12 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[July, 



forced or artificially-raised queens reared in my 

 own apiary from queenless stocks ; and I have 

 had to re-queen some colonies from one to five 

 or more times in the season, and finally had to 

 double them u^j in the fall— havinjj been unsuc- 

 cessful in securing a healthy long-lived queen. 



As there is a great difference, and yet usually 

 no distinction made, in artificial swarming, this 

 diiference must be kept in view, to properly un- 

 derstand the question. I assume, 



First — That queens raided in a queenless colony 

 are always worthless— taking natui-al queens as 

 a standard— as regards proJificness, hardiness, 

 or longevity. 



Second — That queen cells taken from a large 

 colony, and having been started when the colony 

 was under the swarming impulse and the egg 

 then laid, produce natural queens, with all the 

 vigor of the parent stock. 



Third — That queens of this second class, 

 when given to divided stocks, are entirely differ- 

 ent BIRDS, from such a sa queenless stock would 

 have raised ; and that the queens of the second 

 class prove to be as hardy, as prolific, and as 

 long-lived as their mothers. 



Having devised or invented, proved and tested, 

 a means of getting natural queens started in un- 

 limited quanties in a swarm, under the influence 

 of a prolific queen, I will describe my mode and 

 means of doing so. 



Price's metliod of securing natural, prolific and 

 long-lived queens for arlifi,cial swar^idng, or for 

 oilier purposes. 



In the early spring, or as soon as desirable, 

 proceed to stimulate by liquid feed, "honey, or 

 sugar syrup," any known hardy or prolific 

 queen, placing frames of empty worker comb 

 between the brood combs in the hive as fast as 

 the bees can duly cover them. Or instead of 

 empty combs, insert frames of brood from an- 

 other liive, as fast as the bees can take care of 

 and cover them. Proceed thus till you have 

 fifteen frames of brood. When the hive is full 

 enough of hatched bees and drones, remove all 

 but eight frames of brood, shaking off all. the 

 bees back into the hive, and using the removed 

 comb to aid weak stocks. Place the eight 

 ccmbs in a Casket hive or other hive having 

 division boards, crowding the bees that covered 

 the fifteen frames on the e'ight. Now continu- 

 ing the daily stimulus of liquid feed, the bees 

 soon get under the swarming impulse or fever, 

 and start more or less queen cells. When the 

 cells have been supplied with eggs three or four 

 days, remove all the combs with cells on them 

 to a large queenless stock or a stock purposely 

 deprived of its queen. Fill up the casket or 

 other hive with combs full of brood taken from 

 some other hive or hives ; and by keeping uj) 

 the daily stimulus of feeding, from ten to twenty 

 natural queen cells can be taken from that hive 

 eveiy week. Remove all the queen cells or 

 combs with queen cells at once, and replace 

 them at once with combs fidl of brood ; and un- 

 der no circumstances put empty combs in this 

 hive as long as queen cells are wanted. The 

 queen cells in the queenless hive, are to be cut 

 out as soon as capped, and placed for safe keep- 

 ing in Dr. Jewell Davis' 



Queen Nursery, 

 or placed in divided swarms, or used by any 

 other of the known means of safe keeping and 

 pure fertilization. The Queen Nursery is an 

 indispensable institution for those who may 

 practice the raising of queens on a large scale. 



John M. Price. 

 Buffalo Orove, loica. 



P.S.— In his "Revifw of the May number," 

 your correspondent, Mr. Kretchmer, is certain- 

 ly in error when he says that " nearly half, if 

 not more, of our most intelligent bee-keepers 

 prefer side to to^) opening hives," if by otors he 

 means American bee-keepers. A census of enu- 

 meration would, I think, reveal the fact that at 

 least eigth-tenths of the bee-keepers of this 

 country, who use movable comb hives, prefer 

 the top-opening form ; and the number is an- 

 nually increasing. In Europe, and especially in 

 Germany, where improvements make slow pro- 

 gress, the case may be difterent, because there 

 some of the most prominent bee-keepers, who as 

 yet give tone to public sentiment, are so wedded 

 to their antiquated notions, and so prejudiced 

 against innovations, that they cannot give any 

 ideas not originating with themselves a fair 

 trial. In many matters of mere practice they 

 stick just where they stood thirty years ago. 

 Dzierzon to this day rejects the Berlepsch 

 frames ; and Berlepsch, in turn, ridicules the 

 Dzierzon twin hive. Dzierzon, who introduced 

 the Italian bee, continues to regard it as at the 

 head of the race, and will not try any other 

 variety. Berlepsch, who failed in his first ex- 

 periments with Italians, says that, except in ap- 

 pearance, they are not better than the common 

 bees. So with others, in otlier things. Tliese 

 men, so eminent and advanced in some points, 

 are in other respects fogies still. Each will 

 probably a^lhere obstinately to his own favorite 

 form of hive, and their friends will follow tin m. 

 But to be governed by their example in this, is 

 to lag far in the rear. I am glad to see that 

 Mr. K. himself is preparing to take passage in 

 the EXPRESS train, for he tells us that, for his 

 oicn use, he makes "no other than side and top- 

 opening hives." That will do for a start. By 

 and by he will reach the goal. We travel fast 

 in this country. 



By "fixed" frames we understand s^^ch as 

 are not movab'e laterally, but have a permanent 

 position assigned to them, which the bees com- 

 monly make more fixed still by means of projio- 

 lis. To adopt and use such, is to go half way 

 back to the old box sysjtem. On that principle 

 railroad men should abandon steam and run 

 their locomotives by horse power ! 



If the spring is not favorable to bees, they 

 should be fed, because that is the season of their 

 greatest expense in honey, for feeding their 

 young. Having plenty of honey at that time, 

 enables them to yield early and strong swarms. — 

 Wildman. 



After a wedding, it was formerly a custom to 

 drink honey dissolved in water, for thirty days. 

 Hence the origin of the honey-moon. 



