DECEMBER 1, 1912 



759 



Conversations Avith Doolittle 



At Borodino, New York. 



FINDING BLACK QUEENS DURING A TIME 

 WHEN ROBBERS ARE BAD, 



On p. 454, August 1, 1911, I told how to 

 find a black or hybrid queen in the middle 

 of a bright sunshiny day, when the larger 

 part of the bees were out of the hive, by 

 sitting with one's back to the sun, so that 

 the bright sunlight would make it easy to 

 see the queen as the combs were carefully 

 raised from the hive and set in an empty 

 hive close by. I also emphasized the using 

 of caution so that the bees would not be 

 stampeded, which is generally the main 

 trouble in finding a queen, especially a black 

 one. After reading this, Mr. Crane wrote, 

 p. 615, Oct. 15, 1911: 



Hello, friend Doolittle I I want to know if you 

 can do that for an hour when no honey is coming 

 in, without music about your ears in the key of 

 seven sharps. Yet we have been finding them this 

 season for many days, sorting out the old or defec- 

 tive ones with great rapidity. We use a queen- 

 sieve, and are not troubled by robbing. 



The first thing that took my attention in 

 reading this was that friend Crane would 

 have the readers of Gleanings think that 

 he uses only black and hybrid queens. If 

 this is the case I wish to say that he is en- 

 tirely behind the times, especially in a 

 locality where European foul brood has a 

 foothold. All black and hybrid bees have 

 mostly "gone the way of all the earth" in 

 this locality through this disease, while the 

 Italians seem to be fully capable of con- 

 quering it. Bro. C, you had better get on 

 tile Italian band wagon with your depart- 

 ment in Gleanings. I did not write what 

 I did because I kept black or hybrid bees, 

 for I do not. I wrote it for beginners who 

 had started with such bees. 



The next thing to take my attention was 

 that the editor of one of the departments 

 in Gleanings should put off hunting out 

 his "old or defective" queens until a time 

 of scarcity of nectar had arrived in the fall. 

 That will do if one is sick at the time this 

 should be done; but to allow the beginner 

 to believe that a time of scarcity of nectar 

 is the best time to supersede old, poor, fail- 

 ing queens, is something hardly admissible 

 in the columns of a paper like Gleanings. 

 ^'ery poor queens should be superseded in 

 the time of fruit bloom, at which time 

 there is very little trouble in finding even a 

 black queen ; for at that time of the year, 

 a'nd in the middle of a good day, two-thirds 

 of the bees will be out after nectar. All 



not superseded at the time of fruit bloom 

 should be looked after during the closing 

 days of the white-honey harvest, as this 

 is the time nature seems to provide for 

 this work. I have found that success at- 

 tends almost every effort of the apiarist 

 along this line at this time; hence I have 

 used this time of the year for this work for 

 a quarter of a century. 



Now for Bro. Crane's question about 

 working an hour with black bees during a 

 time of scarcity of nectar without robbing 

 going on. This depends largely on who 

 has handled the apiary previously. If 

 carelessly handled so that the bees have 

 been angered, or if a greater carelessness 

 has allowed the bees to get a taste of stolen 

 sweets, then robbers and stings are almost 

 sure to result when trying to find queens 

 at such a time. As a matter of precaution, 

 all doors and windows to every building 

 containing honey should be carefully shut 

 and guarded ; and no one should allow him- 

 self to leave a section or frame of comb 

 standing around for a single minute. If an 

 apiarist has exercised the needed care along 

 these lines during the season, there will be 

 no trouble if the work of finding queens has 

 been put off, so that it must be done at 

 times of scarcity, where an em2:>ty hive or a 

 special box is used to set each frame in as 

 it is taken from the hive. I often work 

 from 10 A. M. to 2 p. m. without robbers or 

 stings at such times. The one thing that 

 should be impressed upon the mind of the 

 beginner in work of all kinds with the bees 

 is, carefulness in manipulation. Too many 

 go to work with a colony of bees as if 

 they were to tear a house or barn down. 

 Covers are jerked up and thrown down on 

 the ground, frames are hauled out with a 

 rush, without properly pushing the rest 

 away from them, so that the bees are rolled 

 over and mangled; and when the hive is 

 closed "the bones" creak and break when 

 doing this, without driving the bees away 

 from the joints of the hives. Not long ago 

 I visited an apiary where every joint at the 

 top of the hives and supers was "carpeted" 

 with dead bees which had been previously 

 crushed, and the snapping of "bones" when 

 the covers were ];ut on made me fairly 

 crawl. I protested, but was met with "My 

 time is worth more than a few bees." No, 

 friend Crane, black queens can not be found 

 at any time of the year under these condi- 

 tions, unless perehance your queen-sieve 

 will do it. 



