1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



237 



FKLIT-BLOOMING TIME IN THE APIARY OF R. BEUHNE, TOOBORAC, VICT., AUSTRALIA. 



in bees early, then there is a surplus that can be 

 harvested. I am told by those who have taken 

 considerable of this honey that it is of fine body 

 and excellent quality. While we have the trees 

 growing on our place, and they are to be found 

 in the surrounding gardens, still there are not 

 enough of them to make any perceptible show- 

 ing in the increase of our honey-supply. 



The half-tone here shown was made from a 

 photograph of flowers grown on our place. The 

 variety is of an ornamental sort, but it is a rich 

 nectar-yielding kind, and blooms in mid-winter. 

 The bee-keeper who has an apiary located near 

 an orange-grove is to be considered fortunate. 

 He is well in line to have strong colonies for the 

 main harvest, even if he does not harvest a good- 

 ly quantity of " orange-blossom honey," a title 

 the fruit-canners conjured with a quarter of a cen- 

 tury ago when they placed a doubtful quality of 

 honey upon the market. 



Oakland, Cal. 



[While the orange-tree is not a prolific source 

 of nectar, it furnishes in some sections a very fine 

 honey. As a general thing it is hard to get a 

 strictly all-orange-blossom honey. — Ed.] 



SUPERANNUATED QUEENS. 



BY R. BEUHNE. 



In a Straw, October 15, last year. Dr. Miller 

 asks whether I meant that an old queen is more 

 readily accepted than a younger one. Yes, I did 

 mean it; but I am not sure now that I had suffi- 

 cient reasons. I have introduced these three- 

 year-old (jueens into colonies and nuclei within 

 a few hours of removing another cjueen, and al- 

 ways successfully. But when I corne to think of 

 it, I have lost only one laying ([ueen in introduc- 

 ing in three years, and that was when anotlier 



young laying iiueen was in the hive and I was 

 not aware of it; so it might not be due to old age 

 that they are readily accepted, but to the temper 

 of the bees. I don't think that suffering two 

 queens in a hive is due to any thing in the strain 

 of bees, for I have done exactly the same with 

 nonedescript bees which I bought, and after re- 

 moving their own queens and giving them three- 

 year olds, and a queen-cell next, I had two queens 

 in them before any of the worker bees of my 

 queens had hatched. 



Dr. Miller is not sure, page 1205, Oct. 1, 1908, 

 whether I practice mating queens from full colo- 

 nies with old queens only or from nuclei as well. 



Well, I do both. Up to a certain time in spring 

 any queen, almost, lays as many eggs as the bees 

 can raise. A little further on the workers could 

 raise more brood than the capacity of some of 

 the old queens will allow if she were not shifted 

 to a nucleus when or before that point is reached. 

 As I replace queens continually, regardless of 

 age if they are not up to standard, only the best 

 ever reach the age of three or over, and quite a 

 large percentage of these three-year-old queens 

 are as good as any queens in the apiary. These 

 I leave in full colonies, giving a cell and remov- 

 ing a young laying queen whenever possible, or 

 letting their colonies do the cell-raising. Those 

 which show signs of decreasing prolificness I 

 shift into nuclei after the young queen from a 

 cell given is laying. I had quite a number of 

 two-queen colonies this season, and a few with 

 three. Lately I have shifted nearly all the old 

 queens from these hives into nuclei from which 

 the (jueens had been removed to fill orders, and 

 could not be replaced by cells, owing to condi- 

 tions being unfavorable to queen-raising for a 

 time in consequence of a dearth of pollen. In 

 former years I used to have trouble with queen- 

 less nuclei getting robbed and virgin queens ball- 

 ed when hatching or being introduced about 



