THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



85 



pressiou will vaiiisli at once, when they 

 read these lines found there: " I raised 

 two frames of brood (mostly of larval 

 form) above, so as to get as large a 

 force of nurse bees about the prepared 

 cells as possible, to properly feed the 

 queen-larva. The jirepared frame was 

 placed between the two having brood 

 in them." Page sixty- four shows that 

 this brood is always present when 

 queens are being reared accoi'ding to 

 these words, " The cells are better 

 supplied with queen-food, where un- 

 sealed brood is placed in the upper 

 story every ten days — enough better 

 in my opinion, to pay for the extra 

 work." Elsewhere in the book I ex- 

 plain how feeding is always resorted 

 to when honey is not coming in plenti- 

 fully from the fields so that there is 

 never any " dry combs " in the upper 

 story, for the bees are always crowded 

 for room where I rear queens, so they 

 are only on combs containing honey 

 or brood. Having now explained the 

 matter, I think even Mr. Alley will 

 not be so greatly " puzzled " as he has 

 been because scores of people have 

 written me and others that they con- 

 sidered my book very " scientific." 

 Borodino^ N. Y. 



Fi-oin the above it appears that the articles on 

 queen-rearing' were written for the "Bee Hive" 

 in the latter part of 18SG, but Mr. Doolittle had 

 uot perfected Ills method of making; queen-cups 

 and getting them built out hy the bees, and till 

 June, 18S7, at which time he told his friend Bet- 

 singer of his new phins. We find notliing in the 

 al)ove article, or in Mr. Doolittle's book No. 2, to 

 warrant the belief tliat he ha<l developed a piac- 

 tical system of rearing queens above queen ex- 

 cluding honey-boards until the season of 1888, 

 and even this may be doubted, for his own exper- 

 iments carried out according to the directions in 

 his own book in the season of 1889 were dismal 

 failures. Now the question arises, if Mr. Doolit- 

 tle liiid reared "thous;inds" of queens above queen 

 excluders before his book was written, how did it 

 come about he had not developed a practical sys- 

 tem ? We all know he perfected a plan of rear- 

 ing queens after the book was written and tliat 

 additional pages, making connections and 

 giving new advice, were made to the second edi- 

 tion of the book. And it is just because of these 

 farts that the suspicion has arisen that Mr. Doo- 

 little had conceived ceitaiu plans that he de- 

 scribed in his book which had not been put to 



the test of trial. These plans were his method 

 of rearing queens above excluders and his meth- 

 od of getting queens fertilized in colonies where 

 there was a laying queen in the brood-chamber. 

 It must be iememl)ered that several writers had 

 written stiongly suggestive articles on the new 

 plans of rearing qneens during tlie fall of 18S8 

 and the early p.irt of the wintei-. Before this 

 time, if Mr. Doolittle had any new plan he wrote 

 not a word to indicate it, and is deserving of 

 none of the credit claimed in his book. The only 

 thing that may be said to be original in his book 

 is tlie way of preparing the artificial cell-cups 

 for the larvae. His plan of transplanting larvje 

 for queens is certainly not new. To Dr. Tinker 

 btlongs the honor of first jjractising this system 

 in queen-rearing. As he has now abandoned it 

 for the system given in "Thirty Years among the 

 Bees" very nearly the same, we presume he found 

 the system objectionable. If the system is such 

 a very "scientific" one we wonder why a man o* 

 the long experience of Dr. Tinker should aban - 

 don it. Perhaps the Doctor will tell us in the 

 I'API." It will i)robably turn out, as we suspect, 

 that first-class queens cannot be reared by the 

 plans recommended in Mr. Doolittle's book. — Ed.] 



"When to put the swarraer on the hive. 



Woodstoch, Vt. 

 Mr. Alley: 



1. At what time should the Swarmer be put on 

 the hive? and can the bees work just as well 

 with them on ? 



2. Will a c'olony of bees send out more than one 

 swarm ? 



I. H, FORMAN. 



1. The Swarmer should be put on 

 the hive just before a swarm is ex- 

 pected. A svvai'm need not be looked 

 for till the hive is full of bees, honey 

 and flowers abundant in the fields and 

 the weather hot. 



2. Yes, Sometimes as many as 

 five swarms will issue fioni one hive. 

 A man to whom I once sold an Italian 

 queen said the Italians beat all the 

 bees for swarming he ever saw. He 

 said his colony swarmed five swarms 

 one season ; tliree of them came off 

 in one hour, and he hived the lot. 

 Well, this is an unusual thing for 

 bees to do ; yet they often cast three 

 swarms in one season. Sometimes a 

 swarm will issue early in the season, 

 and I have known two others to come 

 from this one besides three colonies 

 from the parent stock. The first 

 swarm gets a good start and having 

 an old queen will send off another 

 swarm, and sometimes a second swarm. 



