1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



693 



the bees than In the ordinary way. I don't say that all locali- 

 ties will stand such procedure, but In a Rood many localities it 

 win work very nicely. I presented this method at the con- 

 vention at Philadelphia about ten days aRO, and a Kood many 

 said they had tried It and had got good crops of honey when 

 their neighbors didn't get any. The plan is simply to have 

 large colonies, very large colonies. 



Mr. Rauchfuss — Doesn't a good deal depend upon the 

 strain of bees ? 



E. R. Root — We have a good many strains of bees ; some 

 Imported, and a good many hybrids. 



A. I. Root — Mrs. Acklin has had good success in rearing 

 queens by the Doolittle method. We would like to hear what 

 she has to say about It. 



Mrs. Acklin — We have been rearing queens by the Doo- 

 little method for four or five years ; in fact, we have always 

 reared our queens in that way ever since we commenced 

 queen-rearing. I take a queen out of the colony and leave it 

 three or four days, and then build astring of cups and put in. 

 This summer one time I made a string of 17 cups, and 15 of 

 them were accepted. Another time Mr. Root was up there, 

 and then I think I made l-l cups and 13 of them were ac- 

 cepted. That Is the way we have run all summer. I have 

 been using the same colony all summer for rearing queens. 

 We have put In fresh brood all the time, taking the frames of 

 brood and larvae and putting them in some other colony until 

 they are sealed over, and then putting them into the queen- 

 rearing colony, and in that way we have kept the colony 

 stockt with young bees. We have reared a good many queens 

 in thai way. We have just kept that colony rearing queens 

 all the time. Some bee-keepers might not think It advisable 

 to do that. We have had queen-cells half a finger length long. 

 1 agree with Mr. Root in saying, that they are very prolific 

 queens. 



A. I. Root — Have you tried rearing queens above with the 

 old queen left In the hive ? 



Mrs. Acklin — Not this summer — not for the last two sea- 

 sons. I prefer to have them in the lower story, as I think it 

 Is more satisfactory. 



A. I. Root — When I started the idea of queens for a dol- 

 lar, how the bee-journals pitcht into me and abused me ! They 

 bore down on me bard, some of them seeming to think I ought 

 to be in the insane asylum. I almost felt guilty myself, they 

 came down on me so hard. I began to think I had made a 

 big blunder. We advertised the names of those who agreed 

 to furnish untested queens for a dollar, and kept on until by 

 and by people began to discover that dollar queens were not 

 altogether " Cheap John," after all ; and at some of the con- 

 ventions people began to speak of the big crops of honey they 

 had got with dollar queens. The end of my story Is this : Our 

 good friend W. Z. Hutchinson suggested in a recent journal 

 that he didn't know hut good queens could be reared for 25 

 cents. I haven't heard anybody abuse him at all. 

 Dr. Miller — Wasn't that virgin queens ? 

 A. I. Root — I don't think it was. Queens used to sell for 

 $4 or $5. Our advocating queens for a dollar rather spoiled 

 the trade of tho^e who had been getting high prices. I don't 

 know but that was why we were abused. I remember some 

 one said for my encouragement when I was getting it on every 

 side : " Mr. Root, when you want to find the best apple-tree 

 In an orchard, when there isn't an apple on It, look for the 

 tree that has the most clubs lodged in the top." But I am 

 glad that the "clubbing system " is not so much in style any 

 more. We are getting a little more charity and a little more 

 respect for each other. Now I hardly expect that good queens 

 will be reared for 25 cents ; but good queens can be reared 

 cheaply. I wish Mr. Doolittle could be here to hear these ex- 

 pressions of approval. Our apiarists have shown me some of 

 the finest queens I ever saw In my life that have been reared 

 by that method. It is going to produce just as good queens as 

 we ever got by any process, and a good deal cheaper than they 

 were reared before. 



Mr. Stilson — Before this thing of new ideas in the ap'ary 

 Is past entirely. I wish to say this : Out at the Exposition 

 grounds you will find many of these very appliances that Mr. 

 E. R. Root has been describing In his talk. You will have 

 many object lessons there, and you can learn a great deal from 

 them. 



Dr. Miller — It may not be out of place to mention at least 

 one of the principles that I think very largely controls this 

 matter of rearing queens under certain circumstances, with 

 the plan that Mr. Rauchfuss speaks of as being the better. 

 That plan I believe can be applied also In the plan that Mr. 

 Root gives. Here I think is the fact : If no eggs are being 

 laid for brood, there seems to be a general impression on the 

 part of the bees that there is something in the line of queen- 

 lessness. In many cases they will start to rearing queens, 



especially if they have an old queen. This summer I had 

 cases In which to put the brood into the second story, and in 

 the first story I put the queen with some combs. The queen 

 was shut off from the second story. I did that with six colo- 

 nies. In two of the six colonies I found queen-cells started in 

 the upper story, and eggs in them, showing their feeling of 

 queenlessness. Even if there is a first-class laying queen be- 

 low, the bees will go on and complete the queen-cells above. 

 The more they are isolated the more in earnest they will be 

 about completing the queen-cells. It is not necessary to have 

 extracting-combs ; you may take sections and put the cells in 

 them, with your Doolittle cups. If you take two stories of 

 brood and lay a cloth between them with no excluder, so the 

 queen would not feel comfortable about going up above, the 

 queen-cells will be started there. Wherever there is brood 

 with no queen, there Is where the queen cells would be started. 

 One year I had a number of combs that I wanted to keep 

 away from the moths, and I put three stories of those empty 

 combs over a colony of bees. I thought perhaps the bees 

 would not go up to take care of the upper story, and thought 

 I would give them an inducement. I put a frame with brood 

 in the fourth story — one story at the bottom holding the col- 

 ony, then three stories with empty combs, and In the upper 

 story one frame with brood. I left them a month or more, 

 paying no attention to them at all, and then was surprised to 

 find that there was a queen laying in the upper story. There 

 was an opening in the hive, and the youngqueen had gone out 

 and been fertilized, and had started business on her own ac- 

 count. There was an old colony down below, and the new 

 colony above. Mr. Doolittle refers to that in his book. 

 Whether he had thought of it before I do not know ; but the 

 Incident, related, I think, in Gleanings, was the first reported 

 case of a queen being reared in the same hive with an old 

 queen. The point Is this, that you want the bees to be sep- 

 arated enough from the old queen to feel that they have no 

 queen. 



BEES 8WAKMING OUT. 



Mr. Masters — Why should a colony of bees swarm out 

 when they have no queen-cells started ? I have had that hap- 

 pen more than once, in cases where there were no queen-cells 

 for three or four days. 



Dr. Miller — They had no queen-cell for three or four days ? 

 Had you destroyed the cells ? 



Mr. Masters — No; they swarmed without having any 

 queen-cell-'. 



A. I. Root — Italians will do that. 



Dr. Miller— When the swarm came was that the first time 

 they had swarmed ? 



Mr. Masters — The first time. 



Dr. Miller— There was no start toward queen-cells, at all ? 



Mr. Masters— No start toward queen-cells, at all. 



Dr. Miller — Such cases have been reported. I have always 

 been just a little skeptical as to whether In those cases the 

 bees had not made some attempt to swarm and been thwarted 

 in It. 



Mr. Masters— I hadn't known of it. I didn't want them 

 to swarm. 



Dr. Miller— If bees start to swarm and are thwarted In it, 

 the more they are thwarted the more in earnest they become 

 in trying to swarm. I had one colony that wanted to swarm, 

 and I took away two or three frames of brood and gave them 

 foundation, so as to stop their inclination to swarm, but they 

 swarmed again. Then I took away all their brood, and left 

 them nothing but foundation. They put one queen-cell with 

 an egg In it on the empty foundation — that was the only brood 

 there was In the hive, and then they swarmed again and laid 

 down on the ground In front of the hive (the queen was dipt), 

 and they wouldn't go Into the hive. They would swarm ; 

 they wouldn't be thwarted, and I gave it up. I can't explain 

 it. Bees will do a hundred and one things that nobody can 

 explain. One colony will do one thing and another colony will 

 do another thing. 



Mr. Masters-— In this colony the hive was full of brood and 

 eggs. There were several frames that were full of eggs and 

 young larvEB. There were about four frames that had capt 

 brood, and the other four frames I should say had brood and 

 eggs on one side. I never could see why they swarmed. When 

 they swarmed I concluded I would open the hive and go In and 

 destroy all the cells but one, but I couldn't find a cell. I went 

 through It the next day and couldn't find a cell. I went 

 through the hive on the fourth day and found quite a number 

 of cells, and they reared two or three queens and swarmed 

 twice more afterwards. They were black bees. 



Mr. DeLong — I have had a number of colonies myself that 

 would swarm under those circumstances, and I believe I have 

 solved the problem of why they swarmed ; and It was simply 

 this : I think they just wanted to swarm. [Laughter.] 



