584 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 11, 1902. 



enough to keep three or four frames full of brood. The 

 average commercial queens do a great deal better. Mr. 

 Case, treasurer of the Ontario County Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, says the queens reared from young worker-larva: do 

 just as well with him as those reared naturally or under 

 the swarming impulse. xVt the present time I have only 

 three bought queens in my yard. They brought their re- 

 spective colonies to a high state of populousness early in 

 the season, and when preparations were made for swarm- 

 ing I formed nucleus colonies with the queens in order not 

 to run any risk of losing them. At this writing (Aug. 7) 

 these nuclei have again reached full normal strength, and 

 are ready for the buckwheat harvest. These are the rules, 

 not the exceptions. I can not understand what kind of 

 queens Dr. Gallup must have gotten hold of. I have no ax 

 to grind, as I do not sell queens. 



In speaking of longevity of bees. Dr. G. judges and con- 

 demns certain mother-queens because he finds a certain 

 number of dead bees scattered around the hives. I wonder 

 whether that is the way he judges this matter, or any other 

 matter, for that matter. If it is, I don't give much for his 

 opinion. The only certain way to test the longevity of 

 bees of a certain queen is by changing queens or brood with 

 other colonies of different blood. How could the Doctor 

 tell whether or not the dead bees lying around were from 

 those special hives ? Admitted that the bees from his 

 properly-reared queens live 90 days, as he says, does he 

 claim that when the time comes for them to die — and it cer- 

 tainly does — that they have vitality enough to go away and 

 die far off, while the offspring from his so-called degen- 

 erated stock dies in or near the hives 7 If his high-blooded 

 queens are no more prolific than those of deteriorated 

 blood, just as many bees of high-blood stock must die as 

 are born, the same as in the colonies of inferior blood. If 

 they are more prolific than his high-blooded colonies, thej' 

 must lose more bees each day than the others, and he ought 

 to find more dead bees around his rousing-big colonies. 

 This seems as plain as twice two makes four. I don't think 

 Dr. Gallup has claimed that his high-blood bees do ko/ die. 

 If they die, where do they die ? (I do not mean to say that 

 during the working season the bees die around their hives ; 

 they don't. They die in the field, as a rule.) We must be 

 careful in our experiments and not jump at conclusions. 



Dr. Gallup resides in California. From his writing it 

 seems his locality is favorable for bee-keeping. In such a 

 country a colony of bees requires a great deal more room. 

 The same number of bees would make much more of a 

 showing there than they would in a locality like mine, with 

 its regular, poor honey seasons. Judging from the very 

 poor results I have chronicled for a long term of years, I 

 began to lose faith in my own ability ; but the wonderful 

 yield I have had in a distant out-yard — with the same stock 

 of bees, mind you — shows very plainly that a good locality 

 is the secret of success. When honey flows the colonies 

 appear populous ; they may occupy half a dozen of 10-frame 

 hive-bodies. There is nothing wonderful about it. 



As to Dr. G.'s bees living 90 days in the working sea- 

 son, I am skeptical, at the least. Mr. C. P. Dadant says, on 

 page 485, in substance, that bees hatched May 22 will all be 

 dead Aug. 1, thus making 70 days, the greatest age of a bee 

 at that time of the year. It is well known that the Dadants, 

 for many years, have used very large hives, and their bees 

 ought to live as long as anybody's. Had Mr. Dadant, in 

 his experiment, changed his black queen for a yellow one 

 on June 1, instead of May 1, the chances are his bees would 

 have lived but 60 days, or less. On the other hand, Mr. D. 

 says that bees hatched Sept. 1 will live till May. With me 

 they live till July, /. <?., just a few of them. Cellar-winter- 

 ing might bring about this different result ; I do not know. 



Thus, it will be seen that different men have different 

 experiences, and arrive at different conclusions. 



Mr. Gandy, of Nebraska, is another example of how 

 widely experience differs. He, like Dr. Gallup, is an advo- 

 cate of large hives, because, as he says, bees will occupy 

 two combs on each side of the hive for storing pollen and 

 honey, anyway. This would leave but 4 frames of an 8- 

 frame hive for brood, which, of course, is not enough. Two 

 8-frame hives would not suffice. They ought to be 10- 

 framers, at the least. 



In my hives of 10-frarae capacity, sometimes one comb 

 on each side is thus used for pollen and honey, but very 

 often — yes, usually — brood is found in these outside combs, 

 although not as much as in the others. In an observation 

 glass hive, standing by the window in my house, I can now 

 see brood again in each outside comb, the colony occupying 

 it having swarmed, and the young queen— an improperly 

 reared one — is again doing her duty, as it seems. 



In a 12-frame glass hive, in my yard, the brood reaches 

 the out.«ide comb on one side ; there is brood in lOframes. 

 These are the rules with my bees here, and my colonies 

 have probably as much brood in one hive-body as Mr. 

 Gandy's or Dr. Gallup's in two or three. It seems, anj-- 

 way, that with good honey seasons I can produce very 

 large crops, inferior queens and small, 10-frame hives not- 

 withstanding. 



The experience of Mr. Gandy as to longevity of queens 

 differs widely from Dr. Gallup's. Mr. Gandy's queens can 

 not stand the strain two seasons; Dr. Gallup's queens livi 

 six years. Both of these gentlemen give their queens un- 

 limited room. In my yards queens seldom live much over 

 three years. 



The reason why the experiences of different men differ, 

 must lie in their peculiar location, as well as in the differ- 

 ent management. Some men may also be keener in mak- 

 ing correct observations. I am not able to detect a great 

 deal of difference in different stocks of bees, or in properly 

 or improperly reared queens. 



I have often used two 10-frame hive-bodies for brood- 

 chambers, with both properly and improperly reared queens 

 in them. It was no uncommon occurrence to find 16 

 frames with brood in them ; but to obtain comb honey from 

 such colonies — that has been a complete failure unless a 

 severe change was made at the beginning of the main 

 honey-flow, or soon after. In good honey seasons it may 

 not be impossible to obtain comb honey from these double- 

 deckers. Ontario Co., N. Y. 



Rearing Long-Lived Queens— Other Matters. 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



In reply to Mr. Baldwin, on page 493, I will say that 

 last May or April (I have forgotten which) I received a 

 queen of the long-tongued variety, cracked up to be extra, 

 etc. Well, she turned out entirely worthless, not prolific, 

 did not occupy two combs with as many eggs by one-half 

 as she should have done, and with all the coaxing that I 

 could do to have her rear bees enough so as to supersede 

 her, she died the last week in June with feebleness and old 

 age, and her bees failed to rear a queen to take her place. 

 Now, I have no doubt she was reared from a good strain of 

 bees, but she was reared out of season the fall before, and 

 in an unnatural manner. It is a fact that a good strain of 

 Italians can and do work on flowers that ordinary black bees 

 can not reach. This fad of long tongues was gotten up by 

 some queen-breeder in order to sell his queens, and the 

 other breeders have taken up the cry in order to keep up 

 with him. Long tongues, improperly or unnaturally reared, 

 are a humbug, anyway. 



The nearest right distance for frames is 1)2 inches 

 from center to center in the brood-chamber, instead of 1*4 . 

 I have tried them both ways. 



On page 509, " One Way to Improve Stock," is a good 

 item to read carefully. 



On page 502, in the article by F. Greiner, it seems that 

 he did not get at my true meaning about extra-large colo- 

 nies producing long-lived queens. An extra-large colony 

 manufactures a large amount of electricity, heat or vitality, 

 while an extra-small colony is lacking in all these essen- 

 tials or necessities for rearing good queens. 



Mr. Greiner says we should not ignore the fact that 

 Mr. Doolittle and others are just as successful since practic- 

 ing queen-rearing according to the new methods as they 

 were when queens were reared naturally. Now, Mr. 

 Greiner, are you sure that is a fact, or have you jumped at 

 that conclusion without examining the facts ? I have ex- 

 amined the facts, and do not find your conclusions correct. 

 Mr. Baldwin says the truth should be spoken at all times. 

 Well, I have begun on this line, and now I shall speak right 

 out in meeting. 



Being a prominent writer on bee-keeping, I have had a 

 great many inquiries as to whom I would recommend as the 

 best queen-breeder, and I almost invariably recommended 

 Mr. Doolittle. I also had queens shipped in my name for 

 different parties, and all that reported said the queens did 

 not turn out right. I have received private letters from 

 queen-breeders, stating they had received queens from him, 

 that they had paid an extra price for, and they did not turn 

 out right, etc. I tried one queen from him myself, and she 

 was no good. Four years ago, when so many were sending 

 me queens to test, he sent me two for a present. I think I 

 received them in August, and in the fall both colonies that I 

 introduced them to had dwindled down very low in numbers 



