114 



THE AMEEICAN BEE JOURNAE 



[Nov., 



/ 



succeeded last evening, however, in actually 

 forcing a qneen to be fertilized, to all appear- 

 ance successfully. I will report the result at 

 some future time. 



The subject of queen raising seems to figure 

 quite conspicuously among breeders ; yet hardly 

 any two of them agree as to the best and easiest 

 mode of securing hardy and prolific queens by 

 forcing. Mr. John i\I. Price states that he has 

 "been raising such (forced) queens for the last 

 six years," and that three out of five have been 

 lost on their wedding trip, while the remainder 

 would be "non-prolific," or otherwise imperfect. 

 Very persevering, indeed, must he be to follow 

 up a practice for six years, that has given him 

 nothing but imperfection. Now, I hold that it 

 makes no difference whether our queens are 

 started by bees under the swarming impulse or 

 not, so long as they are fed for such by full 

 stocks from the time the eg(r hatches, other cir- 

 cumstances being equal — that is, in regard to 

 abundant forage or liberal feeding. 



On page 12 of the current volume, Mr. J. L. 

 McLean states the reason why forced queens are 

 often less hardy and less prolific than those 

 raised by colonies under the swarming impulse ; 

 and gives a very good and successful plan to se- 

 cure them started from the egg, or of securing 

 to the young queen at least fourteen days in 

 which to mature. I practice a i^lan somewhat 

 similar, but my method secures to them one day 

 more at least. I proceed as follows : first, I de- 

 prive a vigorous colony of their queen, and 

 leave them queenless at least six days. On the 

 evening of the sixth day, I insert an empty 

 worker comb in the centre of the hive contain- 

 ing my queen mother, placing the comb on 

 which I find the queen by the side of the empty 

 one, with the queen between them. She will sel- 

 dom fail to fill the empty comb pretty thoroughly 

 with eggs by the next morning. On the morn- 

 ing of the seventh day, I take out all the combs 

 from my queenless hive, and destroy every queen 

 cell the bees have started. I now insert the 

 comb containing the eggs from my selected 

 queen, in the centre of my queenless hive, and 

 as the bees therein have no otlier brood from 

 which they can raise queens, they are obliged to 

 start them from these eggs. This plan has a de- 

 cided advantage over that given by Mr. McLean, 

 in that the bees having been queenless for some 

 time, wall at once start a large number of queen 

 cells, and are not likely to delay and start others 

 two or three days later, as they are apt to do 

 when just deprived of their queen. To make 

 this still more secure, I examine the hive about 

 noon of the third day, and make a note of the 

 cells that have then been started. I examine 

 again a day or two later, and if I find any new 

 cells started I destroy them ; but it is very 

 seldom that they start any after the third day, 

 and they seldom do much towards constructing 

 the queen cell till the egg hatches. 



About the same results may be obtained by 

 giving to a full colony, thus queenless and brood- 

 less, a comb containing brood without regard to 

 the age of the brood ; but it is essential that 

 the comb contain eggs or larvai just hatched. 

 Then, by examining each day, and making a 



note of or marking the cells that are started 

 each day, and destroying all that are capped 

 over in less than five days from tlie time they 

 were started, you will secure full five days for 

 the feeding of the queen larvaj— which is all 

 they can receive under any circumstances, 

 as they remain sealed eight days, and are three 

 days in the egg, in which period of course they 

 receive no food. 



I am sorry my friend Gallup gets pitched into 

 so hard from every quarter.. I was at his place 

 this summer, and really think he has got some- 

 thing nice in the way of a bee hive, if it is prop- 

 erly managed. But here let me make a sugges- 

 tion, accompanied by figures, for the benefit of 

 those who are ui-ging their queens to more than 

 ordinary labor. It ■\\ill be admitted by all who 

 have been observing, that, under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, a queen bee is capable of laying on 

 an average, about two thousand (3000; eggs 

 daily. This she will continue to do for, say, 

 five months in the year, or a total of three 

 hundred thousand (300,000) eggs per year. The 

 average life of a queen will not exceed three or 

 fotir years, say three years ; in which time she 

 will have deposited nine hundred thousand (900,- 

 000) eggs. All these, or neai'ly all, have to be 

 fertilized from the contents of the spermatheca 

 of the queen. Now if we urge our queens to 

 double the amount of labor (which we can 

 easily do), will we not have to renew them 

 projiortionally so much oftener, or every eighteen 

 months? 



Before I close I must suggest an improvement 

 in one kind of beehive, for the benefit of those 

 who are using it, and that is the Buckeye. I 

 never yet have seen one of the original form 

 that was even manageable — say nothing of being 

 convenient. The change I would suggest is 

 this : First, tear off the moth nursery, and burn 

 it, to destroy all the eggs and larvai of the 

 moth ; then tiu-n the hive down on its back, and 

 nail ujD the ends ; nail strips on the inside upper 

 edges of the sides, to form rabbets for frames ; 

 cut the frames down to the bottom of the sur- 

 plus sections, and nail thin strips on, projecting 

 at ends, to hang on rabbets ; put on loose honey- 

 board for surplus boxes, or an open box for sur- 

 plus frames ; a cover, to keep surplus chambers 

 dark ; and cut a hole at bottom of one side, for 

 a fly hole. One man made this change in a lot 

 of these hives, and could then manage them 

 very well ; would prefer new lumber, however. 

 Of course, after making this change, it would 

 be covered by the Langstroth patent. 



So far, this has been a splendid honey season 

 in this locality. I think I shall be able to give 

 a report, this fall, that will be satisfactory to 

 all, and I am sure it will be satisfactory to your 

 humble servant and well wisher. 



J. E. Benjamin. 



Bockford, loxm, Aug. 10, 1871. 



Mr. Robert Johnson, of Kossuth, Dcs Moines 

 county, Iowa, reports that he has colonies of bees 

 that gave him one hundred and fifty pounds of 

 honey each, daring the past year. 



