July, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



407 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



run the old queen into the shallow hive and 

 transfer any supers to it. Also shake in 

 fiont of it the bees from a few frames 

 taken from the deep hivo, giving this old 

 hive at this time a queen-coll. Five or 

 seven days later shake a large number of 

 bees in front of the shallow hive, leaving 

 just enough to care for the brood. At the 

 end of the flow or shortly before place the 

 shallow hive on top of the deep hive; or 

 put it below if in a buckwheat location, to 

 be later put above to catch some buckwheat 

 honey. The chances are that there will be 

 in the deep hive considerable honey which 

 the bees will rush above and use in com- 

 pleting unfinished sections. 



In moving colonies or a yard to a new lo- 

 cation, how many beekeepers are equal to 

 the job of loading and unloading heavy 11- 

 or 13-frame Jumbo hives? And yet with 

 this arrangement the bees can easily be con- 

 fined to the brood-chamber if necessary and 

 the shallow super moved as a separate unit. 

 In fact, one man could do it. 



Mahwah, N. J. John Vanden Berg. 



IS SUPERSEDURE GENERAL? 



May One Safely Trust Bees to Supersede Failing 

 Queens? 



The statement has been made that when 

 bees are left to their own devices every 

 queen is superseded before she dies. Now 

 in my experience I have not found this true. 

 Indifferent health for the last two years has 

 unfortunately compelled me to leave my 

 bees to their own devices as far as queen- 

 rearing is concerned, but the bees have not 

 attended to the matter properly. I find the 

 bees will allow the queen to go on laying 

 until her fertility is practically exhausted 

 when she will lay both drone and worker 

 eggs in worker-cells. At this stage the 

 bees, if they have any sense at all, surely 

 ought to start queen-cells. In a few ex- 

 ceptional cases they do so, but they gener- 

 ally allow the queen to go on until she lays 

 nothing but drone eggs. Onlv last week I 

 examined my different apiaries for the first 

 time since last year. Some colonies had 

 been destroyed bj' worms, some had laying 

 workers, and about eight of them had old 

 drone-laying queens. The last time honey 

 was extracted was on the 27th of June, and 

 all my colonies were then in good order 

 and, no doubt, all had queens. My belief 

 is that all worm-eaten colonies, as well as 

 those with laying workers or drone-laying 

 (|ueens, had come to grief thru the very 

 fact that the bees failed to supersede the 

 queen before she completely failed. 



In the West Indies the bees rear brood 

 the whole year round. Queens never for a 

 minute stop laying. If bees may be de- 

 pended on to supersede failing queens, how 



is it that if bees in the West Indies are 

 left to their own devices about 20 per cent 

 of the colonies will die a natural death 

 every year, even with the sujjers full of 

 honey? 



About 14 years ago when looking for lar- 

 vae for grafting purposes I found two nice 

 queen-cells in the hive, one of which had 

 just hatched out. As there was plenty of 

 eggs and brood in all stages in the hive I 

 was somewhat puzzled. I soon found the 

 old queen busily laying. The young virgin 

 was also found running about. As I could 

 find nothing wrong with the old queen I 

 removed the virgin and the cell from the 

 hive and introduced them to a nucleus. To 

 my surprise the bees never started any other 

 supersedure cells; the old queen went on 

 laying as usual and gave a good account of 

 herself next season. This happened in the 

 month of December when there is never any 

 swarming in this place. What were these 

 bees up to when building those cells? Were 

 they trying to supersede or was it some- 

 thing else? 



Bees are queer things, but I am not cer- 

 tain that beekeepers are any better. Was 

 it not from Yankeeland that some time ago 

 a beekeeping genius boldly announced that 

 the best way to prevent swarming was to 

 use no drawn combs in the supers but only 

 sheets of foundation. Did not the same 

 beekeeper also give accurate figures show- 

 ing 30 per cent more honey produced from 

 foundation than from drawn combs? When 

 reading such assertions I feel like putting 

 my two hands to my head and exclaiming 

 like Clemenceau: "Butsch, Butsch, hast 

 thou still got thy head on top of "thy shoul- 

 ders?" My experience in the West Indies 

 in queen-cell building is as follows: 



Bees as a rule will not start queen-cells 

 as long as there is a living queen in the 

 hive, whether she be a virgin, a laying 

 queen, or a drone-laying queen. Bees will 

 always start cells if the queen suddenly dis- 

 appears, provided, of course, there are lar- 

 vae of suitable age present. During the 

 honey season when the colonies are strong 

 and prosperous their innate instinct of pro- 

 pagation inclines them to cell-building. At 

 such times they will build cells irrespective 

 of the presence of a laying queen. At such 

 times queen-right colonies will readily ac- 

 cept grafted cells even without royal jelly. 

 Failing queens at such times are invariably 

 replaced. Every attempt is made by the 

 bees to rear all the drones possible. 



In our Island the honey season starts with 

 the logwood in January and closes in the 

 middle of September. During all this long 

 time, although the brood-nest generally gets 

 no attention from the beekeeper, a colony 

 seldom fails thru the want of a queen. 

 Drone-laying queens during this part of the 

 year are practically unknown. But during 

 the last four months of the year when 



