534 



^31ERVCAN BEE lOURNAL 



Aug. 21, 1902. 



these boxes have been used by me more than 30 years. I do 

 not rear queens in them, but merely use them for fertilizing- 

 hives. I have always found these small hives more conven- 

 ient, and easy to manipulate, and superior in every way to 

 full-size frames. '" Well," some one says, " how came you 

 with those fine queens if you didn't rear them in those 

 little hives ?'" 



When the j-oung queens have filled their little combs 

 ■with brood, they are sent out to a customer. In some cases I 

 fail to introduce queens to them, or they are in some way 

 lost, and the result is the bees rear several queens. Al- 

 though none of these hives contains over one pint of bees, 

 they never fail to rear the best queens that are produced by 

 any method used for rearing queens. Now, the " proof of 

 the pudding is in eating it," and I want to say here that I 

 will mail Dr. Gallup, or any other man of his standing, sev- 

 eral queens that were reared in these small boxes, and if 

 these queens can be equalled by queens reared at swarming- 

 time I am ready to " throw up the sponge," and drop tliis 

 question. Conditions, and not circumstances, are %vhat pro- 

 duce good queens. 



Taking a hint from the above experience, I am now 

 rearing all my queens by a method that has never appeared 

 in print. 



The poorest queens I ever saw were reared at swarming- 

 time. and as Dr. Gallup says, " I jumped out of that boat 

 long ago." I don't want any such queens. I can rear bet- 

 ter ones. Why, a queen that was reared in the above way 

 (nucleus) was kept in my apiary 4 years and 2 months, and 

 she was the mother of more than 400,000 bees. 



A few years ago, as many readers will remember, I had 

 a hundred-dollar queen. Thousands of the readers of this 

 Journal had received queens from this particular queen, and 

 nearly every customer sent me a testimonial of the queens 

 received. 



This hundred-dollar queen was a come-by-chance, and 

 reared in one of the little hives described above. I now 

 have several queens that are promising duplicates of the 

 hundred-dollar queen. 



I don't believe queen-rearing begins to be 'understood. 

 When it is, no queens will be reared in colonies that have 

 fertile queens. First-class queens cannot be reared by that 

 process, and the sooner queen-breeders give it up the better 

 the queens will be. 'Tis unnatural, unscientific, and not an 

 up-to-date method. 



I sometimes purchase a queen or two to see what some 

 people are rearing for queens. In all my experience in this 

 line I never have as yet gotten a queen that was worth the 

 two-cent postage stamp that was on the cage. Last season 

 I paid a man S8.00 for two queens. One of them was half 

 fair ; and the other was worthless. 



Experiment, gentlemen, and get down to a method for 

 rearing queens that will beat Nature out of sight. It can 

 be done. It has been done. My experience in rearing 

 queens over the brood-nest has been that more than half of 

 the queens so reared are worthless ; and out of one lot of 35 

 queen-cells only 2 queens appeared to be worth saving. 

 Other people claim that they can rear good queens in this 

 way. Why can't I ? My colonies are as strong, and I feed 

 to stimulate as much as anybody. I had to give up the sys- 

 tem several years ago. 



I rather like this queen-rearing subject. I have given 

 nearly 40 years of my life to rearing queens, and I shall 

 probably continue in this business as long as I am on earth. 



Queens whose colonies fill 100 one-pound sections can- 

 not be considered cheap queens. 



Finally, I have shown that a few bees, in a small hive, 

 without a stimulant of any kind, save for the want and 

 necessity of a queen, will produce much better queens than 



can be produced under the most favorable conditions. One 

 thing is peculiar with the small colony, and that is, I have 

 found the queens they rear are always good — first-class in 

 all respects. 



Dr. Gallup is good authority on almost any subject con- 

 nected with bees, but I believe that I have had very much 

 more experience in this line than he has, or, in fact, any 

 other man living. Essex Co.. Mass. 



No. 5. Improving the Races of Bees— Oiueen 

 Pointers. 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



(Continued from page 51S.! 

 INTRODUCING OUEENS. 



You don't want any nuclei. Nuclei are a necessary 

 evil with which the professional queen-breeders have to put 

 up to get their queens mated. The apiarist rearing only 

 his own queens can just as well have them mated in the 

 colonies which they occupy. 



One or two days after the old queen has been removed, 

 the virgin queen will be accepted, and could be as well turned 

 in loose. Still it is safer to introduce her caged, and release 

 her the following day. 



The trouble will come later, if it does come. If there is 

 any unsealed brood the bees may start queen-cells, and, 

 when they are ready to seal, kill the virgin queen. At least 

 they have done it a few times for me ; and since then I 

 never release the virgin until all the brood is sealed. Need- 

 less to say that the queen-cells which may be there are re- 

 moved. 



Tinder such circumstances, a laying queen would go out 

 with a swarm. Why should a virgin queen be killed ? 

 When the queen-cells are ready to seal, the queen, whether 

 virgin or laying, will try to destroy them. The bees on 

 the other hand, will try to protect the cells against the at- 

 tack of the queen. 



Now, bees have a great respect for a laying queen and 

 will avoid hurting her. But they may not be so particular 

 about a virgin ; and she may get worsted in the scuffle. 

 That would be my explanation. 



TO PREVENT SWARMING. 



In working for comb honey, it is not possible to avoid 

 swarming entirely. If swarming is allowed, both the swarm 

 and the parent colony are too weak to do much good in the 

 majority of localities. The question comes to keep all to- 

 gether. Some re-queen throughout ; and where the major- 

 ity of the colonies are expected to swarm, it is probably the 

 best. If not, I would treat only those that do swarm. 



In the first place, the old queen must be removed or 

 caged as soon as possible. Otherwise there would be a daily 

 swarming and no work done. Furthermore, as long as there 

 are eggs and larva; present the bees will construct queen- 

 cells as fast as you destroy them. So it is imperative that 

 the egg-laying is stopped as soon as possible. 



Later on you can release the old queen, if she is caged, 

 or introduce another one, or let the bees have one from their 

 own queen-cells. 



The advice to destroy all queen-cells but one is not good. 

 Cage several of the cells and pick out the best-looking of 

 the queens after they have ermerged. I am partial to color, 

 and also to a long and well-shaped abdomen, taking for 

 granted that such a one contains the best developed genera- 

 tive organs. 



Here is the chief point, and the key to success : Be 

 sure that the bees are at least four days without unsealed 

 brood. During these days the bees lose their disposition to 



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