1901 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



71 



as apt to be shut off entirely from such 

 food supply. She cannot as quickly stop 

 the natural development of eggs with 

 its attendant physical drain, and little 

 or no proper food being obtainable, she 

 is soon in an exhausted condition. Ac- 

 cording to the degree of such lack of nu- 

 trition and the duration of this semi- 

 starvation, so is she more or less perma- 

 nently injured. 



He refers to a lot of fifty high-priced 

 queens shipped in nuclei, and although 

 confined but twenty-four hours, most of 

 them proved worthless. As he doubt- 

 less knows, confined and frightened 

 bees cannot always be depended on to 

 feed the larvae, and under the same 

 conditions they probably would not feed 

 the queen, so the same theory is not un- 

 tenable in the cd.se of the fifty queens. 

 Also, the queens, while high in price, 

 may never have been high in quality, 

 even though the seller honestly intended 

 to give full value for money received. 

 Nearly the wliole lot may have been in- 

 jured in the embryo stage or through 

 lack of access to proper food in the first 

 few days after leaving the cell. 



Mr. Simmins. of England, is very 

 emphatic on the folly of keeping young 

 (jueens confined in frame nurseries for 

 a number of days after hatching, claim- 

 ing that at that age, while they feed 

 themselves, they need nitrogenous food 

 and that it is vitally important to their 

 development. Personally I cannot con- 

 firm or deny this, as I have never exper- 

 imented thereon, and I mention it here 

 only to draw the attention of our queiiu- 

 breeders to the subject, hoping they may 

 be able to throw some light on it. 



So much depends on the quality of tiie 

 queens that I feel as if too much cannot 

 be said and written about it. And what 

 to-day constitutes the different grades 

 of •■ quality " is so uncertain that no one 

 really knows just what to expect when 

 he orders a queen of the " tested "' or 

 " selected tested" grade. I believe that 

 much of the disappointment in pur- 

 chased queens is due to the misunder- 



standing of these terms. "Tested" — 

 just simply the markings, that's all ; and 

 when any queen-rearer also says that he 

 means tested as to prolificness and possi- 

 bly docility, I just cannot put much faith 

 in the value of such "test" when the 

 queen is sold at ordinary prices. " Se- 

 lected tested", same plus size and color. 

 What does it amount to ? I do not con- 

 sider it possible to form any really 

 valuable estimate of a queen's worth by 

 observing her in a nucleus ^uch as most 

 queens are tested in. The only thorough 

 and satisfactory test is to try her for 

 three months in a full colony; and no 

 queen-dealer can afford to do that and 

 sell the queens at current prices. Can 

 we not get some more definite system of 

 grading and get the business nearer to 

 the same basis as that on which tho- 

 roughbred stock of the higher animals 

 is reared and sold ? 



Providence, R. I., Feb. 13, 1901. 



Our Amateur Table. 



GETTING READY FOB THE HONEY CROP. 



[A. J. (Jray takes first prize. J 



Birchton, N. Y., March 11. 1901. 

 EJitor Bee-keeper: I understand 

 that you want us to give our plans tor 

 eachiuonth, as you say a new subject 

 will be named in each number; so I will 

 give my method of working for the pres- 

 ent time in getting ready for the honey 

 crop. 



Now is the time to get all your hives, sec- 

 tion-holders and sliippiug-cases made up. 

 Old hive-i and all interior arrangements 

 should be scraped nicely, and see that 

 you have plenty of frames, hives and all 

 else in neat condition for the time when 

 they shall be needed. During the latter 

 part of the month you shciuld paint all 

 new and second-hand hives not in i use. 

 Let the first coat dry thoroughly before 

 applying the second. Don't be in a hurry 

 about putting together your sections 

 until the weather becomes warm enough 

 to handle foundation with safetv. You 



