1204 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



ful cell from which, in due course, I got a laying 

 queen, while in every instance the old queen was al- 

 so still there. I removed the young laying queens 

 and started another cell in each hive. I continued 

 this until the end of the season, leaving the last 

 young queen in the hive to winter together with 

 the old one, which latter would, however, always 

 be missing in spring. 



This method I practiced for three or four years; 

 but being unable in this way to get sufficient 

 queens three years old, I next tried it with two- 

 year-old ones, and then trouble began. In some 

 cases the cell was not accepted; in others the 

 newly hatched virgin would kill the laying queen; 

 and in others, again, the bees would kill the virgin 

 queen, and once in a while there would be a 

 swarm when the cell was sealed. I therefore 

 abandoned the idea of using two-year-old queens. 

 To save time I gave some of the colonies with 

 three-year-old queens from three to six cells each 

 to raise, and when these were sealed I removed 

 all but one, giving the spare cells in cell-protectors 

 to other like colonies, from which the young lay- 

 ing queen had just been removed. 



To save time still further I kept the spare cells, 

 after removal, in a super till within a day or two 

 of hatching, when I would use them as before; 

 but here, again, I was up against trouble, for the 

 newly hatched virgins were nearly always thrown 

 out or worried. Evidently the bees had not yet 

 become aware of the absence of the young laying 

 queen; for when I gave another cell, some days 

 after, the virgin would be accepted. 



Thus I continued till three years ago, when 1 

 succeeded in getting another queen fertilized in a 

 super above a queen-excluder and an upper en- 

 trance by putting a sealed protected cell in the 

 lower chamber containing the old queen, and 

 another one in the super containing some combs 

 of brood in all stages. Thus I got two young 

 laying queens at the same time from a hive hav- 

 ing a three-year-old queen, the old queen laying 

 all the time. To succeed, it is, however, neces- 

 sary that the colony be strong, and bees flying 

 freely from the upper entrance; for in a colony 

 of only moderate strength the virgin in the super 

 will worry at the excluder in an effort to get be- 

 low, and usually enter at the lower entrance when 

 returning from one of her flights. 



Two years ago, having some old queens to 

 spare which I wished to keep in reserve, I intro- 

 duced these in the supers of colonies with old 

 queens below the excluder, and next gave a cell 

 each below and above the honey-board, got a 

 young laying queen at top and bottom as I ex- 

 pected. 



In speaking of old queens I do not wish to be 

 understood as meaning useless and exhausted 

 queens, but those which at three or even four 

 years old are still of (and sometimes above) aver- 

 age prolificness. Old age in a queen is a quality, 

 not a defect. I kill many queens before they 

 are three years old, but never because of it. If 

 we kill all queens when two years old we can 

 not breed for the longevity of queens, and there- 

 fore of workers, which is such an important fac- 

 tor in honey-production. 



Another use for three-year-old queens, I find 

 in replacing inferior or undesirable queens, par- 

 ticularly at times when it is difficult to introduce 

 young laying queens, owing to robbing or cli- 



matic influences. I replace the condemned queen 

 with a three-year-old one and a week later give a 

 sealed cell. Within a fortnight I have two laying 

 queens. I then shift the old queen to another 

 colony for the same purpose, and so on. During 

 last season some of these old queens passed 

 through six and seven hives in succession, and 

 finally into nuclei. These old queens are always 

 readily accepted anywhere. 



For the purposes enumerated, I find the two- 

 queen system very useful and profitable; but for 

 the purpose of increasing the worker force and 

 the yield of honey it is not a success in my ex- 

 perience. Early in spring, even a poor queen 

 lays all the eggs the number of bees then in the 

 hive can attend to. Later on the amount of brood 

 raised is regulated more by the workers and the 

 conditions of pollen and honey supply than the 

 prolificness of the queen, provided the queen is 

 of average capacity. If she is not, it is better to 

 replace her than to give another queen to assist 

 her, because her drone progeny is undesirable for 

 breeding. Under unfavorable conditions queens 

 lay numberless eggs which are never utilized by 

 the bees. It is, however, possible that, under 

 certain conditions, two queens in a hive may pro- 

 duce better results than one. 



Tooberac, Aus. 



[When Mr. Beuhne was here he made the casual 

 remark that he could explain why it is that two 

 queens sometimes can not be maintained in a 

 hive, and why, under other conditions, they may 

 live in peace. Said he, " You must have con- 

 siderable difference in their ages before they will 

 work together. The old queen must be failing, 

 or at least three years old, before she will tolerate 

 a younger one by her side. Of course," said he, 

 " during the honey-flow, by use of perforated 

 zinc, two queens of the same age can be kept in 

 a hive; but after the harshest one of them will be 

 missing." In the case of mother and daughter 

 or of a young and a three-year-old queen there 

 seems to be a sort of notion in the colony that 

 the old queen will soon die, and whatever good 

 she may do in egg-laying is just that much to the 

 good. Apparently the young queen acquiesces 

 in it — at all events, the old queen sooner or later 

 disappears. 



If this teaching or this theory is correct, it may 

 explain a good many things in bee-hive economy 

 that have hitherto been a little hazy. 



But it seems Mr. Beuhne visited Dr. C. C. 

 Miller, and during the course of that visit they 

 discussed this very question. We will now let 

 the doctor tell what he thinks of it. — Ed.] 



THE EUCALYPTUS HONEY OF AUS- 

 TRALIA. 



Mating Queens from a Colony that is Su- 

 perseding an Old Queen. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



There are some bright bee-keepers in Austral- 

 ia, even if they do stand on their heads. I had 

 an interesting call lately from one of the foremost 

 — Mr. R. Beuhne. I had always pronounced 

 his name Bu-ny, thinking of him as an English- 

 man; but a lingering brogue betrays his foreign 



