1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



163 



sweetened water. At sundown, as the l)ees had 

 not shown by their action that they had missed 

 their queen, and in putting back the combs I 

 had destroyed even the old queen-cell founda- 

 tions, I removed the cork from the qvieen cage, 

 from that end most filled with a mixture of 

 honey and sugar, "thick;" scented the bees, 

 combs and hive again ; placed back the cage and 

 closed up the hive for the night. In the morn- 

 ing, after scenting them again, I found that they 

 had liberated the queen and taken care of the 

 mixture. She was thus introduced on the 13th 

 of June : and I scented them several times a day 

 till the morning of the Wth, before I attempted 

 to examine the frames, to see if she was safe and 

 had laid any eggs. On the 19th I could stand it 

 no longer, and must know her fate, then and 

 there. So jvist as it was getting light I thought 

 I would make the examination, before the other 

 bees were tiying, so as not to be disturbed. An 

 examination of the first three fi-ames revealed 

 her personal safety, and that the bee's had started 

 queen cells ; but it was not yet light enough 

 then to make out if eggs were in them. I kept 

 up the stimulative feeding during the day, and 

 just before sundown made another examination, 

 and found some twenty-five queen cells started, 

 and twelve of them with eggs and larvae in 

 them. I examined them every day, and con- 

 tinued the stimulating several times a day, until 

 the morning of the 25th of June, by which time 

 the cells with eggs and larvae in them had in- 

 creased in number to some twenty-three or 

 twenty-five. At noon, against all the authority 

 of our most respected writers on bee-culture, she 

 led out her swarm— 9^ days after her introduc- 

 tion and liberation, and nearly four days before 

 the first cell was capped over. I don't take any 

 stock now in the claim that bees will not swarm 

 until a queen cell has been capped one day. 

 Tlie black queen did not swarm even on the first 

 day after the first queen cell was capped, while 

 raising any of the five batches of queen cells I 

 secured seven queens from this batch of cells, 

 giving each queenless stock that I introduced 

 them to three or four cells. Of the seven young 

 queens, one was without wings ; one became a 

 drone-layer; one, "the most prolific one," laid 

 eggs Avhich would not hatch ; four of the seven 

 proved to be as prolific as the best of my old, 

 natural "black" queens. As they mated with 

 black drones, the stocks are hybrid. This queen 

 laid only a few worker eggs during the 9| days 

 she was in the hive. 



After securing her swarm I thought she would 

 do better ; but she laid hardly as many eggs 

 during nearly a month as she ought to have 

 done every day. I kept the swarm up by 

 putting in frames of brood. About the first 

 of September she commenced to do a little 

 better than she had been doing. After swarm- 

 ing, I thought I would test and find out if the 

 artificial queens from Italian broods were any 

 better than from black brood. The result is, 

 that from the 1st of July to the 1st of Septem- 

 ber I succeeded in raising two queens that laid 

 eggs ; and five that had not laid any uj) till the 

 middle of October ! seven in all, when last ex- 

 amined, out of about forty hatched. And in the 



experiment, I totally destroyed several of my 

 best swarms. My natural queens did better. I 

 did not lose one out of twenty-four ; and they 

 averaged me about thirty pounds each of strained 

 honey, besides about sixty pounds left in every 

 hive to winter on. The best of the artificial 

 swarms did not collect their living, and the 

 whole of their winter stores had to be given 

 them. Out of all the artificial Italian queens, 

 not one was over one-half or two-thirds as lar^e 

 as either of my natural queens. Any artificial 

 queen that I saw immediately after hatching, 

 did not seem to have hardly any vitality oii 

 emerging from her cell ; although tliose that 

 were raised the nearest from the egg, and in 

 large colonies, were both larger, and quicker in 

 their motions. The artificial queens that have 

 vitality enough to live, and are well nursed by 

 their bees, grow to be medium-sized queens. 



My Italians grow ligliter in color with age, 

 and the one I raised my queens from is not over 

 half as dark now as she was when I received her 

 in June. 



My exi^erience in raising queens for the last 

 five years is, that I can raise twenty natural 

 queens, that will be the equal of their mother, 

 to one artificial queen from the same mother 

 that will live until she is two months old, and be 

 one-fourth to one-half as prolific as her mother. 

 With tlie honey harvest as late as it was this 

 year, my young swarms gave me on an average 

 as many pounds of strained honey as my old 

 stocks, that had not swarmed. 



In introducing queens from hive to hive this 

 summer, I found that by scenting them with 

 anise, in sweetened water, a day or two— both 

 hives — the queens can be changed about with- 

 out the least danger. I introduced nearly 

 twenty queens to strange hives this summer, 

 some fertile and some not impregnated, without 

 losing one ; and it was only my Italian that I 

 was breeding from that I took the precaution to 

 cage. By getting both queens of one scent, and 

 shaking the bees on the ground in front of the 

 hive, and placing the introduced queen on a 

 frame of brood in the hive, after the bees have 

 been well fed, seems to be without any danger — 

 although for a valuable queen the caging for 

 twelve hours is the safest. 



In overlooking my bees I made all the colo- 

 nies average nearly sixty pounds each. In this 

 country they do not gather much honey, if any, 

 from the 1st of September to the middle of July. 

 At least, for four years back they have not 

 done so. 



My next communication will contain my ex- 

 perience and method of artificial swarming. 



I have come to the conclusion, from my sum- 

 mer's experience, that the Italians are better 

 than the blacks, on all but two points. I do 

 not believe that they will prove any more pro- 

 lific ; and they .stick too fast to their combs. 

 One thing is sure, your bees must be all one or 

 the other, or the hybrids will soon clear them 

 out. 



My Italian that I received from Charles Da- 

 dant was a young one, of this year's raising ; 

 consequently, could have been only a few weeks 

 old when received, .^s she was the most unpro- 



