428 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June I 



thing in the way of brood, and giving a limit- 

 ed number of eggs from a choice colony. I 

 reared some fine queens, but I was puzzled 

 and chagrined to find that some were abortive 

 affairs of the most miserable character. A 

 little observation showed me that only part of 

 the cells were started in the first place, the re- 

 mnaider being treated as worker larvae, and 





•*i- 



- it. 





3- 



**■%** 







FANCY COMB HONEY, ACCORDING TO NIVER S 

 GRADING-RULES. SEE EDITORIALS. 



after they had become too old as worker 

 larvae the bees wanted to start some mor,; 

 queen-cells, and these too old larvae were the 

 best they had. 



Right here let me call your attention to a 

 little kink in the Doolittle method, that you 

 may not have thought of, and that kink gives 

 the method great superiority. The cells are 

 given as royal cells to begin with. They can 

 not be treated as workers for a time and then 

 turned into royal larvae. The bees may emp- 

 ty the cells in some cases; but if they're ted 

 at all they're fed royally, and fed so from the 

 start. So if you are intending to use all the 

 cells that are started, the Doolittle plan is 

 away ahead. 



On page 921 is an interesting article from 

 R. C. Aikin, in which he gives the result of 

 large observation. The editor seems to hope 

 that the reading thereof will tend to convert 

 me from the error of my ways. Why, my 

 dear friend, don't those observations only 

 confirm what I've said ? His observations are 

 such that he concludes that, when colonies 

 are deprived of their queens, the majority 

 start with larvae " not over four days from the 

 laying of the egg," and " that by far the larg- 

 er per cent were reared from selections made 

 inside of five days from the laving of the egg." 

 That is, the larvae w T ere one or two days old. 



The earliest date at which he found queens 

 emerging was ten days after unqueening. 

 These cases were very rare, but you will see 

 that the}' still allowed time for the larvae to 

 have been selected before they were weaned. 

 (To the novice I may explain that worker 

 larvae are fed for the first three days on the 

 same pap as the royal larvae, and are then 

 weaned and put on a coarser diet, while the 

 royal larvae are continued on the same food 

 throughout. ) The latest was 15 days after 

 unqueening, in which case there is the pos- 

 sibility that the egg was laid not more than a 

 day before the unqueening, and was never fed 

 any thing but royal jelly. I suppose that Mr. 

 Aikin means that these were the dates at 

 which the first young queen in the colony 

 emerged when all were left in the hive. If he 

 had taken all the cells and put them separately 

 in nuclei, I think he would have found some 

 later than the loth day, such having be^n 

 chosen, not with the first lot, but later on. 



Mr. Aikin says that in some cases all the 

 cells appeared bad to him. Nothing strange 

 about that. Unqueening by wholesale, some 

 of the colonies would not be fit to rear good 

 queens. The same colony that couldn't rear 

 a queen worth saving in that way would not. 

 have reared a good queen from cells properly 

 prepared by Doolittle himself. 



TRANSPARENCY VIEW OF RASPBERRY HONEY. 

 SEE EDITORIALS. 



Iii passing I may refer to the identification 

 of cells. I don't believe the man lives who 

 can tell by looking at a single cell whether it 

 was intended for swarming or supersedure. 

 Mr. Aiken does not dispute this, but thinks 

 he can decide from the lot. Very likely. He 

 thinks pretty confidently he can tell whether 



