.112 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



coin one for the occasion, and it goes into use at 

 once. The English are more choice and chary, 

 and will long submit to great inconvenience, ere 

 they venture to take the bold step of manufac- 

 turing a new word ; and when at last the word 

 comes it is received coyly and looked at mis- 

 trustingly, like a strange bee in a hive— and ten 

 chances to one, it is finally, like her, rejected and 

 cast out. As bee men, we shovild be less exclu- 

 sive, and set the example of readily adopting 

 any well-formed and expresive word that avoids 

 circumlocution and saves time. We are build- 

 ing up a science, and why should we not have 

 the right or enjoy the privilege of concocting or 

 correcting its nomenclature ? Surely, there is 

 nothing unreasonable, presumptuous, or arro- 

 gant in that. — [Ed. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Natural, Prolific and Hardy Queens. 



ANSWER TO MR. CHAS. DADANT, IN AMERICAN 

 BEE JOURNAL FOR OCTOBER, 1871. 



In answer to Mr. Dadant, I will say that I am 

 not Cand he knows it) the discoverer of the fact 

 that arti ficial queens are, on an average, worth- 

 less in comparison with natural queens, and in 

 my articles I have given honor to whom honor 

 is due. I have only corroborated the statements 

 of such experienced and successful beekeepers 

 as Bidwell Bros, of St. Paul, Minnesota, Adam 

 Grimm, of Jefferson, Wisconsin, E. Gallup, of 

 Orchard, Iowa, and of other correspondents of 

 the Journal. 



I bought a queen from Mr. Dadant, which he 

 guaranteed should be pure, prolific, and purely 

 mated, and by his letters promised to make all 

 right, if she proved otherwise. Inside of two 

 weeks after receiving her, I informed him that 

 she was unprolific. He answered my letter and 

 again promised to make all right. In about 

 a month or five weeks, I informed him again that 

 she was worthless, for I had to keep up her 

 swai-m. Then he asked me not to destroy her, 

 but keep her over the winter, and if she did not 

 prove prolific in the spring, that he would re- 

 place her. (Sho^cing that he also kneio that artifi- 

 cial queens were so7netimes a year in maturing so 

 as to partially keep up their swarm.) In the spring 

 I informed him that she was still worthless, and 

 she gradually became more unprolific, and her 

 queens more non-egg -hatching, until she died, iix 

 the beginning of July. He, I suppose, thought 

 it would be smart or sharp to repudiate a volun- 

 tary bargain on his own part, and informed me 

 that, as I had made such a fuss about the queen, 

 he would uot send me another. I think the 

 queen averaged a little worse than any I have 

 raised, that lived long enough to lay an egg. 



In one of his articles Mr. Dadant says that I 

 have given the probable cause of her unprolific- 

 ness — the chilling she i-eceived in transit here. 

 Of that I know nothing. I only gave the facts. 

 But as he guaranteed her safe arrival, the chill- 

 ing did not release him from the guarantee, or 

 his promise to replace her, if not as guaranteed. 



And right here let me say that I have never 



raised artificial queens in such small swarms as 

 bee authors recommend, or bee breeders have 

 heretofore (until this discussion commenced) 

 used. For the last three ye'ars, when raising 

 either natural or artificial queens, I have used 

 only my largest and most vigorous stocks. As , 

 Novice says with a pint of bees he would take 

 his chances with any one, Mr. D. quotes Novice's 

 success. Novice, one year ago had, with artifi- 

 cial queens, been so successful that he had to 

 send to Mr. Grimm (who is a strong defender of 

 the natural queen theory, and I believe averages 

 most of the time five hundred swarming hives), 

 for twenty-five queens, to replace those that died 

 of old age. Turn to Novice's articles and figure 

 out, if you can, how, under any circumstances, 

 he could have any queens over seventeen months 

 old — except the thirteen he had left over after 

 his heavy and unfortunate loss of bees. ( He had 

 thirteen queens at that time, provided none has 

 died within those seventeen months.) I have six 

 black natural queens now living that are four 

 years and six months old. 



Four years ago this subject was brought to my 

 mind by articles in different papers, and my 

 heavy loss of bees from the worthlessness of 

 artificial queens. (Artificial swarming I have 

 nothing to say against at present.^ I have 

 proved the truth of my position to my entire 

 satisfaction, and am therefore riveted to the 

 theory. What does Mr. Morbitzer say in the 

 article in the October number of the Journal, 

 translated from the (German? He says it is 

 advantageous to replace them with queen cells 

 built for second swarms, instead of using post- 

 constructed cells, FOR THE LATTER DO NOT PRO- 

 DUCE AS VIGOROUS AND PERFECT QUEENS A8 THB 



FORMER. So you see, Mr. Dadant, it is not only 

 in America that observant beekeepers have 

 discovered the fact that artificial quelns are 



not as GOOD AS NATURAL QUEENS ; but ill Other 



countries also, thousands of miles away, with 

 vast oceans between, and by persons speaking 

 another language, has the fact that artificial 

 queens will uot on the average be, ax mrge as long- 

 lived, or as prolific as natural queens, has been 

 observed and published. 



When reading the American Bee Journal, one 

 day, on the subject of non-swarming, I noticed 

 that the difterent correspondents advised the bee- 

 keeper to examine his swarms and destroy the 

 queen cells weekly, as the only sure method, to 

 prevent swarming. After thinking the subject 

 over,'! concluded that that trait in the bees could 

 be utilized to advantage, to procure natural 

 ,. queen cells ; and that, by taking advantage of it, 

 ''natural queens could be had in sufficient number 

 to Italianize an apiary in any one season. (Now 

 the great and only justified point advanced by 

 the artificial queen advocates is, that it is the 

 only way to get cells and queens, from a selected 

 queen, in suflicient number to Italianize or for 

 sale.) And for that purpose it would be bet- 

 ter to save them, and instead of trying to re- 

 press the swarming to endeavor to stimulate 

 it. I have for two seasons done so, and have 

 freely given the result of my experiments and my 

 method of doing so, and even the novice who has 

 read this discussion, can see and will remember 



