THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



341 



For tbe American Bee Journal 



Rearing Good (Jueens. 



E. A. THOMAS. 



Probably there is no more impor- 

 tant subject pertaining to bee-culture 

 than this, as the prosperity and 

 strength of a colony depends entirely 

 upon its queen; if she be deficient in 

 any respect, the colony must suffer in 

 consequence ; if she be strong, vigor- 

 ous, and in every way desirable, the 

 colony will prove valuable, withstand- 

 ing our most severe winters and pro- 

 ducing large crops of the sweet nec- 

 tar. The queen, being the parent of 

 the entire colony, must represent all 

 the characteristics present in any 

 strain ; therefore we must realize the 

 necessity of a scientific investigation 

 of certain laws which regulate the 

 propagation of the species, and the 

 methods by which the finest and 

 most perfect queens may be reared. 

 A discussion of the laws which guides 

 the scientific breeder in developing 

 the most desirable qualities in a 

 strain of bees will hardly be interest- 

 ing to tlie large mass of bee-keepers 

 and will be foreign to the intention of 

 the present article. I will therefore 

 pass on to the methods to be employed, 

 and the conditions requisite to pro- 

 duce the most perfect queens possess- 

 ing all the most desirable qualities. 



But before proceeding further, I 

 wish to impress' upon the minds of all 

 the fact that it requires hard labor, 

 skill and perseverance to rear valuable 

 queens, and those who do not ap- 

 preciate tills fact will have but poor 

 success I am afraid. Queens reared 

 in a shiftless manner without regard 

 for, or knowledge of the laws and 

 methods of correct breeding, are not 

 worth the postage required to forward 

 them to the purchaser. I give below 

 a few ideas on queen-rearing, which 

 may assist you in rearing your own or 

 in selecting the best queen to pur- 

 chase. 



1. I have proved to my own satisfac- 

 tion, at least, that queens reared from 

 the egg are far superior in every way 

 shape and manner to those reared 

 from old larvie. I have sufliciently 

 demonstrated this to warrant me in 

 setting it down as a fact and not as 

 an aftirmation or supposition. I have 

 many times been called upon to in- 

 vestigate the condition of apiaries for 

 the purpose of determining if possible 

 why they proved unprofitable. In 

 many instances I could find no de- 

 fect in the management or pasturage, 

 and seemingly no reason why there 

 should be a short honey crop ; but 

 upon inquiring as to the method by 

 ■which the queens were reared, I 

 almost invariably found that they 

 ■were reared, as far as known, from 

 old larva;, and in the absence of any 

 other assignable cause, I fixed upon 

 that as the reason, or one of the rea- 



sons why the bees were deficient in 

 those qualities which ensure a good 

 honey crop and success to the apiarist. 

 I could cite many cases which 1 am 

 cognizant of, where the weakness of 

 the bees was attributable, in part at 

 least, to this cause. The bees, in a 

 state of nature, rear their queens 

 from the egg, a fact which proves in 

 itself that this is the preferable way. 

 I believe the closer we follow nature 

 in such matters the less liable we 

 shall be to err. I am so fully per- 

 suaded of the importance ot this 

 point that I shall take the necessary" 

 pains to rear all queens from the egg 

 and will tolerate no other. 



2. Plenty of honey in the hive I have 

 found to be an essential condition. A 

 half starved colony will not have am- 

 bition enough to properly develop the 

 cells. It has been my experience 

 that, in order to secure the best de- 

 veloped cells, it is necessary to stimu- 

 late the colony in every way possible. 

 To satisfy myself in regard to this 

 point, I depriveil a colony of nearly all 

 its honey and let it rear a batch of 

 queen cells. Their appearence was 

 so unsatisfactory that I destroyed 

 every one at once. I then gave the 

 stock an abundance of honey and fed 

 them regularly, letting them rear an- 

 other batch. The result was surpris- 

 ing, the cells were large and well 

 formed and hatched out fine queens. 

 I therefore feel justified in saying 

 that, in order to procure the finest 

 developed cells, the colony must con- 

 tain plenty of honey and be stimu- 

 lated by every means at the command 

 of the apiarist. 



3. Queens reared in full colonies 

 are, without doubt, the finest and 

 most perfect. This would seem to 

 be a self evident truth, as only in a 

 full colony are all the conditions most 

 favorable for the proper development 

 of a valuable queen. Such queens are 

 expensive to raise, and must be sold 

 for a high price to make the breeder 

 good, but I am inclined to believe 

 that they are tlie cheapest for the 

 buyer in the end. 



As it is impossible to rear them all 

 in full colonies, the breeder is obliged 

 to resort to the nucleus system. It 

 should be his aim to make a"ll the con- 

 ditions as favorable as possible ; in 

 other words lie should endeavor to 

 come as near " full colonies " as he 

 can. To do this the nuclei should be 

 kept as strong as possible, the stronger 

 the better ; the cells should be reared 

 in full, strong colonies, and only 

 transferred to the nuclei a few hours 

 before the queens are ready to emerge. 

 This requires watchfulness and care 

 on tlie part of the breeder, and a con- 

 siderable experience to tell just when 

 the cells are ready to hatch. 



In suming up I would say that too 

 much care and skill cannot be exer- 

 cised : too much time and money can- 

 not be expended in the rearing of 

 good queens, and, whatever the price 

 they may be sold for, no breeder 

 should allow a queen to drop into 

 Uncle Sam's mail bag that he would 

 not be willing to use himself. 



It is only when customers demand 

 the very best stock, be the price what 

 it may, and breeders conscientiously 



supply such demand, that we may 

 hope for a permanent improvement of 

 the American bees. We can all 

 readily understand how a few queens 

 purchased and introduced into an 

 apiary may either improve or de- 

 teriorate the whole, as they may be 

 good or poor. I cannot but believe 

 that all who appreciate this fact will 

 give this subject their careful con- 

 sideration and only purchase the best 

 stock, which is as essential for the 

 production of good honey crops as im- 

 proved hives or methods of manipu- 

 lation. 

 Colerain, Mass. 



New York Tribune. 



The Glucose-Honey Question. 



FUOF. A. J. COOK. 



There is much significance in the 

 fact that the glucose makers in con- 

 vention in Chicago sat with closed 

 doors. Secret sessions and consulta- 

 tions held in darkness comport well 

 with this whole glucose business. It 

 well becomes men to hide their coun- 

 sels when their very business can only 

 succeed as it is nourished by fraud 

 and decention. As the glucose in- 

 dustries of the country only thrive as 

 the result of the most dishonest prac- 

 tices, it seems a pity that they can- 

 not be throttled, and the manufacture 

 of glucose counted among the lost 

 arts. It is said that all our sugars, 

 with the exception of the granulated, 

 are largely composed of this artificial 

 glucose. "Reputable authority asserts 

 the same to be true of nearly all of 

 our table syrups ; and much of the so- 

 called honey on the markets is largely 

 composed of this same grape sugar. 

 Yet no sign of these wicked frauds is 

 to be seen on the labels. If not pro- 

 nounced pure, the purchaser is left to 

 infer that such is the case. This 

 state of things is a disgrace to our 

 civilization, and should be denounced 

 as base and corrupting by every 

 honest man. Laws, State and Na- 

 tional, should be enacted and enforced, 

 so that all wlio practice these adultera- 

 tions and thus sell articles under a 

 false trade mark, should receive con- 

 dign punisluuent. All intelligent and 

 right thinking bee-keepers see in 

 honey adulterations a serious foe to 

 the success of their business. They 

 all feel and know that such men as 

 Perrine and the Thurbers have done 

 more to injure bee-keeping by their 

 wholesale adulteration of honey a 

 thousand times over than they have 

 done to benefit it by their energy and 

 effort to push our honey upbn the 

 markets of the world. True, they 

 have taken our product, but they 

 have done their best to blast its good 

 name. 



Without doubt nearly, if not all of 

 this honey adulteration is the work of 

 the middle men. It requires skill, 

 and is much more easy and profitable 

 to the extensive dealer. In the great 

 houses of our large cities is where 

 the villainous work is done. I do not 

 believe that bee-keepers have engaged 

 in it at all. If they have done so, it 

 surely has been exceptional. Even 



