300 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



CONVERSATIONS WITH 

 DOOLITTLE 



AT Borodino, New York 



HOW TO FIND A QUEEN, ETC. 



" I came over to-day to have a little talk with 

 you about queens. Do they often die at this 

 season of the year.-'" 



" I should not liice to say that queens die more 

 frequently in the spring than during the summer; 

 but when they do die at this time of the year it 

 is absolutely necessary that the bee-keeper know 

 it, else that colony will perish; for the bees which 

 have been wintered over, rapidly die off from the 

 work which now devolves upon them. 



"Can I tell by going in front of the hives which 

 have good queens and which have not?" 



" Outside diagnosis allows us to guess at the 

 matter of queenlessness somewhat by seeing the 

 bees listless about the entrance of such colonies 

 as have no queen; but to know for certain that 

 any colony is queenless, and much more to know 

 whether the queen in any colony is good or poor, 

 it is necessary to open the hive and look the 

 combs over. If, after pollen has been brought 

 in for a week or so, no eggs are found in the cells 

 of one or more combs, you may rest assured that 

 such a colony has no queen; or at least no queen 

 which is good for any thing." 



" But if I find eggs, how am I to know wheth- 

 er the queen is a good prolific one or not.'" 



" A good prolific queen lays her eggs in a com- 

 pact form, so that there will be brood in ninety- 

 five per cent of the cells in that space occupied 

 by the brood, so that we find each frame, which 

 has any brood in it, with the cells in the brood- 

 circle mainly filled with brood in some stage; 

 while a poor or failing queen scatters her brood 

 all about in the cell, so that, with a very poor 

 queen, half of them may have no brood at all, 

 and this scattered all about among the cells con- 

 taining brood. To be absolutely sure that any 

 colony has no queen, or is what we call queenless, 

 take a frame of comb having eggs and some lar- 

 va? in it, and put it ii the center of the suppos- 

 ed queenless colony, leaving it for three days. 

 If queenless, queen-cells will be formed over 

 some of the little larva?, while if no such cells are 

 started you can rest assured that the bees of that 

 colony have something which they are respecting 

 and keeping as a queen, and which must be found 

 and destroyed before a good one can be introduc- 

 ed. Many a bee-keeper has rushed his order off 

 to some queen-breeder for a queen for his queen- 

 less (?) colony, because he found no eggs in the 

 cells, only to lose his purchased queen because 

 he did not test the matter with some brood to 

 know of a surety by cells being, built that they 

 would accept a queen." 



" How can I find a queen.? I hunted half a 

 diy to find a queen in one of my colonies, and 

 did not find her then. You old bee-keepers tell 

 us to find a queen for this, that, and the other 

 purpose, as if it were as easy to find a queen among 

 forty thousand other bees as it would be to find 

 a black bean among a lot of white ones." 



" Well, in the first place don't use so much 

 smoke as to get the bees out of their normal con- 

 dition tlirouah the great excitemenf a lot of smoke 



gives. If you go carefully in opening the hive, 

 and use smoke only as it is necessary, even the 

 worst black bees can be handled without be- 

 coming demoralized. To the accustomed eye of 

 the practical apiarist, a prolific queen is almost 

 as easily found as the black bean you speak of, 

 especially if the bees are of the Italian race; but a 

 virgin queen, or any queen not good enough to 

 lay much or any, is often hard to find by the 

 expert. I will admit that much." 



"An old bee keeper told me that there was a 

 difference in the time of day when I looked. Is 

 there any thing in that.?" 



"The best time is when the bees are flying the 

 most freely, and this is generally about ten o'clock 

 on some bright warm morning when the most of 

 the old bees are in the field for honey or pollen. 

 Then you will want a light box with you the size 

 of the hive, or another hive-body, to secure the 

 best results." 



" Will it be any better to set the frames in such 

 when looking them over than to set them on the 

 ground as I did.?" 



"It will give you an advantage if you do not 

 find the queen the first time over the combs, and 

 is a great help at times when the bees are dispos- 

 ed to be poking around after honey that they 

 may steal. Open the hive carefully, smoking 

 just enough to keep the bees from flying and 

 stinging. Now sit on your stool, box, or an old 

 hive, with your bad- to the sun, so that the sun 

 will be shining down into the hive, as soon as one 

 or two frames are taken out. Take out the first 

 frame slowly, making sure that you do not hit it 

 against the hive or any thing else, so as to make 

 the bees nervous, thereby setting them to running 

 and stinging. When you have the first frame 

 out, look it over carefully; and if you do not see 

 the queen, set it in the box at the side furthest 

 from you. Now you are so you can see down 

 into the hive. On taking out another frame, 

 glance down the side of the next one in the hive, 

 when, if the queen is there, she will be easily seen 

 in the sunshine, and especially if she starts to go 

 around to the opposite or dark side of the comb, 

 which an unprolific or virgin queen is almost 

 sure to do. In thus running the sun shows the 

 sides of herabdomen, to the eyes looking oblique- 

 ly down, to much better advantage than could be 

 if the eyes were looking directly upon her back. 

 If you do not see her after looking two or three 

 seconds, look on the opposite side of the comb 

 you are holding in your hands, turning it to the 

 sun and looking obliquely as before; for nineteen 

 times out of t^renty she will be on one of these 

 dark sides of the comb. In this way keep on till 

 she is found or all the frames are taken from the 

 hive." 



" Suppose I have not found her." 



"Look the bees over that still adhere to the 

 sides of the hive; and if she is not with them, 

 which she is not likely to be if the bees have rot 

 been stampeded, begin to set the frames back 

 from ihe box, working and looking as you set 

 them back, in the same way you did in setting 

 out, and your chance is jast as good as when set- 

 ting from the hive, if the bees hare remained 

 quiet, as they will if you have worked rightly. I 

 find 29 queens out of 30 the first time over, often 

 on the second or third frame, and the 30th one 

 before the combs are back in the hive." 



