1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



921 



goods have been seen this year by us than have been 

 shown in plain sections. 



Just before closing this very long symposi- 

 um I want to give some pictures of comb 

 honey produced in old-style sections. The 

 honey will compare very favorably with any I 

 have ever seen in plain sections; but I had to 

 hunt long and hard for it, and finally secured 

 some very pretty specimens, and these are 

 shown in Fig. 10. 



In conclusion let me say that plain sections 

 and fences must stand on their merits. If 

 they won't hold their own, let then; die. As 

 manufacturers we can make as good a margin 

 off the old style of goods as the new, but we 

 believe the new are bound to live, like all good 

 things that have their enemies. 



AGE OF OUEEN-CELL LARV.«. 



Naturally Reared Queens vs. Artificially Reared 



Queens; How to Distinguish Swarming from Su- 



persedure Cells; an Interesting Discussion. 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



Beginning on page 724 Dr. Miller has an ar- 

 ticle on queen-rearing, discussing the point as 

 to whether a colony, suddenly made queenless, 

 and left to itself, wotild select such larvae as 

 would make the best queens. I am not going 

 to pretend to answer the question in positive 

 terms, for I am not sure of the answer myself. 

 I think, however, I can help to an understand- 

 ing of some of the points itnder discussion. 



As most bee-journal readers are aware, I 

 have for a number of years practiced ttnqueen- 

 ing to prevent swarming, and to keep the col- 

 ony very strong for honey-gathering — -espe- 

 cially section-honey work. Beginning with 

 the season of 1890, I have tinqtteened more or 

 less every year. I should judge that I have 

 practiced unqueening on not less than 1000 

 colonies in the nine years. The colonies were 

 suddenly deprived of their queens, without 

 regard to whether they were preparing to 

 swarm or not ; for the bees were in out-yards, 

 and a certain yard must be worked certaiti 

 dates, and made safe from swarming for a cer- 

 tain period while I was at other yards. 



I always calculated to remove any cells that 

 might have been started, at the time the queen 

 was removed. I alwaj's counted that there 

 positively wotild be no swarming for ten days 

 after the day of unqueening. I also counted 

 that, by the end of the eighth day after, all 

 worker brood would be sealed, so that, if I 

 worked the yard the ninth day after itnqueen- 

 ing, there was no open or unsealed brood in 

 any hive. 



With the great amount of work to be accom- 

 plished in putting on extras, etc., it frequent- 

 ly happened that the tenth and eleventh days 

 came around before the work of cutting out 

 cells was accomplished. I have even allowed 

 them to run till the twelfth and thirteenth 

 days. I had accepted the commonly taught 

 theory that bees thus suddenly made queen- 

 less would use larvae as much as three days 

 old, or six days from the laying of the egg, 

 making the selection, probably, within ten or 



twelve hours after the queen was removed. 

 Reasoning thus, the first queen should emerge 

 the tenth day if she fully matured in sixteen 

 days. Actual experience, however, began to 

 teach me that a very small per cent would 

 have a queen emerge the tenth day (I alwaj^s 

 count exclusive — that is, the ninth, tenth, etc., 

 after the day of unqueening), and even a very 

 small per cent the eleventh day. I was also 

 surprised to find a considerable per cent would 

 not have a queen out of the cell till the thir- 

 teenth or fourteenth days. 



I believe, but do not know, that, when a 

 colony has already started cells before the 

 queen was removed, such a colony will ma- 

 ture a queen a little sooner than the one that 

 had no notion of swarming. This would be 

 reasonable from the facts that there might be 

 queen-cups with eggs in, and overlooked in 

 cutting out cells (I do not try to find all such), 

 and that the cell-building spirit was on them, 

 and no time would be lost in waiting to find 

 that they were queenless. 



My experience is that the greater part of the 

 swarming resulting from ni}' ttnqueening would 

 occur from the twelfth to the fourteenth days, 

 more coming on the fifteenth than on the 

 eleventh. Colonies worked the eleventh day 

 would show, a good many times, a few excited 

 bees about the mast mature cells, and the in- 

 mate beginning to exercise herself and gather 

 strength. I have cut out cells from a great 

 number — probably several hundred — the tenth 

 to twelfth days, and very few were found 

 emerging as early as the tenth da)^, and but a 

 small per cent the eleventh day. I should say 

 that probably half the colonies would have a 

 queen emerge from the cell by the end of the 

 twelfth day, and taper from that to the fif- 

 teenth day. 



My opinion is that fifteen days for maturing 

 a queen is a little bit short — I still count six- 

 teen. I should say that, since the majority of 

 colonies mature their first queens the twelfth 

 and thirteenth days, they started with them 

 not over four days from the laying of the egg. 

 Then remembering that some few had proba- 

 bly started (or selected) the ^^^ to be used, 

 before unqueening, and still another per cent 

 would not mature a queen before the four- 

 teenth to fifteenth days, and it would seem 

 that by far the larger per cent were reared 

 from selections made inside of five days from 

 the laying of the egg. 



This is not proof, however, that such queens 

 are the equal of those reared regularly under 

 the swarming impulse or by supersedure. 

 There is a great difference between cells built 

 for swarming or for supersedure, as compared 

 with those built when a queen suddenly disap- 

 pears. If I remember correctly. Dr. Miller 

 has said, in substance, that he would like to 

 see the man or woman who could tell whether 

 cells were built for supersedure or for swarm- 

 ing. I do not profess to be able to tell cer- 

 tainly, yet I generall}' feel pretty confident 

 that I can, and I should not miss the truth 

 very far should I assert that I can tell cells 

 built when the queen is suddenly removed as 

 compared with swarming or supersedure cells. 



Many swarms issue on supersedure cells — a 



