1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



585 



frames : but it may be enough to show of what 

 great importance your and Mr. Browu's sug- 

 gestions are for the advancement of bee-keep- 

 ing. As I have said before, I am of the opinion 

 that American bee-l\eepers will themselves soon 

 lind out in what way this is to be carried out 

 with their unsuipassed Langsti'Oth hive; and I 

 should be vei'y ghui to learn from them how 

 they in future handle their hives instead of 

 frames. C. J. H. Graveniiokst. 



Wilsnack. Germany. 



[Friend G.. we are oliliged to you for your 

 very kind and very valuable communication. 

 It were no more than fair, however, to say, 

 especially as Eruest is at present absent, that 

 to him belongs tlie credit of the quotation you 

 make. Notw ithstaiiding, however, I empliati- 

 cally indoi'se what he says. The glimpse you 

 give us of the way in which you mauipulate 

 your hive is to me very int(>resting indeed, and 

 I can und(M'Stand now, as I never did before, 

 why it is that you prefer such an an-angement. 

 You have got accustomed to it, and the whole 

 process is, as it were, at your fingers' ends; and 

 then we must admit, as you explain it to us. 

 that there are some very important advantages 

 indeed in handling bees without uncovering 

 the brood-nest at all. In fact, I remember 

 many instances where positive damage has 

 been done by some awkwai'd manipulator in 

 tearing open the top of the brood-nest during 

 cool weather, and then leaving it only partially 

 closed up again after he went away. Nay. 

 further, I have seen colonies get the "spring 

 dwindling" and actually die outright (in my 

 opinion), simply by this kind of unseasonable 

 and unreasonable tinkering. If we don't use 

 the same kind of iiives, friend G.. it is comfort- 

 ing to know that we agree on general princi- 

 ples iir the production of honey.] 



DOTS ON QUEENS. 



SOME QXTESTIONS ANSAVERED. 



A coriespondent says that he has a few Ital- 

 ian queens which have dots on them, like what 

 we (ised to see pictui'ed out some years ago, 

 while the most of his queens do not have these 

 dots. He wishes to know whether thes(? dots 

 are a sign of their purity: and if not what they 

 do denote. I do not know tiiat I am competent 

 to tell just what they denote: but of one thing 

 I feel quite certain, and that is, that they do 

 not denote purity. On the contrary. I should 

 sooner think that they denoted impurity, for I 

 never had a queen which showed these dots 

 that was a good bi'eeder as to the color of her 

 queen progeny. If a mixed race is desired, 

 then such queens aie as good as any; but if it is 

 desirable that a queen should duplicate herself 

 in her queen progeny, oi' come anywhere near 

 it. then such queens would have to be discard- 

 ed. That we may have hybrids of the best 

 class, it is necessary that the breeding queen 

 should be of good Italian blood, else we can not 

 have good hybrids. Some seem to think that 

 good hybrids can be obtained by bi'eeding from 

 hybrid mothers; but so far as my expei'iencc; 

 goes along this line, the best hybrids come from 

 the iirst cross between the Italians and tiie 

 blacks, or vice versa; hence we wish a good 

 queen, as nearly pure as possible, for our breed- 

 ing mother. Where queens have many of these 

 black dots on them, they are likely' to breed 

 queens with black stripes, which, with the 

 Italian bee. so far as my experience goes, al- 

 ways denotes quite a large amount of black 

 blood. Again, the purity of a queen can not be 

 told by her looks. Her progeny is what tells. 



Of course, if the queen is of equal value other- 

 wise, a good-looking queen is to be preferred. 



INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



Another correspondent wishes to know liow I 

 introduce virgin queens which come to me 

 through the mails. Well, I do not aliiutys do 

 it; yet when I have suitable notice of time of 

 shipment, so that I can prepai'e for them, I am 

 nearly always successful. Young virgin queens, 

 just hatched, can be introduced much more 

 surely than those which ai'e from two to six 

 days old. as are those which come from abroad. 

 I hiad an order not long ago for a dozen virgin 

 queens; and after sending half of them. I was 

 requested not to send more, as all had been 

 lost so far; and this was from one of our most 

 noted queen-breeders. Not long ago I saw. in 

 the CdiKididii Bee Journal, something from 

 friend Jones, on this subject, in which he said 

 that all should know how to introduce virgin 

 queens, or something to that effect; but after 

 reading carefully all that was said on the sub- 

 ject. I failed to tind how to do it explained. 

 There are two ways to do this with oldish vir'- 

 gin queens, and only two ways, that I know of. 

 The Iirst (and. as I consider it, the best plan) is, 

 to make a colony queenless for from four to 

 nine days before the introduction is tried, then 

 drop the virgin queen in honey, looking out 

 that she does not fly away in getting her into 

 the honey, after which she is to be rolled in the 

 same, aiid, with a teaspoon, dipped up and 

 turned down between two frames from the top 

 of the hive. If the colony or nucleus has been 

 queenless long enough to have sealed queen- 

 cells, not one in ten will be killed, providing 

 said colony does not desire to swarm, no matter 

 whether the queen-cells in the hive are destroyed 

 by the apiarist or not. In fact, as a rule I prefer 

 not to destroy these cells, for the bees seem to 

 rather let the virgin queen do it. If they have a 

 desire to swarm, the virgin queen will generally 

 be killed in spite of all precautions. 



The other plan is, to take all the combs out 

 of the hive where you wish to put the virgin, 

 placing the queen in a cage having Good candy 

 in one end of it, to an amount sufficient to take 

 from 13 to 20 hours for the bees to eat through 

 to her. By this time they know that this queen 

 is their only hope, so will accept her. but the 

 combs and brood must be kept out of the hive 

 till she becomes fertile; for if put back sooner, 

 the bees will oft<ni kill her and raise anothei' 

 from th(>ir brood; and they will often kill her if 

 only combs having no brood are placed in the 

 hive within 48 hours after the bees have lib(>r- 

 ated her. I consider the introduction of virgin 

 queens as impractical, only as w(^ wish to do it 

 as a means of changing" blood." If Bro. Jones 

 makes it practical, will he please tell us (?i de- 

 tail just how he does it? 



USING OLD COMB FOUNDATION. 



" A year ago I put some foundation in both 

 brood-tVames and section boxes. Will it an- , 

 swer to use the same this year ?" is a (pu'Stion 

 asked by anothei' correspondent. VV(!ll, now. I 

 Should like to say to every one who has a simi- 

 lar question to ask on any subject, you can tell 

 just as well as any one; and all you have to do 

 is to try and see. I have hundreds of questions 

 asked me which I answer by saying. " Try it. 

 and that will tell you." Any thing which you 

 can try and prove for yourself, just as well as 

 not. with little or no cost, don't run off to some 

 one else with; for after you have tried it you 

 will have a knowledge regarding it which will 

 be of more value than a dozen answers to the 

 same question. In trying these things always 

 do it on a small scale; then if it is a failure, lit- 

 tle harm will result; and if a success, you have 



