280 



April 4, 1907 



Beginners— A Queen-Intro- 

 duction Method 



BY WM. M. WHITNEY 



The complaints of a beginner, re- 

 ferred to on page 25, and comments 

 thereon can not fail to attract the at- 

 tention of experienced bee-keepers — 

 especially those who occasionally give 

 their views on subjects pertaining- to 

 bee-keeping in some of the papers. It 

 may be, and doubtless is, true that 

 many subjects that are discussed by 

 writers appear of little or no value to 

 the beginner; but after having had 

 pre-experience — if he remembers what 

 he reads — he may make a practical ap- 

 plication of what at first seemed unin- 

 telligible. What we read is often 

 scarcely less valuable, though we may 

 not be able to put it into immediate 

 use. Even mere theory sets one to 

 thinking, and often is of much value. 

 It is true, doubtless, that the more ad- 

 vanced apiarists often forget their kin- 

 dergarten days, and write for the 

 benefit of the more advanced pupils ; 

 yet there is something always that 

 may be appropriated by the novice ; 

 at least, I have found it so. 



Lest I may be liable to the charge of 

 having talked a great deal and said 

 nothing, I will stop theorizing and con- 

 clude by attempting to give the best 

 method I know of for introducing a 

 queen. It is a modification of the in- 

 structions that go with every queen- 

 cage, and, to me, is of sufficient impor- 

 tance to be worthy of emphasis. It 

 may be of use to some beginner during 

 the season near at hand. I have never 

 observed it in any work on bee-keep- 

 ing, nor in any paper, if I'm not mis- 

 taken. I think that Emerson T, Ab- 

 bott is entitled to the credit for origi- 

 nating the idea. At any rate, the first 

 I ever heard of it was when he gave it 

 to the members of the Chicago-North- 

 western Bee-Keepers' Association in 

 convention in Chicago something over 

 a year ago, substantially as follows : 



When the queen arrives (without re- 

 moving the protection to the candy) 

 place the cage over the center of the 

 brood-frames of the colony whose queen 

 you desire to supersede ; allow it to re- 

 main long enough for the bees to be- 

 come acquainted with the caged queen, 

 and for her to acquire the scent of the 

 hive— say 24 to 48 hours ; then remove 

 the old queen, also the protection to 

 the candy, and with a pencil, or any- 

 thing handy, carefully puncture the 

 candy and place the cage over the 

 frames again, covering it up, and in the 

 course of 2 to 4 hours the queen will be 

 in quiet possession of the brood-cham- 

 ber. 



But queries the beginner, " What's 

 the advantage of introducing the cage 

 before removing the old queen ?" 

 There is this advantage (and in the 

 season of greatest brood-rearing it is 

 very important)— it gives the colony 

 the benefit of her egg-laying during 

 the time the caged queen is becoming 

 acquainted, so that there is no slacking 

 of brood-rearing at a time when a large 

 force of workers may be very much 

 needed. 



Again, should a number of queens 

 be received at a time when not conven- 



American ^ae Journal 



lent to attend to the work of requeen- 

 ing, or the weather should be unpro- 

 pitious, the cages may be placed over 

 the frames of the respective colonies 

 till a convenient time to do the work, 

 which may then be done as above 

 directed, remembering all the time to 

 examine carefully for the formation of 

 queen-cells, which, of course, should 

 be removed to insure success. 

 Evanston, 111. 



Bee-Keeping in California 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK 



Dr. Wilson and son have come here 

 from Chicago for the sake of health, 

 and ask some pertinent questions re- 

 garding bee-keeping in this section. 

 They desire to be much out-of-doors, 

 and wish to find some pleasant employ- 

 ment that may occupy their hands, and 

 at the same time receive same financial 

 returns for their labor. Our friends 

 have done well to come to this region, 

 especially if they have lung trouble. 

 Here we can live out-of-doors, virtually, 

 winter and summer, and diseased lungs 

 must be pretty bad that can still cling 

 to disease in the face of such out-of- 

 door life. I know of many who have 

 come here with serious lung ailments 

 who are now well and vigorous. Out- 

 door air is the great panacea for in- 

 cipient tuberculosis and asthma, and 

 those who are suffering from either of 

 these diseases find the dry, pure air of 

 Southern California a very great, and 

 ofttimes absolute relief. In case of 

 tuberculosis, people from the East who 

 come here in time, and exercise reason- 

 able care after they get here, are almost 

 sure to make good and speedy recovery. 



The first question that Dr. Wilson 

 asks is : What can one hope to gain 

 net per colony, in case of intelligent 

 management ? I am glad that he 

 added the last, as very much depends 

 here, as elsewhere, upon the energy 

 and skill that one gives to the business. 

 I know of an able bee-keeper who has 

 kept bees here many years and his 

 record is about 75 pounds of honey per 

 colony per year. As he has averaged 

 about 6 cents per pound for his honey, 

 it is easy to compute what he has 

 secured. Some years the profits are 

 very great — greater than anywhere else 

 I know of in the world. But over 

 against this we must remember that 

 not infrequently, because of slight 

 rainfall, there are no profits at all ; 

 and sometimes such seasons are not 

 single, though I have never known but 

 two failures to come in succession, and 

 one of those was not absolute. The 

 worst is not yet though, for in these 

 seasons of greatest honey dearth, the 

 bees must be fed, and so there is not 

 only no gain, but absolute loss. 



Dr. Wilson's second question had to 

 do with method. He asked if it would 

 be better to engage with some bee- 

 keeper for a year and take what he 

 might be able to get for his service, or 

 buy a few colonies and commence at 

 once " on his own hook." Without 

 doubt he would learn faster by the first 

 method, and perhaps would be as rich 

 at the end of the year, but there is a 

 pleasure in working the thing out for 

 one's self, and by thoroughly reading 



the best bee-books and taking one or 

 two good bee-papers he might hope — 

 certainly after visiting one or two good 

 apiaries, and observing carefully the 

 work with the bees — to get on without 

 making any very serious blunder, espe- 

 pecially if he had some bee-keeper near 

 by with whom to counsel if the case 

 required. 



These friends wished also to know 

 how many colonies I should advise 

 them to purchase in case they con- 

 cluded togo ahead at once. I answered 

 10, and certainly not more than 20. 

 The coming season, because of our 

 generous rains, promises to be admir- 

 able, and if one started with 20 colo- 

 nies and cared not to secure much 

 honey the first jear, it would not be 

 difficult to increase these to 60 colo- 

 nies or more the first year ; and thus, 

 another season, he would be able to 

 have a fairly good-sized apiary, when 

 he could again work for honey or in- 

 crease, as would most suit his pleasure. 



I was also asked to give the probable 

 expense, kind of hive, and location 

 that I would advise. I replied that I 

 had known good colonies in desirable 

 hives to be purchased at S5 each, and 

 that I did not think that he ought to be 

 obliged to pay much more than that 

 for good, strong colonies. I urged 

 that he take special pains to see that 

 there was no foul brood in the colonies 

 purchased. 



In case one works only for increase 

 the other expenses need not be great 

 for the first year. A good smoker, bee- 

 hat, and other necessary implements 

 are not expensive, and, besides these, 

 there would be little else than the 

 hives. 



I also strongly recommended that he 

 adopt the Langstroth hive, with the 

 Langstroth frame ; not that these were 

 necessarily any better than some of 

 the other hives, but they are doubtless 

 as good, and, being most used, have 

 more to recommend them than any 

 other hive that I know of. 



As to location, I made only two 

 points : One is, care to be in the midst 

 of good forage, preferably near the 

 mountains; and, second, to be as far 

 from other bee-keepers as possible, 

 though this last is not so important in 

 California as in other sections. When 

 we have good honey seasons there is 

 so much nectar that we find bees do 

 well even though somewhat crowded. 

 I should wish to have an abundance of 

 sage (both black and white), and should 

 like to have these not only on the 

 plains and mesas, but should like to 

 have them extend well up into the can- 

 yons, that the honey season, always 

 long here, might be further extended. 

 It is also very desirable to be in the re- 

 gion of large orchards, for the nectar 

 from such source is always valuable 

 for stimulation if not for market. 



Vai,dB of Honky' and Beks. 



I have often remarked that honey is 

 very valuable food, that we must have 

 some form of sugar and starch in our 

 nutrition. No carbohydrate ranks above 

 honey in its food-value, therefore bees, 

 in giving us one of the very best arti- 

 cles of food, are always to be recom- 

 mended, and I am always glad to rec- 

 ommend bee-keeping where there is 



