1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



SOS 



mix from one colony to another, or, rather, 

 to the others, more than is generally sup- 

 posed. 



In my early years of bee-keeping- 1 bought 

 some queens of all kinds to try. Their bees 

 got mixed throughout the apiary, and after 

 a while I had blacks, hybrids, albinos, 

 Italians, leather-colored, maroons (?), etc., 

 in every hive. Often an apiarist may think 

 that the queen he has bought is mismated 

 when the blacks or hybrids he sees in her 

 colony have come there from the other hives. 



RAISING OXJEENS. 



When raising queens for one's personal 

 use it is not necessary to use artificial cells. 

 Dequeen one or more colonies, strong in 

 young bees ; furnish them with combs of 

 eggs, and very young larva; from your best 

 queens, and let them make their cells. Cut- 

 ting holes in the combs at the proper places 

 will help. The queen-cells started on their 

 own combs should be destroyed in due time 

 if not good enough to use. If they do not 

 start enough cells, another batch of combs 

 may be given a few days later, and even a 

 third or more, provided care is taken to add 

 brood enough to keep up the number of 

 nurse-bees. As soon as the cells are seal- 

 ed they should be placed in the West cages. 

 A queen-trap should be on all the time in 

 case an "unknown" cell should happen to 

 hatch and induce swarming. When a queen 

 hatches (or, rather, emerges), go to the 

 hive to which she is to be introduced, 

 and remove the old queen. Five or six days 

 later destroy all the queen-cells started. 

 Introduce the new queen in her cage, and 

 release her by opening the cage 24 hours 

 later. Remove the trap so she can mate. 

 She might have been brought in (and left in 

 the cage, of course) when the old queen was 

 removed, or at any time after, if more con- 

 venient. 



But don't release the queen until the cells 

 are destroyed and the brood is too old to 

 make others — that is, in full colonies. In 

 nuclei the case is different. After the queen 

 is released, have a queen-trap attached to 

 the hive. A hole should be made in the 

 piece that supports the cones, so that the 

 virgin queen can go back to the brood-nest 

 in case she gets caught. I will explain 

 why further on. 



This is a precaution in case a queen-cell 

 is overlooked. During the two following 

 days, if the weather is fair, the queen-cells 

 that might be there will be destroyed, or 

 swarming will take place. If the weath- 

 er is bad, the swarming may be postponed. 



SWARMING. 



In my locality, and with mj' method of man- 

 agement, only from 5 to 15 per cent of the 

 colonies will swarm. Under such condi- 

 tions, whenever a colony swarms I destroy 

 the old queen and let it requeen with one of 

 its cells. 



In swarming time, all my hives are pro- 

 vided with queen-traps. All the traps have 

 a hole permitting the queens to go back into 



the brood-nest. That hole is usually closed. 

 But when the swarm has returned, and the 

 old queen is destroyed, I open it so when 

 the second swarm comes out the virgin 

 queen can go back. 



Now, there are two ways open. One is, 

 to let the young queens settle among them- 

 selves who shall be ruler. Somebody call- 

 ed that the Getaz method. It was severely 

 criticised when I first published it. The 

 objection, briefly stated, was that, so long 

 as there is young brood in the hive, the bees 

 are apt to start queen-cells; and as it takes 

 a queen about 16 days tocomplete its growth, 

 there would be daily swarmiug with virgins 

 during that length of time, or nearly so. 



But it is not so. It seldom takes the vir- 

 gin queens more than four days to "settle" 

 which one shall be queen, and destroy the 

 remaining queen-cells. 



The first day a swarm issues from a hive 

 with a trap attached, it rarely clusters, 

 and generally returns in fifteen minutes. 

 The second day it will remain out longer, 

 and often cluster. The third day it will 

 cluster and stay out several hours, and 

 sometimes cluster successively at two or 

 three different places. The fourth day still 

 worse; they may be out nearly all the day, 

 and even remain out over the night, and 

 come back by 9 or 10 o'clock next morning. 

 Now, while the swarm is out the queen- 

 cells are not well guarded and defended by 

 the bees. There are too few of them left. 

 The result is, that the young queens al- 

 ready matured emerge, fight among them- 

 selves until only one is left, and she de- 

 stroys the unhatched cells. All that will 

 take only three or four days instead of six- 

 teen, as claimed by the critics. 



I claimed at the time, that the method 

 was fairly good, and would answer the pur- 

 pose well, when the apiarist has but little 

 time at his disposition. 



The second method is well known. Five 

 or six days after the old queen is removed, 

 destroy all the queen-cells but one. Well, 

 I did do it for a few years, but soon came 

 to the conclusion that one cell only was too 

 uncertain. Since then I cage (in West 

 cages) all the sealed cells and destroy the 

 others then, and also later on. I have then 

 the choice, and in due time release the best 

 queen, • 



What is the best queen? Well, I am 

 somewhat partial to color and size. I note 

 especially a long, well-shaped abdomen, 

 taking for granted that such contains the 

 best reproducing organs. It is soon enough 

 to release the queen when she is old enough 

 to mate. If, during that time, other colo- 

 nies show queen-cells, or actually swarm, 

 I give them the other caged queens rather 

 than wait till their own cells are fully de- 

 veloped. In doing this I aim to leave the 

 colonies without a laying queen only the 

 shortest possible time. In my locality the 

 swarming occurs in May; the honey-flow 

 does not end until the latter part of July, 

 therefore the bees reared in May are need- 

 ed to gather the last part of the flow. 



