158 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



lems as they present themselves as time ad- 

 vances. 



The address which I delivered on the sub- 

 ject of requeening and queen-rearing, after 

 embodying the many suggestions received 

 would read about as follows: 



The minds of the bee-keepers on the topic 

 of requeening are not agreed; but the gen- 

 eral opinion is that young queens are more 

 profitable than old ones. It is shown that 

 colonies rarely swarm with queens of the 

 same year's rearing — particularly so when 

 large brood -chambers are u-ed and honey- 

 seasons do not continue uninterruptedly till 

 late in the fall. Large brood chambers full 

 of large deep frames have a tendency to pro- 

 duce large quantities of bees, and these in 

 turn give us large honey-yields; but the 

 queens must be young and prolific. 



It would appear, then, that the matter of 

 requeening must be looked after by the api- 

 arist himself. It seems to be the opinion 

 that the bees themselves can not be depend- 

 ed upon to supersede queens timely, although 

 something might be done in the line of breed- 

 ing bees to perpetuate such a trait. 



This matter is not lost sight of in Germany 

 and Switzerland when selecting breeding- 

 stock. With our average stock of bees, when 

 nothing is done to renew the queens some 

 colonies will be found every year in every 

 large yard, which fail to breed up; and when 

 this happens at a time when strong breeding 

 is necessary to produce the bees for the har- 

 vest, our honey crop will be a failure from 

 such colonies. 



It will be cheaper, Mr. Taylor (of Michi- 

 gan) says, to keep a few more colonies of 

 bees to make good the loss from this source 

 than to renew a lot of queens every year. 



CHEAPER TO REQUEEN EVERY YEAR. 



Other bee-keepers think differently. In 

 fact, Mr. Olmstead, of Bloomfield, claimed 

 that it is much cheaper to requeen every year 

 in the spring by rearing the new queen in 

 the same colony containing the old one, not 

 removing the latter till the young one is lay- 

 ing, than to leave the matter to the bees and 

 be bothered with the swarming trouble, hold- 

 ing that the work of rearing the queens in 

 the very early part of the season is a great 

 deal less work than to watch and examine 

 each colony time and again for any swarm- 

 ing symptoms, and then deal with them ac- 

 cordingly. 



A more general practice is to rear queens 

 all along the working season and have them 

 mated in nucleus boxes, and then introduce 

 them where wanted, or wait till the close of 

 the white-honey harvest, and requeen by giv- 

 ing a ripe queen-cell after removing the old 

 queen. The former method is, of course, the 

 more costly one, as it means the breaking- 

 up of a few colonies of bees from which we 

 might have obtained a surplus. 



REQUEENING WITH NATURAL CELLS. 



On account of convenience, many bee-keep- 

 ers prefer to make use of their naturally 

 built queen-cells found in the populous colo- 

 nies of the yards Undoubtedly this is a safe 



plan, as the resulting- queens will be fine, 

 and free from the objection of having been 

 tampered with. 



THE ARTIFICIAL-CELL-CUP PLAN. 



Other bee-keepers make use of artificial 

 cell cups, stock them up with royal food, 

 and transfer larvse into them Our friends 

 in Germany call this a laborious method, 

 while I myself hold the opposite view. It is 

 the easiest way of obtaining the queen-cells 

 in such numbers as are required, and at a 

 time when needed. The pleasure derived 

 from this method, the joy and agreeable sur- 

 prise over the success crowning our efforts 

 along this line, can not be estimated by those 

 who never put themselves in touch with this 

 exceedingly interesting branch of apiculture. 



It would lead too far to describe minutely 

 the whole process. Works on queen-rearing 

 ought to be consulted. The government 

 bulletin, written by Dr. Phillips in 19u5, may 

 be had for little money, and explains matters 

 very plainly. The little book on queen-rear- 

 ing, by the Root Co., is very good. 



A PEW KINKS IN QUEEN-REARING. 



A few kinks may be mentioned here which 

 may not come amiss. Expensive implements 

 ana other auxiliaries offered by supply-deal- 

 ers are not necessary to insure success. The 

 dipped cells maybe fastened to movable bars 

 inserted in an empty brood-frame. If no 

 royal food is at hand, the larvae may be trans- 

 ferred without it. The bees will accept them 

 just the same; but I would advise removing 

 the thus transferred larvse the second day, 

 and make another graft. 



One of the very best and at the same time 

 simplest and cheapest instruments for taking 

 up larva?, without injuring either larva or 

 cell, is a common pin pushed with its point 

 into a small stick. This instrument has been 

 tested by Mr. Olmstead, and will take up the 

 smallest larva easily; and, again, the little 

 bee- baby can be dislodged from it without 

 any trouble. I think such a tool will facili- 

 tate the work, and, when known, will find 

 favor with all who practice grafting cells. 



DOES THE ARTIFICIAL METHOD TEND TO 

 DEGENERATION OF STOCK? 



I am entertaining the fear that, by follow- 

 ing up this system of rearing queens by graft- 

 ing larvfe, our stock of bees may deteriorate 

 or degenerate. I do not think that any harm 

 will come from practicing this method occa- 

 sionally; for, by thousands of years of na- 

 ture's breeding, the habits and the whole na- 

 ture of the bee have become so well fixed 

 that an accidental blunder or mistake on our 

 part will not be noticed. It's a sure preven- 

 tive of any degeneration. Mr. Olmstead has 

 suggested to select always such queens for 

 breeders as were reared naturally under the 

 swarming impulse, without interference of 

 man. 



MATING IN UPPER STORIES NOT A SUCCESS. 



So far I have not been able to make a suc- 

 cess of mating queens in upper stories over 

 an excluder so long as the old laying queen 

 was present in the lower story. I will take 



