November, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



833 



QUEEN-REARING TROUBLES 



Some of the Reasons -why the ^een- 



breeders all O-ver the Country were 



Unable to Fill Orders Promptly 



By the Editors 



TH E season 

 just past 

 has been 

 the most difficult 

 for the qneen- 

 brecder and the 

 most trying to 

 the queen-buyer 

 of a n y y e a r 

 within the reeollecliou of the present gen- 

 eration of beekeepers. It has been " some- 

 thing just awful," as both queen-breeder 

 and queen-buyer will testify. The cause is 

 not far to seek — unfavorable weather con- 

 ditions prevailing over the eniire eounti'y. 

 This bad weather began early in the year 

 and stayed late. 



That the queen-buyers may gain some 

 comprehension of the queen - rearer's 

 troubles and worries during the season of 

 19.17, and that the queen-rearer may gain 

 more charitable consideration from the 

 queen-buyer than he has generally had this 

 year, we are printing below the statements 

 of some prominent queen-rearers regarding 

 their trials and tribulations of the la.st few 

 months. These queen-breeders don't exact- 

 ly say so, but they undoubtedly endorse the 

 Biblical statement that " charity suffereth 

 long and is kind." 



NO OTHER BUSINESS SO DEPENDENT ON THE 

 WEATHER. 



In all of my experience as a queen-breed- 

 er I never had such unfavorable weather 

 conditions to encounter as this season. I 

 venture the assertion that if the queen-buyer 

 could place himself in the position of the 

 queen-breeder for one season, and experi- 

 ence the difficulties with which the queen- 

 breeder lias to contend, he would sympathize 

 with him. Of all the occupations in the 

 world, none are more dependant u^Don 

 weather conditions than that of queen-rear- 

 ing. 



Last June I could not supply one-half as 

 many queens as usual, on account of inclem- 

 ent weather. We worked in cold drizzling 

 rains many times to save queen-cells — not 

 for the sake of the almighty dollar, but try- 

 ing to avoid disappointing our customers; 

 but after doing all in our power, we had to 

 disappoint many. There was so much cool 

 weather in June that queens would not come 

 out to mate jiromptly. Also the bees balled 

 and killed so many that we mads but little 

 progress in queen-rearing, and were oblig- 

 ed to return hundreds of dollars. 



The queen-breeder's life is one of con- 

 stant worry from the beginning of the sea- 

 son to the end. He starts a lot of queen- 

 cells and then he is hoping that he may have 

 favorable weather to form nuclei when the 



cells are ripe 

 and must be at- 

 tended to ; but, 

 alas ! the weath- 

 er is cool and 

 rainy, and he 

 must work un- 

 der great diffi- 

 culties or lose 

 his queen-cells. After his nuclei are form- 

 ed, and eacli one is supijlied with a nice 

 queen-cell, he is hoi)ing again that the 

 weather may be favorable for the young 

 queens to mate when about five days old ; 

 but too often the weather is cool and cloudy, 

 the queens cannot come out to meet the 

 drones in the air, and the bees become dis- 

 couraged and ball the queens, killing per- 

 haps forty per cent of them. Now he has a 

 lot of orders waiting to be filled, and d( es 

 not know wliat to tell his customers, as lie 

 cannot know just what the weather will be. 

 So you see he is constantly worried after 

 doing all in his power to surmount the diffi- 

 culties with which he must always contend. 

 Morgan, Ky. J. P. Moore. 



THE BREEDER SHOULD NOT BE EXPECTED TO 

 GO BEYOND HIS GUARANTEE. 



It is not necessary to ■ say that we had 

 bad weather, and that orders were not filled 

 on time. No doubt some purchasers lost 

 by not getting bees or queens on time, yet 

 we doubt if the losses of the purchasers 

 equaled the losses of the breedei's. While 

 most of our customers were reasonable, and 

 appreciated the fact that we were doing the 

 best we could for them, yet some were un- 

 reasonable. Rut there were so many rea- 

 sonable customers that we felt we did not 

 need to bother to sell to those whom we felt 

 were unreasonable. One man asked us to 

 guarantee to deliver him so many packages 

 of bees on a certain date in 1918, and want- 

 ed to know how much dam.ages we would 

 pay him if we failed to deliver on the date 

 specified ! One customer was veiy much 

 a,nnoyed because we were five days late in 

 making his shipment, then he paid the ex- 

 press and receipted for in good condition a 

 shipment of 25 2-lb. packages of bees that 

 were all dead because of unreasonable delay 

 on the part of the carrier. Customers 

 should never pay the express charges on 

 bees that are dead when the shipment is 

 not worth the charges. When there is any 

 loss at all, notation should be made on the 

 express receipt, and this receipt sent to the 

 breeder Avith claim for adjustment. 



We believe that breeders agree to replace 

 only the actual losses, and that customers 

 sliould state in pounds and actual number 

 of queens what they honestly believe the 



