THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



183 



tions of the frame. We almost never 

 find them above on the sealed honey, 

 unless they have been frightened. 



2. Yes, it is most difficult to find a 

 virgin queen in a full colony, and it is 

 not infrequent to overlook one in a 

 nucleus. Where we are at all uncer- 

 tain, wre examine them again in two or 

 three days; especially if the examina- 

 tion is made in the afternoon when the 

 queen may be out. Virgin queens are 

 very sensitive to the light, and some- 

 times skip from comb to comb so rap- 

 idly that we may be easily deceived as 

 to their presence in a hive. Fortu- 

 nately, it is not always necessary to 

 look for them. If we find an open queen 

 cell with a circular cut at the end and 

 there has been no recent swarming, we 

 may be sure of a queen being present, 

 and may proceed to cut out other cells. 

 If two or three queens have hatched, 

 and we simply wish to prevent after- 

 swarming, it is only necessary to cut 

 out the cells containing queens or 

 queen larvse. It is the presence of one 

 or more queens piping in the cells that 

 causes all second swarms. If a half 

 dozen queens hatch out at once, and 

 the remaining cells are cut out there 

 will be no swarming. 



A search for the hatched queens will 

 likely result in a failure to find more 

 than one, unless we happen upon them 

 very soon after they are hatched. The 

 bees will soon select the queen of their 

 choice, and the others be either killed 

 by the most active queen, or be driven 

 out of the hive by the bees, or go out 

 from cowardice. But if yet in the hive 

 and alive, they are often found hidden 

 in the cells, when we may see their long 

 bodies projecting out of them. If a 

 queen has crawled into a cell to hide, 

 she is a coward, and it is difficult to 

 save her. She must be put into a nu- 

 cleus hive with comb and bees and 

 perforated zinc placed over the en- 

 trance for a few days, until she is re- 

 assured that she is in no danger, else 

 she is certain to leave the nucleus in 

 frisrht. 



With Mr. Heddon's shallow brood - 

 cases, we may easily shake out a lay- 

 ing queen upon the ground in front of 

 the hive. Probably this is the quick- 

 est way to find u queen, but it should 

 be remembered that if there are queen 

 cells in the hive unless nearly mature, 

 tliat the shaking process will kill the 

 queens. 



QUESTIONS BY OLD BEEKEEPER. 

 CHANGING QUEENS. 



1. At what age sHould a queen be 



superseded? If a queen is very pro- 

 litic the second year, would you ad- 

 vise changing at the end of the season 

 say early in September, or would it be 

 best to change ten days later? 



2. Considering the low price at 

 which queens can be purchased, would 

 it not be an advantage to change all 

 queens at the end of the season? 



ANSWERS BY G. W. DEMAREE. 



The longevity and usefulness of the 

 queen honey bee depends largely on 

 how well she has been developed by 

 her nurses in the process of bringing 

 her up. A queen may be hatclied in 

 nine days from the time the nursing 

 bees commence their work with the 

 view of deveh)ping a queen from larvas 

 chosen by them, or the time may be 

 extended to thirteen days ; all depend- 

 ing on the age of the larvae when the 

 process of queen-rearing begins. All 

 this variation may take place and does 

 take place in every condition except 

 when the apiarist directs the bees by 

 giving them larvae of his own selec- 

 tion to rear queens from. 



With all this variation in the devel- 

 opment of queens it is impossible that 

 they can all be good alike, or that 

 all can be good at all. Hence, in my 

 judgment, in the light of my experi- 

 ence, no uniform rule as to the proper 

 time to supersede queens can safely be 

 adopted. In my apiary each queen 

 must stand upon her own individual 

 merit, and she " stays" or " goes" in 

 accordance with her worth or worth- 

 lessness. Pedigree, all things else 

 being equal, has much to do with the 

 toleration of old queens in my apiary. 



But when we come down to the gist 

 of the question, i.e., would it be to the 

 best interest of the apiary in a general 

 way to supersede all queens after doing 

 two years' service we are brought face 

 to face with a subject of very deep in- 

 terest to all beekeepers? One of the 

 fruitful sources of loss in the spring of 

 the year is old and worn-oiit queens. 

 Every observant apiarist must admit 

 that he sustains loss every spring to a 

 greater or less extent on this account. 

 From long and watchful observation I 

 am of the opinion that my losses — not 

 of colonies of bees, but losses in actual 

 surplus honey which truty represents 

 cash — has been not less than ten per 

 cent on my profits annually, on account 

 of failing queens at the very time when 

 no remedy can be applied. This loss 

 could be "obviated to a greater extent 

 by superseding all queens at the end 



