1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



99 



results as to quantity and quality of 

 honey, while its appearance was equal- 

 ly good. And I can say fully as much 

 in regard to dark stock, except that I 

 never had any bees only one genera- 

 tion off from imported mothers, which 

 gave honey of as fine appearance as 

 that given by either the goldens, 

 blacks or hybrids. Bees direct from 

 imported mothers seem to put the cap- 

 ping to cells almost or directly on the 

 honey, while the other three varieties 

 leave a little vacancy between the 

 cappings to the honey and the honey 

 itself, thus giving a very white ap- 

 pearance to the section honey, while 

 that having no such vacancy has a 

 watery appearance which is against 

 its bringing the highest price in mar- 

 ket. I need not enlarge on this mat- 

 ter, as it is one which has been dis- 

 cussed at length in nearly all the bee 

 papers during the past. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



Young or Old Queens, Spring 

 or Fall Reared. 



BY CHAS. H. THIES. 



That there is a vast difference in 

 queens we all know, and that a good 

 young queen will do us more service, 

 and give us better success than a good 

 old one, most of us also admit, not 

 only that they begin to lay earlier 

 and more extensively, but they are 

 also less liable to be at the bottom of 

 swarming. But I think many of us 

 do not know or realize the great differ- 

 ence in spring and fall reared queens. 

 I have for a number of years experi- 

 mented along this line and find the 

 late fall reared queens far superior to 

 the spring bred queens. Of course it 



is possible to raise very poor queens 

 in the fall and unless tne breeder is 

 up with the times I would prefer to 

 purchase queens reared in the spring 

 of the year. In many localities there 

 are unfavorable conditions which must 

 be overcome to meet with success. In 

 some localities the weather becomes 

 too cool, in others the honey flow is 

 not good or sufficient, in another the 

 flow does not come at the proper time 

 so the hives will or may be full of old 

 bees, but not enough young bees are 

 on hand, and old bees never make 

 good queens. In the first place the 

 old bees won't start or accept a suffi- 

 cient number of queen cells, and sec- 

 ondly they do not feed with the prop- 

 erly prepared food nor the right 

 amount of food, and to rear extra 

 good fall queens all these difficulties 

 must be overcome, and they can be if 

 the proper attention is given at the 

 proper time. I have now most of my 

 colonies supplied with late fall reared 

 queens. Each hive or colony is so 

 marked that I know what kind and 

 age the queen is, and in pretty nearly 

 every case I can examine the colony 

 and tell from condition of the queen 

 if she is spring or fall reared. But as 

 before stated unless you can and will 

 ' get things shaped rightly never expect 

 to raise extra No. 1 queens in the fall. 

 No doubt all that have bred queens 

 have found and will remember that at 

 some seasons they could produce nice, 

 long, large queen cells, when again a 

 lot of cells were produced that were 

 small, short and smooth. This sort of 

 a cell produces a small and short lived 

 queen, but a good, large, rough cell 

 will invariably produce a good queen 

 if all else is right. 

 Steeleville, 111. 



