796 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



General Correspondence 



MILLER VERSUS MILLER 



In Re Virgins' Eggs and Larvae 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER 



So I am a " trouble-maker " according to 

 Dr. Miller (Straws, Nov. 15). Very sorry, 

 doctor, but it isn't my fault. Now listen ! 



Two to five per cent loss of young queens 

 is about normal, and such loss is party trace- 

 able to toads, spiders, and birds. Anyhow, 

 when not over five per cent are missing, the 

 subject calls for no special notice ; but when 

 it goes above five per cent there is some- 

 thing wrong in the system. When it jumps 

 up to forty-seven per cent following the 

 addition of eggs and larvce to the nuclei 

 from which the queens are mated, it is high 

 time to be taking a look around. And that 

 was your loss, doctor. 



You say, " For years it has been consid- 

 ered the proper thing to give young brood 

 to a nucleus with a virgin to make her lay 

 sooner." I don't want my virgins to lay ; 

 but, seriously, that quoted sentence gives 

 the clue to the reason for the addition of 

 brood as stated, not always causing the dis- 

 appearance of the young queen ; i. e., she 

 is not a virgin. When she has been there 

 so long that the beekeeper becomes imj^a- 

 tient at her not laying, and, to hasten mat- 

 ters, he adds young brood, and then laying 

 occurs soon after, it is a i^retty safe guess 

 that the young queen was mated before any 

 brood was added. 



My error, doctor, was using the phrase, 

 " almost invariably." That is, perhaps, too 

 strong unless it happily results in stirring 

 others, as it stirred you, to investigate. But 

 deducting from your forty-seven per cent 

 loss the average normal loss of five per 

 cent, we have a loss of forty-two per cent 

 — a loss too high to be tolerated. 



You may ask, " If it were due to the 

 addition of eggs and larvfe, why did not the 

 queens disappear from the other nuclei?" 

 To use your own phrase, " I don't knoAv." 

 But I make the following suggestions: 



Some of the young queens were perhaps 

 mated, or on their mating flight, or some of 

 the combs added may not have had eggs as 

 well as young larvae. 



Henry Alley, who perhaps raised as many 

 queens in his life as any one has, told me \ 

 couple of years before his death that, un- 

 less he waited three days after removing a 

 laying queen before running in a virgin, 

 the percentage of young queens "missing" 

 was so great that he could not afford to in- 

 troduce them before that time had elapsed. 



The three days allowed time for all the eggs 

 to hatch. 



I said eggs and young larvae, because 

 combs containing only old larvae and sealed 

 brood may be added without causing the 

 disapjDearance of the young queens. Not 

 having experimented with comb containing 

 eggs only (for such would be of no help to 

 the nucleus) I can not say what effect they 

 would have. 



A strong nucleus does not need strength- 

 ening, and a weak one can not properly 

 care for a full sheet of sealed brood; hence 

 it will be found that the experienced bee- 

 keeper will select combs containing only a 

 small area of brood, and such combs in the 

 queen-rearing season usually have eggs and 

 larvae as well as sealed brood. In other 

 words, where young larvae are present, eggs 

 also are usually pi'esent. The presence of 

 eggs and larvae bespeaks to the bees the 

 presence of a laying queen, and probably 

 it conveys the same information to the vir- 

 gin, and the normal reaction follows. 



Now, if you please, doctor, I will turn 

 ray attention to E. R. He is sitting as 

 judge, but I will make him co-defendant. 



A man who has to hustle at queen-raising 

 as Mr. Pritchard has to. has not much time 

 for experimenting or keeping careful tabs 

 on all of his operations. E. R. says of him: 

 *• Indeed, he makes it a practice to give 

 colonies with virgins young brood." I ven- 

 ture to assert that that treatment is too 

 strong. Treatment of nuclei on that basis 

 is not only unnecessary, but would be so 

 expensive that no queen-breeder could prof- 

 itably continue it. 



Now, doctor, you and Mr. Pritchard and 

 E. R. note this : Some time ago they gave 

 up the baby nuclei in twin mating-boxes, 

 stating that the trouble of maintaining them 

 in normal condition, and the loss of queens, 

 was so great that they could not profitably 

 continue them. And baby nuclei have to be 

 frequently strengthened, as you know, and 

 it is usually done (and taught) by adding 

 brood, but not " in this locality." 



Now, doctor, let us watch them explain, 

 asking them first to make careful experi- 

 ments on a hundred or so cases. 



And if you and E. R. please, I beg to 

 amend my statement from " almost invari- 

 ably " to this : The addition of eggs and 

 larvae to the nuclei containing virgins is 

 followed in such a large number of cases 

 by the disappearance of the virgins that 

 the practice should be discouraged. 



Providence, R. I., Nov. 26. 



[See editorial.] 



