408 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 25, 1903. 



cial cell-cups, and I use only those built in the natural 

 way by the bees themselves. Now, readers, which of the 

 two methods, think you, is the best ? In what respect do 

 artificial cell-cups have any advantage over natural cells ? 

 Mr. Doolittle claims to follow natural laws and natural 

 methods in rearing queens, yet he tells people to disregard 

 natural ways and adopt unnatural principles, as they are 

 better than the methods used by the bees themselves. What 

 bosh ! 



I first gave to the world a way of having queen-cells 

 completed above an excluder, and refer to back copies of the 

 American Bee Journal in support of this claim. I first gave 

 to the world a method of having queen-cells completed in 

 the brood-nest, while a queen was present in the colony. In 

 that latter case no excluder of any kind was used. Neither 

 of the above systems is practical, for the simple reason 

 that they cannot be used at all times. With the first system 

 good work can be done while there is a good flow of honey. 

 But even in this case, not as good queens can be reared as 

 by another method, and that is why I discarded the entire 

 arrangement. 



If I could rear superior queens at all times, as Mr. Doo- 

 little says he can by the excluder system, I surely would 

 use it. I have tested the matter to my entire satisfaction. 



Mr. Doolittle, if I remember correctly, made some ad- 

 verse criticism on the fact that I reared good queens with a 

 pint of bees. I had nothing whatever to do with rearing 

 any queen with a pint of bees. The bees alone are respon- 

 sible for the good work that was done. I merely took the 

 queens from a very small hive of bees, and the queen that 

 was introduced was destroyed, and this pint, or cupful, of 

 bees reared a fine queen. To have been consistent with the 

 ways some people do business, I ought to have destroyed 

 that large, fine and beautiful queen because she was not 

 reared in a 16frame hive by a bushel of bees. Who says a 

 cupful of bees won't rear a grand queen ? Let's see : 



In the American Bee Journal of May 4, Mr. Doolittle 

 stated that he had a colony that built 174 queen-cells. 

 Whew! Wasn't that a lot ? Now let us dive into mathe- 

 matics a little and see about how many bees by measure it 

 took to rear those 174 queen-cells, or queens, as the case 

 may have been. Now, at the rate of one pint of bees to a 

 cell there would have been 87 quarts of bees. That is 2'. 

 bushels and 7 quarts of bees in all. Did any one ever see a 

 colony of bees that would measure 2'2 bushels ? Well, let's 

 call it a cupful of bees and a queen. That would have made 

 in measure a half pint of bees per cell. How many bee- 

 keepers ever saw a colony of bees that contained 87'2 pints 

 of bees. Now, why criticise my statement that a cupful of 

 bees built a queen-cell and produced a superiorqueen ? Does 

 not Mr. Doolittle's statement fully confirm my claim that 

 a cupful of bees will rear a good queen ? But I do not be- 

 lieve there were three good, or fairly good queens produced 

 in those 174 cells. 



What does Nature do in rearing-queens ? Do bees build 

 half a hundred cells when they cast a swarm ? No, not on 

 an average over 12 cells, and hardly ever over 8 cells ; that 

 has been my experience. 



Mr. Doolittle in a recent article shows where his bees did 

 better than mine. I really think I could fill this entire vol- 

 ume of the American Bee Journal in showing that my bees 

 did better then any other bees on earth. In all my catalogs, 

 in which I gave testimonials of my bees in competition with 

 others, I always omitted the names of the other dealer — never 

 considered it fair to call names in such cases. I know there 

 are always good reasons why some bees do better than 

 others, and it is not always the fault of the bees, either. We 

 all know that. Here is a case for the reader to consider : 



A bee-man in Ayer, Mass., Italianized his apiary of 14 

 colonies. The bees bred up well, were very handsome and 

 all the hives were full of bees. The dealer from whom 

 those queens were obtained advertised the best strain of 

 Italians on earth. But these bees never would work in the 

 sections, and barely got a living. He sent for me to come 

 for the bees. When I had looked them over, I said : How 

 much do you want for the lot? His reply was : "Take 

 them out of the yard." He said they were worthless and 

 I could have them for nothing. Well, they were worthless, 

 as honey-gatherers. But I destroyed the queens and bred 

 the bees for forming nuclei. 



Now, the fact that these queens were extra-prolific 

 showed that the trouble was not in the breeding, but in the 

 strain of bees. 



Now, Mr. Doolittle and myself have sent out queens 

 that were no better than the above, but in my case it was 

 in the strain and not in breeding that caused the trouble. 

 Mr. Doolittle is criticising me for the same things he is 



guilty of himself. Sometimes a strain of bees does not 

 prove to be what they gave promise of. But we all do the 

 best we can. I always try to beat the other fellow in the 

 production of the best bees and queens. The other fellow 

 tries to beat me. We are all in the same boat. 



Mr. Doolittle, why do you say your queens are better 

 than mine ? Dr. Gallup, your old teacher in queen-rearing, 

 and a man in whom you take, or took, a good deal of stock, 

 says your queens are no better than mine. He said it, didn't 

 he, and no longer ago than last winter, in the American 

 Bee Journal ? Now, Mr. Doolittle, you would better go 

 slow on this point, as I can show as many letters condemn- 

 ing your queens as you can against my queens. 



A few words more and I am done this time. Mr. Doo- 

 little has published to the world his method of rearing 

 queens. I have done the same thing, antedating Mr. Doo- 

 little a long time. I do not believe in hiding light under a 

 bushel. 



Now I will tell the readers of this journal how I rear 

 queens, or rather how I produce queen-cells and have them 

 completed. When I have eggs about ready to start queen- 

 cell building, I select one of the strongest colonies of bees 

 in my apiary to do the cell-cup building. This colony is 

 taken into the bee-room, the combs all removed and the 

 bees brushed from them into the cap of a bee-hive. I do 

 this in such a way that the bees stay in the box till I find 

 the queen, which is not long, I can assure you. When the 

 queen is found the bees are then put into a box having a 

 wire top and bottom. The top is the cover. The bees are 

 right in this condition for a few hours. In the course of an 

 hour they miss their queen, and a few hours later they are 

 supplied with eggs and cell-building is at once commencd. 

 The bees will construct as many cell-cups as eggs are given 

 them. 



In the course of 24 to 36 hours these cell-cups are divided 

 among several of the strongest colonies in the yard. The 

 queens from the full colonies are first removed say 12 hours 

 before the cell-cups are placed in the hives. Now, I do not 

 put these cell-cups behind nor over a queen-excluder. A 

 comb is removed from the brood-nest and the cells placed 

 between two frames of solid brood. Here they are left un- 

 til completed, which is three days later. By this method 

 there are two sets of bees working on each set or batch of 

 cells. The cells built in this way produce queens superior 

 to any I ever reared by any other system. 



Does any reader of this paper know of a better system 

 of rearing queen-bees ? Do you, Mr. Doolittle, know of any 

 that compares with it ? If you rear good queens by your 

 present method, you can rear much better ones by the one 

 given above. 



I have been accused of rearing queens by the nucleus 

 system. Does any man who rears queens thus see any 

 nucleus system in the above ? The first year I reared 

 queens, when I was not selling queens, I reared by the 

 nucleus system. Bear in mind, I only reared queens in three 

 days for amusement, and not for sale. I reared good queens, 

 all the same. Essex Co., Mass., May 14. 



Winter Ventilation and Porous Coverings- 

 Some "Whys" About Them. 



BV ARTHUR C. MILLBR. 



ON page 137, Mr. Hasty hesitates to give Mr. Holter- 

 mann's theories on porous coverings full endorsement. 

 Mr. Hasty does well to qualify his support, and I hope 

 to show that his doubt is well founded, and that Mr. Holter- 

 mann's theory is erroneous, not because it is his theory, for 

 it is not his alone, but because the truth is otherwise. 



During the winter, when bee-life is maintained at a 

 niinimun of exertion or visible activity, ventilation by fan- 

 ning is unnecessary, and is not resorted to except under 

 certain conditions, and then generally only at considerable 

 intervals. But the air is steadily and constantly changing 

 in the hive, whether the latter be a thin bos or a thick 

 chaff hive. This is due to two causes — the cooling of 

 warmed air, and the development of carbonic-acid gas. 



The normal temperature of the winter cluster of bees is 

 65 degrees F. The warmed air in and about this cluster 

 slowly rises, spreads out over the top of the chamber, chills, 

 settles and passes out the hive-entrance, other air drawing 

 in to take its place. 



Place a smoker containing a small and slow fire in 

 an empty hive, replace the cover, and we have a visible 



