586 



Jnlv, 1907. 



American Hne Journal 



the victorious young queen stings all of 

 her embryo rivals through the holes 

 made in the sides of the cells. But 

 until the idea of swarming is given up, 

 all occupied queen-cells are protected 

 from the queen having her liberty by lit- 

 tle knots of bees clustering about them. 



And in the above we have the account- 

 ing for what our questioner thought a 

 strange proceeding. But before leav- 

 ing this part of the matter I wish to 

 say that a circumstance similar to the 

 one given by the questioner is somewhat 

 rare, in that the queens were kept so 

 long in their cells. This can be ac- 

 counted for by believing that bad weath- 

 er for swarming occurred at about the 

 time the first queen emerged from her 

 cell, and continued for a week or so, 

 or during the time the -bees held these 

 queens in their cells. Otherwise, as is 

 usually the case, this second swarming 

 would have occurred in two or three 

 days after the emerging of the first 

 young queen from her cell. 



And now as to the matter of what 

 kept the two queens from starving 

 The bees fed them, of course ; and had 

 our questioner looked closely he would 

 have found a little hole near the end 

 of the cell through which the queen 

 put out her tongue to be fed, as I have 

 seen them do scores and hundreds of 

 times. 



Some seem to think that bees never 

 feed a queen or another bee unless they 

 are in a measure forced to do so ; but 

 this is a mistake. I have seen bees 

 feeding these inmates of queen-cells at 

 many times during the past 35 years. 

 I first saw it being done in 1871, and 

 saw the same thing during the summer 

 of 1906, and during many of the sum- 

 mers intervening. 



In 1871 I was immensely interested, 

 as this was my first experience, in the 

 matter. In 1906, I observed more 

 closely than ever before, for the reason 

 that a prominent bee-keeper said that 

 the queen almost laid hold of a worker- 

 bee in order that she might be fed, and 

 that all of the present notions regarding 

 the bees feeding one another, and es- 

 pecially the queen, were only fossil ideas 

 drifting down through the centuries. , 

 I found, as my memory served me of 

 other observations, that all the queen 

 had to do while in her cell was just 

 to push out her tongue through this 

 slit or hole in the same, when there 

 were bees ready to feed her. Yea, they 

 seemed anxious to do this, for no sooner 

 would the tongue protrude than one, 

 2, and often 3 bees would be there to 

 caress it and ofTer food. And these 

 young queens when thus cared for, are 

 growing strong almost, if not quite, as 

 rapidly as is the one having her liberty, 

 so that it is nothing strange that our 

 questioner's queens which were kept in 

 their cells 5 or 6 days after they should 

 have emerged, were so they could fly 

 as soon as he cut the cells open. 



Some years ago, I had a queen laying 

 in 3 days from the time she emerged 

 from her cell. It happened in this way : 

 A colony lost its queen, casting a swarm 

 with a virgin queen, and while they were 

 hanging on the limb I opened the hive 

 to cut the queen-cells preparatory to re- 

 turning them. Upon looking the hive 

 over I found only one cell besides the 



one the queen emerged from, and as I 

 had the frame having it on in my hands, 

 a beautiful youn^ queen came forth from 

 this cell. I at once took the frame, 

 bees and all, together with 2 more, 

 and formed a nucleus with them, and in 

 just 3 days I found the queen laying. 

 .\t that time I thought I had found 

 something extra along the line of smart 

 queens, but a few years afterward I 

 had nearly the same thing again with a 

 queen which I kiiew had been held in 

 the cell for at least 5 days. A queen 

 that is thus held in her cell grows old 

 as fast as do those which queen-breed- 

 ers keep in nursery cages, and it is noth- 

 ing worthy of comment for introduced 

 nursery-caged queens 5 or 6 days old 

 to be laying 3 or 4 days later. A queen 

 emerging from her cell at maturity is a 

 weak, white, downy thing, very much 

 different from the strong, ready-to-fly 

 queens we always have with queens held 

 in their cells till they have been quahk- 

 ing for 2 or 3 days. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



Rearing Pure Queens— Hive- 

 Bottoms. 



BY DR. G. BOHRER. 



Please permit me, Mr. Editor, to en- 

 dorse what is said on page 481, and also 

 much that is quoted from others con- 

 cerning the matter of improving bees. 

 I find no improvement in the Italian bee, 

 except it be the goldens where not 

 crossed with Cyprians, which may prove 

 to be something of an improvement upon 

 the 3-banded bees of 40 years ago, in 

 beauty at least. I have one of these 

 queens whose worker progeny is as large 

 as any I ever saw. And her queen off- 

 spring, so far, are fine in color, of good 

 size, and quite prolific. But their work- 

 ers in turn show the 4th, and some of 

 them the Sth, yellow or golden band. 

 This has led me to conclude that this 

 queen has been fertilized by a drone 

 from 3-banded Italian stock, and that 

 her queen offspring has been mated to 

 golden drones, as the number of yel- 

 low bands points in that direction. But 

 while the mother-queen in question is 

 very prolific, her workers are good-dis- 

 positioned, and as great honey-gath- 

 erers as I have ever had any experience 

 with. 



The question comes up as to what a 

 golden Italian bee is, anyway. Is it an 

 original and distinct race, or is it the 

 result of selecting the brightest coiored 

 queens and drones to breed from 

 through several successive generations' 

 If so, then we are surely getting back 

 towards what an original and dis'inct 

 race of bees was. For it seems lo be 

 absolutely certain that if we use the 

 darkest colored queens and drones to 

 breed from they run back rapidly to the 

 black races of bees. I have found it no 

 small task to keep the 3-banded Ital- 

 ians up to the well-marked 3-banded 

 standard. The tendency is to show ,i 

 yellow waist and one distinct yellow 

 band, with a very indistinct third yci 

 low band. And to breed queens from a 

 mother whose workers are thus marked 

 is certain to show still more prominently 

 black blood. 



With the facts before us, of careful 

 selections resulting in brighter yello\^ 

 bees, and indifference as to selection in 

 breeding resulting in darker and widely 

 different colored bees, the question again 

 comes up as to "where we are at." Onr 

 will reply that we are surrounded by 

 black and mongrel bees, and that the 

 disappearance of the yellow bands is 

 due to this fact only. That such a stat^ 

 of affairs will keep up amalgamation and 

 retard improvement in any desirable di- 

 rection, is without doubt true; but if a 

 3-banded queen-breeding apiary be lo- 

 cated 10 to 15 miles from all other race> 

 of bees, is this strain of bees ever found 

 to be distinct, that none but 3-banded 

 bees will be produced? If so, and these 

 bees are, as some claim, larger and 

 hardier than the goldens, and better 

 honey-gatherers, then it is the duty of 

 all bee-keepers to join in securing such 

 legislative enactment as will secure 

 protection by isolation from all other 

 races of bees. Ten to 15 miles it would 

 seem would be ample distance. Some 

 think a much shorter distance would an- 

 swer, but as it is known that queens 

 are often out of the hive more than 30 

 minutes when on their bridal trip, nc 

 one seems able to state definitely the 

 distance they go from the hive when 

 out so long. But it being highly proba 

 ble that in level or undulating regions 

 they go several miles from the hive, and 

 it being also quitely likely that drones 

 likewise go a long distance from the 

 apiary in which they are reared, any per- 

 son who breeds queens for the market 

 should be required to get control of all 

 the bees within a radius of 15 to 20 

 miles, and take out a license to breed 

 queens near the center of his territory. 

 And the law should prohibit any one 

 else from keeping bees within his terri- 

 tory. This rule should apply to any 

 one who breeds any other strain of bees, 

 whether goldens, 3-banded, Carniolan. 

 Cyprian, or any other race of honey- 

 bees. 



Any one who can answer the ques- 

 tions as to whether the goldens are a 

 distinct race of bees, and whether the 

 3-banded bees are a distinct' race, and 

 what isolation and careful selection of 

 breeding stock has done in producing 

 and maintaining either or both intact, 

 will, no doubt, confer a favor upon many 

 bee-keepers. 



Hive Bottom -Bo.\rds. 



But permit me to join Mr. SchoU, on 

 page 692 of Gleanings, in what he says 

 concerning the flimsy and worthless bot- 

 tom-boards that many factories are 

 sending all over the country. Some of 

 them say that they do not recommend 

 them, but supply them when ordered. I 

 never knew any one to order hives with 

 these trashy bottom-boards. But they 

 get them just the same. I will say that 

 if it is really a fact that supply-factories 

 do not recommend these traps, they 

 most certainly do know that they are a 

 pest, and not wliat the practicd bee- 

 keepers want, and they- should so in- 

 form their patrons, if they really wish 

 them to have actual value for their 

 money. These traps cost quite as much 

 as ?^-inch "boards. The latter will last 

 many years with proper care, while the 



