454 



AMERICAN BEE lOURNAL 



July 17, 1902. 



swarming bees, as my apiary has been manag^ed much dif- 

 ferent during- the time mentioned than it formerly was, 

 queen-rearing being more in evidence now, while before 

 the "race " was wholly for comb honey. 



When God told all animated nature to " go forth, mul- 

 tiply, and replenish the earth," He implanted in the same a 

 nature to do so : and if that nature is not carried out in bee- 

 life, through the issuing of swarms, it will come about 

 through the intervention of men, by way of such manipula- 

 tion of hives as will throw the colony out of its normal con- 

 dition, in my opinion, rather than by breeding for a race of 

 non-swarming queens and bees. At least, that is the way I 

 am inclined to think after all of my efforts along this line 

 during the past. 



I have received several letters similar to the above, rela- 

 tive to less swarmiug occurring since those writing had 

 practiced the plan of rearing queens as given in " Scientific 

 Queen-Rearing." But it must be remembered that for sev- 

 eral seasons past, taking the country as a whole, we have 

 had rather poor seasons, and such seasons would be con- 

 ducive to less swarming. Of course, there is no harm in 

 watching this matter; but to put forth the claim that a per- 

 sistent rearing of queens over a queen-excluding honey- 

 board, or in a part of the hive partitioned off by queen- 

 excluding metal, will bring forth a race of non-swarming 

 bees, would, I fear, in the end, only result in disgusting 

 those who went into such a trial with a full belief in the 

 honesty of the one making such claim. However, I must 

 admit that no news would sound more joyful to me than to 

 hear it as a settled fact, that we had accomplished what has 

 so long been sought after — a race of bees which are non- 

 swarmers, no matter by whom bred, in what locality they 

 were found, and under any and all circumstances in which 

 they were placed. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



No. 7.— Rearing Long-Lived Queens and Bees. 



BY DR. K. GALLUP. 



Now, I am not writing this series of articles in a spirit 

 of fault-finding, but in a spirit of trying to get at the truth 

 in the matter of queen-rearing. 



A queen may start out the first season and do fairly 

 well, no matter if she is improperly reared ; but she almost 

 invariably fails the second season. 



Yesterday (June 10) I examined two colonies that had 

 queens that I obtained last season ; one had scattering 

 brood in one frame, and the other in two frames, while one 

 natural queen had brood in 14 frames, and every cell occu- 

 pied as far as she went. The first two are decreasing in 

 numbers, while the other is rapidly increasing. The first 

 two are Italians, and the other is a black of the same age as 

 the first two queens of my own rearing. This season they 

 have from 8 to 16 combs well filled, according to the amount 

 of room I have given them and the time they have been in 

 the hive. 



Now, some one says the Italians are more reluctant to 

 take possession of the supers than the blacks. Are you 

 sure? or is it because the Italians have been degenerated 

 by artificial or improper rearing? 



In receiving so many queens, and from so many differ- 

 ent breeders, the queen-breeder is at the first end of the 

 line, and I am at the second. In ordering queens I prefer 

 the untested, because / want to test all the qualities — 

 purity, longevity, etc. In getting queens from an old, es- 

 tablished breeder, the percentage of impurely mated is 

 quite small. Then the chance of an untested queen being 

 injured in the mail is not so great as is the tested one, and 

 all she is tested for is for her purity. She is not tested for 

 longevity and other qualities ; it takes at least two seasons 

 to test a queen properly. In ordering 12 queens from six 

 different breeders, last season, only two were improperly 

 mated, and not one of the 12 was worth keeping the second 

 season. 



When I first started in to making artificial swarms, it 

 was with the greatest kind of enthusiasm, but it did not 

 take long to find out that the artificial queens did not begin 

 to come up to the natural ones, especially the second season. 



On page 92 of Cook's Manual, he says the time when 

 queen-rearing is naturally started by the bees we should 

 conclude that queens reared at such seasons are superior. 

 His experience — and he has carefully observed in this con- 

 nection — most emphatically sustains this view. 



Now, I will make a statement, that only queens reared 

 under the swarming or superseding impulse, and in strong 

 colonies (the stronger the better), are perfect. There is a 



missing link to all queens reared in any other manner, 

 whether reared on the Doolittle, Alley, or any other plan. 

 I have reared very good queens, that is, they were very good 

 the first season, but the second season they invariably 

 failed. 



By building up a strong, extra-populous colony, then 

 taking out a frame of comb containing the old queen, with- 

 out disturbing the colony with smoke or in any other man- 

 ner, at a time when they are gathering an abundance of 

 stores, so as to have them in as natural condition as pos- 

 sible, they would make a large amount of royal jelly, but 

 the missing link would be lacking. Queens reared in that 

 manner failed the second season. 



Some 35 years ago I dissected a queen-cell that was 

 built in an extraordinarily strong colony, under the super- 

 seding impulse. In that cell I think I found the missing 

 link. The embryo, chrysalis, or nymph, had what I called 

 at that time, an umbilical cord attached to the vulva atone 

 end, and the other end attached to the side of the cell, near 

 the base, by three or more small rootlets adhering to the 

 side of the cell, and extending to very near the base. I 

 then " went gunning " for more of the same sort, but found 

 none, as I searched for them in cells built over worker- 

 larva: or forced or unnaturally reared queens. 



About that time I went out of the bee-business entirely, 

 but kept up a strong thinking " why " I should find one, 

 and only one, with that attachment. Was that a freak, or 

 was I mistaken ? Now, Prof. Cook, you are a scientist, 

 which I am not ; I ask you to look into this matter scien- 

 tifically, and give the bee-keepers the result. Select cells 

 from colonies that are built under the swarming or super- 

 seding impulse, dissect carefully, beginning near the base, 

 and open it so as to get at the back of the chrysalis, for if 

 you open it at the front you will be likely to destroy the 

 roots, or misplace the cord so you can not make a careful 

 examination of all its parts in their natural position. Those 

 roots or tendrils do not go wandering around through the 

 mass of royal jelly, but closely adhere to the wall of the 

 cell. They suck up substance from the jelly and convey it 

 to the queen through this tube, so she is receiving nourish- 

 ment all the time. She is in the embryo stage after she 

 has done, taking nourishment through the mouth. 



Right here is partially where the longevity comes in, 

 extra-prolificness, etc. If you examine one of those natural 

 cells immediately after the queen has emerged, you will 

 find the jelly that is left completely dry, tough and leathery- 

 like, whereas examine one where you have reared an un- 

 natural queen, before the workers have had a chance at it, 

 and you will find it still quite moist. The missing link was 

 lacking to convey the moisture up to the embryo. I have 

 often wondered why there was such a lavish expenditure of 

 seemingly useless royal jelly made by the bees. But from 

 my present knowledge even a blind man with his eyes shut 

 ought to see that the blessed bees know what they are about. 

 They even do their share where they are compelled to rear 

 a forced or unnatural queen. 



Upon the quality of the queen depends the profits of 

 the apiary. There is a vast difference between a queen 

 that will deposit from 3 to 6 eggs in a minute and one that 

 deposits an egg every 10 or 20 minutes. The first-mentioned 

 compels the workers to store in the supers by their numbers 

 and longevity, while the last-mentioned will not for lack of 

 numbers. Of course, I mean when they are gathering suffi- 

 cient to store. 



A number of years ago I took an unusually strong col- 

 ony of bees out of a house about 4 feet square and 6 feet 

 high ; they had been in there so long, and reared their 

 queen to suit the capacity of the house, that the bees lived 

 to a great age, and had become regular bandits or pirates, 

 and a nuisance in the neighborhood. Whenever there was 

 a dearth of forage for them to gather from natural sources, 

 they would pitch into standard colonies in the neighborhood 

 en masse, and rob them outright. They tried it on my bees, 

 but I fixed a trap for them, and caught and kept a good, 

 strong colony of them. I notified the owner, and he finally 

 employed me to take them out, as the neighbors made such 

 strong complaints about their depredations that it was dis- 

 agreeable for the man to stand it. Now. what I am getting 

 at is this : 



In that colony there were not only a few old black, 

 hairless, shiny bees, but there were thousands of them. 

 They were so long-lived that they would forget their bad 

 habits from one year or season to another. I have had a 

 grand chance, in many instances, to look thoroughly into 

 this theory. Long-lived queens make long-lived workers, 

 and short-lived queens make short-lived workers. 



Orange Co., Calif. 



