562 



June 28. 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



swarming in some cases, and in such a case it will always 

 fail. It is surprising, sometimes, when a large percent is 

 found superseding during the months of June, July and Au- 

 gust, where the go-as-you-please plan is followed with re- 

 gard to queens. 



I am not going to try to cover the ground under my 

 title, "Short Cuts in Bee-Keeping," for I believe that the 

 most satisfactory and effective work in bee-conventions comes 

 from the batteries that are always trained upon the question- 

 box. 



In recapitulation, I will say that preparedness, alertness 

 and a complete mind-picture, as it were, of all conditions in 

 each apiary; this, together with uniformity of fixtures, and 

 a complete knowledge of your field and its flora, constitute 

 the short cuts in bee-keeping, and all this means zvork. 



M. A. Gill. 



Mr. Baxter — The paper should be entitled, "Short Cuts 

 to the Production of Comb Honey," because there are many 

 things in the paper that are not applicable to extracted honey. 



The President named the following committee : 



Committee on Resolutions — W. H. Putnam, O. L. 

 Hershiser and W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Committee on Exhibits — M. Pettit, A. K. Ferris and E. 

 J. Baxter. 



Committee on Amendments to the Constitution — R. A. 

 Holekamp, E. R. Root and George W. York. 



Committee on Question-Box — R. L. Taylor, N. E. France 

 and W. McEvoy. 



(Continued next week.j 



Send Questions either to the offiee of the American Bee Journal, 



or to Dr. C. C. Miller. Marensro, 111. 



Jgjf* Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Why Prefer Italians?— Rearing Queen-Bees 



I have recently begun to take an interest in bees, and have begun 

 to read, make hives, etc., and the more I read and work with bees the 

 more things I want to know. Perhaps you know the symptoms, and, 

 hence, can diagnose my disease. 



1. I judge (I can't recall how I got the impression) that you keep 

 Italians (or Italian-blacks, or both). Why do you keep them? and 

 why do you prefer them to Cyprians, Carniolans or Caucasians? 



2. I read about placing " royal jelly " in queen-cells, etc. I don't 

 know what "royal jelly " is — never saw it that I know of — hence, I 

 don't know how to place royal jelly in queen-cells, and don't know 

 where nor how to obtain it. I have read several little pamphlets on 

 bees, and while they mention royal jelly, they do not explain what it 

 is or how obtained. 



3. Recently I have, for the first time, tried my hand at transferring 

 bees from box-hives to frame hives. I transferred a colony to-day, 

 and got stung only once, when I had gotten careless as I wa6 finishing 

 up. I divided 2 colonies, and as I wanted the bees to have queens, 

 and as soon as possible, I selected pieces of comb with queen-cells 

 about 2 or 3 to the colony, and put eggs and young larvae in the cells. 

 The way I made 60me (eggs) stick was to put a little honey or pollen, 

 and once or twice I toucbed the instrument used to get the eggs out to 

 my tongue, and then to the bottom of the queen-cell; once I peeled 

 out the thin skin inside the (worker) cell containing the egg, and 

 stuck that to the pollen placed in the queen-cell. In placing the 

 young larvse in queen-cells, I just removed them with the milky fluid 

 in their cells with them, and it would hold them in the queen-cells. 

 Please criticise the above methods of procedure, and indicate what 

 was wrong in each, and the probability (and relative probability) of 

 any, all, or each resulting in the rearing of a queen, and 6ay whether 

 any plan followed as indicated above would likely expedite the rear- 

 ing of a queen by a queenless colony? 



4. If you divide a colony and give one part (of course) only comb 

 containing honey, pollen, eggs, larva? and brood in all stages, would 

 such a portion undoubtedly rear themselves a queen? 



I have lots of other questions I'd like to ask, but " do unto others 

 as you would," etc., and I'm not quite sure I'd like to answer ques- 

 tions indefinitely, and over and over, and so thanking you for your 

 kindness and patience, if you have read them, I will " ring off." 



Seeker. 



Answers. — 1. I can answer your question in the fewest words by 

 saying that I'm keeping bees for the sake of the honey, and I think I 

 can get the most honey by trying to keep Italians. Please notice that 



I don't say by keeping Italians, but by trying to keep them. That's 

 what I've been doing most of the time for years, although for several 

 years I've introduced no fresh Italian blood, but have bred from those 

 colonies that have given best results in storing, no matter what the 

 blood. That means that my bees are mostly grades, or crosses between 

 Italians and blacks, although the Italian blood predominates. But 

 for the last year or two they have become very cross. Partly for that 

 reason, I expect to rear some queens from pure Italian stock, allowing 

 them to mate with my grade drones, and see what the result will be. 

 Perhaps a stronger reason for my doing so is that J. E. Crane of this 

 country, and F. W. L. Sladen of England — two good authorities — say 

 that by doing so I will get more honey than I would get by continuing 

 my crosses alone; and also that it will give me more honey than I can 

 get from pure Italian stock. I may say that my present baes are such 

 hustlers that I have no special complaint to make against them except 

 that they are 60 cross. It is just possible that the introduction of 

 Caucasian blood might be as good or better than Italian, but at pres- 

 ent our knowledge of Caucasians is very contradictory and hazy. 

 Cyprians are ill-tempered, and Carniolans too much given to swarm- 

 ing, even if they were any better gatherers than Italians. 



2. In your 3d question you speak of the " milky fluid " about 

 young larva?. Well, that's the 6ame as royal jelly, only it isn't called 

 royal jelly except when in queen-cells, where you find it in much 

 larger quantity. In other words, the material put in queen-cell6 to 

 feed the royal larvse is called " royal jelly." 



3. It's a little hard to understand just what you mean when you 

 say you put 2 or 3 queen cells in a hive and then put eggs and larvae 

 in them. Probably you mean you took cell-cups; that is, the begin- 

 nings of queen-cells, which are something line the cups of acorns. I 

 feel pretty safe in guessing that the bees refused to accept the prep- 

 arations you made for them. Neither honey, nor pollen, nor human 

 saliva would be likely to appeal to them as the proper thing to go into 

 a queen-cell, and the great probability is that the eggs and larva? were 

 unceremoniously hustled out. I do not know that eggs have ever 

 been successfully transferred into queen-cells, and even if the bees 

 would accept them it would be better to use the very small larva?, 

 both because larva? will more readily remain in the cell, and because 

 there is a gain in time. Just one ease may have been successful, 

 where you say you " peeled out the thin skin inside the worker-cell 

 containing the egg. " If you took enough of the coeoon to make a 

 little eup, so the egg or larva was not in the least detached, it may be 

 the bees accepted. But no pollen should have been put with it. Next 

 time try putting in a little royal jelly before putting in the larva, or 

 else take the larva alone. You'll find plenty of royal jelly in queen- 

 cells in a hive from which a prime 6warm has lately issued. 



4. In most cases the bees would probably desert, making the 

 whole thirg a failure If imprisoned for 2 or 3 days, they would be 

 likely to rear a queen. But a nucleus is not the proper >place to have 

 a queen-cell started if you want the resulting queen to be good for 

 anything. A full colony is none too strong for such purpose. 



There is not much likelihood that questions will become weari- 

 some on account of sameness; the main point to look after is to safe- 

 guard the interests of the readers by not having too much with which 

 they are already familiar from study of books on bee-keeping. There 

 are questions galore arising after such biJoks have been well studied, 

 and they are always welcomed in this department, whether they can 

 be answered or not. For it must be remembered that the stock of 

 questions outnumbers that of answers. 



Breeding from Good Queen, but Impurely Mated 



On July 24, 1905, I received a queen from the Atlantic Coast, and 

 to make sure not to have her killed, I took from a hybrid colony 2 

 frames of sealed brood and made a nucleus and put her in. I kept on 

 feeding the nucleus until late in October. I also gave her more brood 

 in August, and at the time I quit feeding her daily she had a rushing 

 colony. The queen was a pretty one, and has proved a layer of the 

 best, and her bees are good honey-gatherers. I asked the breeder to 

 clip her, and on the cage was marked, " Clipped Queen." I did not 

 examine her closely, thinking he had just clipped oue under wing, for 

 the sake of looks. All the bees were uniform iu color that hatched 

 from her brood. The queen was said to be a $5.00 breeder. 



In early spring, when cleaning out the hives, I did not closely ex- 

 amine her either, but clipped her the way I generally do, so flight was 

 then impossible. She is still a good layer, and her bees fine honey- 

 gatherers, but she turns out bees of all the colors of Joseph's coat. 



1. 16 it possible she has been able to fly, and mated a second time, 

 last fall? 



2. Or, is it possible that a queen not purely mated will for a time 

 lay eggs that will produce brood that way? 



3. The bees could fly all winter, and no brood has been given her 

 since August. Could as many as over one-half of the bees be below 

 the standard in color, or hybrids yet, from the brood given last 

 August? That seems to me impossible, as she has, this spring, filled 

 a 10 frame Langstroth hive with brood, and in many cases clear to the 

 top-bar. 



4. Would you advise me to breed from her on account of her good 

 quality, in spite of her impure mating? I would have been glad to 

 requeen all my colonies from her, if she had been purely mated. 



Washington. 



Answers. — 1. It is, to say the least, extremely improbable. The 

 long journey in the mail would not have the effect to make a second 

 mating necessary, as you suggest in your postscript. 



2. Neither would she be likely to produce for a time bees uni- 



