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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 8, 1903. 



Can Good Queens Be Reared by a Cupful 

 of Bees? 



BY HENRY ALLEY. 



DURING the hot political times that followed the Civil 

 War, a Union freneral by name of Kilpatrick stumped 

 the State of Masschusetts for the Republican party. 

 General Kilpatrick was a fine speaker, and drew crowded 

 houses wherever he spoke, and in every speech he made, he 

 so framed his remarks that when a certain part was reached 

 some one in the audience would ask a certain question, 

 " Ah," General Kilpatrick would say, "I wanted you to ask 

 me," and then the interrogator got a quick reply. Now I 

 have no intention of making a political speech, as I am not 

 a politician, and never was, yet I had an idea that all my 

 statements would not pass unquestioned, as they are so at 

 variance with the experience of many other bee-keepers. 



Even the Editor could not permit some things to pass 

 without a question. That's right, express your opinion ; 

 I'll find no fault. I am more than glad that some one has 

 given me an opportunity, and an excuse, to say more on the 

 subject of queen-rearing. On page 707, I am quoted thus : 



"As fine queens as any one should desire can be reared 

 with a cupful of bees, and as poor queens as ever lived may 

 be produced by a bushel of bees;" and then the Editor 

 says: " Unless he means that the cells are to be reared in 

 a strong colony." 



No, I don't mean to say the cells are first reared in a 

 strong colony. I have seen good queens reared by a few 

 bees, and the meanest queens ever reared by the strongest 

 colonies. But the queens in both cases were reared under 

 quite different circumstances. When the few queens reared 

 their queen, the honey-flow was at its height ; when the 

 bushel of bees reared the poor queens they completed their 

 cells over an excluder — had a young queen in the brood- 

 chamber — and the flow of honey had ceased, but the bees 

 were liberally fed all the time cell-building was going on. 



The cupful of bees were queenless, and wanted a queen ; 

 the bushel of bees had a good queen, and were in no need of 

 another one. Does the reader see the point ? Isn't this 

 argument in keeping with what I have said in this Journal 

 about rearing queens above an excluder while the bees had 

 a queen, and a colony in a normal condition ? 



No, I did not mean any one to understand that the 

 cupful of bees merely kept a few queen- cells warm that 

 other bees had completed. The few bees did the whole 

 business, from the egg to the fertile queen. 



Excuse me if I partially repeat what I once said in this 

 argument on queen-rearing. All the readers know that I 

 use for nuclei a small-frame hive or box. The frames are 

 about 5x5 inches square. Well, these little colonies can be 

 brought up to a high state of prosperity, as they gather 

 honey and pollen just the same as the large colonies of bees, 

 and the queens fill the combs solid with brood. Now, when 

 a cover is taken from one of these little hives, and the 

 beautiful golden-bees are exposed to view, I tell you that 

 they present a beautiful sight. Ask Arthur C. Miller if this 

 is not so. He has seen them many times in my apiary. All 

 my queens are fertilized in these miniature colonies. 



Now, perhaps I have made this system of nuclei more 

 of a success than some other people could. At any rate, the 

 system is a success with me, and has been for nearly 30 

 years. 



I allow the queens to remain in the nuclei from one to 

 three weeks after they become fertile. By that time the 

 combs 7.re solid with brood, and in cases where a queen re- 

 main in a nucleus 3 weeks, young bees are hatching from 

 her eggs, and thus a queen is tested for her purity, or im- 

 purity, as the case may be, and the little colony is in prettj' 

 good condition to rear a few queens. 



Now, don't you think that if the queen is removed from 

 one of these little colonies when in the above condition, the 

 bees win rear as good a queen as can be reared by any pro- 

 cess we know of ? Well, I never reared queens in the above 

 way, but when queens are so reared they are good ones. 



Now, when I remove a queen from a nucleus in such a 

 condition as above described, and a virgin queen is given 

 the bees and destroyed, and the fact not known until about 

 the time the fertile queen should be found laying, but in- 

 stead of finding a laying queen there are more or less 

 queen-cells, would you preserve or destroy such cells ? 

 Wouldn't you cut them out and make an eftort to save the 

 young queens? I certainly do in all cases. I now have in 

 my apiary 20 as fine queens as can be found in America, 

 and all of them were reared by the process just given — they 

 are a sort of come-by-chance queens. 



The first week in September, 1902, I had no virgin 

 queens to give nuclei. One fine fertile queen was removed 

 from one of these little boxes, and the bees given a chance 

 to rear a queen. One cell was built, and from this cell I 

 got a beautiful queen. In due time this queen was fertil- 

 ized, and as she was so large, beautiful and well-developed, 

 I have taken special pains to keep her through the winter. 



Let me tell a little story here that in a way illustrates 

 the difference there is between one best queen that ever was, 

 and a still better one : Until within a very few years all the 

 farmers here in New England used oxen on the farm, and 

 every farmer was very proud of his animals. One old 

 farmer was exhibiting his oxen one day to a neighbor, and 

 of course had to speak of their good qualities. " Well," 

 said the farmer, " that off ox is the best ox I ever see, and 

 the nigh ox is a blamed sight better one than he." 



That is just the way we feel about our favorite queens. 

 The fact is, I cannot say sometimes which of the good 

 queens are the best in the apiary. However, I will tell the 

 readers of this Journal what I got from one of the little 4- 

 frame nucleus colonies. A very large, fine queen was re- 

 moved from a 4-frame bos, and a virgin queen introduced 

 at the proper time. Two weeks later I went to the above 

 hive expecting, of course, to find a laying queen, and one 

 all ready to mail, but instead of a queen I found 4 large 

 queen-cells. They seemed to be so promising that they 

 were removed and the young queens allowed to hatch out, 

 and one of the queens seemed to be very much better 

 developed in every way than the other three, and her great 

 beauty and prolificness caused me to keep her until I could 

 test her~a thing I did pretty thoroughly, too, before the 

 season was over. One thing I did was to rear 400 queens 

 from her eggs, and all her progeny proved as good as her- 

 self. This particular queen will spend her days in my . 

 apiary, and I would not think of selling her for SIOO. 



How this statement will make Editor Hill, of the Ameri- 

 can Bee-Keeper, jump ! Mr. Hill does not think any queen 

 is worth $100. I do; and I know the full value of a good 

 breeding queen, and I think there are many queen-dealers 

 who appreciate the value of a good queen. 



One point more and I am done : One of the readers says 

 I put the percent of inferior queens sold too high, when I set 

 it at 90 percent. My remarks were based upon my own ex- 

 perience. Once in a while I purchase a queen of some one 

 who advertises his stock on the sky-rocket plan. I will say 

 that I have never been fortunate enough to get a good 

 queen from any source. It is only justice for me to say 

 that I never purchased a queen of Mr. Doolittle, A. I. Root 

 Co., nor W. Z. Hutchinson. And, further, no strain of 

 their bees was ever in my apiary. The only strain I now 

 have is the Adel, except a queen a man down in Alabama 

 sent me in August. He says the queen was reared from 

 imported stock. I am inclined to think she was so reared, 

 as nearly all her worker progeny are black. 



By the way, why do people send to Italy for queens 7 

 Do those people expect to get better queens than American 

 breeders can rear ? Why, one man in California wrote me 

 in August that he bought 8 queens from a dealer in Italy, 

 and not one of them filled out two frames with brood. Dr. 

 Gallup should hunt this man up and " go for " him. Such 

 a queen-dealer needs a good deal of "doctoring." I am 

 glad that Mr. Doolittle and myself can do much better than 

 the Italian queen-dealer. We get that much credit from 

 Dr. Gallup. Essex Co., Mass. 



3( .J:C^.^«>^.^<.^.JtL^.^:C^.^itJ!CJ!C^'^iC^.J!t/^-^M; 



I Our Bee-Keeping Sisters ^ 



Conducted bu EMlttft M. WILSON, Marenao, III. 

 Shaken Swarms in the South. 



Mrs. Sarah A. Smith, in speaking of shaken swarms, 

 says in the American Bee-Keeper : 



" I have used the method for ten years, and in some 

 cases nothing answers better. But when you hear some 

 one say, to brush all the bees ofi^ the combs and set them 

 aside until enough young bees hatch out to take care of the 

 brood, then you should use a little of your own common- 

 sense, and do nothing so foolish. At least that is what it 

 would be if done here. 



" Every natural colony of bees I have ever examined 



