1900 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



239 



IS IT AN ADVANTAGE 



For a Beginner to Rear His Own 



Queens ? 



BY J. (). GltlMSIEV. 



A^ 



T some time in 

 life we were all 

 beginners. 

 Some of us were quite 

 young, others more 

 advanced in years; 

 and in our reflections 

 we look back on the 

 past and call to mem- 

 ory our likes and dis- 

 likes. More especially 

 does the mind find a 

 resting place upon the features of the 

 business that tickled our fancy at the 

 time, and in most cases we remember 

 that the growth and development of the 

 queen was first with us. 



We were beginners in. a business — yes 

 a business — that was to grow in volume, 

 and interest us more and more as the 

 years '-oiled around, and each had an 

 object in view. That is, some of us ex- 

 pected to confine ourselves to the pro- 

 duction of honey, others were laying a 

 foundation for queen-rearing, while a 

 few— a very few — were born naturalists 

 and were studying the life history of 

 our "little pets'" for the great statisfac- 

 tion to themselves and the good they 

 might do for others, in disseminating 

 knowledge that the every-day bee- 

 keeper had not time to acquire from 

 personal experiments. 



But more to the practical side of it. 

 With the beginner the first queen-rear- 

 ing is done by the d.e-queening method, 

 and in most cases not even discarding 

 the short, stumpy 5ells. By and by he 

 improves by selecting the long, "pea- 

 nut" cells and destroying the others. 

 As time goes on his experience grows 

 until finally he is grafting, a In Doo- 

 little, or Pridgen, and then we find him 

 in a very interesting part of the game, 

 and he begins to fancy himself a 

 breeder. He has other hills to climb, 

 by-paths to clear up, and many things 



yet to leaj'n. But we are talking about 

 the beginner and will have to go back 

 and see what he is doing. 



Taken as a rule I will assert that fifty 

 per cent, of the queens reared by be- 

 ginners — on the de-queening plan — are 

 inferior in some respects; many being 

 almost worthless, while, as a rule, the 

 professional queen breeder can supply 

 him with queens, ninety per cent, of 

 which will be first-class. Then, If he 

 wants to keep his colonies strong, and 

 in a condition to bring in the coveted 

 sweets, it would be best to let queen- 

 rearing pass until he had a few surplus 

 c<*l0n4es-to-e-x-perime«t with. There is 

 a time when all bee-keepers should 

 know how to rear queens — it will pay 

 tliep — but just at what time in one's 

 experience the business should be 

 learned, depends much upon circum- 

 stances, and the natural inclination to 

 get down to detail. 



If we are studying bee-keeping 

 merely as a fancy, or from a naturalist's 

 point of view, then go right in — it 

 is oneof the most fascinating studies 

 connected with the business and the 

 more you learn the more you want to 

 know. By and by, as you become more 

 familiar with the business you will 

 begin to study the drone side of the 

 business, and as you advance other 

 things present themselves — improve- 

 ment in color, improvement in the vari- 

 ous working qualities, such as comb 

 building, etc., and stranger things hap- 

 pen than for longer tongues to be looked 

 for. 



But as a beginner, with the exception 

 I mention, I would always say: Let it 

 alone. With limited knowledge, valu- 

 able colonies are likely to be destroyed. 

 There are so many things to look to, we 

 should have quite a good store of 

 knowledge as to the habits of workers 

 before undertaking it. 



Beeville, Tenn., Nov. 1. 1900. 



Index and title page will be found in 

 this number. Why not have the volume 

 bound? 



