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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



cells. I do not think that a queen 

 reared from a larva 3 days old will be 

 very prolific for any great lens^th of 

 time. Such queens may do well for a 

 few months, and then will disappear. 

 I am aware that all queens reared 

 under the swarming impulse do not 

 prove proliflfe and long-lived, neither 

 do all the artificially-reared queens. 

 As there are a much larger number of 

 artificial queens reared than natural 

 ones, of course there will be a larger 

 number of inferior queens sent out. 



Now, as we must have artificial 

 queens, the question is, how can we 

 best rear them, and keep up the stan- 

 dard of prolificness, hardiness, and 

 pui'ity V It certainly cannot be done 

 if queens are reared as some queen 

 dealers say they are rearing them. I 

 know, from several years' experience, 

 that good hardy queens cannot be 

 reared by inserting a frame of eggs 

 and larvfe in all stages, in the middle 

 of a full colony of bees. I find in such 

 cases that the bees will select an old 

 larva, say 1, 2, or 3 days old for a 

 queen. I have had some colonies 

 make as many as 60 queen cells at one 

 batch. The colony wasan extra large 

 and powerful one, and the queens 

 were pretty good. 



I do not think very valuable queens 

 can be reared in a hive that has just 

 reared one lot; such queens will be 

 very poor. But a colony of bees will 

 continue to rear queens good or bad, 

 if eggs are given them, so long as 

 there is any hatching brood in the 

 hive. Perhaps Mr. Butler will remem- 

 ber what I said in the .Journal some 

 time ago, that I allow about 25 queens 

 to be reared at one time, by 1 colony 

 of bees. I think I said at that time 

 that the bees had no other brood to 

 care for except the 25 eggs given them 

 to rear queens from. I find that a 

 strong colony of bees put in a hive 

 without any brood, except enough to 

 rear a few queens from, will make 

 double the number of strong and 

 hardy queens that they will in a hive 

 full of brood. A strong colony with 

 not over 25 eggs, will concentrate all 

 their forces on the small amount of 

 brood given them, and as queen-rear- 

 ing is their only object, one can ex- 

 pect nothing but good queens as a re- 

 sult. With my uietliod for rearing 

 queens, my full colonies are never 

 queenless, and I use no brood in my 

 queen-rearing hives, and still use all 

 tne bees in a strong colony for queen- 

 rearing. To rear good, hardy, and 

 strong queens, rear only a few to a 

 hive. Remember that good queens 

 cannot be reared in a strong colony 

 by merely removing the old queen. 

 They must start from the eggs or 

 from larvaj only a few hours old. I 

 well remember a remark a bee-keep- 

 ing friend made to me some 20 years 

 ago: "I will tell you how to rear 

 nice, large queens ; let the bees start 

 them from the eggs." Twenty years 

 experience has verified that assertion. 



That artificial queens can be reared 

 that are better in all respects than 

 natural ones is a fact well known to 

 me for many years. I have in my 

 mind now a case that will prove the 

 fact as far as it goes. I sold a good. 



strong colony of bees to a neighbor ; 

 well, they swarmed twice, and the 

 young swarms died the following 

 winter. The parent colony did not 

 seem to build up strong again that 

 year. The next year they did not do 

 any better, and the parent colony 

 never appeared to be full of bees. I 

 fudged tliat the bees had reared a poor 

 queen, and during the month of 

 August gave them a young Italian 

 (artificial) queen. The following year 

 the parentcolony swarmed twice, and 

 gave 40 lbs. of honey ; the first swarm 

 filled their hive and gave 20 lbs., and 

 the second swarm filled their hive and 

 stored 10 lbs. in a box. I make this 

 statement merely to prove to some 

 people that artificial queens are as 

 good, if not better, than natural ones. 

 I can give many more cases of the 

 same kind. 

 Wenham,Mass. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



My Experience with Syrian Bees. 



I. R. GOOD. 



I have been requested by Mr. J. E. 

 Lay, of Texas, and others, to give ray 

 experience with Syrian bees, in the 

 columns of the Bee Journal, which 



1 will do without prejudice, and to the 

 best of my ability. They are crosser 

 than Italians if not very carefully 

 handled. If a colony is made queen- 

 less and kept so any length of time, 

 there will laying workers appear and 

 fill the combs with eggs. They will 

 not stick to the combs in handling as 

 well as the Italians, but while they 

 have tliose bad qualities, they also 

 have very good ones. The queens are 

 very prolific, consequently, the brood 

 department will be filled with brood 

 by the time the honey harvest begins, 

 aiid the bees will take to the surplus 

 boxes much earlier than the Italians, 

 and work with a will. 



Last season my Syrian bees were 

 the first in the boxes by nearly two 

 weeks, and some of my best colonies 

 had 25 and 30 lbs. of honey ready to 

 come off before the Italians could be 

 induced to commence in the surplus 

 boxes. They have proven them- 

 selves, with me, to be a much hardier 

 race of bees, standing the winter 

 much better and are not as apt to 

 spring dwindle as the Italians. They 

 are not liard to introduce a queen to, 

 if they have been queenless a day or 

 two. They will accept a queen even 

 where the hive is full of fertile work- 

 ers. They are proof against moths 

 and robbers. For fear tliere may be 

 some that will say I am interested in 

 the sale of Syrian queens, and conse- 

 quently have an axe to grind, let me 

 quote from others who are not inter- 

 ested in their sale. In the Bee Jour- 

 nal, Vol. 17, page 316, Mr. Whitfield 

 says : " We were fortunate in having 



2 of the Palestine queens come through 

 the past winter in good condition to 

 start with in the spring ; but as I had 

 Italians that seemed to be in quite as 

 good condition, I thought very little 

 of them at first. About June 1, I 

 noticed they had more than double the 



bees on the wing than any other 

 colony, and I took a glance at the in- 

 side, which showed 12 frames of brood 

 in one and 9 in the other — frames 1 

 foot square. I now began to watch 

 them with interest; they gave just 

 double the increase, and each colony 

 gave one-half more honey than the 

 best Italians." 



In tlie Bee Journal for 1881, page 

 323, Prof. A. J. Cook says: "The 

 tongue of the Syrian worker I find, 

 after examining a large number of 

 each kind, to be the same length as 

 that of the Cyprian, and to average 

 006. of an inch longer than that of the 

 Italians. The Syrians are excellent 

 honey gatherers, certainty equal, if 

 not superior, to the Italians. Tliey 

 are even more sure to repel robbers 

 than are the Italians." 



In Oleanings for 1882, page 132, A. 

 I. Root says : " The strongest colony 

 in our apiary is the Syrian one we have 

 mentioned ; they are almost the only 

 ones that are wintering on natural 

 stores, just because they had abun- 

 dance of stores without any sugar 

 feeding." 



Now tell us your experience in the 

 Bee Journal apiary with the- 

 Syrians, as I know you have them. 

 It is the truth in the matter we want. 

 If the Syrian bees are no better, or not 

 as good, as the Italians, we want to 

 know it ; and, on the other hand, if 

 we can improve our bees by breeding 

 Syrians or Cyprians, and crossing 

 with our Italians, we also want to 

 know it. The best bees are what we 

 want. 



Nappanee, Ind. 



[We have, in the Bee Journal. 

 apiary, two Syrian queens, supposed to 

 have been properly mated, and several 

 which have mated with Italian drones. 

 Of the former, we have had but little 

 knowledge of one, as it was quite late 

 last season when we received her, but 

 the other was obtained early in the 

 spring. She proved very prolific, and 

 we found her very useful in assisting 

 to build up colonies. They were not 

 fairly tested for working qualities, as 

 the drain upon them for bees and 

 brood was unremitting. Were it not 

 for their irrascible disposition, we 

 would think much more favorably of 

 them ; but they certainly are much 

 more vicious than any Italians we 

 have had any experience with, and we 

 have been unable to subdue them with 

 smoke. The progeny of the younger 

 queens, mated with Italian drones, 

 appear larger than the full-blood Sy- 

 rians, and are very docile, while the 

 queens appear to have retained their 

 proclivities for prolificness. We shall 

 further test them this season for their 

 honey-gathering qualities, in compar- 

 ison with Italians, Cyprians, Southern 

 brown bees, and hybrids of the differ- 

 ent races. — Ed. J 



