430 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



S. E. KLEIN S APIARY, INDIANA, PA. — SEE NEXT PAGE. 



raised during basswood bloom than any oth- 

 er season except it might be a supersedure 

 queen at almost any time. I also much pre- 

 fer swarming-cells to any artificial kind. 



I have bought but two good queens in my 

 life, and can not say for sure that they were 

 both good, as the bees superseded one of 

 them the same season; but the daughter of 

 that one, mated to a drone from the stock of 

 the other, making a red-clover golden cross, 

 was the best queen ever in my yard. She 

 was the early bird every time. Her bees fill- 

 ed five supers of extracting-combs during 

 apple bloom in 1906, weighing 90 lbs., and 

 cast a large swai-m, and three supers in 1907, 

 when she would have been four years old in 

 August; but she was missing in June, and the 

 bees raised a new one from the brood. I 

 have raised a few queens from her, and they 

 are very fair; but not one of them can come 

 up to her. 



I have also a queen received as a premium 

 in 1904 that I have relied on for my breeding- 

 queen because of the gentleness of her bees; 

 but in very few cases do her daughters pro- 

 duce extra-gentle bees; but she made a hon- 

 ey record the next season after I got her, 

 and has never swarmed, and I have more 

 than fifty of her daughters in my yard. I 

 produce nearly all extracted honey, and her 

 stock nearly all cap their honey greasy, so it 



is readily seen they are hustlers. But my 

 point is this: A queen raised in a full colony 

 from the egg, without hurry, and only two 

 or three cells allowed, and raised during 

 basswood, will give you something that is 

 worth money, even if they never had a ped- 

 igree. I prefer, though, to breed from pure 

 blood on the mother's side, and let the queens 

 mate as may happen The main reason why 

 I prefer Italian to the blacks is the ease in 

 finding queens, as I use a queen only two 

 years unless she is extra good, and only one 

 if she proves in any way slow. 



Another reason is, I have no wax-moths 

 or worms in my combs. Since I have had 

 no queens except pure Italian, no matter how 

 mated, I have never had to fumigate a comb, 

 and can leave empty combs around very 

 carelessly all summer, and they will not be 

 seriously damaged. I can keep queenless 

 colonies all summer by giving brood to keep 

 them stocked, and the worms do not do any 

 harm. 



Alexander's method is of no use to me, be- 

 cause I want an early brooder to get the ap- 

 ple-blossom honey, while his surplus comes 

 in August, when my bees have nothing to do 

 but bother the berry-pickers. 



If I could not get the apple-blossom honey 

 I would not keep bees in this locality for all 

 there is to be had the rest of the season. 



