464 



GLEANINGW IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



business according to his own ideas, even if 

 said ideas do smack of our grandmothers' days. 



In the vicinity of Failbrook, San Diego Co., 

 there are fifty apiarists, with 6000 colonies of 

 bees. The amount of honey in 1893 was over 

 200,000 lbs.; 75 per cent of it was comb honey- 

 pure as wlien distilled in Dame Nature's cups 

 and shaded by Flora's beauteous hives, infciior 

 to none. So says R. A. Netf, in the Failbrook 

 Observer. 



" Blessed are the peacemakers." Prof. Cook 

 gave the people in Bloomington, Cal.. a talk 

 upon how the bee aids the fruit-culturist, by 

 the pollenization of the blossoms. The fact 

 presented was news to some of the fruit-growers 

 present. The effect was beneficial, showing 

 the dependence of one industry upon the other. 

 Such talks often will result in harmony. Again, 

 "Blessed are the peacemakers." 



That is just as we expected, that you would 

 all come around to our California view and say 

 that galvanized-iron tanks were good enough 

 for honey. Perhaps something is due to the 

 fact that California persisted in using them, 

 not only for honey, but for drinking-water. 

 Honey is very rarely allowed to stand in a tank 

 until it candies. It is no small job to dig it 

 out. The digging also has to be done in the 

 night, otherwise the bees will insist upon help- 

 ing. The bee-keeper is very careless who al- 

 lows his honey to remain long in a tank. 



I would say to Bro. Elwood, that my authori- 

 ty for saying that the New York bee-keepers 

 were secretive over their honey yields was from 

 a successful bee-keeper who dwelt for sev( ral 

 years in Cherry Valley. I do not wish to make 

 the application sweeping against all of the bee- 

 keepers of New York, nor even against all in 

 Central New York; for I think too much of my 

 native State and her noble sons: but I wished 

 to bring out the figures, and compare results. 

 Our latest figures, compiled fi'om railroad and 

 steamship lines, puts our shipments for 1893 at 

 about 7,000,000 lbs. 



DEf-AYED FERTIIJZATION. 



Question. — How long may a virgin queen be 

 kept confined in a nursery-cage or otherwise, 

 before being allowed to take her wedding-flight? 



Aiisiver.—The tliought put forth in the above 

 question is something which 1 consider of doubt- 

 ful expediency. I do not believe it possible for 

 any queen to be just as good a queen after 

 being kept confined so she can not fly out to 

 meet the drone, when nature prompts, as she 

 would be if she had her liberty to do as she 

 pleased. So far as my experience goes, all per- 



fect queens will fly out to meet the drones when 

 from six to ten days old, during the months of 

 June, July, and August, if the weather is favor- 

 able for such flight; and any contrivance which 

 prevents their doing so is an injury to the fu- 

 ture value of the queen. If the weather is un- 

 suitable, this same queen will have no desire to 

 go out till such a day comes; hence there is no 

 uneasiness, consequently no injury to her value. 

 But confine her once on a nice day when she 

 would otherwise go to meet the drone, and she 

 is injured to the extent of the efforts put forth 

 to accomplish her ptirpose. Now for some 

 pointers along this line, as I have experimented 

 quite largely, in the vain hope of having qtieens 

 mated in confinement. 



As given above, the rule is for a queen to go 

 out \yhen from six to ten days old; but during 

 the months of April and May, also of Septem- 

 ber and October, queens frequently do not 

 become fertile till they are from two to four 

 weeks old; and in one case I had a queen be- 

 come fertile in late October, when she was 32 

 days old. All these queens proved as good, so 

 far as I could see, as did those which were 

 mated at about the usual time as first given; 

 and from this I argued that, if I kept a virgin 

 queen confined till she was from three to four 

 weeks old, she would be as good as any, the 

 same as were these later mated queens, their 

 late mating being brought about by weather 

 not suited to give them the inclination to meet 

 the drone. So I kept queens in nursery-cages 

 and otherwise till from two to four weeks old, 

 then introduced thera to frames of hatching 

 brood or boxes of queenless bees; took them 

 into the fields with me where drones congregat- 

 ed, in cages, with and without bees, letting 

 them out, when they would always return to 

 the cage, even though not a bee accompanied 

 them in the cage; put them with drones in 

 barrels having glass tops; under tents with 

 drones, into dish-covers, etc.; but I never yet 

 had a queen mated, to my certain knowledge, 

 unless she flew from a box or hive of some kind 

 having both bees ami comb in it; while not one 

 of these queens which were confined past the 

 time when they had a desire to fly to meet the 

 drone proved to be as valuable as queens allow- 

 ed their own sweet will; and some of those kept 

 confined till three or four weeks old before 

 commencing to lay never laid worker eggs to 

 an amount sufficient to fill five Langstroth 

 frames. After trying nearly every kind of short 

 cut, as they are called, to secure laying queens, 

 often, from nuclei, by using virgin queens of 

 advanced age to take the place of queens w hich 

 are sold, giving to queenless bees frames of 

 hatching brood, etc., I have settled 'down to the 

 plan of giving a mature cell in all cases where 

 a queen is removed in such a way that we de- 

 sire a virgin queen to take her place, as being 

 much the best plan of any, taking all things 

 into consideration. 



