1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



725 



So important is it to have the best queens 

 possible, that the matter should be very seri- 

 ously considered before following a plan 

 that, in Mr. Taylor's judgment, would bring 

 such bad results. 



One might suppose that, if the bees have 

 intelligence enough to select an older larva 

 because it would give them an earlier queen, 

 their intelligence might carry them a step 

 farther, and make them willing to wait for a 

 better queen. But it isn't always safe to trust 

 the bees to do what might seem best to rea- 

 soning creatures. In some casts man's reason 

 comes in to direct the bees. Mr. Taylor says 

 when the matter is left to the choice of the 

 bees " they don't " select what will make the 

 best queens. In their hurry they select larvte 

 too old. Scientists tell us that the food the 

 worker larva gets for the first three days is 

 the same as the royal larva gets throughout 

 its entire existence, and that a larva three 

 days from the egg is as good as the best to 

 produce a queen. So the difference between 

 a worker and a queen is made in the last two 

 or three days of feeding before it is sealed up. 

 But although the difference is made in that 

 two or three days, it makes more than that 

 length of time in the development, for the 

 worker is five or six days longer in coming to 

 maturity than the queen. 



Now, suppose a queen is taken away from a 

 colony, there being present eggs and brood in 

 all stages. One se^ of bees say, "Here's a 

 larva three days old; we'll rear a queen from 

 that." Another set says, " Here's a larva 

 two or three days older, just ready to be 

 sealed over ; let us rear a queen from this, 

 and we shall have a queen two or three 

 days sooner." Now, this latter larva, if 

 it were continued as a worker, would not 

 emerge from its cell until 21 days from the 

 laying of the egg ; and, changing from its 

 original destination so late in life, it will be 

 only an abortive sort of queen, taking nearly 

 as long to develop as a worker; so it will turn 

 out that the larva three days old will come 

 out of its cell sooner than its older sister. In 

 general, it may be said that any larva more 

 than three days old in a worker-cell has had a 

 change in its food unfitting it for a perfect 

 queen, and lengthening the time of its matur- 

 ing so much that any gain in the way of age 

 will be more than counterbalanced by the 

 longer time it remains in the cell after being 

 sealed up. Considered in that light, is it not 

 easy to see that it is not possible for any queen 

 to emerge from its cell earlier than one from 

 a larva three days old ? 



Keep in mind that the oldest larva that is 

 unsealed in a worker-cell is only two or three 

 days older than a three-day larva that will 

 produce a perfect queen, and that, after the 

 first three days of its existence as a larva, 

 every day that it grows older before it is 

 chosen for a queen makes more than a day's 

 difference in the time it remains sealed up. 



Let us look at the matter in a little different 

 way. How long does it take from the laying 

 of the egg to the emerging of the queen, 

 under favorable conditions in a full colony ? 

 Forty years ago 17 to 18 days was considered 



the right answer. On page 199 of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, Vol. I., 1861, no less an 

 authority than the baron of Berlepsch gives, 

 as the result of very careful observation, that 

 in one case the queen emerged in 18 days, and 

 in a second case in 17 days. He then remarks, 

 "These experiments show that the opinion 

 generally entertained, that the queens emerge 

 between the seventeenth and eighteenth day 

 after the eggs are laid, is correct." But Ber- 

 lepsch used a small forced swarm or nucleus, 

 and it will hardly do to take that as a basis 

 for what would happen in a full colony. At 

 any rate, the time has been shortened since 

 then, and most of the text-books now give 16 

 days. Cowan gives 15; and as he is a careful 

 observer, and, withal, properly conservative, 

 it is not likelj' he would so far depart from 

 the traditions of the fathers without being 

 very sure of his ground. So it is safe to say 

 that 15 days is correct. 



Another question: " When a queen is taken 

 from a strong colony, the bees being left to 

 their own devices as to raising a queen, how 

 long is it from the removal of the queen to 

 the emerging of the first young queen from 

 her cell?" Perhaps something like 12 days 

 is given, and I do not remember ever to have 

 seen any record of the emerging of the young 

 queen any sooner than the tenth day after the 

 removal of the old queen. A somewhat large 

 experience of my own confirms this view. 



Now, suppose a queen emerges ten days 

 after the colony is unqueened. How old was 

 that queen, or, rather, that larva, when the 

 bees began to treat it as a thing of royalty ? 

 Ten days taken from its entire inter-cell life 

 of 15 days leaves 5 days as its age from the 

 laying of the egg, or 2 days of age as a larva. 

 Allowing that the bees did not discover their 

 queenlessness immediately, there is still lee- 

 way enough to assure the selection of the 

 larva before it was older than three days. 

 When the young queen emerges 11 or 12 days 

 after unqueening, then a still younger larva 

 must have been chosen. On this point Ber- 

 lepsch says on the page I have already quoted 

 from, "I will only add, in passing, that the 

 bees do not, as is commonly stated in the 

 books, usually select a larva three days old, 

 but in most cases a younger one." 



I know it is a quite commonly accepted 

 belief that bees left to themselves select larvae 

 too old for the best queens; but it is high time 

 to lay such beliefs aside. The truth is, they 

 don't make such mis-choice; and if they did, 

 such old larva? would emerge as queens later 

 than their younger sisters. A larva chosen at 

 the time of weaning, at three days old, will 

 emerge a perfect queen at an earlier date than 

 any other larva either older or younger. 



So there is no need of any remedy such as 

 Mr. Taylor proposes, "to remove the larvae, 

 in four or five days, from all but three or four 

 of the most satisfactory cells. ' ' Even if such 

 remedy were necessary, how many are there 

 who can tell which are the most satisfactory 

 cells ? 



In the hands of experts, I believe queens as 

 good as the best can be raised by confining 

 the bees to eggs or larvae of a certain age, 



