1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1063 



F. R. BEUHNE WATCHING THE FLIGHT OF BEES AT A HIVE IN THE HOME YARD IN MEDINA. 



queen that may unexpectedly become queenless?" 

 "Yes. The two-queen system is very useful 

 in such cases; but the principal use to which I 

 put it, and which I consider very important, is 

 the raising and mating of young queens in strong 

 colonies with an old queen, the young laying 

 queen being removed whenever required, and a 

 queen- cell being inserted to repeat the operation; 

 but a virgin should not be in such a hive till at 

 least a week after the removal of the young lay- 

 ing queen. This is very important. The same 

 method may be practiced in nuclei. An old 

 queen continues to supply the eggs for brood 

 while queen-raising is going on." 



"We make that a practice in our queen-rear- 

 ing operations every season. In fact, supersed- 

 ure colonies are at a premium with us for rear- 

 ing a large number of fine cells, containing lar- 

 va? from our breeder. A queen just beginning 

 to fail is worth more to us for cell-building than 

 ayoung vigorous one that can take care of the 

 needs of a colony without a prospect of another 

 coming on." 



"Here too. There has been in my locality a 

 demand for even three-year-old queens, several 

 bee-keepers having obtained such from my apia- 

 ry for the purpose of introducing them to strong 

 colonies in which to raise queens under the su- 

 perseding impulse, as in the other case a week 



being allowed for the bees to become aware 

 of the change in queens." 



"How do you succeed, Mr. Beuhne, in getting 

 early drones from a si^lect breeder in sufficient 

 numbers so that all young queens in the early 

 spring will mate with these selected drones.?" 



"The only satisfactory way I know of is to in- 

 troduce those queens, from which we desire to 

 raise drones, to strong colonies of black bees dur- 

 ing the winter, having supplied such colonies 

 with the necessary drone comb in the right posi- 

 tion in the hive. As black bees will breed ear- 

 lier in the spring than Italians, we obtain our 

 choice drones much earlier than would be possi- 

 ble with even stimulative feeding." 



"We find that our Caucasians will breed a hun- 

 dred drones to the Italians one. Whether the 

 Caucasians would be the equal of the black bees 

 we could not say; but we believe that your sug- 

 gestion of putting choice Italian breeders into 

 stocks of bees of strains that will rear more drones 

 than Italians, and earlier than Italians, i? a good 

 one. Now, Mr. Beuhne, it has been observed 

 by bee-keepers of both continents and both hem- 

 ispheres, that, where Italians largely predom- 

 inate through selection in breeding, if the bees 

 are left to themselves, and if there is some black 

 blood in the locality, all the bees in th it locality 

 will sooner or Int t Jegen'Tate b;cl<. iiuo hybrids 



