September, 1909. 



American VeeJonmal 



<i. What constitutes a " breeder " queen), 

 as used by aueen-breeders? 

 1 b. How are they graded? 

 . c. How are they produced, or reared^ 

 "</. Is there a standard rule for the grading— 

 "breeders," select breeders, and extra- 

 select breeders? 



I iThis naming of grades of queens is some- 

 what of a puzzle to a novice, especially here 

 in the South where the "blind lead the 

 blind." I read all in the bee-papers, but to 

 some questions I find no answers to suit my 

 needs. SofTn C.-\koi.ina. 



Answers.— I. There is no possible way to 

 uet bees to build combs only as they feel 

 the need of them, and they always hll them 

 up as they go. If you have any idea that you 

 can ever get the bees to build cmj'tv comb, 

 please give it up as an impossibility. Around 

 the swarming season, when breeding is 

 going on rapidly, if you put an empty frame 

 between two frames of brood, you will get a 

 comb built out— of course tilled with brood. 

 i)artof it drone-brood, unless you use worker 

 foundation. 



.:. It can be done only when a honey-flow is 

 on, by putting frames of comb foundation in 

 an extracting-super. 



3. Put in the center of the super a " bait." 

 or section that had been partly filled the 

 previous season, and then emptied by the 

 bees. (See editorial page. 



4. If you mean combs without honey in 

 them, you can't do it. Bees will draw out 

 foundation any time when they need addi- 

 tional room when honey is yic/iii/ft:. The only 

 way you can have combs in advance for a 

 fall flow is to get them filled with honey and 

 then emptied— hardly a paying proposition. 



r,- Please don't give me awa>' to the public, 

 but I may as well confess that 1 too am puz- 

 zled to understand exactly what is meant by 

 the different names. I don't know of any 

 standard by which the grading is done. So 

 far as I know, an untested queen that sells 

 for a dollar or less is reared exactly like the 

 extra-select breeder. I suppose the latter 

 ought to be one that has been tested for at 

 least a full season, its worker progeny hav- 

 ing shown by the extra harvest gathered that 

 it is an extra-good queen to breed from. 



If any of those who use the terms can tell 

 better just how the terms are used. I'll be 

 glad to yield the floor. 



A Queen Experience 



.\ queen I ordered last spring came to 

 hand the first week in luiu. and not being 

 at home at the time, a lirotlur beekeeper 

 near by made a strong colony queenless by 

 taking the old queen with .: frames of bees 

 out of the hive, and thereby made a nucleus 

 which left the old colony miiuis a queen, and 

 put the new queen, cage and all, in between 

 2 combs and closed the hive. 



The next day I came home, and was sur- 

 prised as to what had been done with the 

 (jucen. On the fourth day I released her. 

 and was successful with her introduction. 

 She was an extraordinarly good layer, but I 

 found that she laid from i to < eggs in a cell, 

 which did not hatch the first 1 weeks, but 

 being patient with her, being the first queen 

 to do that kind of work under my years of 

 observation, and being bus\- with other work, 

 and could not attend her. and so left her 

 to her own good will, and the bees being 

 contented. I was satisfied she was there all 

 right. 



July 15th I notice well-colored Italian 

 worker-bees outside the entrance, which 

 pleased me very much. (Jn the ibtli. for the 

 want of more room. I transferred her front 

 the B-frame hive into a it^-frame hive, and 

 saw her the first time since I had released 

 Iier--a beautiful queen. Her progeny are 

 well marked, from 2 to 3 banded Italian bees. 

 I would like to have an explanation as to 

 why her eggs would not hatch at first; and 

 also as to laying so many eggs in each cell. 



As far as I can see at presint. she seems 

 to be all right, and has a few frames well 

 filled with brood from the egg to tlie emerg- 

 ing bees. 1 hey are very quiet under manitv 

 ulation. I am anxious to know what success 

 I am going to have with them in the future. 



Ontario. 

 .\SSWER.— I don't know. Kees do freaky 

 things that are hard to exrilain. Sometimes 

 a queen lays eggs that are all right, and the 

 bees fail to hatch them. I bis is common in 

 the fall. After a journey through the mails 

 a queen is sometimes a little slow to get to 

 work all right. She may for a time lay eggs 

 irregularly, perhaps i in a cell. If a good 

 <iueen is crowded for rootn she may lay 2 

 eggs in a cell, but your (jueen probably had 

 iMeiily of room. 



An Extra-Fine Honey Year 



I have 13 colonies, all doing well. This is an 

 extra-fine year for honey— white clover in 

 abundance. I have bought a Barnes circular 

 saw. and made my own hives, and this year's 

 crop of honev will pay for all expenses. 



Rev. Jos. Drexi.kk. 



Norway. Iowa. Aug. 6. 



Honey Crop a Failure 



The honey crop here is a complete failure 

 this year. This is my I3lh year with bees, 

 and " unlucky n" it is. Only 400 pounds of 

 dark honey-dew stuff from 60 colonies. Other 

 farm crops are good. 



Edward BLACKsroNK. 



Cumberland. Ohio. Aug. 14. 



Only One-Third Crop 



Bees havi- not tUuie well here this year. 

 We will get only about one-third of a croi). 

 and that will be buckwheat and heartsease. 

 I have 2t colonies of bees, and have been 

 keeping bees for 8 years. 



Rav a. Hamilton. 



Iroquois. III.. .\w;. 25. 



Not Half a Crop 



The honey crop is no good — not half a 

 crop, and lots of honey-dew. We have had 

 but very few da>'S of good weather this sea- 

 son. It has been cold and wet. and then hot 

 and dry. There were very few swarms 

 throughout the country. We had a good 

 rain Aug. 3. U we get more soon the fall 

 flow mav hel|» out some. 



A. X. Cooke & Son. 



Woodhull. 111.. Aug. 4. 



Not Much Surplus Honey. 



I don't think there will be much surplus 

 honey offered from my locality. It has been 

 too wet. Maybe we will get a fall flow from 

 asters and goldenrod. Buckwheat is not 

 producing much. Young white clover looks 

 extra-fine. J. R. Cooi'EK. 



Spargursville. Ohio. Aug. 3. 



A Good Swarm 



I had a swarm of bees ci>me <uil ,lune H. 1 

 put them in a standard hive, thi-n filU-d the 

 lower |)arl and took off the super with Jt 

 pounds in it. By .July 18 they had storc-d 

 about 7; i)ounds of honev. I would liki- to 

 hear of a swarm that will beat it. I am just 

 a beginner Gkorce .Simkkhkv. 



Medford. Okla.. July i:.. 



Bees Doing Nothing 



Bees are doing nolliiug Init loafing and 

 waiting for the time to come to die. The 

 honey crop is not nearly onethir<l as good 

 as last year, and nearly all that I have is 

 mixed with honey-dew. There have been 

 but (> days that bees worked on white clover. 

 and the last 4 weeks have been too dry and 

 hot. The farmers cut the sweet clover just 

 when the bec-s want it. A. N. CooKK. 



Woodhull. Ill,, .^ug. 10. 



Poor Quality of Honey 



My bees are doing fine. Some of them 

 have filled 4 supers. The Carniolans are 

 storing more honey than the Italians Last 

 year and this it has been so. They build up 

 sooner in the si)ring. and swarm sooner than 

 the Italians. The honey they are bringing 

 in is of very iioor quality. It is honev-dew 

 and very dark in color. Thev are not bring- 

 ing very much now. I think the fall flow will 

 be good here, as we have had so much rain 

 this summer. Goldenrod. smartweeil. and 

 aster are growing everywhere. Tlu' honey 

 all over this iiart of Indiana is very dai k. 1 



get I2j^ cents a pound for it. or iiM cents a 

 section, at my bee-yard. 



We had no white clover here this summer, 

 but if nothing happens to it we will have the 

 finest white clover flow next year we have 

 had for vears. We had a good white clover 

 bloom last year, but it lasted only about 6 or 

 7 days. It got so hot and dry that it all dried 

 up, but it left an abundance of seed on the 

 around, and some fields are white with 

 bloom now, and bees are working on it fine. 



Scottsburg. Iiid.. Aug. 2. K. C. Martin. 



Fine Fall Honey Prospect 



1 haviS 31) colonies of bees in my home api- 

 ary, and we have 136 colonies in an outapi- 

 arv. We got about 2500 pounds of honey from 

 the willow blossoms this spring. The home 

 apiary I run for comb honey and the other 

 for extracted. There is a fine prospect for a 

 fall honey crop here. There are thousands 

 of acres of smartweed beginning in about^- 

 mile from the home apiary, and the other 

 apiary is right in the middle of it. 



Shreveport, La., Aug. 24. B. \. CosTON. 



About Half a Crop 



I am delighted to read reports and expe- 

 riences, so I believe I should write some also, 

 I started bee-keeping in igoi with one col- 

 ony. Last spring I had 07 colonies. I run 

 my apiary for comb honey. I have 4300 sec- 

 tions on the hives yet— about half of them 

 finished. We will have about half a crop 

 this year. The bees are not doing much 

 now. White clover is about all gone. I win- 

 ter my bees in the cellar. Swarming was 

 very bad this year. J. C. Donahue. 



Holbrook. Iowa. July 27. 



Fairly Good Honey Season 



Bee-keepers are scarce in this part of 

 Idaho. I don't know of any bees in this val- 

 lev outside of my own. I have 60 colonies. I 

 started the season with ti. I have had a 

 fairly good season for luiuey. and had con- 

 siderable honey-dew. 1 depend altogether 

 upon wild pasturage fiu" the bees— buck- 

 bush, willow-herb, goldenrod. and asters; 

 souu' white clover. No alfalfa or irrigation 

 here as they have in the southern part of 

 the State. Bees do not winter very well, as 

 a rule, on account of the aster honey, I 

 think, as they work ou it very late in the fall. 

 Of course, one could extract and then feed 

 for winter stores, but that would be quite a 

 job so late in the season. 



The "Old Reliable" is a welcome visitor. 

 I feel grateful to Dr. Miller and Mr. Doolittle 

 for what they write. F. R. Jordan. 



Bonners Ferry, Idaho, Aug, 21, 



Some Experience With Bees 



I have charge of the Electric Light and 

 Power Plant here at Princeton, but my home 

 and apiary are at Kuttawa. Ky., and as I 

 could not be with my bees at home. I had a 

 colony in a box-hive there, so I transferred 

 them and brought them to Princeton in 

 April, and the first swarm that came out 

 after 1 brought them here was when I was at 

 home to spend Sunday. I love to handle 

 bees so well 1 could not do without a few to 

 pass the time with. 1 had a swarm come to 

 me— a fine queen and about a pint of bees. I 

 built them up to a Hue colony, then took 

 iheiii to Kuttawa. , , , t^, ^ 



1 keep mv bees on the roof of the Plant, 

 where they do not bother any one, and no 

 one bothers them. 



While at Kuttawa, in July, a man cut a 

 bee-tree on Saturday night, and on Sunday I 

 went and put the bees in a box. That night 

 my mother went and got them, and Monday 

 uiiuniug put them into a hive, and in the eve- 

 ning they came out and went into a hive next 

 to them. It was a small swarm that had been 

 hived about 2 weeks, and when I was home 

 Vug 2. thev had 10 frames nicely filled with 

 Inood. and were working in the super. 



On Aug. 2 I went home to siiend a week. 

 and cut a bee-tree. I got one of the finest 

 and largest' swarms I ever saw. 'I hey were 

 in a limb of a big tree, and when the tree fell 

 the part the bees were in split off. and 1 

 moved it out where 1 could gel at it easily. 

 Some of the combs were i% to 4 feet long, 

 and from =; to lu inches wide. The bees were 

 golden Italians, and as gentle as any bees in 

 my home yard. I put them in a large box 

 that night with the brood, and the next morn- 

 ing made a hive, fit the comb in the frames, 

 and shook the bees in. All went well until 

 about i:j(i. and they swarmed out, I heard 



