Aug-. 14, 1902 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



519 



always doubted if any nectar or honey is ever poisonous. I 

 believe a close study will prove that the arsenites arc the 

 cause of this mortality. I have suggested that the honey 

 in the worst colonies be analyzed. A detection of arsenic 

 would explain all. 



IIKKS IN THh MOUNTAINS. 



It will be remembered that on my visit two years ago 

 at Yosemitc, I found no bees on the highest peaks, and 

 great quantities of aphid honey-dew was going to waste. 

 Now I am in the San Bernardino Mountains, and have just 

 made the top of " Old Gray Back," 11,600 feet high, yet we 

 saw bees on Yerba Santa and Potentilla, away up at the 

 top. The yellow and brown lilies are beautiful. It is a glad 

 pleasure to live in the mountains and to breathe the blessed 

 air. Los Angeles Co., Calif., July 24. 



No. 1.— How to Rear the Best Queen-Bees. 



BY HENKV ALLEY. 



I have read the articles of Dr. Gallup on queen-rearing 

 ■with a good deal of interest. In the main the Doctor is 

 about right. 



I do believe that fully 90 percent of all the queens reared 

 are as worthless as so many house-flies. Such queens 

 are not reared by Nature's plans ; in fact, the means used 

 by many queen-breeders are just the opposite to those ways 

 suggested by Nature and used by the bees themselves. Did 

 you ever know bees to use sticks to form cell-cups first ? Do 

 bees ever go into the chamber above the brood-nest to build 

 <jueen-cells unless about to supersede an old queen, or to 

 prepare to swarm ? Now, I have experimented a good deal 

 in trying to get bees to rear queens in a hive above the 

 main brood-nest. When the honey-flow is at its height 

 good queens can be reared by the above method ; but that 

 part of the queen-rearing season is very short in many parts 

 of the United States; particularly was it so this season, and 

 if queens are to be reared they must be reared, so to speak, 

 out of season. 



Now, what are the conditions under which bees usually 

 rear queens ? Natural swarming, superseding an old queen, 

 and when a queen is killed by accident. Of course this last 

 condition comes more properly under a forced condition. 

 Nearly all queens are reared under a forced condition, but 

 bees even then comply with natural laws in producing an- 

 other queen, or others. What do the bees do under these 

 last conditions ? Do they loaf about the hive, waiting until 

 some one has furnished them artificial cell-cups ? By no 

 means; they just select an egg, or several eggs, in some 

 convenient place, and at once commence to construct a 

 cell-cup; in due time a lot of fine queens are reared and 

 appear. Asa rule, a queen-bee so reared is in any way the 

 equal, and often the superior, of any queens reared under 

 the swarming impulse. I say superior. And why are such 

 queens superior ? Now, this question brings me to a point 

 I wish to dwell upon : 



I have always claimed, and still claim, that I can rear 

 better queens by the forced method than can be produced 

 under the swarming impulse. I have the queens in my 

 apiary to day to prove this assertion. And, by the way, let 

 me say here, that I am using an entirely new method for 

 rearing queens. Although good queens can be reared by 

 methods I have given, I can rear much better queens by the 

 method now being used in my apiary. 



I have found by actual experiments that a colony of 

 bees will not rear good queens while there is a fertile queen 

 present. I don't want any one to tell me it can be done, for 

 I assert that it can not te done by any person. 'Tis con- 

 trary to Nature's laws. Even at swarming-time the bees 

 ■do not rear as good queens as they will under queenless 



conditions, and this is why I claim that I can beat Nature 

 in the way of rearing queens. I have thought that queens 

 from cells made at swarming-time were superior to any I 

 could produce by the forced method. They are not, and I 

 do not now save such cells. 



As queens are now reared they are short lived and un- 

 prolific. ,/// queeus reared in hives while a fertile queen is 

 present are short-lived. The bees appear to understand, 

 when they are given cell-cups over their brood-nest, that 

 they are not in want of another queen. But this is not the 

 case with queenless bees. Bees in a queenless condition 

 feel the need of a queen, and they will bend all their ener- 

 gies to produce one or more. Does the reader see the point ? 



Again, (jueens reared while a fertile queen is present 

 are not nearly as large as those reared by queenless bees. 

 I can show larger and better-developed queens than any 

 ever reared under the swarming influence. Come and see 

 them. 



Now, let any one come forward and dispute the state- 

 ments here made. I stand ready to back them up. One 

 may " beat around the bush " forever in trying to prove 

 that the artificial methods employed now will produce first- 

 class queens, but the fact remains, all the same, that it can 

 not be done. 



There is quite a difference between artificial and forced 

 methods for rearing queens. In the artificial method it is, 

 " Do it as you please ;" in the forced plan it is a case of, 

 "We must have a queen or the colony is destroyed." Isn't 

 this so ? 



If I had time, and Editor York would allow me the 

 space, I would show how man can undo Nature, not only in 

 producing queen-bees, but in many other things. All the 

 same, it is only Nature's ways under the direction of experi- 

 ment and common sense. 



Let this do for this time. Essex Co., Mass. 



[Come on with your proofs and methods. " Editor 

 York " will " allow " you all the space necessary to do the 

 thing up in a proper manner. — Editor.] 



Marketing— Taking Orders for Honey. 



BY S. E. MILLER. 



If you have never tried canvassing, allow me to give 

 you a few instructions, not that I am perfect in the art, but 

 my experience may be helpful to others. In the first place, 

 dress yourself in respectable clothing. With some people 

 you might have more success if dressed somewhat shabbily, 

 as they will be the more likely to take you for a producer if 

 you appear in that garb ; but, on the whole, I consider it 

 best to appear respectably dressed when appearing before 

 strangers. 



Take a small pail, say one-half gallon of honey. The 

 pail should have a lid that is easily removed and replaced, 

 and for this purpose I find nothing neater than the friction- 

 top pails. The sample should be a fair average of what 

 you intend to deliver when sold, and, it is needless to say, 

 should be thick, well ripened, and perfectly clean. As to 

 the color, I do not find any objection raised to amber or 

 slightly dark-colored honey. However, we should sell only 

 one kind of honey in a town, for the average person does 

 not know that there is a great variety of honey from vari- 

 ous sources, and should neighbors where you have sold two 

 kinds happen to compare the two, they are quite likely to 

 imagine that one of the other is not a pure article, or, more 

 likely still, they will conclude quite frequently that you are 

 a mixer, and that it is all impure. Should you be obliged to 

 supply honey of a kind difi'erent from what you have sold 

 in the place before, it will be best to explain to the pur- 



