1116 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. lo 



days old. It looks a little unreasonable, and pos- 

 sibly the case was a little exceptional. At any 

 rate, it is not hard to believe that bees do not en- 

 ter supers until after they are old enough to have 

 taken a flight. In that case, Mr. Editor, it is 

 easv to see that there should be no loss of young 

 bees when supers are piled up and covered with a 

 Miller escape. My strong point, however, is 

 that, if there is such loss, I ought to have noted 

 something of it in all these years. [We are pre- 

 pared to believe with evidence now in hand that 

 there will be no very young bees in the supers. 

 In a practical way, this means that when bee-es- 

 capes are applied on supers removed from the 

 hives, there will be no loss from the young bees 

 that can not fly back to their hives. If any one 

 knows that this is not orthodox, let him hold up 

 his hand and tell his story. — Ed.] 



The life of a worker in the busy season aver- 

 ages six weeks — perhaps less. Suppose we have a 

 colony of best stock and one of the poorest. Swap 

 the queens at the beginning of the honey harvest. 

 It looks reasonable that in six weeks or so the 

 colonies will swap qualities. But the observa- 

 tion of years has forced me to believe that the 

 change of character comes much more slowly 

 than I had believed. What the queen is up to 

 the beginning of the harvest seems to settle al- 

 most fully the result of the harvest, even if pro- 

 longed. I don't know why, but it seems to be 

 so; and yet sometimes the introduction of a 

 queen seems to change the character of a colony 

 within a few days. [Perhaps you are right; but 

 we do not see any scientific reason why. We 

 can readily see how the introduction of a young 

 queen to replace one that is failing might inspire 

 energy in a colony. But suppose there were two 

 colonies, both queens equally prolific. The 

 workers of one are energetic, and gather twice as 

 m ich honey as the workers of the other. Now, 

 would taking the queen out of the good colony 

 and putting her into the poor one make the bees 

 that are not her daughters good workers, like 

 those that she left in the other hive that were of 

 her own blood.? It is a rather interesting ques- 

 tion, and we should like to know if others have 

 observed the same thing. — Ed.] 



The old-time fiction of queens hatching ex- 

 actly at 16 days has cost more than one bee-keep- 

 er dear. Queens (especially hybrids) will hatch 

 out any time from the 14th to the 18th day, 

 Irish Bee Journal, page 32. In a full colony, 15 

 days is probably near the mark; in a nucleus, 

 longer. But no queen should ever be reared in 

 a colony so weak as to lengthen the time of hatch- 

 ing to 18 days. [The Irish Bee Journal may not 

 be far out of the way in this statement, although 

 we have not heard of many queens that emerge 

 from the cell in as short a time as 14 daysy";o;;/ 

 the time the eg^ is laid. In our queen-rearing yards 

 we graft the larvae when they are about 48 hours 

 old. Our Mr. Pritchard" thinks that he can* tell 

 very closely by examining the larvas just how 

 old they are, and he tries to use larvie which are 

 48 hours old so far as he is able to judge. As a 

 rule he does not distribute the ripe cells until ten 

 days from the time of grafting, and he finds that 



* Mr. P. reared 2000 queens for us the past season, and large 

 numbers of them in previous years. His habit of close observa- 

 iion and his extensive expetiments should count for something. 



the queens ordinarily emerge the day after. This 

 would make a total elapsed time just 16 days, 

 counting three days before the egg hatches, two 

 days before grafting, and eleven days after. There 

 are times, however, when he is obliged to distrib- 

 ute the ripe cells in only nine days, as the queens 

 begin coming out too soon. This would make 

 the total time fifteen days. We do not now re- 

 member a time when queens emerged from the 

 cells in fourteen days from the time the egg 

 was laid; and, although it might happen, we 

 think it would not be at all usual. Then, on 

 the other hand, if the weather conditions are not 

 right we find that the total time is as long as 

 seventeen days, and there might possibly be cases 

 where the queen would not come out until the 

 eighteenth day. We should say, in view of 

 these facts, that the time to be counted on ordi- 

 narily is sixteen days, although very often so lit- 

 tle time as fifteen days is taken or as long a time 

 as seventeen. See editorial elsewhere. — Ed.] 



Editorial 



By E. R. Root. 



THE SON-IN-LAW OF REV. L. L. LANGSTROTH AT 

 THE OHIO STATE FAIR. 



The publishers had an educational exhibit of 

 bees, honey, and bee-appliances at the State Fair. 

 Among the many visitors who came to pay their 

 respects was Mr. John W. Jamison, of Roxahell, 

 Ross Co., O. While Mr. Jamison is a promi- 

 nent agricultural writer, he will be better known 

 to the bee-keeping world when it is said that he 

 married the youngest daughter of Rev. L. L. 

 Langstroth. Her sister, Mrs. Anna M. Cowan, 

 the eldest daughter, died a few years ago, so that 

 Mrs. Jamison is the only survivor of the Lang- 

 stroth family. 



We are glad to say to her that her father's 

 great invention of a practical movable frame, and 

 his book, "Langstroth on the Honey-bee," have 

 placed almost all the modern bee-keepers <. f the 

 world under everlasting obligations to him. We 

 are sure we are voicing the sentiment of all of 

 them when v^e say we wish she may enjoy a long 

 life, and health long enough, at least, to see the 

 full fruition of her father's great work. 



THE SUBSCRIPTION-LIST OF THE AMERICAV BEE- 

 KEEPER PURCHASED BY THE AMERICAN BEE 

 JOURNAL. 



In our issue for Aug. 15, page 989, we referred 

 to the fact that the Atnerican Bee-keeper had sus- 

 pended publication, and we have since been ad- 

 vised that the American Bee Journal has acquired 

 the subscription-list and will fill out all unex- 

 pired subscriptions. 



In this connection, perhaps we should mention 

 the fact that the American Bee Journal has ad- 

 vanced its regular price from 50 cents to 75 cents 

 per year; three years for $2.00; five yeats for 

 $3.00. This change took place September 1, and 

 was made necessary, the publisher states, by the 

 increased cost of every thing that goes into a 

 periodical. A number of the popular dollar 

 magazines have advanced to $1.50. Some of the 



