638 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURF. 



July 1 



of it being comb honey. Another apiarist 

 has 700 colonies in one location in one yard. 

 One State can turn out 8,000,000 lbs. of 

 honey. Several individual bee-keepers pos- 

 sess over 3000 stocks." 



TIME WHKN YOUNG QUEENS BEGIN TO LAY. 



"Mj' name is C. W. Babcock, and I came 

 to have a little talk with G. M. Doolittle. 

 Is this he?" 



" That is the name my parents gave me. 

 What can I do for j'ou?" 



"It is like this: I had lots of trouble last 

 year by young queens trrning up missing 

 along in August, or, at least, that was the 

 time I found that many of my colonies 

 which had swarmed were without queens. 

 What I wish to know is, how long a time 

 must elapse between the time the first or 

 prime swarm issues from the parent colony, 

 and the time the young queen begins to 

 lay." 



"In your question we have something 

 which is very often overlooked by very 

 many bee-keepers, if I am to judge by the 

 many letters I get, telling of trouble simi- 

 lar to yours, and colonies are allowed to go 

 without queens till laying workers appear, 

 or the colony dwindles down to where rob- 

 bers take awaj' all the honey the hive con- 

 tains, and then the owners find out some- 

 thing is wrong, when it is too late to remedy 

 affairs." 



" That describes me, C. W. Babcock, ex- 

 actly, and I want you 1o tell me how to 

 avoid this state of affairs." 



"As a rule, the time from the issuing of 

 the first swarm to the time the first j'oung 

 queen emerges from her cell is seven days." 



" Excuse me; but I must ask some ques- 

 tions as you go along, in orrer that thick- 

 headed C. W. Babcock can understand. 

 What are the exceptions to this rule?" 



" If the swarm issues before the sealing 

 of the first queen- cells, then it may be from 

 eight to sixteen da3's before the young queen 

 emerges, just according to how far ad- 

 vanced the embryo queens were at the time 

 of the issuing of the swarm. But the rule 

 is that the first swarm comes with the seal- 

 ing of the first queen- cells. " 



" I see. That makes it plain." 



"After the young queen emerges, if aft- 

 er-swarming is allowed it will be all the 

 way from four to eight days before a young 

 queen becomes established in the hive over 

 her rivals, just according to how the bees 

 treat the young queens which are in their 

 cells after the first one emerges." 



" What do the bees have to do with it?" 



" If after-swarming is to be allowed, then 

 the bees cluster in little knots about each 

 queen cell, to keep the emerged queen from 

 killing her rival sisters. This causes an 

 after- ssvarm to issue two to three days lat- 

 er; and if the bees still cluster the cells 

 after letting another young queen out, 

 another after-swarm issues, and so on till 

 they conclude to swarm no more, when all 

 but one young queen is killed, and the liv- 

 ing one established in the hive." 



" Well, that is something j never under- 

 stood before. ' ' 



" The queen, once established, will fly 

 out to meet the drones when from five to 

 eight days old; and as a queen may not be 

 more than a day or two old when establish- 

 ed, it may be five or six days afterward be- 

 fore she mates. Then there is a period of 

 from two to three days after mating before 

 the queen begins to lay." 



" Then we should have seven days in the 

 cell, eight daj's before flying out, and three 

 days after flying out, or eighteen days from 

 the time of issuing of first swarm till the 

 young queen should be laying?" 



" That would be about right where there 

 was no after- swarming; but where there 

 was, there would be five or six days there 

 to add, so that, where after-swarming is 

 allowed, it will often be from 22 to 24 days 

 before the queen commences to lay." 



" Yes, I see." 



' ' Then should you look to see if any 

 queen was laying at about the time she 

 first commenced, the eggs would be so scat- 

 tering that you might make a careful search 

 of nearly all the combs before you see these 

 few eggs, as they are so few and far be- 

 tween that it will bother you to find them; 

 hence I always consider it a paying policy 

 to wait 26 to 28 days, at which time young 

 larvae should begin to appear, which, to- 

 gether with the eggs in several combs, tells 

 you, generally, upon the lifting of the first 

 center comb of the hive, that the young 

 queen is there all right." 



" Yes, I see. And I now see, also, that, 

 in failing to make any such examination, I 

 was in ignorance in this matter, till, should 

 the queen fail in laying, it was too late. 

 But what do you do where you do not find 

 eggs or larva? when looking 28 days after 

 the first swarm issued? " 



"If no eggs or larvae are found, a frame 

 of brood should be immediately given, when 

 you will look again in two days to see if 

 queen-cells are being started. If so, then 

 the colony should be given a laying queen 

 at once; or, if this is impossible, two or 

 three frames of brood should be given them 

 at once." 



" Why don't you give a laying queen as 

 soon as you ascertain there is no brood in 

 the hive? " 



"Because I am not yet sure they are 

 queenless. They raay have a crippled 

 queen, one that could not go out to meet the 

 drone, or something they were tolerating as 

 a queen, in which cise they would kill ev- 

 ery queen I tried to introduce." 



