I>EVOTEr> TO JBEJES A?»ri> IIOISTEY, AT^O H:03XE HVTERESXS, 



Tol. IX. 



APRIL 1, 1881. 



No. 4. 



A. I. ROOT, 



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\ Established in 1873 



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NOTES FROM THE BANNER APIARY. 



No. 17. 



EE.iRIXG QUEENS OUT OF SEASON. 



aN my article on late queen-rearing I wrotejas fol- 

 lows: "I think that he (Doolittlc) will aflmit 

 that we queen-breeders have greater facilities 

 for learning facts in regard to our specialty than has 

 the bee-keeper who raises honey." After reading 

 the above, and then reading my report in the Jan. 

 No., friend Doolittle was almost inclined to laugh, 

 because he says, "Facts would show that Doolittle 

 raised four times as many queens before Hutchin- 

 son ever went into the business as friend H. has 

 in all his life." 



I have kejyt bees four years, and have reared 7C0 

 queens; and if you, friend D., reared 2feC0 in the 8 

 years previous to my commencing the business, you 

 must either have destroj'ed a good many queens, or 

 else, considering that you did not advertise queens 

 for sale, you must have disposed of a goodly num- 

 ber. As your average number of stocks each year 

 has been 48, you certainly would not use 359 queens 

 each year in your own apiai-y. But even if you did 

 "raise four times as many queens," to be candid 

 about the matter, did you, for three seasons, as I 

 have done, make a specialty of rearing queens l:ite 

 in the season, feeding the bees when no honey was 

 coming in, having the cells built in full, strong col- 

 onies, giving the young queens to full colonies so 

 that they could lay a spell before cold weather set 

 in, and then let these late-reared queens have a fair 

 chance the next season? If you have done so, and 

 found them to be inferior, I can only say that my 

 experience does not agree with yours. I am thank- 

 ful, friend D., that you are going into the queen bus- 

 iness, because we can, some of us at least, have an 

 opportunity of testing your "natural," "summer- 

 bred" queens for ourselves. 



Tou say, friend D., that my illustrations about not 

 following nature do not touch the point. I am 

 aware that the illustrations given are not exactly 

 parallel casps, neither were they intended as such; 

 they were given merely to show that better results 

 are sometimes obtained by not letting Nature have 

 her own way. Of course, the illustration would have 

 been better had I chosen parallel cases, and I thank 

 you for calling my attention to it, and I also feel 



under obligations to you for so neatly remodeling 

 one or two of my illustrations until they \ctrc paral- 

 lel cases. I have reference to what you said In re- 

 gard to rearing chickens, lambs, colts, etc., late in 

 the season. Not having very much experience in 

 rearing fowls, or stock, either in season or out, I 

 wrote to about a dozen breeders of poultry, sheep, 

 and horses, asking them whether it made any differ- 

 ence in regard to the health, strength, size, vitality, 

 or future usefulness of a fowl, sheep, or horse, as 

 the case might be, if it was reared late in the season, 

 instead of at the usual time. Most of them, think- 

 ing that I wished to go into the business, wrote long 

 letters, giving some excellent advice. Their replies 

 were somewhat conflictiug, and aU of them were 

 conditional. One breeder said: " Stimulate your 

 fowls, and get them to laying and rearing chicks as 

 early in the season as possible; early-hatched chicks 

 are much the best." Another breeder said: "Some 

 varieties are benelited by a late hatch, but not later 

 than September, unless you can give them special 

 care." Still another said: " It is not so much that a 

 bird is hatched out of season; more depends upon 

 the care that it receives." One sheep-breeder said: 

 " I do not know the entire object of your question, 

 or I might answer it in one word, no." Another 

 breeder said: "Lambs dropped in the fall are not 

 weaker than those of spring; but, as a rule, to the 

 contrary, as the exercise of the dam at this time of 

 the year in quest of her food naturally gives 

 strength to the lamb at birth." Another said: 

 " Care and conveniences may effect all the advan- 

 tages of either time." Still another said: "I should 

 greatly prefer spring lambs, as it seems more natu- 

 ral for them on grass; but should lambs be dropped 

 in the fall, and you can give them proper care, I do 

 not think it would hurt their usefulness as breeders." 

 I have, as yet, failed to elicit any response from 

 horsemen. Of course, I can not give even extracts 

 from all of the letters that I received, but the idea 

 that most of the writers tried to convey was, that 

 the season of the year when a creature is brought 

 into existence is of less importance than the care 

 that it receives; that is, as regards its "health, 

 strength, size, vitality, or future usefulness." 



Are you not just a trifle sarcastic, friend D., when • 

 you ask me to rear queens in mid-winter? You 

 know I have never claimed that good queens could 

 be reared at any time of the year. You claim that 



