14 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



January. 



but we got our mouths full of the flavor. 

 Our only remedy is to get the Divis- 

 ion of Statistics, Department of Agri- 

 culture, to investigate and report the 

 honey crop. To get that done it is only 

 necessary to get congress to make a 

 larger appropriation for statistical pur- 

 poses. If every bee-keeper in the land 

 would write to his representative in con- 

 gress, also to both senators from his 

 state, there is little doubt as to the suc- 

 cess of the move. It should be stated 

 plainly that an increase is desired for 

 statistical work; and if special or local 

 reasons can be given, so much the bet- 

 ter. From Congressman Needham, 

 who resides in this county, I learn that 

 action should be prompt. 



Yours truly, 



W. A. H. Gilstrap. 



Swift River, Mass.. Dec. i8, 1901. 

 Editor "American Bee-Keeper." 



I have just received the book, "I^ife 

 of the Bee," which you have so kindly 

 sent me as a premium. I haven't read 

 it yet but have no doubt it will prove 

 very interesting. Thanking you for your 

 decision in my favor and wishing you 

 and all the readers of the American 

 Bee-Keeper a Merry Christmas and a 

 Happy and Prosperous New Year, I 

 remain as ever. 



Yours truly, 



A. E. Willcutt. 



RULES IN SWARMING, ETC. 



Wakeman, Ohio, Dec, 7, 1901. 

 Editor American Bee-Keeper: 



In beginners' lesson No. 4, in the 

 November Bee-Keeper, by F. G. Her- 

 man, he says, "when bees desire to 

 swarm they enlarge an ordinary work- 

 er-cell into a queen-cell and feed the 

 inmate royal jelly," etc., and that the 

 old queen makes vigorous efiforts to de- 

 stroy queen-cells that the bees have 

 built preparatory to swarming.. This 



may be orthodox teaching, but it is not 

 the way bees do in my location. 



I believe that in preparing to swarm 

 bees do not build queen-cells around 

 ordinary worker-cells containing young 

 larvae but form regular queen-cell cups, 

 that have previously been built for this 

 purpose, and which are always to be 

 found in every well rgeulated hive. The 

 egg is deposited in the queen-cells by 

 the queen whenever such cells are prop- 

 erly prepared by the bees to receive 

 them. 



I have seen the old queen pass freely 

 among queen-cells and could not see 

 any disposition on her part to destroy 

 them, nor could I see that there were 

 any guards there to keep her from 

 doing so if she wished. 



Post-constructed cells, or cells built 

 after the issuing of the first swarm are 

 always built around larvae in worker- 

 cells, because there is no queen to de- 

 posit the egg in a queen-cell. I know it 

 is claimed by some that the bees re- 

 move the egg from the worker-cell into 

 the queen-cell, but as such a thing has 

 not come under my observation during 

 my twenty-five years as a bee-keeper. I 

 must conclude that it is a rare occur- 

 rence. 



He says a colony may have only one 

 queen at a time. There are exceptions 

 to this rule as to many others, as in 

 case of supersedure there will often be 

 found the mather and her daughter 

 both working peacefully together until 

 death removes the aged queen. I have 

 known the old one to live more than six 

 months after the young queen began to 

 lay. I exhibited two such queens at our 

 county fair, both on the same comb. 



It is a common practice with those 

 who use the shallow brood chamber to 

 have two vigorous queens in the same 

 hive. In uniting weak swarms in the 

 spring I always use a queen excluder be- 

 tween the two shallow brood chambers. 



