98 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



I will again repeat that this is all theory^ I not } 

 yet having had a chance to put it into prac- 

 tice. I W(mld therefore not advise any one to 

 practice it on a large scale with valuable queens 

 at first. 



If, after trying it, it does not work satisfacto- 

 rily, just take your queens, cut off their siingn, 

 put them all together in a queenless colony, and 

 fit on your queen guage. Then if thty do not 

 want to dwell together in sisterly love, lei them 

 do the other thing ! 



Factoryville, Pa., Sept. 10, 1869. 



l! F. TiLLINGHAST. 



^W This matter of providing and preserving j 

 reserve queens has engaged the earnest atten- 

 tion of apiarians ever since the introduction of 

 movable coml) hives. Dzierzon early perceived 

 its importance, and devised various modes of 

 elFecling it ; and numerous expedients and ex- 

 periments have been sugt;ested or tried by others 

 also. But nothing altogether satisfactory, and 

 embracing the wiiole design, has yet been ac- 

 ccmiplished ; and the proposition of our corres- 

 pondent, we suspect, will be found to go no 

 further than just to reach the real difficulty. 



Queens, in any number may be readily raised ; 

 but it is not quite so easy to have them ad- 

 vnnced to a serviceable condition, and preserve 

 them thencetbrwavd so as to be at any time 

 available. Bees have comparatively little re- 

 gard for, and not much attachment to, virgin or 

 unfertilized queens ; and if such are caged and 

 confined amougihem, even in a populous colony 

 from which its queen has been removed, tiiey 

 will in most cases be gradually neglected and 

 soon die of starviition — though possibly one 

 among them nniy find favor and be nursed as 

 the pet of the community. We have quite re- 

 ceuil}^ known repeated instances wliere such 

 queens were allowed to perish, though the 

 work' rs to whose nursing they were consigned 

 had plentiful stores in comfortable quarters. 

 Hence we judge that the proposed queen-frnme 

 will prove to be of small service, if it be in- 

 teuded that yoting queens, still unfertilized, 

 shall be kept therein even temporarily. Again, 

 if the purpose be toconfineand preserve queens 

 already fertilized, other and m(jre convenient 

 modes of accomplisliing that may be and are 

 now employed ; and we have ourselves been 

 using a block cage somewhat similar. Such 

 queens, individually caged and placed among 

 the bees in a queenlcss colony, will always be 

 fed and well guarded by the workers — each 

 speedily attracting her own special corps of ad- 

 herents. Nor need the bees have access to the 

 queens within their cages : intercommunion 

 with their anenna; and probosces being a!] suf- 

 ficient. We have kept ihem thus for months, 

 five or six in one colony, suspended in their 

 cages, in a row, between two frames — taking 

 care the while to keep tlie colony well supplied 

 with honey and maturing brood. But if one 

 queen is left at large in such a hive or nucleus, 

 or is subsequently released, those in cages will 

 sooner or later be neglected and finally aban- 

 doned, or the bees and free queen swarm out. 



Theie is then no difficulty, more than ordi- 

 nary, in raising queens, having them fertilized, 



and preserving them during the summer, so as 

 to be always at command when required for 

 supplying artificial swarms or queenless colo- 

 nies. What is needed is some convenient and 

 safe mode of wintering such reserve queens, in 

 numbers, each caged separately, and the wbole 

 placed in one hive, so as to have them in readi- 

 ness in the ensuing spring for the exigencies of 

 the season. Witli ex^ra caie and trouble single 

 queens have been and are wutered in small 

 nucleus boxes. But that is too slow a process 

 for these days of railroad rapidity and tele- 

 graphic speed. What is needed is some simple 

 and efficient mode of doing it with a dozen or 

 more, ''at one operation." and with no greater 

 trouble than is now incui-red with one. — Ed. 



[For the American Bee Jouraal.] 



Notes from Central New York. 



The honey harvest for 1869 has been, in this 

 vicinity, a complete failure, owing to the cold 

 and wet weather of the whole honey season 

 from April to August. Nineteen colonies have 

 given me only three swarms and less than thirty 

 pounds of surplus hone3^ 



Italian colonies have shown a verj'- decided 

 superiority over the black bees, during this poor 

 season. They alone made any surplus honey, 

 while the black colonies had, up to September 

 1st, but little more than enough to support the 

 brood from day to day — some of them sliowing 

 not three pounds of honey in the whole hive. 



Brood has been abundant in all my hives, 

 throughout the season ; slill the colonies have 

 not seemed to increase in numbers, as they 

 usually do in gool seasons. More dead bees 

 have been seen lying around on the ground near 

 the hives and on the ncghboring walks, than 

 are usually noticed — not dead from disease, but 

 apparently worn out with unavailing labor. I 

 must confess to great dif^appointment, as I had 

 confidently expected, judging from past experi- 

 ence, to take ofi' from these nineteen stands, at 

 least twelve hundred pounds of box honey. 

 However, I hope for belter success next year. 



September 18, I had the pleasiue of visiting 

 the apiary of Mr. Langstroth, at Oxford, Ohio, 

 where I saw quite a number of his splendid 

 Italian queens— three of which I brought away 

 and have successfully iutroiuced iuto my own 

 apiary. Mr. L. also opened one stock of Egyp- 

 tian bees, without smoke or gloves, in my pres- 

 ence ; and I must say that the little beauties 

 behaved remarkably well, notwitlistanding the 

 bad reputation they have gained in Europe. To 

 be sure they seemed to stand on tiptoe a little, 

 with wings slightly expanded, ready to resent 

 any insult, but not one offi-rod to sting. The 

 workers and queens are handsomer than the 

 finest Italians I ever s-avv. I took home one 

 E.4yi)tian queen, just to try her. 



While examining stocks that day, we found 

 two insstanccs of two queens in one liive. In 

 the first case we found the old queen with 

 clipped wing, apparently in perfect order, with 

 eggs lu the comb she was upon ; and on the 



