Jan. IS, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



41 



do with iny judgfmont in deciding their good or bad quali- 

 ties. See my article in a previous number on " The Shape 

 of (Jueens." 



Mr. Alley says, " I do believe that fully 90 percent of all 

 the queens reared are as worthless as so many house-flies." 



Now, I am so foolish as to think that is a more sweep- 

 ing condemnation of all (jueen-breeders, himself included, 

 than I ever thought of making. No one can place a finger 

 on' any article written by me where I have condemned queen- 

 breeders promiscuosly. I have only been telling how many 

 of the queens received have turned out, and explaining so 

 that the evil can be remedied. 



See page 506 (1902), an article by W. H. Laws, a queen- 

 breeder of experience; and page 596, under the head of 

 •' Strong Colonies for Queen-Rearing." See also page 652, a 

 proposition to Mr. Alley by Edward Scroggin. Why not 

 take up with that proposition, Mr. Alley ? Are you afraid 

 that Jbut 10 percent of your queens would be good ? See 

 page 603 on " Rearing Queens," by R. J. Gary ; and also 

 page 493, under the head of '• Hand-Shake for Dr. Gallup." 



When I said that Messrs. Alley and Doolittle complied 

 with the requirements, etc., I have to acknowledge that I 

 was mistaken. I supposed that Mr. Alley, having had 

 large experience, must know that a pint of bees could not 

 keep up the necessary warmth and amount of food for a 

 perfect queen. 



As to his statement that good queens could not be 

 reared in a colony with a laying queen, how was it queens 

 reared before Mr. Alley was born managed to survive ? Do, 

 or did, all bees have their queens taken away before start- 

 ing queen-cells ? So far as my experience goes, with one 

 exception where queens were reared by natural swarming, 

 the first cells are sealed before the queen leaves the hive. 

 In natural superseding the egg is laid in the cell, and the 

 queen, when hatched, lives in the same hive with the old 

 one until she dies. We get the best of queens in that way. 

 I have had two instances where both have lived through the 

 winter together. 



There is an item in the Pacific Bee Journal, credited to 

 a German journal — Deutsche Bienenzucht — which saj-s that 

 queens reared in natural-swarming time are always larger 

 and of greater longevity than queens reared from worker- 

 larvae. Now, whose theory does that correspond with, Mr. 

 Alley's, or mine? German writers are quoted as being well- 

 informed. 



Mr. Alley says the talk about the umbilical cord — 

 "missing link " — is nonsensical, out of place, etc. Well, it 

 must be, if his statements are true, that queens reared in 

 small nuclei containing a pint of bees are equal to any 

 queens ever reared. He affirms ; I deny that statement, 

 positively. Now, Mr. Alley, it is just as far from my house 

 to yours as it is from your house to mine. Why was, or is, 

 that " missing link " attached to some embryos and not to 

 all? If I examine any number of queen-embryos during 

 swarming or superseding time, and all have that attach- 

 ment, it must have been placed there for some purpose. 

 Then, if we examine hundreds of cells built in nuclei, or 

 in any ordinary colony that we compel to rear a queen by 

 taking away the old one, and cannot find a single embryo 

 with that, something is lacking ; Nature makes no mistakes. 



I has'e said heretofore that the embryo, after being 

 sealed up, draws sustenance or nourishment through that 

 tubular cord. This nourishment adds both size and long- 

 evity to the queen. Now, the reader will, I hope, understand 

 that in no case in all my observations on bees have I made 

 my conclusions from one sample or specimen, as Mr. Alley 

 accuses me of doing. 



In the days of 1859 to 1860, Mr. Alley says there was no 

 "missing link." I venture the assertion that it was always 

 there, with properly-reared queens. I discovered my first 

 one just 43 years ago, and have been looking in vain for 

 one on all nuclei-reared queens ever> since. But in order 

 to bolster a false theory, he thinks it necessary to deny 

 facts. Falsehood and misrepresentation cannot disprove 

 facts. I wonder how, in the name of common-sense, he 

 could, after dissecting a cell to see whether there was an 

 umbilical cord, have the queen hatched, and assert that slie 

 was either perfect or worthless ? He is either compelled to 

 ignore the umbilical cord, or abandon the statement that 

 queens are as good reared in nuclei as those reared naturally 

 in strong, populous colonies. 



It would be a peculiar coincidence if in rearing queens — 

 10 percent only being good, as he asserts — he did not have 

 two good colonies in his apiary. I said, years ago in the 

 American Bee Journal that all the colonies of an apiary 

 could be bred up to the same approximate standard of excel- 

 lence. Why does not Mr. Alley do so ? Is it to be wondered 



at that his patrons do some tall kicking, as he says in his 

 article ? It wouU'. look to a man up a tree like a sort of lot- 

 tery business if only 10 percent of the 50,000 queens that he 

 boasts of were go^d. Mr. S. Q. Conkle, a neighboring bee- 

 keeper, says he received two queens from Mr. Alley of the 

 90-percent or "fly" class. I have heard of other parties 

 complaining of the same trouble. If he did not have com- 

 plaints it certainly is to be wondered at, so long as he advo- 

 cates rearing queens in small hives with but a pint of bees. 



I suppose that it is a great comfort to Mr. Alley to build 

 a man of straw and call him " Gallup," so as to show the 

 reader how easily he can knock him down ; or to dress Gal- 

 lup up in bear-skins and try to set the dogs on him. Now, 

 if Mr. Alley does not know that falsehood and misrepresen- 

 tation is not argument, I do. 



I am sorry that I brought Mr. Doolittle into this contro- 

 versy, but I hope he will survive. Mr. Sutton, a near neigh- 

 bor, says he had a splendid queen from Mr. Doolittle, and 

 different parties say that they have received splendid queens 

 from him. See my article in a late number on exchanging 

 queens with Dr. Hamlin, and the results, reason why, etc. 



Did you know, Mr. Alley, that the one that kicks hard- 

 est demonstrates that he is the most guilty ? Only think, 

 90 percent of 50,000 worth as much as so many flies I No 

 wonder you kick. If I were as guilty as that perhaps I 

 might squirm a little myself, who knows ? 



Orange Co., Calif. 



Our Bee-Keeping Sisters \ 



Conducted bij ElWMfl M. WILSON, Marengo, III. 



Honey for a Bad Coug-h. 



The following is from the " Health and Beauty " depart- 

 ment of the Chicago Daily News : 



" Equal parts of honey, olive-oil and pure home-made 

 wine made from grape-juice or currants, is both soothing 

 and strengthening for a bad cough." 



Cleaning' Out Unfinished Sections. 



On page 781 (1902) Mr. Bevins gives his plan for clean- 

 ing out unfinished sections, and says I may find all the fault 

 I please with it. Now, I am not going to find one word of 

 fault with your plan, Mr. Bevins. It is an ideal plan if you 

 can get your bees to empty out the honey and carry it down. 

 The trouble with the plan with us was that we could not get 

 the bees to do it with any degreeof certainty. Occasionally 

 they would do all right, but only occasionally, even with 

 an empty hive-body put on and the sections placed above 

 that, they seemed to think it was all right to let it remain 

 where it was. 



I am sure we tried your plan most thoroughly before we 

 gave it up. We vranted a plan we could feel sure that every 

 drop of honey would be emptied out. With the robbing 

 plan you can feci perfectly sure that all will be emptied. 

 With us the other plan was too uncertain. 



I wonder why your bees will carry the honey down, and 

 ours are so stubborn about it, for, as you say, it is an advan- 

 tage to feed where it is needed. I would go farther with 

 your criticism than you did, for I believe the colonies that 

 have plenty of stores get the most of the honey, as they are 

 usually the strongest. As far as feeding colonies is con- 

 cerned, it is not a very satisfactory way to do, but for get- 

 ting the sections emptied it is a success. 



We would much prefer to use your plan if we could only 

 succeed in getting it to work. So far as I can see, we did 

 exactly as you did, and we even put on the empty hive-body 

 between, but they refused to take it down, and they needed 

 the stores, too. Is there some kink about it, or is this to be 

 laid to locality, too ? 



I am very glad to know, however, that some one else 

 has had trouble along the same line. Does that sound sel- 

 fish ? Well, you know " misery loves company," and I con- 

 fess I felt better when I read, on page 811, this from the pen 

 of such able authority as Mr. Hasty : 



"A beginner will say to me: 'Why not leave the 

 sections on the needy colony when you have got them there 



