632 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 4, 1900 



breed from. There are so many qualities to be consid- 

 ered — gentleness, prolificness, g-ood honey-gathering:, 

 color, and so on to the end of the chapter. One hardlv 

 knows what a queen is until it is time to supersede 

 her ; unless, indeed, you get hold of a queen like one 

 we bought last summer for breeding purposes, ami 

 had to ship her to an out-apiary so we could step out 

 of the back door, and the poor kittens could have a 

 chance to live in the back yard. Do you wonder that ^' 

 I put gentleness first in the list of good qualities ? 



But, " honor bright," as we used to say at school. 

 I believe that gentleness can be combined with all 

 other good qualities without detracting one iota from 

 any of them. 



Living, as we do, on the corner of a busy street 

 in a large city, and having our bees just a step from 

 the back door, we would naturally breed for gentle- 

 ness for our own convenience. But I know that we do 

 not eliminate other good qualities, as our queens fill 

 every available place in the brood-nest with eggs, 

 and the last honey-year we had we took off something 

 over 100 pounds to the colony, spring count. We have 

 very few swarms if plenty of room is given the bees 

 at the proper time. 



But to return: Most of our queen-rearing nuclei 

 are at home, and that fact affords us the opportunity 

 of selecting the best queens from the out-yards for 

 the home yard, and also of taking away any undesir- 

 able ones. We frequently make changes of this kind. 



The matter of drones, as you all know, is another 

 very important factor in the rearing of good queens. 

 A neighbor bee-keeper has a queen which produces 

 most beautiful drones, and we have secured several 

 combs of them from him this season. We like to get 

 good drones from another apiary, as it makes a direct 

 cross. 



In looking over the bee-papers one reads a multi- 

 plicity of ways of starting queen-cells, all of which 

 may be good. We use the cell-cup plan — the details 

 of which you are all familiar with — and start the cups 

 at intervals of two days. That gives time to get one 

 lot put away before the next lot is ready. I use very young 

 larva;, and expect the queens to hatch the 12th or 13th day 

 after the larva; are transferred. I also use royal jelly, as 

 that seems the surest way. I plan to look over the nuclei, 

 to see if the queens are out the 14th day ; as, if I go over 

 them the 13th, I am just about sure to find one or two which 

 are not out. I take the cells from the colony in which they 

 are built the 10th or 11th day. 



We use the 10-frame hive with a movable bee-proof par- 

 tition-board in the center, which gives room for a 4-frame 

 nucleus and division-board on each side. This plan has the 

 double advantage of saving room and hives, and also of 

 being able to throw the two nuclei together when one queen 

 or nucleus is sold in the early spring. A cover is necessary 

 directly over the frames, which may be of either canvas or 

 enameled cloth. For the winter covering we have a differ- 

 ent arrangement. 



It may sound strange to many of you when I speak of 

 saving room ; but as we are not fortunate enough to live on 

 a large farm, such as our worthy general manager so feel- 

 ingly describes in his song, it behooves us to economize 

 space whenever practicable. 



Believing, with one of our talented editors, that the 

 mission of a paper is to start discussion on a subject, not 

 exhaust it, I will close. Mrs. H. G. Acklin. 



Pres. Root — You have heard this paper ; it is now open 

 for discussion. 



R. L. Taylor — The writer says she has very little 

 swarming ; I would like to inquire whether she produces 

 comb honey or extracted ? 



Mrs. Acklin — Mostly extracted honey. 



Pres. Root — This is a very interesting paper, and as 

 most of you are probably honey-producers, you ought to be 

 interested in this subject of queen-rearing. I believe every 

 one should try to rear the bulk of his own queens. I can't 

 help feeling that many queens shipt thru the mail suffer 

 somewhat from the jolting and jarring they get. 



C. A. Hatch — I think the point of selecting drones one 

 that is well taken. In my own management of apiaries I 

 find that I can materially change the character of a whole 

 apiary by giving attention to the drones alone. It is a 

 well known fact by all breeders of stock that the progeny 

 rests more with the male than with the female, and I think 

 queen-breeders heretofore have been inclined to lay too 



rr*-H^- 



m 



Little Miss Ethel Aekliri with Queen-Cell Frame. 



much stress on the influence of the queen, and ignore the 

 male side of the progeny. 



Mr. Abbott — Excuse me, I want to offer some objections 

 to the president's statement about shipping queens. The 

 best " queen " that I have was reared for me in New York. 

 Her mother took care of her until she was about 21 ; I 

 think she did a better job than I could ! I don't believe in 

 everybody rearing his own queens ; I can get better queens 

 reared than I can rear myself. If you know how, it is best 

 to do it yourself ; if you don't, it is best to let the other 

 fellow do it. 



Dr. Mason — It seems to be exceedingly and uncomfort- 

 ably warm here for some of us boys; as the ladies are 

 allowed to wear shirt-waists, I suggest that those of us who 

 would like to do the same thing, just do it [taking off 

 his coat]. I want to say another thing : Every member of 

 this Association that has paid his dollar, whether to Mr. 

 Secor or to myself, is entitled to one of these badges free, 

 and I am going to suggest that no one be allowed to say a 

 word until he has a badge on. 



Pres. Root — That would be hard on a good many of us 

 here ; how are you going to know when they take off their 

 coats, that they haven't any badge? 



Mr. York — I would suggest that we have an intermis- 

 sion so that people can come forward and get badges ; per- 

 haps it is not their fault that they haven't them. 



Pres. Root — We will have such an intermission now for 

 about five or ten minutes, when we will take up this discus- 

 sion again. IContinued next week.] 



York's Honey Calendar for 1900 is a 16-page pamph- 

 let especially gotten up to create a demand for honey among 

 should-be consumers. The forepart was written by Dr. 

 C. C. Miller, and is devoted to general information concern- 

 ing honey. The latter part consists of recipes for use in 

 cooking and as a medicine. It will be found to be a very 

 effective helper in working up a hoine market for honey. 

 We furnish them, postpaid, at these prices : A sample 

 free ; 25 copies for 30 cents ; SO for SO cents ; 100 for 90 

 cents ; 2S0 for $2.00 ; 500 for $3.50. For 25 cents extra we 

 will print your name and address on the front page, when 

 ordering 100 or more copies at these prices. 



