American Bee Journal. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. IV. 



ATTGTJST, 1868. 



No. 2. 



[From the German of Kohler.] 



Practical Bee-Culture. 



RE-QUEENING AND PALL REDUCTION. 



In a recent communication to the Bienenzeit- 

 ung, the Baron of Berlepsch states the result 

 of a carefully arranged experiment which shows 

 that, at least Jive or six weeks elapse from the time 

 the egg is hatched till the worker bee engages ac- 

 tively in the gathering of honey; or, in other 

 words, becomes converted from a consumer to 

 a producer. I made similar observations last 

 summer, and some memoranda in my posses- 

 sion made prior to the publication of the Baron's 

 article, coincide very precisely with the results 

 obtained by the latter. Though my observations 

 were not made with the view of establishing or 

 maintaining any theoretical proposition, yet 

 practically I had often to wait a wearisome 

 while before I could see workers, hatched from 

 the eggs of a newly reared Italian queen, fly and 

 participate in the out-door labors of the older 

 bees. Yea, like the Baron of Berlepsch, I have 

 counted hours and days, and when, as frequent- 

 ly happens in the case of a young queen, we 

 have to enumerate <4 thirty-five," or" u thirty-six" 

 days, we hardly need note down the number in 

 the diary in order to impress the fact on the 

 memory. 



But, why advert to this matter here, on pages 

 dedicated primarily to suggestions and counsels 

 of practical import ? Patience, gentle reader ; 

 we shall in due time see the practical value of 

 the theoretical proposition referred to. In 

 practice it is, indeed, of far greater significance 

 than seems apparent at first blush, or than the 

 unobservant would imagine. Still, we will now 

 refer to two cases only in which the question 

 — how much time elapses from the hatching of the 

 egg till the workers gather honey 1 deserves spe- 

 cial consideration from the bee-keepers who 

 would not suffer disadvantage and loss without 

 becoming conscious of the fact, or even suspect- 

 ing the truth. 



There is hardly any bee-keeper who is not 

 occasionally surprised by finding a queen- 

 less colony in his apiary. Nay, it will happen 



even to the most competent, that days and even 

 weeks elapse before he becomes aware of the 

 queenlessness of a stock. The deportment of 

 the bees at the loss of their queen, and the phe- 

 nomena indicating queenlessness, are not always 

 the same, or are not always manifested in the 

 same decided and striking manner ; or those 

 manifestations are made when the keeper's at- 

 tention is drawn elsewhere ; and finally he 

 finds himself suddenly, he knows not how, the 

 owner of a queenless colony. Now the question 

 forces itself on him — what is to be done? If he 

 does not take the case in hand, and that right 

 speedily, the robbers and moths certainly will, 

 and make short work of the job too ; — leaving 

 him a hive bare of bees and honey, but rich in 

 the larva? and coccoons of the moth I Think 

 not that I am exaggerating. My own eyes have 

 seen such a scene of thorough and utter devasta- 

 tion. I once designedly consigned such a 

 queenless colony to its fate. The experiment 

 cost me nearly twenty pounds of houey and six- 

 teen combs of wax, without counting the vexa- 

 tion, and the time and labor required to cleanse 

 the hive again, and exterminate the multitudi- 

 nous horde of devourers, more greedy and insa- 

 tiable than the horse-leech's daughters. The 

 experiment was nevertheless interesting and in- 

 structive, as demonstrating the necessity of 

 prompt action when a colony becomes queen- 

 less. But, the inquiry recurs — what is to be 

 done in such a case ? Cure or kill, that is the 

 question ! Most of our bee-writers would 

 doubtless advise the former; but the theoretical 

 principle demonstrated and enunciated by the 

 Baron of Berlepsch, indicates clearly that re- 

 course to the latter expedient would be, in the 

 great majority of cases, clearly the more judi- 

 cious and advisable course. In two cases only, 

 would recourse to curative means seem at all 

 advantageous — first, namely, while the bee- 

 keeper is still intent on increasing the number 

 of stocks; and secondly, while engaged initalian- 

 izing his apiary. In the latter case, the occur- 

 rence of queenlessness, if speedily discovered, 

 may exempt him from the trouble and annoy- 

 ance of hunting and removing the old queen — 

 being thus rather advantageous than disadvanta- 

 geous. But in every other case, the only advi- 

 sable process, is to break up the colony at once, 



