GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Conversations with Doolittle 



At Borodino, New York. 



PROLIFICNESS OF QUEENS VS. LONGEVITY 



OP BEES. 



" As I am a comparative beginner, and 

 much interested in the improvement of bees, 

 will you not write something for your de- 

 partment regarding prolific queens, for my 

 queens are disappointing in this respect?" 



" I am aware that a hive full of brood at 

 the right time of the year is a sight that en- 

 trances any apiarist; therefore prolificness 

 in queens is something almost invariably 

 desired, and that especially by beginners. 

 I remember well when I used to read with 

 wide-open eyes and mouth about certain 

 queens being able to keep ten Langstroth 

 frames full of brood for weeks and even 

 months at a time. As I had few, if any, 

 of which this could be said, I often thought 

 the bees I had were not what they should 

 be, which led me to buy queens of those 

 claiming to have the most prolific strain 

 in the world, but they were not much better. 



" At our bee conventions a third of a 

 century ago, in summing up the desirable 

 qualities of any race of bees, or of a queen, 

 prolificness was the quality almost always 

 put at the head of the list. But some of us 

 have changed our minds considerably since 

 then, and consider that there are other 

 points of more importance than great pro- 

 lificness. Some have even asserted that 

 great prolificness is often at the expense 

 of other desirable qualities. There are few 

 beekeepers who have not had it impressed 

 upon them that it is not always the most 

 prolific colony that gives the most surplus. 



" I now consider quality in bees more to 

 be desired than prolificness, for the more 

 bees of poor quality one has the worse off 

 he is. Some of our older heads are prone 

 to stick to the ideas of half a century ago ; 

 but there are few classes of men more anx- 

 ious to adopt progressive ideas and meth- 

 ods than are apiarists. But, no matter what 

 our ideas, the fact remains that the colony 

 of bees which gathers the largest surplus 

 during each season, and consumes the small- 

 est amount of this suri^lus in maintaining 

 a good healthy existence between and after 

 the houey-fiows, is the most profitable one, 

 and therefore the one to breed from. And 

 in order to set to work intelligently for the 

 improvement of stock to the highest stand- 

 ard of excellence, it is necessary to know 

 the qualities which stand first in the make- 

 up for fij-st-class honey-gatherers. 



" About twenty years ago thei'e were 

 daughters of a certain queen in my apiary 

 whose bees forged ahead of the rest of the 



colonies; but repeated examinations show- 

 ed that these queens were hardly up to the 

 average as brood-producers. In fact, with 

 the exception of one or two, six Langstroth 

 frames were the highest amount of brood 

 any of these gave. And I began to study 

 on this to find out the reason. I got up 

 early in the morning, mistrusting that I 

 would find them out at work while the colo- 

 nies with a greater amount of brood and 

 bees were asleep; but they did not get out 

 earlier in the morning, nor seem to do a 

 rushing business at any time, but just plod- 

 ded away with a steady piill all day, with 

 no seeming advantage along this line above 

 the other colonies in the apiary ; and this, 

 not for one week, one month, nor one year ; 

 but a continual keeping ahead as regards 

 the surplus produced, with fewer bees and 

 no longer hours of work. Six frames of 

 their brood seemed to give jvxst as good 

 results as eight or nine of other queens. 

 This seemed unaccountable to me till one 

 August a change of queens was necessary 

 in one of the hives. As the new queen 

 gave bees of a somewhat different color, and 

 change solved the mysteiy, for I found 

 many bees from the original queen busily at 

 work bringing in honey clear up to the 

 last of the following June. The longevity 

 of these bees saved the labor, the honey, 

 and the pollen necessarj^ to rear two or 

 three extra frames of brood reared by the 

 more prolific queens, and this saving served 

 to lengthen their time of service as field 

 workers. Then I found that for out-apiary 

 work, the small amount of brood for the 

 size of the hive (I use a ten-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive at the out-apiary) tended to 

 discourage swarming. This was a gain of 

 much value. Then less heat was required 

 to rear a smaller amount of brood in early 

 spring, and all tended toward longer life, 

 which longer life gave the increased yield 

 of surplus, and at less expense of bee force. 

 " After having found out some of the 

 qualities, at least, which made for first-class 

 honey-gatherers, I then set about working 

 along the line of getting these queens in a 

 way of putting the maximum number of 

 bees on the stage of action at the time of 

 the honey-flow or flows as they came in this 

 locality, and only a sufficient number at all 

 other times for a good healthy existence, as 

 I have told the readers of the bee papers 

 once or twice before. And this last is not 

 by any means the least, for herein lies one 

 of the gi'eatest gains possible to make along 

 the line of the improvement of any race." 



