July 10, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



439 



sister need have no fear. The hives may be raised and 

 put on Icffs to (fct the better of the ants, etc. 



Die Brazilianische Uieneiipfleg-e— a bee-journal printed 

 in the (ierman language — will in no small degree be the 

 means of distributing knowledge and help raise apiculture 

 to a higher plane. 



The most important nectar-secreting plants in Brazil 

 are the orange-tree, peach-tree, tamarind, and other numer- 

 ous fruit-trees ; also the cofieo, tea and cotton plants. 



The foregoing is largely taken from the Leipziger 

 Bienen-Zeitung. t)ntario Co., N. Y. 



No. 6.— Rearing Long-Lived Queens and Bees. 



BV UK. K. CAM.! r. 



Now let us look into the question of requeening every 

 spring with young queens from the South. Your queens 

 are all reared on the degenerating or contrary-to-nature 

 plan. Many of them do fairly well the first season, but 

 their workers, being short-lived, dwindle down through the 

 winter in this climate so that it is almost impossible to get 

 them up numerous enough to take advantage of the orange- 

 blossbra honey, which is quite an item. The second season 

 those forced or degenerate queens almost invariably fail, 

 and if they are superseded their young queens are reared in 

 a small, weak colony, and they lack vigor and prolificness. 

 Now suppose we take said queens in the East, where they 

 lie comparatively dormant through the winter ; as soon as 

 spring opens and they commence working, they dwindle 

 down very rapidly with old age. There is where your 

 spring dwindling comes in. 



I will have to ask a question : Why do not the bees 

 from a natural queen dwindle just the same? I think I 

 would better answer that question in my own manner, and 

 right here: Simply because the bees from the natural 

 queen are longer-lived, and the bees from the degenerate 

 queen are very short-lived. 



The natural queen is just as prolific the second season 

 as she was the first. She fills the cells with eggs so rapidly, 

 and her workers are long-lived enough so that the young 

 brood comes on more rapidly than the old bees die off, and 

 the colonj' is kept up to its working strength at all times, 

 providing they have honey enough in their hive to fall back 

 on in an emergency, such as a cold, rainy spell, etc. A 

 good, rightly-reared queen ought to keep up her full pro- 

 lificness well into the fourth season. I have had them last 

 until the sixth season, and I could not see any difference 

 between the fifth and first ; and when the queen was super- 

 seded in the sixth season the colony was strong and numer- 

 ous, so they could rear a vigorous and perfect queen. 



Now, don't you think you had better keep that old, pro- 

 lific, long-lived queen that rears long-lived workers that are 

 able and willing to work both outside and in, rather than 

 to supersede her with one of those degenerate queens — 

 cheap ones from anywhere ? 



I want to tell you that those cheap queens are dear ones 

 as a gift, for you have to furnish a colony, and with lots 

 of them you have to furnish another colony and queen to 

 rear bees to keep the first colony in strength, in order to 

 have them do anything at all. I have had them where it 

 would take eight to keep up a colony as strong in numbers 

 as one good queen would do. 



I received a queen this spring reared last fall, and all 

 the coaxing I can do for her she only partly occupies three 

 Langstroth frames ; while I have two queens of my own 

 rearing, one occupying 16 frames and the other 15. I have 

 one naturally reared, black queen that occupies 15 frames 

 fully, and the 16th one partially, and this is her second 

 season. 



To illustrate further: Late last season a young boy 

 that had no previous experience with bees, undertook to 

 take a colony out of a tank-house. Not knowing how to 

 handle them he got badly stung, but succeeded in getting 

 the queen and a small quantity of the bees. One of my 

 young sons made a hive for them ; not knowing the value 

 of ready-made comb he destroyed most of the combs, but I 

 patched up part of a frame with pieces, then hived them on 

 three frames. They filled four frames last fall. Sometime 

 about the first of April I looked them over and found that 

 they had filled two frames outside of thedivision-board, and 

 the queen had all packed with brood. Now, at this time 

 none of my purchased queens had done anything to gain in 

 numbers — in fact, were rather decreasing. My small, 

 starved-out, black colony, that I obtained last fall, was 

 building comb rapidly, and the queen was occupying the 

 cells as fast as they were made deep enough to occupy, and 

 they have now two supers and the hive completely full, and 

 every comb built but three— the ones they were first hived 

 on built by themselves — and the queen had 15 combs filled 

 with brood. I introduced a mature cell, built at superseding 

 time, from one of my Italian colonies, and the young Ital- 

 ians are now working outside (June 2). I do not expect a 

 better queen, but I want the Italians, as they will not med- 

 dle with the drying fruit or the canneries as the blacks will. 

 The Italians always find flowers of some kind to keep 

 busy on. 



I have never reared Italian queens for sale, as my other 

 business prevented, and I never could see my way clear to 

 satisfy myself, let alone purchasers. I said, years ago, in 

 the American Bee Journal, that I did not believe that one 

 could rear cheap queens and have them all good ones, and 

 I have seen no reason to alter my mind yet. Although one 

 man said in a convention that, assure him of a market for 

 them and he would agree to rear them at 10 cents each. My 

 strong impression is that they would be only 10-cent queens, 

 any way you could fix it. 



Here the oranges commence blossoming in March, and 

 continue until the latter part of May, and if we have the 

 right kind of queens and weather we get a good quality and 

 quantity of honey. 



I said, years ago, that upon the queen nearly everything 

 depends in bee-keeping, and I have not yet changed that 

 opinion. Orange Co., Calif. 



Convention Proceedings. 



Affairs and Interests of New York Bee-Keepers. 



lieiid 'd the niftUnij nf the Xeie Yurk .Shite Associdtiuit uf Bfe-Keeptrs' 

 Hocielies, held nt Geuevii, X. J'., in February, 1002. 



BY PRES. W. F. MARKS. 



3/etnbers of the New York Slate Association of Bee-Keepers' 

 Societies : — 



It is my duty and privilege to address you again on 

 matters pertaining to the affairs and interests of our organi- 

 zation. I shall aim to be brief. 



This meeting is, to all intents and purposes, a congress 

 of bee-keepers. You come here by authority and direction 

 of your local societies, and represent to the best of your 

 ability their wishes and desires. Your coming is the result 

 of organization — organization for a purpose, an object, 

 many purposes and many objects. There are so many 

 problems for us to solve, and solve rightly, that it will re- 

 quire your undivided attention and thought. 



