THIS Rjmm^micR^ bee jqurnki<. 



2G1 



As soon as I am through witli such drones, I introduce a 

 Queen to the colouj% when the bees will destroy them at 

 once, if tVcdinj;- is withheld. I always feed a colony keep- 

 ing drones when honey is not coming in, for they need niueli 

 food to make them fly freely, and that is what we want them 

 to do, on every warm day at that season of the year. 



One other item tliat I wish to notice at some Icnglli, 

 liefore closing this chapter on drones, is this : From the 

 fact that worker bees can lay eggs that will hatch drones, 

 and that Virgin Queens can also lay eggs which will also 

 produce drones, the theory has obtained very largely among 

 bee-keepers, that the drones from a fertile Queen must of 

 necessity be of the same blood, as they would have been 

 had this Queen produced drones before she was fertilized. 

 In nearlj- every book written on bees, that I have read, where 

 this subject is touched upon, we liiid words to the effect that. 

 " a pure Queen, however mated, must produce a pure drone 

 of her own variety." Mr. Alley's "Queen-Rearing" is an 

 exception to this, I am hapjjy to note. 



Now I am not prepared to say how, nor wherein, the 

 drones are changed by the mating of the Queen ; but this I 

 do know, that drones are contaminated, to a certain extent, 

 by the mating of a Queen of one blood, with a drone of 

 another blood. Any one can prove this, for in four gener- 

 ations, by mating the Queen each time to these pure (?) 

 drones, a bee can be produced which no man can tell from 

 a hybrid. That this contamination does not show in the 

 first cross, is the reason, I believe, that the theory has been 

 accepted, by nearly all, as the truth. 



To illustrate : Take a pure black Queen, and after she 

 has mated with a tine, yellow Italian drone, let her rear all 

 of the drones produced in an apiary containing only black 

 bees. Of course, the drones from this Queen will all l)t' 

 black to look at, the same as they would have been had she 

 mated with a drone of the same blood as herself. Now 

 rear Queens in this apiary, from any of the pure black 

 mothers in it, and these young Queens will mate with the 

 drones from this mismated Queen. These young Queens 

 will apparently produce all black workers and drones, the 

 same as they would have done had these drones come from 

 a pure black mother, mated with a pure black drone ; Ijut 

 when we rear Queens from these young mothers, now aiul 

 then one will show a little yellow, which would not have 

 been seen, had not the drones from this mismated Queen 

 been the least bit i-ontaminated, To detect any slight con- 

 tamination of blood in our bees, we must always look to tlie 

 Queen progeny-, for the Queen is the typical bee of the 

 hive ; hence they will show an impurity where the workers 

 and drones would not. 



Now, take one of these j'ouiig Virgin Queens showing a 

 little yellow, and have her mated with a pure yellow Italian 

 drone — the same as was done with the first Queen. From 

 this one rear all of your drones again, while you rear Queens 

 from her mother, which young (Queens would be sisters to 

 the one now producing drones. Having one of these last 

 young Queens fertilized by the desired drones, next rear 

 Queens from her, and you will find that .some of these 

 (Queens will show (juite a little yellow on them ; yet so far 

 the drones and workers show little if any difference. 



Take one of the yellowest Queens from this last lot, and 

 have her mated with a yellow drone again, going over the 

 same process of mating as before, and you will get Queens 

 in this third generation, which will (many of them) bef|uite 

 yellow; while the workers and drones will show " yellow 

 blood" about them, by occasional " splotches" of that color. 



Now follow out the same line of breeding once more, and 

 j'ou will get both workers and drones, which any Queen- 

 breeder in the land will call hybrids — calling them rightly 

 so, too. These hybrids coidd not possibly come about Ijv 

 this wa}' of breeding, only as drones from a mismated Queen 

 are contaminated ; for so fur as we have used no drones 



except those which were pure black, according to the par- 

 thenogenesis theory, yet we have a hybrid bee as the result. 



Worker bees and drones do not sliow a little variation of 

 pm-ity, as much as does the Queen, hence if we would know 

 of the stock which we have, we must rear Queens from 

 them. Failing to do this, wo often decide that we have pure 

 drones for breeding purposes, because these same drones 

 look all right. 



If I have made this matter plain, and I think that I have, 

 it will be seen how much value it would be to the scientific 

 breeder of Queens, if he could select just the dnuie he 

 wanted, and then have a valuable Virgin Queen mated with 

 that drone. In this waj' we could accomplish as much in 

 securing the "coming bee," in two years, as we now 

 accomplish in a life-time. 



Let no one be longer deeiM\ed about ^)j<re drones from a 

 mismated Queen ; for if such drones are allowed to fly in 

 your yaril, you cannot expect any satisfactory degree of 

 puritj' from Queens reared tlierein. I have been forced to 

 this conclusion by many carefully-conducted experiments as 

 already described. 



THE INTRODUCTION OF QUEENS. 



Perhaps tliere is no one suljject connected with bee-keep- 

 ing that has received so much notice in our bee-papers and 

 elsewhere, as has the introduction of Queens ; yet all who 

 have read the methods and discussions given, must have 

 plainl}' seen that success does not always attend the efforts 

 in this direction. On the contrarj', many losses have been 

 reported, and these lo.sscs are not confined to the inexperi- 

 enced altogether, for we often hear of our most practical 

 apiai'ists occasionally losing a Queen. 



The reiison for so many losses, it seems to me, arises from 

 the fact that bee-keepers in gtnieral do not understand that 

 a discrimination should be made between Queens taken 

 from one hive and placed in another, and those which have 

 come long distances by nuiil or express. In introducing 

 Queens, it should always be borne in mind that a Queen 

 taken from one hive in the apiary, and introducing into 

 another, does not require one-half tlie care that must be 

 given to a Queen coming from a distance. The reason foi 

 this seems to be, that a Queen taken from a hive in the same 

 yard, is still heavy with eggs, and will not run around, 

 provoking the bees to chase her, as will a Queen after hav- 

 ing had a long journey. 



In introducing all ordinary Queens coming from my own 

 apiary, I generally adopt one of the two following ])lans : 

 The first is, to go to a nucleus or other hive from which I 

 \vi.sh to get a Queen, and when she is found, 1 take the 

 frame of brood she is on, bees and all, together with another 

 frame from the same hive, carrying them to the hive from 

 which I am to take the superannuated Queen, when they are 

 left with the Queen between the two combs, while I secure 

 llie poor Queen and dispose of her ; then I take out two 

 frames from this hive, and place the two frames, bnmght 

 from the nucleus, in their places, and close the hive. I now 

 shake off the bees from the two frames in front of their own 

 hive, carrying the combs to the nucleus ; or if the nucleus 

 will be too weak, I carry bees and all to it. 



The object in taking the two frames with the Queen, is so 

 tliat while waiting outside of the hive, she and the most of 

 the bees may cluster between them, thus becoming quiet. 

 When placed in the hive, both are put in together, thus 

 leaving the Queen quiet among her own bees. In this way 

 I do not lose one (iueen out of fifty, and as the operation is 

 so simplcand the Queen so quickly installed, the advantages 

 more than over-balance .so small a loss. 



The second plan, is to go to any nucleus and get the 

 voung Queen in a round wire-cloth cage (such as all bee- 

 keepers have in their apiaries) before looking for the Queen 

 to be superseded. After she is in the cage, I place her in 

 niv pocket, and close; the hive that 1 took her from, and 



