18 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



had 32 combs in the hive, she had brood 

 in every one of them. 



We did not have the queen-excluding 

 metal at that time, so I had to allow 

 this two-year-old queen to do about as 

 she pleased in the matter of egg-laying, 

 and imagine my surprise to find, as I 

 kept the honey out of her way with the 

 extractor, that she kept brood in those 

 combs for about two months, having at 

 least to the amount of 15 combs solid 

 full of brood. This would give 86,250 

 eggs every 21 days, as a Gallup frame 

 has 115 square inches, or thereabouts, 

 in it. As this rate was kept up for 

 about 63 days, we have nearly 259,000 

 as the product of those two months, 

 even after she had laid nearly 500,000 

 while in the small hives the two seasons 

 previous. 



The bees that worked in and out of 

 the entrance of this hive during the 

 basswood yield were a sight to behold, 

 for it seemed like a surging army going 

 and coming all the while. For the bene- 

 fit of the readers who did not take the 

 American Bee Journal at that time, I 

 will say that this colony gave me a yield 

 of 566 pounds of honey that year, while 

 the queen died of old age, or was super- 

 seded during the month of September. 



My queens average good and prolific 

 in my small brood-chambers for three 

 years, some doing good work in their 

 fifth year ; but as a few will fail in their 

 third year, we will call it only three 

 years that they will keep up the rate 

 of egg-laying spoken of above. This 

 would give us about 729,000 as the 

 capacity of a good queen du.ing her life- 

 time, on an average, instead of 200,000 

 as given by the writers quoted. 



If I am correct, and I believe I am, 

 from many experiments conducted along 

 this line, it will be seen that, if a queen 

 laid only 100,000 eggs a year, she 

 should be good for seven years. Then 

 we see the extreme folly in the recom- 

 mendation to supersede all queens dur- 

 ing the fall of the second year of their 

 life! 



Again, we find in a noted work on 

 apiculture the author saying that a good 

 queen will lay 3,000 eggs daily during 

 the breeding season, which is correct 

 where the ordinary brood-c^hambcsr is 

 used ; but when the same author dis- 

 courses on the number of bees in a hive, 

 he says there are from 20,000 to 40,- 

 000 in every good colony, and places 

 their age at three months. Now, if I 

 figure correctly, three months make 90 

 days, and 3,000 times 90 would give 

 270,000 bees in that colony, barring 

 accidents, Instead of from 20,000 to 



40,000. It is very doubtful whether 

 there is ever as many as 270,000 in any 

 hive, for the good reason that no queen 

 keeps laying to her full capacity for 

 three months, and as a rule bees during 

 the working season do not live more than 

 six weeks, instead of three months. 



V7HEN TO SUPERSEDE QUEENS. 



If I were asked, "When would you 

 supersede your queens ?" I should reply, 

 " Never, as a rule ;" for I find that with 

 the Italian bees they supersede their 

 queens as soon as they begin to fail to 

 any noticeable amount. 



I think it is Bro. B. Taylor who tells 

 us about marking a hive as having a 

 failing queen that was to be superseded 

 by him in the fall, which, in spite of his 

 carelessness, managed to get through to 

 the next season, and very much to his 

 surprise the colony having that queen 

 proved the best one for honey of any 

 colony in the whole apiary. And this is 

 about the way we usually find it when 

 we take the supersedure of queens in 

 our hands instead of leaving it to the 

 bees. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



SUpBiiiff Queens liy Mail. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY EDWARD RYE. 



I see the question is discussed in the 

 Bee Journal, as to whether a queen is 

 injured in transit by the mails. Now as 

 I have been fortunate enough to get one 

 alive from Mr. A. I. Root, of Ohio, U. 

 S. A., I deem I am qualified to say a 

 word on the question ; and I must coin- 

 cide with the opinion that they are not 

 injured. 



In August of last year my queen came 

 to hand. She was in an oblong cage 

 about 5x3 inches, with four candy holes 

 at the corners ; two of these holes were 

 quite empty, and partly filled with 

 dead bees ; the other two were half 

 empty, and the entrances were clogged 

 with dead bees. Only four bees were 

 alive besides the queen, just crawling. 



The queen was stiicfe "upside down" 

 — her head touching the bottom of the 

 cage — by both wings to the candy when 

 she arrived, and was only just alive. I 

 took her out of the cage, put her in tiie 

 hollow of my hand, and closed the other 

 hand over her, and held the back of my 

 hands alternately to the fire, when she 

 "came to," and in 15 miniites she be- 



