1901 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



127 



portion to the yield of nectar from the 

 nectar-bearing tlora than it was when I 

 commenced. And to improve our stoclc 

 we must supersede our poorer queens 

 witli those from the better stoclv. I find 

 that there is no time of the year in which 

 queens are so generally superseded as 

 immsdiately after the principal honey 

 flow, and we can always rest assured 

 that when the bees are willing to do such 

 work, then is our best time. With me, 

 fully three-fourths of all the queens 

 superseded by the bees are so superseded 

 during the three weeks immediately fol- 

 lowing the basswood honey-flow. Know- 

 ing this fact I have, for years, done the 

 most of my re-queeniug at this time of 

 the year, and with success which has 

 always pleased me, and that without in- 

 terfering with my honey crop in the 

 least. To this end I start a greater 

 number of queen cells than usual from 

 five to eight days before the expected 

 close of the basswood honey harvest, 

 and. when these cells mature, hunt out 

 the old queen and dispose of her, giving 

 a mature cell twenty-four hours after 

 having removed the old queen. If cell- 

 protectoi's are used, the cell can be given 

 at the time of removing the old queen, 

 thus saving once opening of the hive; 

 for, as a rule, the bees allow a queen to 

 hatch all right where a cell-protector is 

 used. If the young queen emerges from 

 her cell in an hour or so after giving the 

 cell, or before the bees are aware that 

 their mother is gone, they will sometimes 

 kill her and start cells from their own 

 brood; but if the cells do not hatch in 

 less than from twelve to twenty-four 

 hours after the old queen was removed, 

 nearly every queen will be accepted all 

 right. By raising the queens before the 

 honey harvest closes; that is, the bees 

 doing the feeding of the embryo queens 

 while in the larval form before the honey 

 flow is over; they are sure to be fed in 

 such a way that the very best of queens 

 are produced, this also having a great 

 advantage toward accomplishing our 

 object over and above what would be if 



we raised our queens before the harvest 

 commenced, or after it was over. 



Another plan which I have often used 

 since my apiary became very much im- 

 proved beyond what it formerly was, is 

 to raise a lot of cells from my best queen 

 at the time given above and, twenty-four 

 to forty-eight hours before they are 

 booked to mature, give one to each col- 

 ony having a queen more than one year 

 old, using a cell-protector for each one, 

 and placing this protected cell in one of 

 the sections on the hive, or anywhere I 

 best can where the bees can cluster about 

 it, without hunting out the old queen at 

 all; when, if the bees have any notion 

 to supersede their queen, they will ac- 

 cept of this young one and destroy the 

 old queen. If they destroy the young 

 queen I allow the old one to remain, 

 thinking that the bees know what is 

 right, and in nineteen cases out of twenty 

 where the bees decide on keeping the 

 old queen I find she proves pmr excellence 

 till after the honey flow of the next year 

 is over. This is something which does 

 not cost much labor and which I practice 

 often to my Shtisf action. 



Borodino, N.Y., June 4, 1901. 



The man who holds exactly the same 

 opinion on any subject that he held even 

 a few years ago, is virtually a nonentity. 



—P. Dundas Todd. 



A number of farmers report that a 

 peculiar little green worm is causing 

 great destruction in the clover fields and 

 as a result the clover will be practically 

 a failure in many places at least. The 

 worm is about three-fourths of an inch 

 long and are found by the millions. 

 They eat the head out of the clover 

 stalks and deposit their eggs there. It 

 seems to be a new enemy to clover. — 

 TitiisvUle (Pa.) Herald. 



"An honest confession is good tor the 

 soul," and the Hutchinson strain of 

 three-band Italian bees for gentleness 

 and business; and hence I offer untested 

 queens from this superior stock at 75 cts. 

 each, six for S!4.00, or 67.50 per dozen, 

 and Goldens bred from select stock at the 

 sime price. Money order office Warren- 

 ton, N. C. W. H. PKIUGEN, 

 7-2t Creek, Warren Co.. N.C. 



