174 



THE AMI^llCAN BEE JOUHNAL. 



[For the American Ijco Journal.] 



Experience in Italianizing. 



By Anotheh Novice. — No. 1. 



JiIk. Editok : By request of a bee frieucl I 

 jiropose (if it will not crowd out more valuable 

 nuitlcr from the Jouhkal), to write part of my 

 experience in Italianizing. After having gone 

 through a series of dear-bought experiments, and 

 being now able to manage bees juccessfully and 

 with ease, I pretend to be nothing more than a 

 novice still. 



I think it the duty of all those engaged in the 

 business, to communicate to the Journal, the 

 results of the most interesting and scientific 

 part of their experience. By so doing they may 

 facilitate advance in a fascinating branch of 

 rural economy, and thus make it easy for thou- 

 sands of families otherwise favorably situated 

 to manage bees with ease and success. 



I begin with the finding of the queen. By 

 the way, I can now find a queen with ease, in 

 fi-om three to fifteen minutes, with but few ex- 

 ceptions. But mj^ first attempt was long, ludi- 

 crous, and somewhat singular. Yet, if my ex- 

 perience was valuable to myself, it ought to be 

 still more so to beginners ; and I hope it may be 

 the means of saving thousands from a lilte 

 misliaj). 



In July, 18G6, I received notice from Mr. 

 Quinby that the two queens, which I had order- 

 ed for myself and a friend would be shipped on 

 the 18th. Intending to introduce on the ten 

 days' system, I went at once to remove the old 

 queens, so as to be ready to introduce on the ar- 

 rival of the queens. 



On Saturday afternoon, I began my search for 

 the queen. Having never hunted for one before, 

 I felt it a very hard task, as the reader will soon 

 see. I had previously carefully consulted Quin- 

 by and Langstroth, so as to facilitate the under- 

 taking. But a singular oecurrence took place, 

 which I am 5'et miable to account for, and which 

 was the cause of all the trouble ; and the loss, 

 moreover, of the queen which cost $7.50, inclu- 

 ding express «hurges. I searched carefully a 

 frame at a time, spending almost ten minutes 

 on a single frame ; then set them in an empt}' 

 hive to keep out robbers, spreading a cloth over. 

 I may state, in passing, that I used Quinby's 

 Improvement of the Langstroth hive, with eight 

 frames. I noticed a cluster of bees on the bot- 

 tom board, about the size of & dollar. Suppo- 

 feing it to contain the queen, I lifted it out on 

 my hand, disengaged the bees, and found a real 

 qiven ; but she was just alive, and died in a fcAV 

 minutes. Her abdomen had shrunk up, so as to 

 makv. me doubt whether she was a queen ; 

 though otherwise, she was just the size and 

 shape v")f a queen. I had seen and handled a 

 great many before. The bees clinging to her 

 aslcanied her to the shop, confirmed nic in 

 the opinion that I had the queen. Being satis- 

 fied, I then gave up all further search. 



The following Moudaj^ I went to help my 

 friend remove liis queen, and found her after a 

 long search of near 2^ hours. Upon comparing 



her with my dead ([ueen, v.^e concluded that 

 niine was not a queen — hc-r abdomen being a 

 good deal .".liorter I engaged him to come next 

 morning and help me to hvmt my queen. He 

 came, bringing his dead queen Avith him, she 

 having died tlie night previous from exposui'e. 

 Upon comparing her with mine, they were ex- 

 actly the same size, the abdomen of his having 

 drawn up in death precisely like mine — further 

 search was given up, being satisfied I had the 

 queen. 



The following Saturday the Italian qecns ar- 

 rived all riglit. In the afternoon, just eight 

 days from the removal of the supposed queen, 

 I went to look up and remove the queen cells, 

 in order to introduce. But, to my surprise, not 

 a queen cell could be found. I never felt more 

 bothered what to do. Should I hunt for a queen 

 when there was none ? Or was there i-eally a 

 queen in tlie hive ? Did thej' have two ? I 

 spread a cloth over, to keep out robbei-s, till I 

 consulted my bee-books. Every book was 

 against me, and in fiivor of a queen being pres- 

 ent. So I went to work and searched near four 

 hours in vain. Half the bees went under the 

 bottom board, during the search. I left them to 

 come out and enter the hive at will, not dream- 

 ing. the qufcn was with them. Next morning, 

 finding them still there, I tried to dislodge them 

 with a brush ; but they obstinately refused to 

 enter the hive. I left them and went to meeting, 

 supposing they would all be in the hive on my 

 return. Returning about sunset, I found them 

 still there. Now was my time to have secured 

 the queen with the utmost ease ; but I had that 

 to learn by dear-bought experience. Knowing 

 no better, I set the hive on a new bottom board; 

 removed the old one with the bees under it ; 

 set the new one on its place; and then poured 

 the bees down at the entrance, which they all 

 entered immediately. 



This case so bothered me that I sent for a 

 friend five miles olf, who had some little expe- 

 rience in introducing queens, to come and help 

 me. On my way from the polls next morning, 

 I met another who had a little experience. He 

 was riding my way and stopped ; but was too 

 sick to do more than to examine a frame, and 

 see they had a queen. He said there was every 

 sign of the presence of a queen. After he left 

 I commenced the tlurd search, but had not gone 

 far before I found a good many queen cells the 

 size of an acorn shell started. I then stopped, 

 supposing they had just started these cells, and 

 that as I was to introduce my friend's queen 

 the next day, I could learn more about it by see- 

 ing how it was done in his hive. There I found 

 eleven queen cells mostly sealed over, which I 

 removed, and then introduced the queen success- 

 fully. Next day I went to see how my bees got 

 along with their cells. Instead of being larger, 

 as I expected to find them, they had not im- 

 ]iroved a whit ; on the coutrarj^, some of them 

 were being cut down. It then struck me that 

 these cells were stiirted during the twenty-four 

 hours the queen was under the bottom board. 

 Being now convinced that they had a queen, 

 or, I might say another queen, 1 determined to 

 find her tliat day if she was ever to be found. 

 After hunting in vr.iu until the sun got hot, I 



