1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



49 



difference lies, giving facts to support tlieir 

 ideas? Has any one noticed tliat the first 

 worlcers hatciied from any queen were in 

 the least inferior to those produced by the 

 same queen later on in life, every thing other- 

 wise being in a normal condition? The size of 

 the cradle and the amount of food given govern 

 this matter, it seems to me. rather than the age 

 of the queen. 



3. Some of the eggs are removed to give 

 place to tl'.e larger and more commodious 

 queen-cells. Why more than these are remov- 

 ed I do not know, unless it is because the colo- 

 ny is thrown into an abnormal condition. As 

 to what becomes of the eggs. I have no hesita- 

 tion in saying that the bees eat thetu; fori 

 have repeatedly seen bees eating eggs as they 

 came from the queen. Because the bees eat 

 eggs, it does not necessarily follow that they in 

 any way enter into the food given to the young 

 queen larva, for, according to my observations, 

 thousands of eggs are eaten by the bees when 

 they have no idea of rearing queens. And if 

 they did enter into the royal jelly they conld 

 only form so small a part of the whole that lit- 

 tle or no chance as to coloring could b(^ given. 

 But if. as nearly all claim, this royal .jelly is an 

 animal secretion, how could it po-^sibly affect 

 the color of the young queens, even if the royal 

 jelly was formed wholly fi'oiu a diet of eggs 

 from black queens? 1 had supposed the old 

 Kii'by theory was exploded long ago. From 

 many years of experience, I iiave failed to find 

 that black nurses, or eggs or larv;e from a black 

 queen, in a hive froTii which Italian queens 

 were being reared, had any thing to do with 

 the coloring of such queens. 



4. Five days after maturity is the least num- 

 ber that I ever knew to elapse before the queen 

 went out to meet the drones. But a queen 

 does not always hatch on her maturity, for very 

 many are held in their cells from one to five 

 days by the worker bees, after they would have 

 gnawed off the capping to tlii'ir cell and come 

 out, could they have had tlieirown way. Queens 

 are more often held in their cells in this way 

 than is generally supposed. In one instance I 

 opened a hiv<' and found a young queen piping 

 away wltii a vehemence I had never known be- 

 fore. After looking th<' hive over I found a 

 queen-cell with a queen in it which I had over- 

 looked when cutting out cells from this hive 

 some tim(> bt^fore. As there was plenty of bees 

 in this iiive I took the frame having this cell 

 upon it. bees and all. and set it in an empty 

 hive, together with a fraiue of honey, thus 

 forming a nucleus. The queen fi'om this cell 

 took her wedding-tlight successfully the next 

 day: and in two days more, or three days in all 

 frotu the time I set the sealed cell in the hive, 

 she was laying worker eggs regularly in the 

 comb which her cradle was on. This is a fact, 

 and is as I have it down in one of my diaries. 

 I told it at a bee-convention once, not explain- 

 ing the aforesaid maturity part, and no one 

 would believe it. Thus it will be .seen that the 

 days froiu Imtchiitii are not a safe guide to go 

 by. 



."). Yes: the queen hatched in 10 days will, as 

 a rule, be slower in going out. In round num- 

 bers. 3 days in the egg fortu. (J days in the 

 larva form, and 7 days in the sealed state, is 

 the rule for all queens from a colony in a nor- 

 mal condition. Thus it will be seen that the 

 queen which hatches in 10 days must have been 

 from a larva at least 3 days old, when the bees 

 commenced to change it from a worker to a 

 queen. Nine-day queens are very slow in be- 

 ing fertilized, while, out of a batch of (jueens 

 which once hatched in 8^j days, only two be- 

 came fertile at all: one being fertilized after 

 she was 20 days old. These queens could 



scarcely be told from a worker, and neither 

 lived to be over three months old. 



6. They can be forced out at three to four 

 days old; but when the colony is in a normal 

 condition. K) days is the rule. For observations 

 along this line, proving the saiue to be facts, 

 see back volumes of the different bee- papers. 



7. Either or all. just according to the wants 

 of the colony, and according to the supply 

 to be had froiii the fields. 



8. Yes: and I would add, that some of the 

 best queens I ever had in my apiary W(M-e I'ear- 

 Qd by this superseding process, the old queen 

 living from one day to one y(>ai- after the young 

 queen, or the queen-cell for her. was started. 

 The answer to question 2 will hold good here. 

 I have never seen any difference in queens or 

 workers reared from queens about to cease 

 life, as compared with the same from the same 

 queen when in her prime. Has any one else ? 

 If so, will he please tell us about it? 



Borodino. N. Y., Jan. 1. G. M. Doolittle. 



[In regard to Qu. 3, where queenless colonies 

 aregivenacomb full of eggs, the latter are surply 

 not (lUvays destroyed; for at one time we prac- 

 ticed this plan for getting cells, nearly a 

 whole season: and I did not particularly notice 

 the disappearance at the time, although I have 

 noticed something of the kind since. Will oth- 

 ers who have experimented particularly in this 

 line let us know about it?] 



THE HOFFMAN FRAME. 



thp: new heddox hive. 



Friend Root: — According to my promise to 

 you at-the Keokuk convention. I will give you 

 my experience for the last 8 years with the 

 "Hoffman frame." My first bees were hived 

 on Root's metal -cornered frames, in Simplicity 

 hives. I soon found, however, that they were 

 too light and frail. They would sag down 

 when well filled with brood or honey, and I 

 soon replaced them with the Hoff'man frame, of 

 which I ijrocured a sample to work by, from 

 friend Hoffman himself, or friend Nellis, I have 

 forgotten which. I found them far superior to 

 the metal-cornered frame — no sagging, and, 

 what was of decided advantage to me then, as 

 I was engaged in migratory bee-keeping, was 

 the ease and dispatch with which I could pre- 

 pare full colonies for transportation; and, later 

 on, when engaged largely in raising and ship- 

 ping queens and nuclei, I found nothing to equal 

 them for safety and convenience in shipping; 

 and at the present, while I am engaged in rais- 

 ing comb and extracted honey in out-apiaries, 

 they fill the bill to my satisfaction, though they 

 are not quite so convenient as the closed-end 

 frames in the horizontally divisible brood- 

 chamber, as used by friend Heddon in his new 

 hive, of which I have 50 or more in use at present. 



While using the Hoffman frame for the past 

 eight years, as stated above, 1 have used all- 

 wood dovetailed frames of diffei'ent thickness 

 and width, some sawed for wiring, some piei'ced 

 for wiring, and some without wire, and none 

 have given the satisfaction the Hoff'man frame 

 has. Why. th(>n, not adopt it exclusively ? For 

 this reason; Their cost. My principal business 

 for the last six years has been that of raising 

 and selling queens, three-frame nuclei, and full 

 colonies of Liees: and the prices I have been 

 compelled to sell at have prohibited the use of 

 so costly a frame as the Hoffman. 



Now, however, :is I am raising honey on the 

 out-apiary plan, I shall use the Hoffman frame 

 and Dovetailed hive, in connection with the 

 new stvle of Heddon hive, with its fixed frames: 



