32 



THE American bee-keeper 



February 



SOME QUEENS I KNEW. 



BY J. O. GKIMSLEY. 



NOT that I expect to jfive any 

 button-removing experience that 

 would remind you of "The 

 Blunders of a Bashful Man,'" nor that I 

 will tell of any grand receptions by 

 European royalty, do I venture to re- 

 late a little experience with royal blood; 

 but that there are queens — good, bad 

 and indifferent — with which I have been 

 acquainted; I wish to speak. 



A considerable portion of my time for 

 the past seven years has been spent in 

 experimental work. At first, novice- 

 style, it was more a curiosity, but as 

 time passed it changed into something 

 practical, and became, in reality, ex- 

 perimental. But now for an introduc- 

 tion to some of my royal acquaintances. 



Two queens that I never will forget — 

 I wish I could forget them for they 

 haunt me — were Italians of my own 

 raising, and, besides being perfect 

 beauties, were very prolific, and their 

 workers were the best I had. But 

 of all the bees I ever had they were the 

 hardest to handle, although they were 

 uniform, three-band, pure Italians, ac- 

 cording to the A. I. Root test. At that 

 time I was hardly more than a novice, 

 and thought I must have gentle bees, or 

 none at all: so after worrying with them 

 for some time, I brought the keen edge 

 of my pen-knife into play, severing 

 their bodies in twain. Oh! that Cogshall 

 could have had those queens; they 

 would not have been treated thus! 



Another queen I often think of was 

 one of short acquaintance. She was of 

 Carniolan origin, but was so peculiar 

 (her bees were) I became very much 

 interested. Late one afternoon I spent 

 some time looking at the workers as th(^y 

 quietly crawled over the combs, causing 

 air castles to form, only to be 

 wrecked later on. These bees were an 

 intense black, and the hair covering 

 their body was ahnost snow white. 

 Draw on your imagination as to the 



appearance of snch bees. Well, early 

 next morning — about seven o'clock — 

 this royal lady and her colony pulled 

 out for the mountains, where I suppose 

 she lived in peace— if she didn't starve 

 to death. 



There were other queens, .however, 

 that will be considered with greater in- 

 terest by Bee-keeper readers. Pro- 

 curing cells by removing the queen and 

 letting bees select the larvae is a popu- 

 lar method with a few who rear queens, 

 but to the close observer it soon comes 

 into disfavor. I reared a great many 

 in that way for myself and neighbors, 

 and I can s:iy without hesitation 

 that they were as fine looking as any 

 queens, it matters not how they were 

 raised. But there is trouble ahead. I 

 care not how beautiful or how large, 

 with me queens reared in that way are 

 a failure. No, not altogether, for about 

 twenty-five per cent, of them will be all 

 right, and keep their colony up in 

 good working order, while the other 

 seventy-five per cent, are not prolific 

 enough to be worth anything, only to 

 look at. I suppose, and the idea with 

 me has bcon for a long time that a 

 neglected or old larvji has the reproduc- 

 tive organs poorly developed. Well, of 

 course, the larva that is treated for a 

 queen from the day (or hour) it hatches 

 has mufh b(!tter development than one 

 neglected for two or three days. And 

 my expcrirui-c with "(Jueens I Knew'' 

 is that bi'os do not always select 

 larvae of the proper age. But the time 

 came when I would have grafted cells 

 or none, sehn-ting tlici youngest larva 

 that could be handled. By this method 

 it was quiie different — fully ninety p«r 

 cent of such queens were as prolific as 

 we could desire. With queens that I 

 knew, the size was nut anything like an 

 index to character; I often found large, 

 fine looking queens almost barren, iwen 

 under favorable circumstances. At 

 one time I was almost convinced that it 

 was best to use royal jelly from about a 

 three-day larva, but further experience 



