THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



345 



scribed, reports that his best colony 

 the past season gave Iiim 4.S3 lbs. of 

 surplus honey. l)o you see V 

 Christiansburg, Ky. 



Bee- Keepers' Instructor. 



Poor Queen, No Colony. 



L. C. BOOT. 



A noted horseman of the past has 

 said, " poor foot, no horse." So may 

 we say of bees, ■' poor queen, no col- 

 ony." I think that all who liave had 

 experience will agree upon this point. 



That we want the very best queens 

 that can be reared will not be dispu- 

 ted ; but many writers of the present 

 day are proving that they do not un- 

 derstand the requirements for rearing 

 such queens. 1 shall take strong 

 grounds against the practice of rear- 

 ing what are known as " dollar 

 queens," not that I object to any per- 

 son rearing No. 1 queens for Sl.OO, 

 but because I do not believe they can 

 do so, and keep their stock u]) to the 

 proper standard. 



Keeping bees for profit is our main 

 bnsiness, and I am arguing this 

 question with tlie sauie interest that 

 every bee-keeper lias, who wants such 

 bees as will gather most lioney. win- 

 ter best, and in fact are best for all 

 purposes. I cannot here give my 

 views as to the best methods of rear- 

 ing queens, for lack of space, but will 

 only say that the best methods must 

 be continually followed up, which 

 means more money, time and care, 

 than ttie sale of dollar queens will 

 warrant. Let me give some parallel 

 illustrations : 



We recently secured some oats of 

 superior quality of one of the best 

 farmers of our county. They were 

 really fine, and much over weight. 

 We examined them closely and found 

 they contained a quantity of mustard 

 seed and a portion of inferior oats. 

 We sifted them, and from the 10 

 bushels saved about 6 bushels of the 

 best. Again : Becoming interested 

 in high-class poultry, we purchased 

 the very best fowls we could secure, 

 yet we find we can only hold them up 

 to their present standard by select- 

 ing the very best birds each season. 



Now, my point is, that even when 

 we buy the very best queens we can 

 without regard to price, this sifting 

 process is necessary. I should not be 

 quite so positive in this matter had I 

 not tested it for myself, and know 

 whereof I speak. Whend. M. Doo- 

 little proved the value of his strain of 

 Italians by securing his large yield of 

 honey, we should have felt ourselves 

 to be short-sighted had we not at once 

 procurred the best queen he would 

 sell, without regard to price. So, 

 when P. H. Elwood obtained 5.80 lbs. 

 •of honey from one hive, it was proof 

 that he had stock which we wanted. 

 And so with W. J. Davis, Dadant & 

 Son, Julius Hoffman and many 

 others. We consider the introduction 

 of such improved stock indispensa- 

 ble, and yet, the sifting process must 

 be continued. We must not for a 

 moment entertain the thought that 

 we have yet reached the desired de- 



gree of perfection, for we are a long, 



long way from it. 



The substantial question to be 

 asked is, how is this standard to be 

 reached? Will tlie policy of rearing 

 dollar queens tend in this direction V 

 I am persuaded that it will not, no 

 more than I think that the ruinously 

 low prices for many of our apiarian 

 supplies — such as comb foundation, 

 etc., are tending to purity and supe- 

 riority in their line. 



Thomas G. Newman strikes solid 

 blows at this cheap queen traffic in 

 his Journal of March 8, page 12-5, 

 when he says : " What the bee-keep- 

 ers of America want is better stock, 

 not cheaper queens ; more honey, not 

 lighter yields : longer-lived bees, not 

 greater" disaster ; certain profits, not 

 doubtf id results." Will dollar queens 

 lead to this end ? 



The April numlierof the California 

 Ajyicidturi^t contains an article from 

 the pen of Mr. Gallup. This is from 

 a man of experience, and is of partiQ- 

 ular value to tliose living in warm 

 climates. He says : " The genuine 

 Italians are no luimbug ; neither can 

 the moth miller luimbug them." His 

 point made is, do not breed for cohir 

 unless with the light color you gain 

 the extra qualities needed. 



I am not urging these views espe- 

 cially to infiueuce the experienced 

 bee-keei)ers of the present time. They 

 are capable of judging for themselves. 

 But the mass of bee-keepers who pur- 

 chase Italian queens are such as have 

 had no experience with them, and 

 they are looking to our journals for 

 information in regard to the best and 

 cheapest methods of securing them. 

 Are they to be led to believe that they 

 may purchase queens for Sl.OO each, 

 expecting to begin under the most fa- 

 vorable conditions? 



After an experience of 13 years, 

 during the first o years of which I had 

 the benefit of one of the longest and 

 ripest experiences in America, I say 

 eniidiaticaily that I consider the cheap 

 queen trathc a hindrance to the best 

 interests of profitable bee-keeping. 



Mohawk, N. Y. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Tliose Unkind Things. 



HENKT ALLEY. 



I was not aware that any very un- 

 kind things had been said about those 

 who rear cheap queens. In giving a 

 few facts about the cheap queen traf- 

 fic, I did not intend to relleet on any 

 man's reputation or busine.ss stand- 

 ing. In what I said I desired to be 

 understood by all that good queens 

 cannot be reared and sold at a paying 

 profit for SI a))ieee. Tho.se who rear 

 queens and send them out in 2 or 3 

 days after they commence to lay, can 

 know nothing about the worth and 

 quality of sucli queens. The time to 

 judge of the quality in respect to their 

 prolificness is when the bees com- 

 mence to seal or cap over the worker 

 brood. If there are eggs and brood 

 in every cell not otherwise used by 

 tlie bees, or, in other words, if the 

 combs are solid with worker brood, 



put this queen down for a good one 

 and worth S2 to any man. It the 

 brood is scattering, some cells with 

 eggs, other cells with capped brood, 

 put her down as a worthless one. 

 Now, how can these facts be known 

 unless queens are kept at least 14 days 

 after they commence to lay ? 



I know from my long experience in 

 rearing queens, that all queens are 

 not good ones, and, as they are some- 

 times reared, a large number are 

 worthless. I base my opinion on re- 

 ports I have read in the Bee Jour- 

 nal from time to time. I know that 

 good queens cannot be reared in the 

 way some of your correspondents say 

 they rear them. 



But the greatest mistake is made in 

 making a selection for a queen to 

 breed from. To illustrate what I 

 mean, I will give a bit of my own ex- 

 perience in this matter. I usually se- 

 lect for a " breeder " the largest, 

 handsomest and most prolific queen 

 I can find, selecting one, of course, 

 that would give me fine queens as 

 judged by her worker progeny. One 

 year I selected a queen that would 

 answer the above description. Not 

 one of the queen cells from her eggs 

 would hatch, though they were made 

 in full hives, and were quite large, 

 and apparently jierfect. ^VeIl, here is 

 another case : I selected one of my 

 most profitable queens for a queen- 

 mother. Her daughters were very 

 fine. They were all fertilized in due 

 time, and all commenced to lay 

 promptly. Those queens were sent 

 out after laying a few days. Reports 

 came back that they did not lay, and 

 others reported that the eggs would 

 not hatch. The loss to me was $150. 

 That is what it cost me to test that 

 one queen. Now, you see the im- 

 portance of testing queens for their 

 laying qualities, if not for purity. 

 Have both if we can, provided the 

 cost is not above the reach of most 

 bee-keepers. Sometimes I have com- 

 plaints that queens sent out lay drone 

 eggs only. About one queen in 500 

 will turn out just so. But this, fact 

 cannot be determined by keeping a 

 queen 2 or 3 days. When the brood is 

 capped over, then the fact is plainly 

 seen. If people want cheap queens, 

 rear them and supply them with all 

 they want. 



I will guarantee to sell queens for 50 

 cents each, provided the purchaser 

 will never say one word about them 

 to any one. How can I do that? Well, 

 I will tell you how I can do it. I can 

 compel a good strong colony of bees 

 to build from 100 to .500 queen cells at 

 one time. About 2 of the whole lot 

 might be worth keeping, but the bal- 

 ance would not be worth as ranch as 

 worker bees. I have often told you 

 that the more queen cells one colony 

 made, the poorer the queens would be, 

 and that is just so. Unless I am more 

 successful in the queen-rearing busi- 

 ness this year than I have been for the 

 last seven, I will retire from the field, 

 and make room for those who have 

 more monev to lose than I have. If I 

 do retire, 1 "shall feel at liberty to say 

 something aliout the secrets of queen- 

 rearing, that is, 1 will tell how I can 

 rear from one to .500 queen cells in a 



