148 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



later they all disappeared, and, if I re- 

 member correctly, the thing was a fail- 

 ure in every instance. 



If there had been no laying queen in 

 the hive, or one that for any reason the 

 workers desired to supersede, the result 

 might have been different. It is possi- 

 ble that the young queen gets along on 

 good terms with the workers until she 

 takes it into her head to make any at- 

 tack on the old queen, when the workers 

 put her out of the way. Still, I have 

 known bees to attack a young queen 

 with no laying queen in the hive, the 

 laying queen having just been removed ; 

 but generally, after annoying her some- 

 what, I think they let her go. While a 

 very young queen will be accepted, at 

 least for a time, almost anywhere, it is 

 well known that a virgin queen several 

 days old, is diflScult to introduce. It 

 may be, then, that the difficulty of in- 

 troducing increases with age, and that a 

 queen that has been held in her cell by 

 the workers for a day or two is not so 

 readily received by the bees as one that 

 has not yet attained sufficient age to try 

 to leave its cell. I am inclined to think 

 such is the case. 



At swarming-time, when it is a com- 

 mon thing to find ten or more queen-cells 

 In every hive from which a swarm has 

 issued, the supply of pulled queens is 

 likely to be greater than the demand, so 

 I have generally paid little attention to 

 the appearance of the cells, but pulled 

 all indiscriminately ; and if the queens 

 were not ripe enough, it was an easy 

 thing to throw them away. To be ser- 

 viceable, it is not nenessary to wait until 

 a young queen is gnawing its way out, 

 nor until it is well colored. No matter 

 how green-looking a queen is, if it is 

 mature enough to hold on to the comb 

 and travel over it, it will be all right. 

 Younger than this, the bees will drag it 

 out, just as they would a dead bee. 



In forming nuclei, I think it much 

 better to give a pulled queen than to 

 give a queen-cell. It is less trouble. 

 There is less risk ; for there are a good 

 many cases, whatever may be the rea- 

 son, where a good-looking cell contains 

 a dead larva, and sometimes a dead 

 queen that looks fully matured. It saves 

 time, for the cell may be several days 

 hatching. Besides, if there bo any ad- 

 vantage in having a young queen reared 

 in a full colony, and I think there is, a 

 pulled queen has that advantage to the 

 full. 



A pulled queen is the quickest and 

 easiest cure for laying-workers. So far 

 as I have tried it, it is a sure thing. 



Just drop a pulled queen on the comb 

 among the brood, and that's all. I be- 

 lieve that, if you try pulling queens, you 

 will not be sorry. 

 Marengo, 111. 



Sclf.Hivers Discus§ed — The Sea- 

 son in California. 



WritUn for the American Bee Journal 

 BY C. W. DAYTON. 



Some time ago I read in a bee-paper 

 that self-hivers had "had their day," 

 which is very much contrary to my be- 

 lief, and I will try to state some of the 

 reasons for such belief. 



The great block the self-hivers stum- 

 bled upon at the outset was, that they 

 should hive the swarm so that the bees 

 would go at work in the supers without 

 the farther intervention of the apiarist. 

 I think this requisition was suggested 

 by the editor of the Revieiv. 



In order to do this, there was required 

 an extra hive and extra super, not only 

 for a swarm when it issued, but for all 

 the colonies in the apiary that were 

 liable to cast swarms. If the parent 

 hive and super cost one dollar, then this 

 new one would cost one dollar besides 

 the cost of the hiving arrangement, to- 

 gether with the trouble of adjusting the 

 hives and hiver, which throughout the 

 whole apiary is a heavy expense. In 

 fact, it very nearly doubled the expense 

 of furnishing and running an apiary, in 

 the face of the fact that bee-keepers 

 were already beginning to discuss the 

 topic, "Does Bee-Keeping Pay '?" 



While the hivers were being boomed by 

 queen-breeders, honey-producers decided 

 ^that the main want was not so much in 

 the hiving of the bees as detaining them 

 from leaving for parts unknown, and 

 the queen and drone traps already in 

 use would effectually do this, and their 

 comparative cheapness was their advan- 

 tage. 



It has also been stated that when the 

 queen is trapped, the bees return to 

 work the same as before their attempt 

 to swarm. This is simply bosh, and it 

 is well known that they often do very 

 little for two or three days before 

 swarming, and nothing at all but loaf 

 until they have been satisfactorily hived 

 in new quarters. 



Another mistake which has got " a- 

 going " is, that the queen being retained 

 in the trap may be killed by the bees of 

 the swarm. It is my opinion that a 

 queen was never so killed, but, rather, 



