22 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



using the bees to strengthen some weak stock, 

 and giving the combs to a strong colony for 

 protection or use. However much this may 

 run counter to the feelings of the bee-keeper, it 

 will certainly best advance the prosperity of his 

 apiary, and thus promote his pecuniary interest. 



Cuie should only be attempted if a fertile re- 

 serve queen be immediately available, and at 

 least eight weeks of good pasturage may yet be 

 expected. In such case the young bees proce- 

 diug from the eggs of the introduced queen may 

 still participate for three weeks in gathering in 

 the harvest, and thus reimburse their cost. 

 But to begin even with inserting a queen cell 

 eight weeks before the end of the season, 1 aves 

 no hope of profit, though no mishap supervene 

 — for we must still allow an interval of trom ten 

 days to two weeks, before brooding would be 

 vigorously recommenced, if the colony be still 

 populous ; and if weak and broodless, as such 

 queenless stocks usually are, brooding will pro- 

 ceed so slowly and listlessly that there is small 

 chance of effectual recuperation. In short, 

 nothing will come of it ! To insert brood for 

 queen-raising is a still more unpromising expe- 

 dient ; for thereby the day of relief is put off 

 almost two weeks longer, and if the young 

 queen is not lost on her bridal tour, we may 

 indeed have a redeemed colony, but one that 

 will only linger along during the remainder of 

 the season, consuming honey and storing none 

 Though seemingly busy in gathering, its supplies 

 will in the end be constantly diminishing. In 

 the fall it will need feeding, and will notwith- 

 standing probably perish in the winter. Where- 

 as, had it been seasonably united with some 

 other colony, its stores would have been pre- 

 served, and the entire population would have 

 joined the common household as a band of busy 

 workers. Here they would be of infinit' ly more 

 service than they could be in their native hive, 

 after the loss of their queen ; for though a col- 

 ony under cure for queenlessness seems to labor 

 industriously, bees never really develope and 

 display their full energetic activity unless 

 there be a queen and brood present, and the 

 entire colony feels itself to be in a normal and 

 healthy condition. In a colony that has been 

 queenless, revived and increased energy will 

 therefore only be manifested when the cells are 

 again stocked with brood proceeding from the 

 new bred queen, requiring constant nursing and 

 attention. Consequently where increase of col- 

 onies is no longer our object, but we desire to 

 derive profit from the stock on hand, the attempt 

 to cure a queenless colony, is a gross blunder. 

 This is a truth, a practical axiom in bee-culture, 

 flowing with logical and inexorable rigor from 

 the recorded observations already referred to, 

 respecting the time elapsing from the hatching 

 of the egg to the honey-gathering of the worker. 



But in the foregoing we have assumed that 

 queenlessness occurs at a very early period in 

 the season; whereas it more frequently occurs 

 late, or is not discovered till late. Queenless- 

 ness most commonly occurs at the swarming 

 season, when the old stocks are raising new 

 queens. And it is precisely in the case of stocks 

 that have sent forth swarms, that queenlessness 

 is most difficult to detect, and is usually detected 



very late. We naturally expect that such stocks 

 should for a time seem weak, and flalter our- 

 selves that "when the young queen's brood 

 hatches matters will improve." Time passes 

 while we are thus listening to hope's flattering 

 tale, and we finally wake up to the consciousness 

 that there is no queen there ! N >w, in four or 

 five weeks, possibly in only three 1 , pas- 

 turage will be at an end ; and shall we waste 

 further time in '■'doctoring up" the rapidly dying 

 invalid ? Far better make short work of it, by 

 applying the royal remedy ! Break it up ! 



But even in so-called "fall reduction," ihe 

 theoretical principle aforesaid has a practical 

 application ; for it is of great importance to the 

 bee-keeper to know when this reduction is to be 

 made. The rule commonly laid down in the 

 books is "at the close of the season ;" that is, 

 at the time when the bees cease to increase their 

 stores; or, in other words, when they gather 

 less daily than they consume. In view, how- 

 ever, of the result of the Baron of Berlepsch's 

 observations, as confirmed by my own, showing 

 the time required to convert a worker bee from 

 a consumer to a producer, the rule thus laid 

 down would lead to gross malpractice. The 

 work must be begun much earlier. Fall reduc- 

 tion, by the union of colonies, to effect the ut- 

 most saving and prove really advantageous, 

 must be executed at least floe weeks before the close 

 of the season. For all the brood proceeding from 

 eggs laid by the queen during this latter period, 

 will render no service of any account during this 

 year. A diminution of the brood at this period 

 is therefore a necessity, because a large portion 

 of the accumulated stores would be consumed 

 by it, for which no compensation would this 

 year be returned. But if the reduction be ac- 

 complished, by the uni n of colonies before the 

 close of the pasturage, we secure the following 

 advantages. In the first place, the working 

 force is more than duplicated in the united 

 stock, because in it no more workers are re- 

 quired to remain at home, as nurses, &c, than 

 in either before the union. And, in the second 

 place, the production of useless brood is dimin- 

 ished fully fifty per-cent. , one of the queens 

 having been discarded. By an early reduction, 

 therefore, we secure increased production and 

 diminished consumption. Moreover, the united 

 colony thus formed, will be made sufficiently 

 populous by the maturing brood of the two 

 stocks and that further produced by the selected 

 and retained queen, and thus become better 

 prepared in this respect for wintering, than if 

 the union had been deferred to a later period. 

 At the same time we secure a larger amount of 

 surplus honey from the superseded hive than 

 would be obtained from it after longer delay — 

 the honey, moreover, being more liquid, is more 

 easily managed. Loss of queen, too, dur ng 

 the operation, is more easily noticed now, than 

 later, when there is little to gather abroad, 

 because the bees are then more disposed tore- 

 main quiet ; and our own tact for vigilant at- 

 tention has greatly diminished, as we feci less 

 interest in our bees when they are idle than 

 when they are busy. 



On the whole, then, those bee-keepers, who, 

 by means of natural and artificial swarming, 



