)04. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



247 



pt under favorable conditions. I can hardly be of any importance. 



nnw both the yellow and brown form But in the same race, some colonies 



I foul brood follows this rule, as the or strains are endowed with more 



v'cllow" form is only seen after a vitality or procreative powers. 



rnp, cold spell. 



THOSE QUEEN CELLS. 



In twenty years, 42 per cent, of the 

 original colonies of an apiary disap- 

 peared, themselves and their swarms 



I enjoy reading "Hardscrabble's" or descendants; 18 per cent, remain 

 tiaint letters, but he evidently has either themselves or are represented 



it grasped my system. See his let- 



by one of their descendants; 16 per 

 . 11 page. 36.' If'he will read my ar- cent, are represented by two colonies 

 cle carefully, he will see that I don't each. Another 16 per cent, are rep- 

 ar queens from larvae two days old resented each by three to ten colo- 

 id call it "rearing from the egg." By mes. The- remammg 8 per cent, may 

 .ing larvae two days old, I get the «^ach have all the way from 20 to 30 or 

 ?es to make cells and half f^U them more descendants present. 

 ith royal food. Doolittle fills in the ^ table following the above shows 

 o(l; I get the bees to do it, whose i" detail that, as a general rule, the 

 me is not of such value as mine. I (polonies swarming either quite early 

 )nt know whether Doolittle values oi" ^^'te late are more apt to disap- 

 s time above that of the bees or Pear (either themselves or their de- 

 3t. These first larvae are picked ^cendants) than those which swarm in 

 It of the royal food— a very easy t'^^ middle of the swarming season, 

 atter — and are just hatched from the ir. Of 301 primary swarms ob- 

 ;g, put in, and it is these which are served, 43 per cent, came from col- 

 ared into queens. If anyone else onies which had swarmed the year 

 IS ever published such a system I before, and therefore had queens one 

 ive yet to learn of it. It is a very year old. 20 per cent had queens two 

 sy matter to transfer larvae two days years old. 15 per cent, had queens 

 d into dry cells, and very easy to tnree years old, or, rather, came from 

 ck them out the next day, and if colonies having swarmed three years 

 le has very good eyesight and prop- before, and the rest, 22 per cent., 

 tools, he can easily transfer larvae from colonies having swarmed all the 

 St hatched from the egg into this way from four to twelve years be- 

 lyal food, which the bees never re- fore. 



ove; thus every larvae I transfer is The report concludes by saying that 

 ared into a queen. Who else can since the queens one year old are the 

 V this? most apt to swarm (43 per cent, of 



Brunswick Works, Shefifield, Eng- the total number of swarms), the 

 ' ~ ' requeening to prevent swarming 



should be done every year at the 

 opening of the honey flow. Further- 

 more in so doing, there is less brood 



to raise and feed during the flow and 



otes and Comments on French Ex- ^ ^^^s number of "useless consum- 

 ers" after the flow. 



12. The report gives as a known 



fact that during the flow, no colony 



will swarm unless drones are pres- 



N A PREVIOUS communication I ent. But it is very seldom that a 



mentioned a report on swarming colony is without drones, nothwith- 



made before one of the French standing all that the apiarist may 



cieties of Apiculture. The report do to prevent their production, or to 



continued in the last number of destroy them. 



nd, Feb. 7, 1904. 



SWARMING OBSERVATIONS. 



penments. 



By Adrian Getaz. 



aiculteur. I extract the following 

 3m the answers given to the ques- 

 ms propounded by the Society: 



If there are drones, it matters but 

 very little if they are few or many. 

 Fifty-four per cent, of the swarms 

 10. As nearly 99 per cent, of the observed came from colonies having 

 ^es in France are yet black bees, the numerous drones, and 46 per cent, 

 fference between the different races from those having but few. The report 



