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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



having heard something of the old theory that 

 was put before the bee-keeping fraternity dur- 

 ing tiie sixties, of "lilie food, like queens." As 

 hybrid bees will always give the best results in 

 queen-rearing of any variety of bees with 

 which I am acquainted, except the Cyprians, I 

 use them very largely to feed and perfect queen- 

 cells, and, after years of careful watching, and 

 with years of success in perfecting as yellow 

 bees as can be found in the world, I fail to find 

 wherein the food has any thing to do with purity 

 of stock or the changing of the color or the dis- 

 position of the progeny of any queen in the 

 least. If royal jelly prepared by black or hy- 

 brid bees could contaminate queens of the Ital- 

 ian race, surely the same food prepared by the 

 brightest of the golden Italians would contami- 

 nate the black or German race of bees. I have 

 proven by experiment that black queens 

 brought to perfection in yellow Italian colonies 

 are not in the least degree different from those 

 nursed by their own " blood," hence I feel that 

 I am justified in going on record as saying that 

 the queen progeny of any race or variety of bees 

 are in no way changed as to markings, disposi- 

 tion, etc., through tlie food given them. If 

 there are those among the readers of Glean- 

 ings who think otherwise, I should like to have 

 them tell us upon what they base their conclu- 

 sions. While these nice points are of interest 

 only to queen-breeders, in a dollar-and-cents 

 way, yet they are helpful in making up the 

 general fund of bee-knowledge which we are 

 handing down to future generations; hence I 

 believe Gleanings will be willing to give all 

 the best thoughts on the matter which may be 

 sent in. 



EAKLY REARING OF QUEENS. 



Question.— How early in spring can I com- 

 mence to rear queens, taking the stage of ad- 

 vancement in drone-rearing as a guide? In 

 other words, if I commence to raise queens 

 when I see larvae in drone-cells, will drones be 

 on hand to meet the queen when she is ready? 



Answer.— If you use any of the plans by 

 which larvie from 34 to 36 hours old are given 

 to the bees from which to rear queens, your 

 queens will hatch in from eleven to twelve days 

 from the time you start the cells; as the rule 

 for a queen is, three days in the egg fol-m, six 

 days in the larval form, and seven days in the 

 chrysalis, making a period of sixteen days from 

 the egg to the time the young queen emerges 

 from the cell. Very warm weather will hasten 

 the development during all stages, to a slight 

 extent; while very cool weather, or inactivity 

 with the bees, as in the fall of the year, retards 

 this development. I have never known this 

 development to be hastened to a greater degree 

 than having the queen hatch in I;Vo days; but 

 I have had it so retarded in the fall of the year, 

 especially where queens were reared in upper 

 stories, that they did not emerge from their 



cells, or become fully maturo. till "iO days from 

 the time the egg wss laid by the mother- queen. 

 But, as I said before, 16 day> is the rule, and it 

 is one which can be depended upon in lit cases 

 out of 20. As a rule, the young queen does not 

 go out to meet the drone till she is from seven 

 to eight days old, so we have the time as being 

 from 17 to 20 days from the starting to rear 

 queens to the time they would naturally become 

 fertile, where every thing is favorable. Occa- 

 sionally a queen will fly from the hive, evident- 

 ly in search of the drone, when from four to five 

 days old; and I have known them to be 28 days 

 old before becoming fertile; but in nine cases 

 out of ten, queens are fertilized when from sev- 

 en to eight days old, and commence to lay when 

 from nine to ten days old, when the weather is 

 favorable. If the above is correct, and I be- 

 lieve it is, then it will be seen that we shall 

 want flying or mature drones in 17 days, at 

 least, from the time we start our queen-cells. 

 Now, I have not as carefully observed the time 

 of the maturing of drones as I have that of the 

 queens; but my impression is, from what I have 

 experimented along this line, that the drone is 

 in the egg and larval form about 10 days, or 

 one day longer than the worker, and about 

 fourteen days in the chrysalis form, making a 

 period of 24 days from the time the egg is laid 

 to the perfect drone. From six to eight days 

 after the drone emerges from the cell it goes 

 out for its first flight, to void excrement, etc., 

 similar to what the worker-bees do. which we 

 call their first play-spell, during which they 

 mark their location also. After this first flight 

 they go out every pleasant day from 12 m. to 3 

 p. M.. to meet the queens, if any are to be found, 

 so that we have about '^2 to 34 days from the 

 time the queen lays the eggs in the cells for the 

 drones, to the time they are ready to meet the 

 queens. As we had from 17 to 20 days from the 

 time we commenced to rear queens to the time 

 the queen would go out to meet the drones, it 

 will be seen that the drone eggs should be laid 

 17 days, at least, before we start to rear queens, 

 and this would bring the time to where the 

 drone brood would have been sealed six or 

 seven days. I never commence to rear queens 

 till plenty of scaled drone brood appears in my 

 drone-rearing colonies: while the rule I adopt 

 is, not to commence to rear queens till the eyes 

 of the chrysalis drone commence to change 

 from the white color of said chrysalis while in 

 its first stages, to the purple color of its later 

 stage. Very early queen-rearing generally re- 

 sults very unsatisfactorily in this locality, as 

 the colonies used for this purpose are very 

 much retarded about building up, and the 

 queens do not come up to the standard of per- 

 fection unless great care is used in seeing that 

 all the requisites of a perfect development are 

 present, which is well nigh impossible during 

 March, April, and May. 



