1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



763 



thousand might unload this way if it does un- 

 load; but in all of my observations it always 

 occurred to me that only enough for a meal 

 was taken by the young bees, and the field 

 bee would then deposit the rest in a cell. 



As to storing in the brood-chamber to be 

 transferred above, suppose the honey is 

 coming in at the rate of 12 to 15 lbs. a day, 

 the brood-frames are partly filled with hon- 

 ey, nearly all of whicn is capped, and the 

 rest solid full of brood in all stages — 

 from the egg just deposited to the mature 

 bees just gnawing out, and the queen is de- 

 positing eggs in every available cell nearly 

 as fast as the bees emerge therefrom, and 

 cells are cleaned and prepared to receive 

 them. Did you ever aslc yourself this ques- 

 tion, "Where could 12 to 15 lbs. of honey be 

 stored, in the brood-chamber?" No, sir. 

 The honey goes direct to the surplus-cham- 

 ber. I believe I have given this as much 

 thought and observation as any man living, 

 and have noticed thousands and thousands 

 of bees unloading with wings worn nearly 

 to fragments. Give us facts and queen-ex- 

 cluders. 



I would about as soon be without bees as 

 without excluders. While it is a fact that, 

 where excluders are not used, and the honey 

 is extracted while the brood is in all stages, 

 thousands of the larvae are also extracted, 

 and many of them mashed and contents 

 taken up in the honey. The quantity of mat- 

 ter is so small, comparatively, we do not see 

 it, neither do we taste it; but it is there just 

 the same Consumer, how do you want the 

 hone y you eat — in its purity or slightly mix- 

 ed with dead larvae? Give me mine stored 

 above the excluder. 



Hillsboro, Wis., Nov. 1. 



BREEDING STRONGER QUEENS. 



Grafting the Larvae Twice in Order to Se- 

 cure an Abundance of Royal Jelly. 



BY J. W. GEORGE. 



I will give something to your readers that 

 may be worth considering, especially the 

 queen-breeders. I don't claim to be the 

 originator of the idea, neither do I claim it 

 to be new; yet 1 have never seen it in print, 

 hence I think it will be new to some. Mr. 

 John Nekhert suggested the idea, and Mr. 

 Henry Perkins developed the practical sys- 

 tem. 



We know that, to develop the best queen, 

 she must have an abundance of food in a 

 strong colony of bees, and a poor queen 

 vice versa. It is an easy matter to get a strong 

 colony of bees; but to force them to feed the 

 royal larvae abundantly is not so easy — hence 

 the Nekhert-Perkins method. 



The plan is simple, but requires a little 

 more work than the ordinary method. It is 

 nothing more nor less than a double graft. 

 Mr. Perkins prepares his cell cups in the or 

 dinary way, and grafts just as if he intended 

 that graft to produce a queen. In about 

 forty hours (not more than that) he removes 



that larva and replaces it with a new one of 

 the proper age to produce a good queen; but 

 before placing the second graft in the cell 

 cup he takes a small square-end stick and 

 works the royal jelly down until the surface 

 is level, so that the small larva will not be 

 enveloped by the royal jelly from where the 

 largest graft was removed. He also trims 

 the cell cup to about the length it was at the 

 beginning. The result is that the cell is not 

 capped over until the larva reaches the prop- 

 er age, and by that time there is such an 

 abundance of royal jelly that the young 

 queen has all she can consume, and more. 

 Mr. Perkins claims, I think, that many of 

 our queens are not properly nurtured, for 

 the reason that royal jelly becomes so hard 

 (owing to the small quantity in the cell) that 

 the young queen can not absorb it, hence 

 she comes out half starved, and is only a 

 runt; whereas the queen from the double 

 graft leaves, when she hatches, a large lump 

 of white royal jelly which would be almost 

 fit to start another graft with. 



Several bee-men here have tried Mr. Per- 

 kins' plan, and are well pleased with re- 

 sults. The principle is good, and I know 

 Mr. Perkins to be one who thinks, and does 

 not jump at conclusions; and any one who 

 tries this method carefully will be well paid 

 for his effort, and will develop a better class 

 of queens than he ever had before. Some 

 lose a small part of the second graft. 



Imperial, Cal., Nov. 16. 



[Our readers will not forget that Mr. 

 George is one of the most extensive honey- 

 producers in the West. — Ed.] 



THE ORIGIN OF HONEY-DEW. 

 Not an Excretion. 



BY D. M. M'DONALD. 



[Most authorities regard honey-dew as a secretion 

 principally, instead of an excretion. Prof. H. A. Sur- 

 face, p. 623. Oct. 15, says that some of the plant-lice are 

 not provided with the cornicles, etc., through which 

 the sweet substance is secreted, and that from such in- 

 sects the honey-dew may be produced through the 

 vent. We assume from this that Professor Surface be- 

 lieves that most of the honey-dew is secreted. How- 

 ever, no less an authority than D. M. McDonald, the 

 noted Scotch writer and bee-keeper, denies that hon- 

 ey-dew is ever an excretion. Personally we hope that 

 this is true, for it is exceedingly revolting to one's na- 

 ture to think of eating a substance excreted by an in- 

 sect; and we are inclined to believe that entirely too 

 much prominence has been given to this phase of the 

 question. And when doctors disagree, is there any 

 reason why bee-keepers should ever refer to honey- 

 dew as being an excretion from plant-lice? 



Mr. McDonald's article on this question, in the Brit- 

 ish Bee Journal for Nov. 4, is so interesting, and shows 

 so clearly the source of the inky color which is noted 

 at times in honey-dew, that we give it herewith in full. 

 —Ed. J 



This bete noire of bee-keepers has been 

 very prevalent in this country, on the Conti- 

 nent, and in America during the past honey 

 season, and many an enthusiastic bee-keep- 

 er has had reason to curse its presence, 

 while others may have still further cause to 

 rue its contaminating influence before next 

 season opens. Assuredly, manifesting itself 

 in quantity in any hive will not tend to sue- 



