1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



361 



CONVERSATIONS WITH 

 DOOLITTLE 



AT Borodino, New York. 



SUPERSEDING OF QUEENS. 



"What are you doing with those boards 

 about the entrances to the hives, Mr. Doo- 

 httle? " 



" Fixing them so as to keep the grass down 

 in front until it is time to mow the bee-yard, 

 as it is getting so high that it tangles the bees 

 somewhat in their flight, especially those 

 coming home loaded with honey." 



"But why don't you cut the grass now? " 



"Because I would have to cut it aoain in a 

 week or ten days if I did. If you wul notice 

 you will see that the heads or blossoming 

 parts of these grasses are not yet high enough 

 so that they would be cut oft were I to mow 

 the yard now with a scythe, and for this rea- 

 son they would grow right along, the same 

 as if I had not cut the rest off, running right 

 up tall inside of ten days. If I wait till these 

 heads advance far enough to be cut with the 

 rest of the grass, that will end the matter 

 with one cutting for the season, unless we 

 have an unusually wet summer. When I 

 was more ambitious, and younger, I used to 

 use the lawn-mower; but as that took so 

 many repeated mowings during the season, I 

 gave it up and adopted the plan of mowing 

 once on account of savins so much extra 

 work which I did not feel able to do." 



" But say; the bees of three of my colonies 

 are trying to supersede their queens. How 

 do they know when to supersede? " 



"Well, you have fired a question at me 

 that I do not now remember having seen dis- 

 cussed in our bee-papers, so I have nothing 

 to work on except my own observations." 



"Those observations are just what I want 

 unless you wish to be noncommittal." 



"I am always willing to tell what I know 

 about bees. After a careful watching of all 

 cases of supersedure of queens which have 

 come under my notice, I am led to believe 

 that the bees, as a rule, supersede a queen 

 because she ceases to be as prolific as she 

 was. Especially is this the case where the 

 attempt is made to replace the old queen pre- 

 vious to swarming, or within a week or two 

 after a swarm has taken a new abode, say 

 during the first two weeks after the swarm 

 has been hived." 



"Then you think that the bees are such 

 close observers that they notice the number 

 of eggs their mother lays? " 



"I do not know that I should want to say 

 just that; but in all of the cases of supersecl- 

 ure which happened at the time spoken of, 

 the queens were failing, and soon died; in 

 nearly every case before, the young queens 

 began laying, so that I have felt I had posi- 

 tive evidence that the fewness of eggs laid 

 by the queen was the real reason wny she 

 was replaced." 



"But are not queens superseded at other 

 times of the year as well as during or near 

 the swarming season? " 



"Yes, later on in the season. However, 

 the evidence that the bees know at all times 

 what they are about is not so great as it 

 might be, and thus we have exceptions to 

 some of the rules regarding the workings of 

 our pets. At different times, during August 

 and the fore part of September, I have found 

 the bees bent on superseding their queens. 

 I will give you one instance as an illustration 

 of several. In this instance the bees were 

 determined to supersede one of my best 

 queens — one whicn I prized very much as a 

 breeder; so as fast as they got the queen- 

 cells sealed I removed them, hoping that 

 they would give up the idea. I used these 

 cells in nuclei up to about the first of Sep- 

 tember. While cutting out these sealed cells 

 one day I found a nice young queen which 

 had emerged from an unobserved queen-cell. 

 A friend who was with me noticed what a 

 beauty this young queen was, and offered me 

 $4.00 for the old queen, as he was willing to 

 take his chances with her. He was an api- 

 arist of considerable experience, and I 

 thought he would get his money's worth from 

 the queens he might rear from the few eggs 

 she would probably lay before she died, es- 

 pecially as I had explained the whole matter 

 to him, so I let him have her. He took her 

 home, succeeded in safely introducing her, 

 reared two batches of fine queens from her, 

 and, much to the surprise of both of us, his 

 bees did not try to supersede her that fall, 

 and she lived and did good work for two 

 years, so that he changed his whole apiary 

 over to stock of this kmd. This proved to 

 me that the bees do make mistakes some- 

 times in this matter of supersedure. He 

 used to chafe me occasionally about getting 

 one of my $10.00 queens for $4.00." 



"That was interesting, sure." 



"Yes, and there is another instance which 

 I recall, which shows a still worse blunder on 

 the part of the bees. One fall as I was pre- 

 paring the hives for winter I found two 

 queens in one of my colonies, the mother 

 having her wings clipped. They were left, 

 as I wished to see what the result would be. 

 In the spring both were there, and soon had 

 the hive full of brood. One day a man of 

 prominence in the scientific world called on 

 me, and I showed him the two queens, they 

 both happening to be on the same comb. 

 They were a great curiosity to him, and after 

 he went away he sent me a high price for 

 the colony, as he wished to study into the 

 matter. When I went to prepare them for 

 shipment I could find only the old queen in 

 the hive. After a short search in front of the 

 hive I found the young queen where the 

 bees had drawn her out after having killed 

 her. The old one failed soon after, and died; 

 but the bees made no effort to supersede 

 her." 



It is surprising to find so much wax going 

 to waste in so many apiaries. By all means 

 get a solar extractor, and save all bits of 

 combs and wax. It will pay you. Later get 

 a good wax-press and save this waste. 



New Braunfels, Tex. Louis Scroll. 



