486 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



HOW TO TEST A QUEEN. 



A Great Red-clover Queen. 



BY EVAN E. EDWARDS. 



In 1895 I requeened most of my apiary 

 from a purchased queen. The result was 

 disastrous to the next year's honey crop, 

 the new blood proving- worthless. The les- 

 son was so costly that I resolved never to 

 breed from a queen until she was thorough- 

 ly tested. I offer my experience that be- 

 ginners may not fall into error. 



My method, briefly, is to send the cash to 

 some reliable breeder, asking for a queen 

 for "business." On arrival she is given 

 to young nurse bees only, at evening, enough 

 of the good candy being gouged out so she 

 will be released before morning. The 

 nurse-bees, queenless for several hours, ac- 

 cept her readily. I allow no stock running 

 in the yard, not even a chicken which might 

 fly upon the hive, jarring it and thereby 

 causing the queen to be in danger of " ball- 

 ing." 



After several days I proceed to test her, 

 using the following table of gradation, 

 based on a scale of 1000 points: 



THE QUEEN. 



1. Prolificness, from zero to 1000 



HER PROGENY. 



1. Honey-gathering 975 



2. Non-swarming 12 



3. Gentleness 5 



4. Longlife 4 



.5. Size of workers and drones i 



Total for the progeny 1000 



Honey being my object, " beauty " is not 

 considered at all. I do not add size to a 

 queen, because, if she is prolific, she will 

 have the size 99 times in 100. When I get 

 a queen having a small thorax and a short, 

 dumpy abdomen, I know she will fall short. 



A small abdomen, little ovaries, a stunt- 

 ed capacity for egg- laying, are the rule. I 

 should prefer to buj' my queens by weight 

 if such a thing could be done. It takes a 

 10-frame hive to test the queen's capacity. 

 If she fills it to overflowing, practically all 

 the frames full at the beginning of the har- 

 vest, I give her a high grade. If she lays 

 only a few frames full, not enough larva; to 

 consume the pollen, she is graded accord- 

 ingly. One frame of brood would equal 

 100; two frames, 200, etc. If she grades 

 high and her progeny low, or if she is low 

 and her progeny high, then I do not breed 

 from her. 



How long does it take to test a queen? I 

 buy mine in mid-season. I get a partial 

 test on prolificness of the queen — a fair no- 

 tion of gentleness, size, and honey- gather- 

 ing qualities by the close of the fall crop. 

 The following winter will test long life. 



But the real severe test, and the one that 

 settles the question, is the succeeding har- 

 vest. If queen and progeny equal or out- 

 strip the stock I already have, then, and 

 not until then, do I breed from new and 

 strange stock. "When I conclude to do so I 

 never fail to carry the test a little further 

 by rearing a granddaughter or two to guard 



against " back " breeding, for it sometimes 

 happens that the daughters of a queen are 

 the best, yet some of the granddaughters 

 develop undesirable trails. When I put a 

 queen through this ordeal she is " tested." 

 If I requeen my apiary from her she is "se- 

 lect tested." 



In 1896 I got a queen from the Roots. The 

 next season showed her superiority over 

 any thing else in the yard. With every 

 colony replaced from this strain I secured 

 an average of 112 lbs. of comb honey per 

 colony. 



A GREAT RED- CLOVER OUEEN. 



This past season made me an average of 

 168 lbs. to each colony. I have held on to 

 this strain for dear life, never expecting to 

 find its equal; but in May, 1901, I sent to 

 Root for a red clover; She came in July, 

 was put through the test, and, without any 

 help of any kind from other colonies what- 

 ever, made 308 lbs. of comb honey, and nev- 

 er swarmed! Four colonies having her 

 daughters never swarmed, one producing 

 196 lbs. Well, I have reared queens now 

 " for all there is in it " from this breeder, 

 and intend to hold on until I can better it. 

 The honey came from white clover. Bees 

 do not work on red clover here except when, 

 by drouth, dry weather following the first 

 cutting, the corolla- tubes are shortened, 

 which has occurred twice in seven years. 



I am testing queens every year by my 

 method, getting from well-known breeders. 

 I have been using the "red clover" and 

 one of Moore's strain, which is very good 

 also. For the coming harvest I have one 

 from Alley and one from Victor. 



Having no ax to grind in writing this ar- 

 ticle, and no queens to part with, this is not 

 to be construed as an advertisement for me. 



[I hesitated somewhat about letting the 

 three last paragraphs in our reading-col- 

 umns; then I finally decided to let it go, be- 

 cause it emphasizes a valuable truth that 

 many honey- producers do not take into con- 

 sideration; namely, that they can increase 

 their profits by getting a good breeding- 

 queen. I am frank to admit that not all 

 the queens sent out by the Root Co. have 

 been equal to this one. W^hile we make a 

 specialty of breeding from stock that ex- 

 cels every thing else in the yard for honey- 

 production, it is, nevertheless, a fact that 

 all the daughters of such queens showing 

 such remarkable qualities will not come up 

 to the performance of their royal mother. 

 For example, one of our customers bought 

 several queens of the red-clover stock. He 

 put them into his yard, and in a year after- 

 ward reported that they fell far short of his 

 regular mongrel strain; and he gave us a 

 regular raking-over for selling him such 

 " scrubs." 



When I visited Mr. J. F. Mclntyre, of 

 California, one of the most successful as 

 well as extensive bee-keepers in the United 

 States, he showed me one row of hives that 

 contained daughters from one of his best 

 honey-queens. It was very apparent from 



