1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



429 



a cell was built because the queen was sudden- 

 ly removed or was built for swarming or super- 

 sedure. Friend Aikin, you can tell every 

 time for sure. When you see a queen -cell 

 right in the middle of a sheet of brood, you 

 may know it's not for swarming or supersed- 

 ure. If you can't tell in any other way, you 

 can tear down the cells and see whether they 

 are what the Germans call preconstructed or 

 postcoustructed. A cell for swarming is al- 

 ways preconstructed; that is, it is started from 

 the very beginning, with the shape of a 

 queen-cell. A postconstructed cell is one 

 which is first started six-sided as a worker- 

 cell, and that six-sided bottom part is always 

 left, and you may know from that that there's 

 no swarming or supersedure in the case. 



I have read over carefully what I wrote on 

 page 724, and I see nothing to change unless 

 it be near the last, where I say. " In the 

 hands of the common honey-producer, the 

 best queens will be reared by allowing the 

 bees their own way, and then, when the cells 

 have been sealed in a strong colony, letting 

 the nucleus or colony in which the queen is to 

 be kept till laying have several cells from 

 which to select." By that " best " I don't 

 mean that such queens will be better than 

 those reared by other queen -rearers' plans, for 

 I had just said such were as good as the best; 

 I simply put them in the "best" class, and 

 meant none would be better. I ought also to 

 have emphasized the words " letting the nucle- 

 us .. . have several cells." The point is, 

 that in the lot will be cells of the best kind, 

 and also inferior ones, and by giving " sever- 

 al cells " you'll be pretty sure to give one of 

 the best. Of course, in giving several cells 

 you might select all poor ones. To make the 

 matter entirely sure, all the cells would need 

 to be used together. 



It would nave been better if I had before 

 made some of the explanations I have here 

 given. I am sorry I didn't. But as there was 

 nothing about them but had been familiar for 

 years, the necessity for mentioning them did 

 not occur to me. Perhaps also I kept my 

 gaze a little too closely fixed on the matter as 

 it first started with Mr. Taylor challenging 

 the answer I made in American Bee Journal, 

 page 295. The question was, "Suppose at 

 the height of the season you took away all 

 brood except one frame with the queen, in- 

 serting in its place empty combs. Then, 4$ 

 hours after, take away the remaining frame of 

 brood, queen and all. What kind of queens 

 would you get ? " I replied, " After scratching 

 my head over that question, I'm rather inclin- 

 ed to reply that you'd get just about the same 

 kind of queens you'd get if you took away the 

 queen in the first place, leaving all the brood 



and bees Now, doesn't it lock 



rather reasonable to you that the bees will 

 select what will make the best queens if you 

 leave it entirely to them?" I was talking 

 with that answer in view, and I see no reason 

 now for changing the answer. 



I think I have been misunderstood, and I 

 hereby apologize for not trying to express my- 

 self more fully and clearly. Let me try to 

 state what I believe. I believe if you take 



away a queen and use all the cells the bees in 

 that colony start, you'll have a sorry lot of 

 queens, taken as a whole ; whereas by using 

 the Doolittle plan you may have all of the 

 best. But I firmly believe, and believe with 

 all the believing that's in me, that if you take 

 away a queen and leave all the cells for the 

 bees to act their own sweet will, you'll have 

 just as good a queen as would have been rear- 

 ed if the larva that produced that, queen had 

 been reared in that same colony in one of 

 Doolittle's cell-cups after the most approved 

 fashion. If enough of those cells are given to 

 a nucleus to contain one or more of the best, 

 you'll get just as good a queen as by the Doo- 

 little plan. The professional queen-rearer can 

 hardly afford to be so lavish of cells. The 

 honey-producer with hundreds of cells to 

 throw away may. 



Marengo, 111., Jan. 26. 



[If I understand you, doctor, bees when left 

 to themselves will rear good, bad, and indiffer- 

 ent queens ; but as queens from old laivse 

 will hatch later than those from young lar- 

 vae, the latter will be on duty first, and make 

 way with their rivals. All through nature 

 there is a harmony that seems to work toward 

 the " survival of the fittest." 



Say, doctor, if you try to correct wrong no- 

 tions, or prevent people from reading more 

 into your lines than is actually expressed by 

 them, you will have a hard job indeed. You 

 have my hearty sympathy. For instance, even 

 to this day some of my best friends are mak- 

 ing out that I claim that plain sections will be 

 better filled because the bee-space is on the 

 fence rather than on the sections, and then 

 proceed to knock such heresy into fire bits. 

 It's easy — so easy — to set up a man of straw as 

 a sample of the other fellow's manufacture, 

 and then pulverize the very straws the crea- 

 ture is made of. It is useless to say that I 

 never uttered such a heresy, as I have already 

 disclaimed any such notion a number of times. 

 —Ed.] 



ARTIFICIAL INCREASE. 



The Subject Thoroughly Discussed. 



BY W. W. SOMERHORD. 



Artificial increase, or the formation of nu- 

 clei, as given on pages 260 and'61, April 1, has 

 brought and is still bringing many questions. 

 Whys and why nots are especially frequent in 

 letters from beginners who do not seem, gen- 

 erally, to understand fully any method of in- 

 creasing artificially their number of colonies. 

 For the benefit of such readers I will again 

 sketch over the subject of artificial increase, 

 as I am doing some of it now myself. I in- 

 creased at a place where I am starting an api- 

 ary, seven colonies, up to an even fifty, or 

 seven from each hive that I had to begin with. 

 The queens were all removed from the seven 

 parent colonies just eleven days before divid- 

 ing, and were carried to other apiaries, and 

 used — the best ones, I mean. The old or ap- 

 parently feeble ones were killed. After re- 



