116 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



June 



LOSS OF QUEENS IN PARENT 

 COLONY. 



By G. M. DOODITTLE. 



FROM the many letters I receive 

 asking wliy so naany colonies 

 which have cast swarms become 

 weak and finally die before the season 

 is over; and from the many calls I 

 have to see what ails the bees during 

 the month of August, I have fallen to 

 wondering if it would not be well for 

 soime one to say a few words relative 

 to the loss of queens from the parent 

 colony after it has cast from one to 

 three swarms during the early honey 

 flow. 



In this we have something which 

 is very often overlooked by very many 

 bee-keepers, and the colonies are al- 

 lowed to go without a queen till lay- 

 ing workers appear, or the colony 

 dwindles down to where robber bees 

 take away all the honey the hive con- 

 tains, and the first the bee-keeper 

 knows he finds his hive empty of both 

 bees and honey. 



That we may better understand 

 these things it is well to know that, 

 as a rule, the time from the is,suing 

 of the first or prime swarm to the 

 time the first young queen emerges 

 from her cell, is seven days. Then, if 

 after-swarming is allowed, it will be 

 all the way from four to eight days 

 before a young queen becomes es- 

 tablished in the hive, over her rivals, 

 and this established queen may be 

 lonly one or two days oid when thus 

 established. As a rule, queens which 

 have their own way fly out to meet 

 the drone when from five to seven 

 days old, so it may be five to six days 

 after such queen is established be- 

 fore she mates. Then there is a 

 period of from two to three days after 

 mating before she begins to lay. 

 Hence, when after-swarming is al- 

 lowed it will often be twenty-four 

 days before the queen commences to 

 lay, and it is \iseless to look in ^snch 

 (after- swarming) hives any sooner 

 than this for eggs in the cells. Then 

 If you look when the qiieen has been 

 laying only a few hours, the eggs 

 will be so few and far between, or 

 scattered about among so many of the 

 combs, that it will bother the novice 

 to find them; hence I always consider 

 it good policy to wait from twenty- 

 six to twenty-eight days, at which 



i 



time young larva will be likely to a 

 pear, which, together with e 

 several combs, tells you, general!; 

 upon the lifting oif the first cen 

 comb of the hive, that a young quej 

 is there all right. 



For dim eyes, the larva Ai'ill 

 the story at first glance, for the 

 larva in any colony which has ra 

 a queen will be so liberally fed ^i^ifl 

 chyle that this milky subst4nc 

 "catches" the eye at once, while it i 

 often hard to discern eggs, espedall; 

 on a cloudy day. If no eggs or larv; 

 are fo^ind on the twenty-eighth da; 

 from the time any colony casts It 

 first or prime swarm, a frame 

 brood, having eggs and larva in 

 should be given from some othe 

 colony having a laying queen; and "W 

 are to look at this frame again, foirtj 

 eight hours later, to see if queen-eel 

 have been started on it. If so, the 

 the colony is queenless and should t 

 given a laying queen at once, if po 

 sible; or, if this cannot be, then tn 

 lOr three frames of brood should \ 

 given them, else they dwindle ■ 

 where tliey will be of little value b 

 fore any young queen will emerj 

 from a queen they may raise fro 

 the br^ood given. 



If no cells are started,you may kao 

 that the bees have something whii 

 they are tolerating as a queen, aj 

 she should be hunted up and destroy' 

 in order that a good queen can 

 gotten in her place. 



But suppose after-swarming is ii 

 allowed; then we have seven days 

 the time the first young queen emerg 

 from her cell, seven days to the tir 

 she flies to meet the drone and thr 

 days to the time she begins to Is 

 thus making seventeen days t 

 shortest time any young queen 

 likely to be found laying, from t 

 time the prime swarm issues, 'fli 

 I would wait three or four days mo 

 before looking for brood, so that eg 

 and larva might become abundant 

 the combs, soi I could expect to asc< JJ 

 tain what I wished to know on lifti: 

 only one or two combs. My practi 

 is to look for eggs and larva on t ^ 

 twenty-third day from time of swar 

 ing, where no after-swarm is allowf 

 or on the twenty-eighth day wht 

 such swarming is allowed. But, 

 late years, it is a i*are thing that 

 look into any hive, for after we kiu 

 just what is going on in a hive, if "" 



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