six years 

 the cell-cup plan has been exploited far and 

 wide, and with scarcely a warning word. 

 The system was put forth as being one 

 which would enable us to approach more 

 nearly "Nature's way," but does it? 



Under natural conditions a queen lays 

 an ^^^ in a cell. For three days the em- 

 bryo in this e.^^^ grows, the nourishment for 

 the forming larva being the vitellus, or 

 j'olk. On hatching, it receives a food pre- 

 pared in the stomach of the nurse-bee, con- 

 sisting of honey and pollen acted on b}' the 

 digestive secretions of her body. If the lar- 

 va is destined to become a worker it receives 

 such food for approximatelj' three days, 

 after which a gradual change takes place. 

 According to Dr. A. de Planta's analj-sis, 

 the solids in the food of the worker larva, 

 before the fourth day, consist of albumen 

 53.38; fatty substances 8.38; sugar 18.09 

 per cent. After that time the proportions 

 ■of the same elements are respectively 27.87, 

 3.69, and 44.93 per cent — a very decided 

 change. According to the same tables a 

 larva destined for queen receives of albu- 

 men 45.14; fatty substances 13.55; sugar 

 20.39. These figures are taken from Mr. 

 Cowan's book, "The Honey Bee," page 123. 

 Mr. Cowan also quotes Dr. de Planta as 

 saying that, for the first three days, the 

 food of queen-larvie is the same as of the 



worker larvaa for the same period (p. 122), 

 and that "queen larv« were fed the same 

 food during the whole term of their exist- 

 ence." There is a discrepancy here which 

 needs investigating. "What I desire to im- 

 press on the mind of the reader is that, 

 with each varying stage of the develop- 

 ment of the embryo — that is, from the 

 commencement of the incubation of the &^^ 

 until the larva spins its cocoon, there takes 

 place a change in the proportions of the el- 

 ements of the food. It is of vital impor- 

 tance that these changes occur at the proper 

 time if the embrj^o is to develop normally. 

 It should be borne in mind that the larval 

 bee is as truly a developing embryo as is 

 an unborn mammal. 



Now, if we take a worker larva two or 

 three daj-s old and transfer it into a mass 

 of "royal jell}^" we suddenly and violent- 

 ly change the conditions necessary to its 

 proper development. Recently it has been 

 shown that, soon after these transferred 

 larvai are given to the bees, all traces of 

 the "roj^al jelly" are removed, and that 

 for a greater or less period these larvae are 

 without food, which is to be considered as 

 another shock to the developing embrj'o. 

 Other factors against the transferring sys- 

 tem are the danger of touching the larva 

 with the transferring spoon, the chilling, 

 or the exposing to hot, dry air the delicate 

 organism. Now, while the transplanted 

 larva may survive all this, and may develop 

 into a large fvnt-lookiiig queen, it is not the 

 slightest proof that she is perfectly devel- 

 oped or constitutionally strong-. Judging 

 from analogy it would be more likely that 

 she was defective or of weakened constitu- 

 tion. The increased reports of "failing, " 

 etc., queens, seems to sustain this conten- 

 tion. 



There are two other factors which should 

 be alluded to before leaving this part of the 

 subject. The first is that, in the hands of 

 the average manipulator, larv^e over rather 

 than under two days old are used. Many 

 persons seem unable to judge correctly of 

 the age of a. larva by its appearace. The 

 second is that, by the Pridgen method of 

 transferring the "larva, cradle, and all," 

 there is less chance of incurring several of 

 the before-mentioned evils. 



One feature of the cell-cup plan has been 

 exploited as most valuable, whereas it is 

 the most dangerous. I refer to the claim 

 ihat cells so started can be handled more 

 readily and with greater safety. A more 

 harmful and dangerous propaganda can 

 scarcel}' be imagined, for it engenders care- 

 less treatment. The cells containing the 

 young queens should be handled as if they 

 were made of spun glass. 



In regard to the rearing of queens in up- 

 per stories, Mr. Alley has this to say: "I 

 lung ago discontinued rearing queens, or, 

 rather, having cells finished in upper sto- 

 ries. Queens so reared, except in the flush 

 of the honey-flow, are as worthless as 

 flies." Why this is so, it is difficult to 

 say, but presumably it is due to the larvae 



