1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



923 



fact overlooked by very many apiarists. Quite 

 a considerable per cent of Ihe swarming that 

 comes out of the regular season — early and 

 late — is of this class, as well as some that 

 comes right in the height of the swarming 

 season, and will be far more noticeable in api- 

 aries where the replacing of aged or feeble 

 queens is It ft to the bees themseUes. Let 

 none but the most vigorous queens reach three 

 years — the majority be removed by the end of 

 two full years, and superseding will be re- 

 duced to a minimum. 



Now as to how to tell the various kinds of 

 cells. Supersedure and swarming cells are 

 very much alike — so nuicli so that individual 

 cells of either can not, as a rule, be distin- 

 guished one from the other. Collectively, 

 however, they can usually be dii^cerned. In 

 either case they are built large and roomy — 

 thick, corrugated, or rough walls, and almost 

 invariably on the edge of a comb or in some 

 place where the cell can hang perpendicularly 

 and have plenty of room. If built for super- 

 sedure, usually only from one to three are 

 constructed. Sometimes there will be four, 

 five, or six, though not often so many. For 

 swarming, the rule is not less than five or six, 

 and up to twenty or thirty — usually from six 

 to twelve. 



If from any cause the queen is abruptly re- 

 moved when no swarming or supersedure work 

 has been begun, cells will be built in all sorts 

 of places and shapes. You may expect to find 

 them right on the face of a solid sheet of 

 brood, often two to four in a cluster, and so 

 joined to each other that they can not be sep- 

 arated without mutilation. The wall will be 

 thin, the cell short, and many times no resi- 

 due of feed is left when the queen matures. 

 The number constructed v^ill range from ten 

 to fifty, usually twelve to twenty-five in strong 

 colonies. Sometimes the cells will be quite 

 large and thick-walled, and few in number, 

 though in the great majority of cases more or 

 less of them will be found on the face of a 

 comb and at an angle, while swarming or su- 

 persedure cells are almost invariably on some 

 edge, and plumb, or very nearly so. 



These are my observations and conclusions 

 after many years of handling cells under the 

 various conditions and by the many thousands. 



I think that many of the forced queens are 

 as good as any, and that many are not. Al- 

 most any swarming or supersedure cell will 

 bring a good queen, but many of the forced 

 ones are of a very poor order. IVIany and 

 many a time have I destroyed every cell built 

 by unqueened colonies, not because the colony 

 did not seem good enough, but because of the 

 scrawny, stubby little cells. In such cases, if 

 no swarming or supersedure cells are to be 

 had I select from those colonies that have 

 large and well-built cells. To unqueen and 

 not use any judgment in the selection of cells 

 would degenerate the stock by getting short- 

 lived and weak queens, in my opinion. I feel 

 confident that the average cell under forced 

 circumstances is not equal to the average of 

 either swarming or supersedure ones. 



When a colony is building cells for swarm- 

 ing or superseding, they first make a queen- 



cup, cell stump, or base ; glaze or varnish the 

 bottom (in realit}' it is the roof, for they open 

 downward, and have no bottom), and then 

 depo.sit the ^^^^ in the cell. I do not know 

 whether the queen or the workers put the ^^^ 

 there, but I do know that it is put there, and 

 the cell developed as the egg hatches and lar- 

 va grows. The whole process is of a regular 

 and methodical order, the larva usuall}^ well 

 fed and cared for. 



P'orced cell building is much as when one 

 has been burned out of house and home. 

 When fire, flood, or wind has destroyed our 

 home we put up a "temporary shack" for 

 present accommodation. Suddenly deprive a 

 colony of its queen when no cell-building was 

 anticipated, and a very large per cent of the 

 cells constructed will be of the temporary kind 

 — thin-walled, small, built at almost any angle 

 between the horizontal and perpendicular, lar- 

 vae more sparingly fed — a general irregular and 

 conglomerate lot. Occasionally a colony will 

 be more methodical and regular ; but I suspect 

 that this is mainly caused by such colonies be- 

 ing ready for or having anticipated the work, 

 and had cell-cups already started, and may be 

 eggs or small larvae in the cups in a suitable 

 place for development. 



I do believe that, by using cell-cups, and 

 proper conditions being present, very good 

 queens can be reared under our manipulation, 

 but not by haphazard methods. 



Loveland, Col. 



[Although you do not say so in just so many 

 words, I gather from what you have written 

 above that your experience is right in line 

 with that of myself and perhaps of R. L. Tay- 

 lor ; namely, that queens reared otherwise 

 than under the swarming impulse and that of 

 supersedure are inferior. I think I have spent 

 something like seven or eigLc of my summer 

 vacations from school rearing queens ; and if 

 there is any one thing about which I feel pret- 

 ty sure, it is that queens reared from cells 

 built in a colony that is suddenly made queen- 

 less are not the equal of swarming or super- 

 sedure queens, in prolificness, size, or longev- 

 ity. One can give the bees a sort of swarming 

 fever by continuous feeding ; and under this 

 stimulus cells are built that are nearly if not 

 quite the equal of those built under the ;/<?/«- 

 /■i?/-s warming impulse. But the plan we like 

 best of all is what I may call tht supersedure 

 method, or what is really the Doolittle plan. 

 Whenever we find a colony that is trying to 

 supersede its queen, we mark it and reserve it 

 for future use, for they are just the colonies 

 that, under the stimulus of feeding, will build 

 those beautiful long peanut -shaped queen - 

 cells ; and, my ! such queens ! 



If the doctor will try the plan I am sure he 

 will be converted to our way of thinking, if he 

 is not already. He surely will be if he will 

 try the methods side by side. When we first 

 tried the Doolittle plan ourselves we decided 

 there was nothing in it ; but later on, when we 

 went into it more thoroughly and carefully, 

 we saw there was a good deal in it. I am 

 thinking it will be quite a catch-line for a 

 breeder to advertise, "Queens reared by the 

 Doolittle plan." — Ed.] 



