March 26, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



199 



were promising when they were shipped. The fault is not 

 in the breeding. By this I mean that the breeder used all 

 his endeavors to produce good queens, and the queens ap- 

 peared to be all right when they were sent out. Don't say 

 the breeder was careless, or that he don't know how it is 

 done — credit the trouble to the great difficulty in breeding 

 queens of the j-ellow-banded strain. 



For the benefit of the readers I present a cut (Fig. 1) 

 showing a batch of queen-cells built by a method with which 



umbilic appendage — through this attachment the young are 

 nourished. Why is an itmbilical cord necessary in any 

 animal that is supplied with food sufficient to bring it into 

 existence while it is maturing ? When born it is able to 

 feed itself almost the moment it breathes ? 



The urabilical-cord advocates may be correct in their 

 theory, but to me the whole thing seems very improbable 

 and unreasonable. 



To-day, March 2, 1903, I received a letter from a bee- 



Fig. 3. 



mg. 2. 



few bee-keepers are acquainted. Now the four rows of cells, 

 as illustrated, show all the correct indications of first-class 

 work done by bees. You will see that every cell is large, 

 long and heavily waxed. This latter feature is the strong- 

 est indication that the occupant of each cell is as good as 

 can be reared. 



This batch of queen-cells was the last built in my 

 apiary in the season of 1902. Had they been started earlier 

 in the season twice as many cell-cups would have been 

 started. 



Two powerful colonies of bees were used to complete 

 the cells, as the bees that start the cell-cups are not allowed 

 by the system to do so. The bees that start the cups work 

 only 24 hours on them. Then about a dozen of the cups are 

 given to the most powerful colonies in the yard to finish up. 

 Who on earth knows of a better system of rearing queens 7 

 Speak right up and let us all know. I have experimented 

 in this line nearly half a century, but I know of nothing so 

 good, nor do I know of any method that will come up to it. 

 /can rear better queens this ivay than 'tis possible to rear un- 

 der natural swarming. 



One writer says, " No good queens are reared except in 

 cases where the queen drops an e^g in a cell-cup." I know 

 better, for years of experience, that but very few queens are 

 reared from cell-cups. Surely they are not in the natural 

 way. Now and then a cell-cup can be found at about swarm- 

 ing-time that has an egg in it. But there is no evidence in 

 any case that the cell-cup was first formed and the egg put 

 in it by the queen. I have seen an egg in some very shal- 

 low worker-cells. At swarming time, when the bees come 

 across such eggs they start up a cell cup at that point. I 

 have seen queen-cells built out on the face of solid brood, in 

 the center of a comb. When there happened to be a cell 

 with only an egg in it when the bees were seized with the 

 swarming fever, and that egg was used from which to rear 

 a queen, there was not the slightest chance for a cell-cup in 

 that spot. 



Why don't people give actual facts, and not say, " I 

 think ?" I think does not go in a court of law. Why 

 should it count elsewhere any more .■' 



In Fig. 2 I also show a single queen-cell. It will be 

 seen that this cell is also very heavily waxed, large at the 

 base, etc. 



The third cell (Fig. 3) illustrates a very poor cell, that is, 

 a cell from which a very poor queen will emerge. It is mean, 

 short, and in no way indicates that the unborn queen is of 

 any value. Now when the queen emerges from the cell she 

 most likely will give positive evidence of the " missing link." 



I have noticed that " missing link " in some cases, but 

 only on some queens that are half-nurtured, and most likely 

 were reared from a larva three or more days old. I never 

 saw anything about good, healthy young queens that would 

 indicate the existence of an umbilical cord. Only tl.c un- 

 born offspring of warm-blooded animals are connected by an 



keeper away down in Argentine Republic, in which he says: 

 "I am a great admirer of your system of rearing queens, 



which I learned through the American Bee Journal." 



The above shows how a man who keeps 300 colonies of 



bees appreciates a good thing. Essex Co., Mass. 



\ Our Bee-HeeDln§ Sisters \ 



Conducted bu EMMft M. WILSON, Marengo, III. 

 Emptying Unfinished Sections. 



On page 130, Mr. Baldwin tells how he succeeds in get- 

 ting the bees to empty sections. We tried practically the 

 same thing without entire success. There was one differ- 

 ence, however : We tried it in the fall, he in the spring. 

 We want our sections all emptied in the fall, as we use 

 them for bait-sections, and would consider them spoiled for 

 that purpose if the honey was allowed to candy in them, as 

 it will be sure to do if left till spring. 



Women Carpenters to the Front. 



Ever since reading the experience of Kate V. Austin 

 (page 42), I have been contemplating with a good deal of 

 satisfaction how easily I could " take the wind out of their 

 sails ' by relating my own experience in carpentry work. 

 When, lo : presto, change. There remained only a gentle 

 zephyr in my own sails when I read the invitation to " beat 

 the record" of Mrs. Griffith (page 121). But while I am not 

 79 years of age, I am a sort of semi-invalid, relegated to 

 rural life to regain nerve force expended during a long 

 stenographic experience. And while I do not make my own 

 hives, 1 did make two bee-sheds last fall out of green oak 

 inch lumber. The sheds are 16 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 

 3 feet high, with lean-to roofs covered with tar building- 

 paper, and taut wires drawn over the upper and lower edges 

 of the roofs and attached to the sides, to keep the wind from 

 " raising the roofs." 



I greatly fear our brother bee-keepers will have to look 

 well to their laurels, or they will be taken away by their 

 Twentieth Century sisters who can send a nail straight to 

 its intended destination, manipulate a dull, broken-handled 

 saw, and dextrously substitute a carving knife for a plane. 



I may be tempted in the dim, distant future to confide 



