American IBee Journal 



Mar. 21, 1907 



have been unable to mate, hatch drones 

 only. It is probably unnecessary to 

 state the well-known fact of partheno- 

 genesis in bees, which is the faculty of 

 laying eggs by virgins, eggs which in- 

 variably produce males. This discovery 

 is due to the immortal Dzierzon, and 

 was long doubted by many, but is cap- 

 able of absolute demonstration. 



When a colony becomes hopelessly 

 queenless, that is, when there are no 

 eggs or young larvje from which may 

 be reared queens, such bees as may 

 have the ability to lay eggs seem to con- 

 sider it a duty to replace the missing 

 queen within the limit of their powers. 

 One or more worker bees assume this 

 duty. But their eggs are laid irregular- 

 ly, sometimes several in one cell, and 

 sometimes on the side-walls of the cells 

 instead of at the bottom. I have my- 

 self seen a half-dozen or more workers 

 laying, at the same time, on a comb 

 which had been taken out of the hive 

 for inspection. Such a sight may be 

 witnessed more readily with the Ital- 

 ians than with the common bees, be- 

 cause they are less excitable and do 

 not become frightened and rush about 

 when the combs are removed from the 

 hive with a little care. 



Sometimes the laying of an old 

 queen that has lost her fertility is mis- 

 taken for that of drone-laying workers. 

 This is of some importance, for al- 

 though a queen may be successfully 

 introduced to a colony containing a lay- 

 ing worker, it is almost impossible to 

 succeed in the introduction of a new 

 queen, if there is an old queen in the 

 hive. 



The only way to make positively 

 sure of the presence of an old queen is 

 to search for her. But there is a slight 

 difference between the laying of a worn- 

 out queen and that of one or more lay- 

 ing workers. The old queen lays but 

 few eggs, and these are always at the 

 bottom of the cells. She rarely lays 

 more than one egg in a cell, this in- 

 congruity being committed only by lay- 

 ing workers, or sometimes by very 

 young and very fertile queens which 

 lack room, and have not yet reached 

 their full ability in regular laying. 



I have stated that it is easier to in- 

 troduce a queen to a colony containing 

 a laying worker than to a colony con- 

 taining an old queen, unless this queen 

 has been found and killed. I know 

 that this statement will not be con- 

 curred in by many others, for I have 

 often seen it stated that it is impossible 

 to introduce a queen to a colony hav- 

 ing laying workers; yet I have never 

 failed. I speak from actual experience. 

 Before I state how I have succeeded, 

 permit me to say that a colony having 

 laying workers is rarely worth saving. 

 Yet there are times when such colonies 

 are still powerful enough to make a 

 good colony if a queen is successfully 

 given them early enough in the season. 

 The apiarist must decide this point for 

 himself. 



In order to show how to succeed, 1 

 will state under what conditions I 

 tried the introduction of queens in 

 drone-laying colonies. We used to im- 

 port queens on a very large scale. This 

 was in the '8o's. We used to receive 

 from Italy about a hundred queens per 



month during the summer months. As 

 these queens were fatigued from their 

 long journey, we always introduced 

 them to full colonies of bees in our 

 apiary, before re-sliipping them to our 

 customers in the United States. The 

 price obtained was sufficient to reward 

 us for such a course, and when a queen 

 had been for 3 or 4 weeks in a full 

 colony, she had fully regained all her 

 lost vigor, and was much more likely 

 to be satisfactory to the purchaser than 

 if she had been held in a very small 

 nucleus or in a queen-cage. Besides, 

 this introduction gave us new blood in 

 the apiary. Owing to this course we 

 had to kill a number of queens each 

 month, usually of the common race or 

 of the hybrids. These spare queens 

 were quite often prolific, and it seemed 

 a pity to kill them. It was then that 

 I attempted to save a good queen and 

 a worthless colony at the same time, 



C. P. Dadant. 



by introducing the one into the other, 

 by the ordinary- method of caging the 

 queen for 48 hours in the hive, and re- 

 leasing her by inserting a piece of comb 

 honey in place of the stopper of the 

 cage. This method has never failed, 

 and I attribute it to the fact that the 

 queen introduced was in each instance 

 a vigorous laying queen in the fulness 

 of her power. 



In the introduction of queens that 

 have been traveling there is almost al- 

 ways a delay in the laying; the new 

 queen does not take possession of the 

 empty cells immediately, and for this 

 reason the bees that have one or more 

 laying workers will have an animosity 

 towards her that they will not enter- 

 tain towards a queen that is able to 

 lay eggs at once, and thus show her 

 ability to fill the needs of the colony. 



My conclusion, therefore, is that al- 

 though it is more difficult to introduce 

 a queen to a drone-laying, colony than 

 to a normal colon\-, this may be suc- 

 cessfully done by the above method. 

 But I would never risk a queen which 

 has been confined to a cage for some 

 days to any but a normal colony made 

 queenless just before introducing her. 



A good laying queen introduced to 

 a drone-laying colony in May — if this 

 colony has still enough bees to take 

 care of her brood — will rear a populous 

 colony for the fall crop of honey, and 



will often prove a paying investment. 

 For this reason, queens bought from 

 reliable Southern breeders in early 

 spring are a great help to the Northern 

 bee-keeper. C. P. Dadant. 



Mr. Dadant's paper was received 

 with marked attention and brought out 

 a most interesting and profitable dis- 

 cussion, though Mr. Dadant apologized 

 for his subject. Nearly all the members 

 participated in the exchange of ideas 

 and relation of their successes and mis- 

 takes along the line of experience which 

 was under consideration. 



JMr. Black asked if the drones pro- 

 duced by working bees were as good 

 for the fertilization of a queen. 



In answering the inquiry Mr. Dadant 

 said that such drones were smaller, 

 and on that account less desirable for 

 the purpose. 



Mr. Black told of his experience with 

 a very small queen — the smallest he had 

 ever seen — that was with his bees for 

 4 years, to his certain knowledge, prov- 

 ing herself a good queen. He recog- 

 nized her by her size. 



Mr. Kildow and Mr. Pyles told of 

 putting unfertilized queens into a hive 

 before they had taken their wedding 

 flight, and still proving good queens. 

 There was doubt expressed by some 

 members as to whether they were un- 

 fertilized, or whether there might not 

 have been other queens in the hives so 

 treated. 



Mr. Stone — I was induced to give Mr. 

 Dadant this subject because of the ht- 

 tle experience many of us have had in 

 handling queenless colonies with laying 

 workers, and the questions that arise in 

 regard to their management. 



Mr. Johnson said he believed there 

 were generally a good many laying 

 workers in the hive. He had never lost 

 queens, but united them by putting 

 smaller colonies on top. 



Mr. Black spoke of his method of 

 uniting colonies ; that formerly he was 

 very careful about handling them gent- 

 ly, but experience has taught him it is 

 better to handle them more vigorously. 



Mr. Dadant said that in the matter 

 of uniting a colony containing laying 

 workers he thought that the entire se- 

 cret was in what Mr. Black had said, 

 and in allowing the bees to feed be- 

 fore they were disturbed, in which case 

 they would be much more peaceable 

 when united. In certain seasons the 

 tendency among bees is to fight. When 

 you open a hive, if they are full of 

 honey there will be much less tendency 

 to fight than if they are not well satis- 

 fied in that respect. Colonies that have 

 drone-laying queens w'ill be more suc- 

 cessfully handled in the spring, both in 

 the matter of uniting them and in the 

 introduction of a new queen. 



Premium List Committee's Report. 



Mr. Stone said he thought the mem- 

 bers of the Association were familiar 

 with what had been done last year. 

 Some fault was found with what was 

 done. The premium on beeswax was 

 raised from $10 to $20. Mr. Cater, 

 the superintendent of the department 

 said they had $50 that could be put in- 

 to that list and no more, without get- 

 ting the consent of the Board. Mr. 



