Aug. 23, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



531 



Queen-Rearing — Some Things to Remember. 



BY G. M. noOLITTIvE. 



IT was with. more than usual interest I read what was said 

 by Dr. Miller and the editor, on pag-e 409, regarding 

 " Those Premium Dr. Miller Queens," for I have past 

 thru all those experiences myself, and, like Dr. Miller, can 

 truly say, " The chief culprit in the matter [queen-rearinf,'^! 

 is that all-prevailing-, all-pervading individual, the weather." 

 Yes, the weather has all to do with queen-rearing, and the 

 weather has been unusually bad all this season so far here in 

 central New York. But while this has been so, yet all 

 should understand, as do Dr. Miller and myself, that not 

 much headway can be made rearing queens north of lati- 

 tude 42 degrees before about June 1st. Knowing this, is 

 why I keep standing in my advertisement all the time, 

 " Queens in their season." By that word " season " is meant 

 the season of central New York ; yet many seem to think 

 that Dr. Miller, and other queen-breeders here at the North, 

 can " grind out " queens at pleasure during April and May, 

 no matter whether we have frozen ground, snow or frosts. 

 And when we tell them they will have to wait, a few are 

 unkind enough to write in " a most discourteous manner," 

 as Editor York tells us about. Others write jokingly, or 

 more often otherwise, if they can not come in just a little 

 ahead of some one else, on account of a queenless colony, 

 or something of the kind, and use such nice words, and ex- 

 press such a kind spirit, that one is almost persuaded to do 

 as they request, to please them. 



Dr. Miller well says, " Those sending in last are likely 

 to be among those expecting queens first. It should be re- 

 membered, however, that lime is an essential factor in the 

 rearing of queens, and when there is a large list those that 

 come at the last end should expect their queens in Septem- 

 ber rather than in June." Dr. Miller seems to have an 

 adaptability to " catching on " in a short time to what it 

 takes other persons years to find out. This is his first sea- 

 son, I believe, at queen-rearing as a business. However 

 that may be, there is an item connected with this matter 

 which he has not toucht upon, and one which is very im- 

 portant with those who have been in the business for years ; 

 also one which has a very important bearing regarding 

 early orders. That item is, orders carried over from the 

 previous season, and those which accumulate during the 

 winter and spring months, these very often amounting to 

 as many as can be turned ofi^ before the first to middle of 

 July. Of course, the ones carried over must come first, 

 then those received during November, December, January, 

 February, March, April and May, in their order. And so 

 it often comes about that an order received on the first of 

 June for a select tested queen can not possibly be filled 

 much before August. That factor — time — plays an espe- 

 cial part in queens of this class. 



Let us look at the matter for a moment so as to save 

 hard feelings all around. Suppose we start the cells for 

 those queens on the first day of June ; 11 to 12 days in the 

 cell form is the rule, so we count the latter ; 10 days from 

 emerging from the cell to laying ; 21 days from the time of 

 laying until the first worker-bee emerges from its cell, and 

 five days is short enough time in which to make the selec- 

 tion. Thus, we have 48 days later as the time to send out 

 the first queen of this class, or the 18th day of July. Yet 

 many seem to think such queens can be sent out promptly 

 to meet an order coming in May, say nothing about orders 

 being filled in rotation. 



I have written on this matter so that those purchasing 

 queens may use a little more patience and charity toward 

 the nearly " swampt-with-orders " queen-breeder, who is 

 doing his level best to get queens of the best grade out as 

 fast as possible to please his customers. 



Naturally-Built Comb vs. Comb Foundation. 



BY S. A. DKACON. 

 (Coatrnued frtim paffe 516.) 



OF course, I fully expect to be told that my arguments are 

 only of the specious kind, and that we are all very well 

 aware that the term " drawing out the foundation " is 

 merely 3.facon de purler, and is not intended to convey the 

 meaning that the bees elongate or extend the side-walls by 

 stretching them. . But I don't know so much about that, 

 and believe that seven bee-keepers out of ten are misled by 

 the expression into the belief that the bees have only to, 

 and do only, stretch the side-wajls out ; it disguises from 

 them the real truth, viz.: that the "thinning out " is a 

 laborious and time-consuming process, and during which 

 the scales of wax which the bees are all the time secreting, 

 fall unused to the ground, and thus causing many to over- 

 estimate the value of foundation to the bee-keeper. 



I hereby repeat — Mr. Dadant's objection to the expres- 

 sion notwithstanding — that it is "ridiculous nonsense" for 

 any maker of foundation to claim an advantage for that 

 having such heavy side-walls as necessitates no addition 

 from the bees in order to complete the comb ; for the heav- 

 ier the side-walls the more costly the foundation (buying 

 wax at SO cents worth only 25 !), and the more labor for the 

 bees to break down and " remodel," while, all the time, the 

 wax they are secreting is being wasted ! 



Mr. Dadant, by-the-by, says, in effect, that it is as 

 natural for the bees to secrete wax in a flow as it is for fed 

 stock to lay on fat. This (tho not stated in those exact 

 terms, yet distinctly implied) is equivalent to an admission 

 that while engaged in breaking down and remodeling the 

 foundation, the bees are secreting (and wasting) their own 

 wax. Here Mr. Dadant is at one with Mr. Simmins, tho he 

 won't admit it in as many words. But he is at variance, I 

 see, with Mr. E. T. Abbott, who says that " foundation 

 saves the time of the bees in secreting wax." Is Mr. Ab- 

 bott quite sure that while the bees are " remodeling " the 

 foundation they are not at the same time secreting wax ? 

 Has he, in accordance with Mr. Dadant's advice to myself, 

 experimented before writing ? Mr. Simmins has experi- 

 mented ; he is a notedly careful and observant experimen- 

 ter ; and he asserts, or at least with much reason assumes, 

 that the bees during a flow are secreting wax all the time, 

 and are prepared to give it to us free gratis, for nothing. 

 But no, we prefer furnishing them with foundation at SO 

 cents per pound and allowing them to drop their own wax 

 on the floor-board, or outside, thus adding the market value 

 of the honey consumed by the bees in making this lost wax 

 (say 40 cents) to the cost of every pound of embost wax we 

 so extravagantly purchase for them ! There is more in this 

 matter of naturally built comb vs. foundation than at first 

 sight appears ; and it would be interesting to know the re- 

 sult of experiments made at Lapeer, Mich., along this line. 



Mr. Dadant says, or implies, that only by the use of 

 foundation can we hope to secure straight combs. Now, 

 this means using full sheets, and for the practical honey- 

 producer the times won't run to it. Personally, I find I get 

 perfectly straight combs built from starters, built, too, on 

 wired frames, and it is very seldom that the bees do not in- 

 clude the wires right in the septum ; and even tho they 

 should be now and then a trifle out, and not exactly "as level 

 as a board," what does it matter? They are good enough 

 for all practical purposes, and times are too hard to humor 

 the eye at the cost of the pocket. 



On page 719 (1897) we find Rev. Mahin and Mr. J. E. 

 Pond both favoring full sheets in sections in order, as they 

 say, to secure straight combs. But Mr. Secor very sensi- 

 bly remarks, on the same page, that straight combs are not 

 so much the result of using full sheets as of using separa- 



