154 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1919 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



search failed to locate the queen. In hive 

 No. 19, queen-cells had been placed only a 

 few days before. These were intact, altho 

 a fine mature Italian queen was in full 

 possession of the hive. All our other hives, 

 with the exception of No. 1, being either 

 queenright or supplied with cells not yet 

 ripe for hatching, it was evident that the 

 queen on her nuptial flight remembered 

 that her hive was situated at the end of the 

 row, but had neglected to make a memoran- 

 dum as to which end of the row it stood. 

 Matters were evened up by removing from 

 hive No. 19 the frame of brood containing 

 the queen-cells to hive No. 1, loft queenless 

 because of its young queen 's defective bump 

 of location. 



Again, the books say that a queen begins 

 to lay in from five to ten days after mating, 

 and that if delayed beyond that time she 

 is likely to become ' a drone-layer. This 

 particular queen waited three weeks. She 

 then filled her hive in an amazingly short 

 time, and, following a second call to ad- 

 venture, swarmed out in August, three 

 months after she was discovered to be in 

 the wrong hive. Unfortunately the swarm 

 was lost and with it the closing chapter of 

 the queen's life history. 



The history of hive No. 1 was no less tur- 

 bulent. The bees would have none of the 

 strange queen-cells from No. 19, but pro- 

 ceeded against them with systematic de- 

 struction. When the lower part of one of 

 the cells (the part next the comb) was eaten 

 iway, a worker bee was seen to sting the 

 exposed abdomen of a virgin queen which 

 was struggling to free herself, but whose 

 head was still imprisoned in the unbroken 

 tip of the cell. We then introduced cells 

 in wire protectors, but in each instance the 

 queen would mysteriously disappear. Mean- 

 while, laying workers developed. The frames 

 containing the brood were judiciously dis- 

 tributed among the strong colonies of the 

 apiary, on the theory that the laying work- 

 ers would remain with the brood and so be 

 overpowered by the bees in the stronger 

 colony in which they were placed. After a 

 three-months' struggle the hive was success- 

 fully queened. 



Three cases of balling were experienced. 

 One queen managed to disentangle herself; 

 and, the cover being off the hive, she flew 

 away. Whether or not it was her nuptial 

 flight is not known. At any rate, on the 

 next visit she had returned to the hive and 

 eventually became the mother of a large 

 colony. The two other queens were rescued 

 and placed in nuclei (by introducing in the 

 usual manner) in order that they might 

 have every chance of recovery. One died, 

 and the other degenerated into a drone- 

 layer. 



Estimated strictly in terms of dollars and 

 cents, no one could possibly figure a profit 

 on the firm 's first season in queen-rearing. 



The hard-headed business man would say to 

 a beginner, "Buy tested queens from a re- 

 liable breeder, and save money and time." 



But the new firm is neither hard-headed 

 nor businesslike. Indeed the individuals 

 who compose it have scarcely enough sand 

 between them to dethrone a reigning queen, 

 no matter how black or otherwise undesir- 

 able she may be, to make room for one of 

 their own new queens. 



As to business, however, the ambition of 

 the firm to master the technicalities of bee- 

 keeping outweighs even the very human de- 

 sire for immediate monetary returns; and 

 for one who would learn quickly the hand- 

 ling of frames, the control of strong colo- 

 nies, the wonder of their busy existence, the 

 habits and the intimate family life of the 

 bee, artificial queen-rearing is the shortest 

 and surest route. C. D. Stuart. 



Los Gatos, Calif. 



HOW HE BEGAN BEEKEEPING 



A Naive Statement of a Beginner's Surprises and 

 Experiences 



Year before last, a swarm of bees alighted 

 on a lumber truck near where I was work- 

 ing. One of the men took a soap box and 

 set it under the swarm, picked up one end 

 of the truck, slammed it down, and right 

 there my beekeeping started. 



Just four days after this, another swarm 

 alighted within a hundred feet of me while 

 eating my lunch at noon. In five minutes 

 I had them in another box. Now, I had 

 always wanted to keep bees, but I did not 

 know what to do with my captives. I look- 

 ed at the pictures in the books. How was I 

 to get those little square boxes on to that 

 hive? Finally, I got a beeman to look them 

 over. ' ' Oh, ' ' said he, ' ' you must get a hive 

 and dump them out into it. ' ' 



Now, that was a stickler; but I wanted 

 those bees, and so I sent to town for a hive 

 and got it. Those bees had been in the old 

 boxes for seven days. Then it was that the 

 fun started. I got a woolen blanket, and 

 then pulled off the board top. About half 

 a bushel of bees hung to the top. I was 

 surprised to get about 50 stings, but was 

 bound to get the bees. I did not know a 

 thing about the queen. All this happened 

 about 6:30 in the evening. After dumping 

 out the bees, I left them on the ground. In 

 the morning they were still clustered around 

 that new hive, refusing to go inside. I 

 told the beeman about them, and he asked: 

 "Did you put the queen in the hive?" 

 I replied: "Queen be hanged! What is 

 the queen?" He said: "You must get the 

 queen. She is a large bee, the boss of the 

 hive, and put her in the hive." 



Well, when the whistle blew that evening 

 I hurried home. The bees were still bunch- 



