520 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the keg or box in front of the liive and 

 capture the queen if possible, as they 

 go in ; if not, get the queen from tlie 

 second swarm, which you will now 

 shake down in front of the same hive, 

 return the queen captured to the hive 

 from whence she came, after cutting 

 out all the queen cells. Now you have 

 only one queenless colony, and that 

 will have a queen in 24 liours, 10 beau- 

 tiful combs which the queen lias com- 

 menced to fill, and 48 sections under 

 headway. Now take the colony tliat 

 is deprived of a queen and make 8 or 9 

 nuclei, selecting the largest and finest 

 developed queen cells. These nuclei 

 can be used to supply queens for later 

 swarms. 



My method of transferring is as 

 follows : Have a hive prepared with 

 10 frames of foundation, drum up the 

 swarm that is to be transferred (as has 

 been described many times in the Bee 

 JotJRNAL), and shake them in front 

 of the new hive ; if more than one is 

 to be transferred, serve theui the same 

 way ; now let the old liives stand 14 

 days and drum up tiie bees tluit have 

 hatched in all the old liives, and run 

 them into new hives prepared as for 

 newswavms; run as many in a hive 

 as it will hold with the 48 sections on. 

 Now open the old hives and cut out 

 the lioney and what worker brood 

 there is left ; lit tlie worker brood into 

 frames if you liave no queen to supply, 

 fit in a choice queen cell, and give 

 eaeli multiplied colony only one frame 

 of this patched brood and a queen 

 cell ; if there is any left, give it to the 

 weaker colonies. If properly attended 

 to, you will have no more increase 

 from them. The best time for trans- 

 ferring is just at the begiiming of 

 white clover bloom, or at the begin- 

 ning of any honey flow, when not cold 

 enough to chill the brood or too late 

 in the fall. 



Cedar Falls, Iowa. 



For tbe American Bee Journal 



The Utility of Untested Queens. 



Vr. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



Friend Newman :— Has my reply 

 to Prof. Cook in the Rural i\'erw York- 

 er of June 24th escaped your notice V 

 or has a press of other matter pre- 

 vented you from publishing it? It is 

 as follows : 



First allow me to thank Prof. Cook 

 for his kind words in a late article in 

 the JJ((r((i on tlie above subject; tliey 

 are fully appreciated. When an argu- 

 ment is so conducted tliat at its close 

 each party has a higher opinion of his 

 opponent, there is but little chance 

 for hard feelings ; if every one was 

 like Prof. Cook, all arguments would 

 be so conducted. 



The only point that I endeavored to 

 make in my former article, and the 

 one that I have so persistently argued 

 in the bee papers during the past few 

 months, is that an unjust discrimina- 

 tion is made by some writers in favor 

 of the so-called "tested'' queens, 

 when the only difference under the 

 sun between them and the so-called 

 " dollar " queens is, that the tested 

 queens are known to be purely mated. 



while, until the pi-ogeny of a " dollar " 

 queen hatches, it is uncertain how 

 she has mated; but in nine cases out 

 of tei, " dollar" queens turn out to 

 be purely mated, and thus are eventu- 

 ally tested queens. As before stated, 

 both classes of queens are reared ex- 

 actly alike, and yet column after 

 column of our bee papers have been 

 devoted to the condemnation of " dol- 

 lar" queens and not one word has 

 been said against the tested queens. 

 Tested for what? Tested for " stripes " 



and 52; "only this and nothing 



more." Does not Prof. Cook think 

 that the rearing and selling of tested 

 queens for $2, or even $3, have cheap- 

 ened queens fully as much as the 

 " dollar " queen trafflcy 



As to how a queen should be tested. 

 Prof. Cook says : " I would have 

 him wait to see if the requisite num- 

 ber of eggs, bees, and pounds of 

 honey are forthcoming, and then, 

 when such assurance was gained, I 

 would pay him §10 for the queen and 

 make money." 1 heartily agree with 

 liira, but I fail to see how or why the 

 "dollar queen traffic" prevents any 

 breeder trom testing his queens in 

 this manner and then asking a corres- 

 ponding price for them . In fact, some 

 breeders have alre;idy taken a step in 

 this direction, as they otter for sale 

 "dollar" queens, "purely mated" 

 ((ueens, "tested" queens, and "se- 

 lected tested " queens. If some relia- 

 ble breeder will keep his queens until 

 they are a year old and test them thor- 

 oughly, I do not think that he will ex- 

 perience any difficulty in selling his 

 "selected tested" queens at almost 

 any reasonable price. 



Prof. Cook says : " Does Mr. II. 

 think tliat our Short-horn cattle would 

 possess their present excellencies had 

 there been no greater inducements to 

 hard and persistent effort than that 

 held out to the bee-breeders of to- 

 day?" Candidly, friend C, I do not, 

 and until the mating of our queen 

 bees can be as easily controlled as the 

 mating of cattle, sheep and other 

 stock, I do not think that there will 

 ever be any greater inducements held 

 out to the bee-breeders to improve 

 their bees than there are at present, 

 even if the "dollar queen traffic" 

 should be swept away. There is some 

 inducement to buy, even at enormous 

 prices, improved breeds of cattle, 

 sheep and horses, because, with ordi- 

 nary care, the offspring of such stock 

 will be pure, and will, likewise, com- 

 mand a high price ; but there is no 

 such inducement to the purchase of 

 an improved strain of bees, because, 

 even with the greatest care, the young 

 queens may mate witli drones from 

 some scrub'swarms in the woods. 



I do not wish to be understood as 

 saying that there are )io.inducements 

 to the purchasing of improved strains 

 of bees; far from it. The induce- 

 ments are many, but they are not so 

 great or so many as to the purchasing 

 of stock the breeding of which can be 

 controlled. To a certain extent, of 

 course, the mating of queens can be 

 controlled ; we can Italianize all of 

 the bees in the vicinity of our apiary, 

 but to have each stock within three or 

 four miles produce nuiiiberone drones. 



would be an almost herculean task. 

 When fertilization in continement, or 

 something of tlie sort, is made prac- 

 ticable, then, I doubt not, there will 

 be plenty of breeders who will set to 

 work and will succeed in producing a 

 superior strain of bees. At present, 

 however, in order to obtain positive 

 results and know how they were ob- 

 tained, so that it can be done again 

 and again ; it is necessary to adopt 

 the plan put in practice by Mr. D. A. 

 Jones— that of breeding bees upon 

 isolated islands. 



No one would be more pleased than 

 myself to see an improvement in our 

 bees. I try to be unprejudiced in the 

 matter, but to me it appears that the 

 rearing and selling of "dollar" queens 

 does aiot " retard the progress of 

 American apiculture," or stand in the 

 way of the best achievements." any 

 more than the rearing and selling of 

 native cattle, sheep and horses prevent 

 or hinder the development, breeding 

 and dissemination of improved breeds 

 of these animals. Instead of beina; a 

 damage, I think that dollar queens 

 have been a benefit and a blessing to 

 apiculture. Thousands now have the 

 peaceable, industrious and beautiful 

 Italians, who would yet have the 

 native bees had the prices of Italian 

 queens been kept at a high figure, 

 while any breeder is free to improve 

 his bees as much as he jileases, and if 

 he succeeds in producing a superior 

 strain, he need have no fears but 

 what he can sell his queens at a high 

 price. 



Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich, 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Dunham ts. Given Foundation. 



J. V. CALDWELL. 



The comparative merits of the dif- 

 ferent styles of comb foundation now 

 offered by different manufacturers is 

 worthy of the most earnest and care- 

 ful attention of the apiarists of this 

 country. That there is a decided 

 difference, does not admit of a doubt, 

 but which is the best ? That is the 

 important point to be decided by the 

 average bee-keeper. 



I have taken as my subject this eve- 

 ning two of the popular makes. The 

 Dunham machine is, to me, like an 

 old and tried friend, and the longer I 

 use it, the better I am satisfied with 

 the product of its matchless rolls. 

 My brother apiarist, Mr. Ileddon, 

 thinks first class foundation cannot; 

 be made on this machine without a 

 large amount of trouble and vexation 

 of spirit. Well, in iill deference to 

 his longer experience with founda- 

 tion machines, I must say I can and 

 do make first class foundation on this 

 machine, and work also that satisfies 

 a large and most fastidious class of 

 customers. Mr. Ileddon claims for 

 the Given machine, a thin septum, 

 and large, deep, but soft outlines, and 

 that the bees manipulated it much 

 quicker than the rolled foundation. 

 Well, as the "test of the pudding is 

 in the eating, let us see how the mat- 

 ter stands. He says : " Hive a prime 

 swarm on S frames of the Given 



