AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Ill 



The IVunber of Seasons a i^ueen 

 Should JLay, Etc. 



Qnerjr 881.— 1. How many seasons should 

 a quoen be kept laying ? 2. What is the aver- 

 age age of queens If left alone ?— O. H. 



1. Two years. 2. Two years. — S. I. 

 Freeborn. 



They are good for about three years. 

 —J. P. H. Brown. 



1. Not more than three. 2. I cannot 

 say. — J AS. A. Stone. 



1. ^wo. 2. Somethihg over three 

 years. — P. H. Elwood. 



1. Until her fertility is impaired. 2. 

 I don't know. — J. M. Hambaugh. 



1. As long as she is prolific. 2. From 

 three to four years. — G. M. Doolittle. 



1. As long as she is prolific. 2. I 

 presume from two to three years. — A. J. 

 Cook. 



1. Perhaps two is as long as profit- 

 able. 2. About three years. — Eugene 

 Secor. 



Three or four years. The bees usually 

 supersede them when too old. — Dadant 

 & Son. 



1. Probably until the close of the 

 third season. 2. I don't know. — Mrs. 

 L. Harrison. 



1. So long as she does good work ; 

 they vary. 2. Three to four years. — 

 Mrs. J. N Heater. 



1. We keep our queens as long as 

 they do good work. 2. I should say 

 about two years. — E. France. 



1. Not to exceed three. 2. About the 

 same ; at the first sign of deterioration 

 the bees supersede her. — W.M. Barnum. 



1. Under ordinary circumstances, as 

 long as she does good work at egg-lay- 

 ing. 2. Nearly three years. — James A. 

 Green. 



1. Two full seasons is the time ad- 

 vised by most who practice re-queening. 

 2. About four years, I guess. — J. H. 

 Larrabee. 



1. Some might be kept four years, 

 some two, and some none. 2. I don't 

 know. At a guess, perhaps they live 

 three years. — C. C. Miller. 



1. Not more than two ; I favor one. 

 If the queen is especially valuable for 

 breeding, I make a difference. 2. I do 

 not know. — R. F. Holtermann. 



1. I aim to replace them the season 

 that they become two years old. 2. 

 Perhaps 23^ years, though many live to 

 be past three years. — R. L. Taylor. 



1. Asmany as she will lay abundantly. 



1 let my bees manage that. 2. I think 

 they will not average more than two 

 years. I have had but few to live three 

 full years, and only one to nearly com- 

 plete the fourth year. — M. Mahin. 



1. A queen begins to fail after the 

 second year, and the most successful 

 honey-producer will see that his queens 

 do not get much older than that. 2. If 

 left entirely alone they would probably 

 average about three years. — C. H. Dib- 



BERN. 



For myself, I keep a good queen just 

 so long as she proves vigorous and ac- 

 tive, irrespective of age ; as soon as she 

 shows the least symptom of failure, I 

 remove her. 2. About three years, 

 with myself. I have known them to 

 live and prove vigorous for five years ; 

 and also to play out the first season. — J. 

 E. Pond. 



1. Until she fails to attend to business 

 properly. 2. I don't know. I had an 

 imported Syrian queen once that I " let 

 alone " until I knew her to be about six 

 years old. I then sold her for $5.00, 

 and she was sufficiently fertile to pro- 

 duce bees enough to sting the man who 

 bought her and all his help out of the 

 yard. — Emerson T. Abbott. 



1. I now, after long experience, leave 

 that to the bees. They will make fewer 

 mistakes along this line than I am likely 

 to make. 2. I clip the wings of my 

 queens, and in this way I keep pretty 

 nearly up with them. The average is 

 about three years. Many queens are 

 superseded at two years old ; many 

 more at three ; and nearly all at four. — 

 G. W. Demaree. 



1. Taking everything into considera- 

 tion it might be best to only keep queens 



2 years ; and to answer the second part 

 of the question, I will say that two years 

 is about an average life for queens in 

 this locality. But good queens often do 

 good service even the fourth year. 2, It 

 really would be hard to average up, as 

 so much depends upon circumstances. — 

 Mrs. Jennie Atcelky. 



