1884 



GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTURE. 



27 



HOW OLD MAY A QUEEN BE, AND YET BECOME 

 FERTILIZED? 



I see Mr. Alley, on page 25 of his book, says virgin 

 queens may be kept in his nursery, in the center of 

 the brood-chamber " safely for several weeks." Mr. 

 Lang-itruth says, on page ii of the third edition of 

 his woi'k on the honey-bee, that " if fecundation has 

 been delayed three weeks, the organs of the queen- 

 bee are in such a condition that it can no longer be 

 effected." I should infer, from what you say on 

 page 66 of ABC book, that you think any time 

 within the "first thirty days of her life " will an- 

 swer for impregnation. Now, this is a very import- 

 ant point to be decided, if we are to confine virgin 

 queens in the brood nursery for " weeks," for one 

 may thus send out drone-laying queens, if they are 

 retained, thus confined, too long. Has this question 

 been decided by such careful observation as to deter- 

 mine definitely how long a time can elapse before 

 the " wedding flight," without endangering the abil- 

 ity of the queen to lay worker eggs? 



It may be that some of your correspondents have 

 written on this subject, or at least have tested this 

 question, and are prepared to give an answer. If so, 

 please let us hear about it. 



MARKING THE HIVE WHEN THE QUEEN IS ABOUT A 

 WEEK OLD. 



Another point of importance is, that of so mark- 

 ing the hive out of which the virgin queen goes on 

 her marriage tour, that she will not fail to recog- 

 nize it, and enter it safely on her return. Where 

 the colonies stand close to each other, I have been 

 accustomed to place a green branch on the hive, so 

 that it will hang over in front, or a small flag in the 

 same position. Any thing unusual which will es- 

 pecially attract attention, and strongly distinguish 

 it from all others, is what is needed. I have never 

 lost a queen when 1 have done this, though often my 

 hives have stood quite near together. 



Andover, Mass., Dec, 1883. L. H. Sheldon. 



I know friend Alley makes the statement 

 you mention, friend S., but I think he only 

 intended to convey the idea that they would 

 live, if left there several weeks ; for I am 

 sure he would expect to have themiertilized 

 when they were 12 or 1ft days old. I should 

 be inclined to tind more fault with the rest 

 of the expression, where he says they will 

 stay there perfectly contented and happy 

 for several weeks. We experimented in just 

 such cages more than ten years ago, but I 

 never found young queens "• happy and con- 

 tented" for even several days, wl>en they 

 were confined in any sort of a cage, or any- 

 where else. The question has been a good 

 deal discussed, and I believe 2U days is about 

 the limit. If they are not fertilized at two 

 weeks old, we generally begin to suspect 

 something is wrong ; and when they do lay 

 after that, they turn out drone-layers, as you 

 suggest. Very likely your plan of putting a 

 green bush over the hive when the queen is 

 about a week old, has proved quite an aid to 

 her in fixing the locality of her home. 



LOSING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



My hives are all so near alike I could not tell them 

 apart, if it were not that I have them all numbered, 

 for they are not more than three feet apart. The 

 first 4 I put in, I lost them all, and I thought it was 

 because my hives were too close together. Know- 

 ing that young workers often get Into wrong hives 



I came to the conclusion that this is what became of 

 my queens; so I took a piece of Yz inch pine, and 

 fitted it in the front of the hive outside under the 

 portico, and bored it full of inch holes. I now 

 dropped the queens in one of these holes, and never 

 lost one out of 19 afterward. I did not make the dis- 

 tance any greater between hives, or leave the board 

 in front, after the queen began to lay. 

 Quincy, 111., Dec. 35, 1883. C. H. Smith. 



Friend S., I am inclined to think your 

 idea is a pretty good one. If the young 

 queen crawls out of an auger-hole when she 

 first takes her flight out into the world, she 

 will be very likely to remember the board 

 with the holes in it, and will therefore be at- 

 tracted to that hive in place of any other 

 one. The objections to the plan would be, 

 that our bee-kee])ers are so many of them 

 too careless to take the pains to put the 

 board there when the queen was of the right 

 age, and to take it away as soon as she com- 

 menced laying. Seems to me about three 

 j one-inch holes would be a plenty ; and then 

 j if robbers should ever be troublesome, the 

 ! sentinels could easily defend these three 

 : holes. 



the "good" candy, no good. 



I must pronounce the Good candy that I have 

 read so much about, no good tor feeding up stocks 

 for winter, for a few weeks ago I had several stocks 

 that were deficient in stores, and I made the candy 

 as near as I could after directions. I took pure ex- 

 tracted honey, and thickened it with granulated su- 

 gar as thick as I could work it with my hands, and 

 put it in trays holding about 6 lbs. each, and put them 

 over the cluster on the frames, and the next day 

 each stock so treated began to carry out and drop in 

 front of their hive the dry grains of sugar— not 

 merely a few grains, but in quantities so that I 

 scraped up a pound or so from off the ground. But 

 that was not the worst, for dewy nights and rainy 

 days soon made robbing the order of the day, and 

 they kept toting out the sugar for fully a week, so I 

 shall have to pronounce the Good candy no good for 

 feeding up stocks with. A. A. Fradenburg. 



Port Washington, O., Dec. 25, 1883. 



Friend F., I do not agree. I have been 

 telling you for months you must make the 

 Good candy of powdered sugar, instead of 

 granulated. The finely powdered confec- 

 tioner's sugar has the grain so small that the 

 honey dissolves, as it were, and you have a 

 smooth paste, almost like butter. We have 

 used this exclusively for almost a year, and 

 I do not believe it will rattle down, as you 

 say. 



REPORT OV 1883. 



Commenced the season with 29 colonies — 21 pood, 

 and 8 weak. Spring was cold and wet; summer very 

 wet all through. First swarm May 16. Increased to 

 48, mostly by natural swarming; received 1197 lbs. 

 hoaey — 507 extracted, and 69U comb — an average of 

 42 Ji lbs. per colony — about half a crop for this sec- 

 tion; honey was very thick, and of flue flavor — all 

 light in color. Bees are Italians and hjbrids, the 

 latter gathering the most honey; be-^t colony gnth- 

 ered 135 lbs. comb honey. I use Langstroth hives, 

 8 frames in brood-chamber, aud tHke all t-urplus on 



top. W. E. YODJSR, 



Lewisburg, Pa., Dec. 24, 1883, 



