GLEAJSflNGS IN BEE CULTURE 



General Correspondence 



ECONOMY IN RAISING QUEENS 



Saving all the Brood from the Old Queen while 

 the New One is being Reared 



BY WILLIAM LOSSING 



If tlieie is a honey-flow in the locality, 

 any beekeeper can secnre a "bouncer" by 

 complying' with a few simple rules for rais- 

 ing queens, taking' into consideration ciual- 

 ity of cjueens and the least expenditure for 

 time. My plan is applicable to home yards 

 as well as to out "yards, and I have demon- 

 strated its practicability beyond a doubt. 



First divide a two-story hive, using an 

 extra bottom board for the purpose. Se- 

 lect all the sealed brood, adhering bees and 

 queen, place them in the upper story, leav- 

 ing the eggs and larv« in the lower story. 

 There will now be perhaps four frames of 

 brood in each story. Many Avorkers will 

 return to the old entrance, while enough 

 will remain Avitli the old queen to keep the 

 brood from chilling, especially with the 

 assistance of the heat from the lower story. 

 As fast as the brood hatches, the queen will 

 quickly deposit eggs in the vacant cells, 

 and by so doing nearly the full benefit of 

 the old queen is retained. At the same time 

 the eggs and larvae are being cared for by 

 the bees in the lower stoi'y which are also 

 building queen-cells. 



We will suppose that we are at an out- 

 yard fifteen miles from home, where honey 

 is coming in, drones flying, and prepara- 

 tions are being made for swarming. We 

 will go through the whole yard as above 

 outlined, taking three days, saj', for one 

 hundred colonies. All yearling queens are 

 in the upper stories, and nearly all the 

 fresh brood and eggs are in the lower story. 

 (Date each day's work.) In eight or ten 

 days we remove all queen-cells but one, that 

 being the best one in each hive. Perhaps 

 ten per cent of the colonies are poor cell- 

 builders, and in that case we destroy all of 

 them and insert a good cell from another 

 colony. The work is now done for the next 

 fifteen days. 



On returning, use very little smoke at 

 the entrance of both upper and lower sto- 

 ries ; remove the upper story ; raise the quilt 

 from the lower story; and if a young queen 

 is laying the bees will be seen in a whirling- 

 motion directly over where she happens to 

 b3 at that particular time. This sign is 

 visible for only an instant, and practiced 

 eyes will locate the queen immediately. 



About five per cent of the young queens 

 are lost in mating. When this occurs, on 



lifting the quilt the bees often commence 

 to hum very loudly, indicating that their 

 queen is lost. (This sign fails occasional- 

 ly.) If the bees are queenless, draw off two 

 combs of fresh brood and bees (not the 

 queen) from the upj)er story, changing 

 combs with the lower story. After going 

 through the whole yard we will say that 

 there are six queens lost. In each of the 

 six colonies two combs of fresh brood and 

 eggs have been su^^plied. 



Return to this yard in ten days, start at 

 number one, and go straight through the 

 whole yard, exchanging two combs of the 

 ripest brood that each old queen has for 

 (wo empty combs from the lower story mi- 

 nus the bees from each. After reducing 

 the old queen again, ten days after this the 

 colony with the young queen below will be 

 strong enough for supers. When this time 

 comes, do not delay, but put a super on 

 and put the upper stoi'y that contains the 

 old queen on top of it. 



Keep drawing the ripest brood from the 

 colony containing the old queen on top 

 from time to time till within twenty days 

 of the honey-flow. Now pinch the old 

 queen's head; cage the young queen, and 

 unite tlie bees. In due time release the 

 young queen. All the bees and eggs the old 

 fjueen produced have been saved, and there 

 is a prolific young queen in the hive that 

 will not swarm on the slightest provocation 

 as an old queen will, nor fail during a long 

 honey-flow. 



Phoenix, Ariz. 



[This plan re(juiies a locality where there 

 is quite a long period of warm weather be- 

 fore the main honey-flow. — Ed.] 



ENGLISH SPARROWS AS ENEMIES OF BEES 



BY A. J. WRIGHT, 



In the list of enemies to bees are toads, 

 snakes, dragonflies, bee-birds, skunks, moth- 

 worms, and domestic fowls. An experience 

 that I had two years ago convinced me that 

 the list is clearly incomijlete. At the time 

 mentioned I had a large queen order on 

 hand, and began early in the season to raise 

 queens in order to fill it. I had good suc- 

 cess in getting a nice lot of virgins hatched 

 and in tlie nucleus boxes; but when they 

 took their mating flight at least 75 per cent 

 failed to return. Another lot of virgins 

 met the same fate. I succeeded in filling 

 orders, but failed to raise enough queens to 

 requeen my own apiary, which I much de- 



