236 



the average were marked, as well as 

 those which produced the very largest 

 amount. (This, you will see, requires 

 a record kept of each hive by some 

 means.) Those that were marked as not 

 coming up to the average were united, 

 either in the fall or spring, with others 

 that had produced an average amount 

 or above, if such uniting was deemed 

 advisable through colonies light in bees 

 or scarcity of honey. Of course, we 

 always destroyed the poorest queen 

 and retained the other. If all were not 

 disposed of in this way, we superseded 

 the inferior queens by those reared from 

 the colonies marked as producing the 

 very largest amount. All queens were 

 reared, as far as possible, from those 

 producing the largest yields of honey, 

 and so, by following this plan and rear- 

 ing the most of our queens, as given in 

 the March American Bee Journal, 

 our bees have been improving as re- 

 gards honey-gathering qualities instead 

 of retrograding. 



As far as possible we have selected 

 our best blooded Italians to breed from, 

 always, however, keeping an eye to 

 business rather than to color. But dur- 

 ing these seven years we have found 

 other points worth looking after as well 

 as honey producing, such as good dispo- 

 sition, keeping brood in compact shape, 

 remaining quiet during the winter, etc. 



Our attention is just now turned in 

 another direction. The readers of the 

 Journal will remember that it was 

 claimed the honey which drew the gold 

 medal at the National Convention in 

 1877, was gathered by black bees ; one 

 of the reasons given for so claiming 

 being that black bees made whiter 

 looking honey, or whiter looking comb 

 than the Italians. We discovered in 

 1876 that we had one colony of Italians 

 which so sealed their honey that it was 

 superior in appearance to that of the 

 black bees. In 1877 this colony pro- 

 duced upwards of 300 lbs. of box honey, 

 and the most of the honey in the crate 

 drawing the medal was selected from 

 these 300 lbs. Here was a chance to 

 improve our bees in another direction, 

 as we all know that the appeai-ance of 

 com!) honey has a- great deal to do with 

 its sale, and as I had but one colony 

 that produced more box honey than this, 

 1 thought it something worth trying 

 for. The queen, being quite old, was 

 superseded in 1878, but from the cells 

 left in the old hive at swarming we 

 reared a few queens, only one of which 

 came up to our ideas of excellence in 

 every way. From her we reared some 

 very fine queens last season, and pro- 

 pose, if possible, to stock our yard 

 mostly with this strain of bees the com- 



ing season. These bees have also, as a 

 rule, wintered well. They are not as 

 light colored as some, but as most of the 

 young queens are nearly duplicates of 

 the mother, we are satisfied on that 

 score. 



Thus every apiarist, if he will keep 

 his eyes open, will find desirable points 

 in certain colonies of his bees which he 

 can improve upon, and by adopting the 

 plan as given above, his apiary can be 

 steadily advancing in worth to its owner. 

 The only drawback that there is to cer- 

 tain improvement in any direction with 

 bees, is our inability to control the 

 drones. Then let us try with more zeal 

 than ever, the coming season, to make 

 fertilization in confinement a success. 



Borodino, N. Y., April, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Queen Rearing. 



H. ALLEY. 



For 20 years I have been rearing 

 queens ; 18 of these have been devoted 

 to the Italians. Almost every con- 

 ceivable experiment for rearing queens 

 has been tested by me. For several 

 years I have used only the following 

 method : My combs for nuclei are 4jf 

 inches square, as they are the most con- 

 venient, and in my queen-rearing hives 

 I use 24 of them at one time. There 

 are 3 sections to these hives, each con- 

 taining 8 combs. These combs are 

 well filled with honey and pollen. Now 

 the strongest colony of bees is selected 

 and after being made to fill themselves 

 with honey, by drumming on the hive, 

 they are all brushed from the combs 

 into a box that has wire top and bottom, 

 so as to give plenty of air. The queen 

 is found and removed and the bees left 

 in the queenless state 10 or 12 hours, 

 this fits them for queen-rearing. Now 

 I prepare the queen hive by filling each 

 of the 3 sections full of combs, leaving 

 out 2 or 3 of the frames from which one- 

 half the comb is cut, to make room to 

 put strips of comb containing eggs just 

 hatching, for the bees to make the 

 queen-cells on. The comb the eggs are 

 in is cut in strips about 3 cells deep, and 

 is attached to the combs in the frames 

 with melted beeswax and rosin sim- 

 mered together and used, of course, 

 while warm. The strips of comb are 

 shaved down, so that when looked at 

 sidewise, they form the letter V. 

 Queen-cells will be made on both sides 

 of it. Having thus prepared the queen- 

 rearing hive we place it on the same 

 stand that the bees were taken from, 

 and if there are no objectionable drones 



