MAY 15, 1914 



387 



Our friend House advocates requeening 

 in September or even later. I don't mean to 

 quarrel with Mr. H., and 1 have no objec- 

 tions to any one requeening at any time 

 when good queens may be had, and when it 

 is proper to open hives. Personally I don't 

 care to tear hives open in the late season. 

 And, by the way, I have hunted out queens 

 without removing a frame from the hives. 

 When it may be done in this way requeen- 

 ing is quite practicable, even in the winter. 

 But, generally speaking, during the summer 

 season is the best time to handle bees; and 

 beginners particularly will do well to bear 

 this in mind. 



Objections have been raised to early- 

 raised queens. By " early raised queens " 

 we understand such as have been raised 

 during the early honey-flow from fruit- 

 bloom. A certain per cent of our colonies 

 will, some seasons, make preparation for 

 swarming, and often do swarm, unless we 

 intercede. With us this may happen about 

 the middle of May or thereabouts. I hold 

 that queens reared under these perfectly 

 natural conditions are as good as any. Our 

 friend House objects to the queens reared 

 at this season because he has lost the ma- 

 jority of them while mating or attempting 

 to, the weather usually being unfavorable — - 

 cool and rainy. I have to consider such an 

 occurrence as very unusual. Before I had 

 discovered that our bees, particularly those 

 in the outyards, had to be looked after 

 during this early period in order to avoid 

 losses by swarming, I not unfrequently 

 found colonies in each outyard at the close 

 of fruit-bloom, which had cast swarms con- 

 trary to my expectations. It was usually 

 discovered, before any queen-cells had 

 hatched out, and my practice at such times 

 had been to divide the parent colonies into 

 three, four, or five nuclei. I do not remem- 

 ber ever missing or losing any of the young 

 queens. On the contrary, I was enabled to 



build up these nuclei into prosperous colo- 

 nies with the brood-combs accumulating 

 from shaking swarm-ripe colonies, etc. 1 

 can not agree with Mr. H. that it should 

 not be a good time in May, when there is 

 an abundance of bloom all around, to rear 

 good queens. I should much prefer them to 

 those reared in August or September, after 

 all the bloom is over and stimulating by 

 artificial methods has to be resorted to. In 

 buckwheat sections the swarming fever 

 sometimes breaks out anew in the month of 

 August. This is an indication that good 

 queens may be reared at this time in that 

 l^articular locality. 



How the conditions are in southern climes, 

 in countries where our early queens are 

 reared, I do not know ; but I guess that 

 their March and April may correspond with 

 our May and June, and I have suspected 

 tliat the queei^s we purchase from the South 

 for May delivery were reared under such 

 natural favorable conditions as outlined at 

 the beginning of my article. 



There is at present a great call fur May 

 queens here among the honey-producers of 

 the North. We find it a profitable invest- 

 ment, though the queens may cost a little 

 more then than they will later. Even if we 

 had requeened every last colony during the 

 month of September and October, we would 

 still want the queens in May, possibly even 

 more of them on that account. It pays us 

 to divide the extra-strong colonies, such as 

 might be expected to cast swarms during 

 apple-bloom, and provide each queenless 

 half with a southern early-reared young 

 Italian queen. Thus, instead of having one 

 colony ready for the harvest, we may have 

 two, and avoid natural swarming by the 

 procedure. Southern queen-breeders ought 

 to realize that it is a great disappointment 

 to us when the queens ordered from them 

 for May do not reach us till June. 



Naples, N. Y. 



BEES AND BULK COMB HONEY AT THE KENTUCKY STATE FAIK 



BY J. P. MARTINE 



Our display of bees, supplies, and honey 

 at the Kentucky State Fair, held Sept. 15- 

 20, 1913, attracted considerable attention. 

 It seems as though almost every one is in- 

 terested in bees. 



The queens in the observation hives, and 

 the handling of the bees in the demonstra- 

 tion cage, were the centers of attraction. In 

 the demonstration cage we explained fully 

 the manner in which the bees gathered and 

 stored honey; how honey is taken from the 



bees by means of bee-escapes; how the cap- 

 pings are removed, and the njanner in which 

 the honey is extracted. We also, while in 

 the cage, gave talks on the subject of bees, 

 explaining the part that the queen, drones, 

 baby, and worker bees take in carrying on 

 the different functions of the hive. 



During these talks and demonstrations 

 we never failed to have a large and appre- 

 ciative crowd. 



We did not make a large honey display, 



