THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



127 



f 



to test their egg-lay iug powers, color 

 and purity of the bees. 



Introducing cells or virgin queens at the 

 time a fertile queen is removed. 



Mr. G. M. Doolittle gets a sly dig 

 at us on the matter of introducing 

 queen cells or virgin queens at the time 

 a fertile queen is removed. 



Eead what Mr. D. says : 



A correspondent writes to me thus : 

 "Lately I have seen it stated that bees 

 never destroy queen-cells until after some 

 qneen has stiiiiii the embryo queens, after 

 which the workers will remove tlie dead 

 queens and tear down the cells ; also, th:'t 

 should a young queen emerge from a queen 

 cell placed in a colony having a fertile 

 queen, she would not be molested until 

 the reigning queen happened to meet her, 

 when the former would be dispatched. 

 Do you rind this to be the case?" 



In reply I will state that I have not 

 found such to be the case; and, further, I 

 stand ready to give the party who claims 

 such to be a fact, .$100 if he or she will 

 come into my apiary and demonstrate it, 

 for I would willingly pay that price to 

 know how to introduce a ripe queen-cell 

 or a just-hatched virgin queen to any col- 

 ony I so desired at the same time I took 

 away a laying queen. Even as good a bee- 

 keeper as Mis. Harrison cannot do it, if 

 we are to judge from what she writes, 

 when she says : 



'In my early days of beekeeping, I 

 used to read that wlien forming a nucleus 

 by taking two combs of bees and brood 

 and placing them in an empty hive where 

 I wished the nucleus to stand, I should 

 give them a sealed cell at once. Alter 

 trying it very many times, they have been 

 invariably destroyed, the bees building 

 queen-ceils to suit themselves from the 

 eggs and larvas which they had.' 



To say that Mrs. Harrison has jumped 

 at these conclusions, or has not had much 

 experience, is belittling one of our best 

 apiarists — one who stantls as high in the 

 ranks of beekeepers, as a careful, th^r- 

 ough, persistent, experimenter as any in 

 fraternity. No, this will not do. Bees 

 will destroy queen-cells where no queen 

 is present in the hive to sting the inmates 

 of the cells, as I have learned to my sor- 

 row. I do not say that they will sting the 

 embryo queen, for I have no evidence to 

 that efl'ect : but I have often opened hives 

 in which I placed queen-cells a few hours 

 before, to rind the bees biting away at the 

 cells, and dragging out the struggling in- 

 mate, if such inmate was far enough ad- 

 vanced to be about ready to hatch. 



I will not claim that bees will not 

 kill a virgin queen of any age if in- 

 troduced at the time a fertile queen' is 

 removed. We are continually remov- 

 ing queens to ship to customers and 

 introducing queen-cells at the time ; 

 that is, in the course of an liour after 

 the laying queen is removed. Have 

 often opened a hive in a few hours 

 after a fertile queen has been removed 

 and a cell inserted and found a newly 

 hatched queen running over the combs. 

 I never hesitate a mou^ent to insert a 

 cell at the time a queen is removed. 



Now, Mr. D., let me tell you how 

 you can save nearly all that hundred 

 dollars you offer. Just send some 

 friend here and let him spend one week 

 investigating the matter and let him 

 report result to you. If we do not 

 do all we claim in ninety cases out of 

 a hundred we will pay the $100 to 

 you. 



We claim that some things can be 

 done and are done in the Bay State 

 Apiary that cannot be done success- 

 fully in many other apiaries. We can 

 introduce a hundred virgin queens to 

 nuclei with tobacco smoke and not 

 lose one out of the lot. We will in- 

 troduce them just as fast as we can 

 handle the queens. Perhaps it will 

 require two minutes to introduce each 

 queen. Now, 1 do not wish to brag, 

 and do not, but Mr. D. cannot do 

 this thing, and we do not believe there 

 is another man in the world who can. 

 Now, Mr. D. can do some things we 

 cannot. For instance ! He can rear 

 queens by transferring larva or royal 

 jelly from one cell to another. We 

 cannot ; that is, don't suppose we can, 

 never tried it ; never shall try it. Don't 

 believe in the plan, though it is very 

 scientific, but most too far from na- 

 ture's way. We had rather do less 

 work and get better queens. We know 

 how to get queen-cells by the million ; 

 but cannot get a big lot of first-class 

 queens from cells when reared by the 

 million. Our aim is to see how good 

 queens can be reared, not how many 

 per colony. Our columns in each is- 



