THE AMERICAN BEE JUURNAL. 



407 



For tbe American Bee JoumaU 



Introducing Virgin Queens. 



O. 31. DOOLITTLE. 



Formerly it was considered that 

 virgin queens could not be introduced, 

 to any advantage; and from tins rea- 

 son a iiueen-cell was always given to 

 a (lueeuless colony, unless a laying 

 queen was at liand. In case no queen- 

 cell was ready for use, brood was 

 given to the queenless colony or nu- 

 cleus, from which they would rear a 

 <iueen. As it takes them from 12 to 

 ir, days to rear a queen from this 

 brood,' a gain was made by having 

 queen-cells constantly on hand, witli 

 which to supply the nuclei. 



As a queen-cell was liable to be 

 destroyed if given to a nucleus or col- 

 ony as soon as the laying queen was 

 removed, it was found best to wait 48 

 hours before giving such a cell ; and 

 as the cell would not always be ready 

 to hatch as soon as given, the time 

 elapsing before it would hatch, would, 

 on an average, be about 2 days more ; 

 so that a gain of only about S to 10 

 days was all we would get by using 

 the cells instead of the brood. Some 

 tell us of inserting the queen-cells as 

 soon as a laying queen is removed ; 

 but the fact that many of our best 

 apiculturists entirely fail with that 

 method, proves that such a procedure 

 is very uncertain, to say the least. 



After the young queen emerges 

 from her cell, the average time before 

 she commences to lay is about 10 

 days ; so the colonv must be without 

 a laying queen 14 days when a cell is 

 used in re-queeuing; or from 22 to 24 

 days where brood is used. As 24 days 

 represent about so many 1,000 bees 

 with a laying queen in the hive, it 

 will be seen that the old way of giving 

 brood is decidedly " too slow,"' and 

 that of the cell-plan much too slow. 

 For this reason it became a desirable, 

 object, especially to the queen-breeder 

 to introduce a virgin queen as soon as 

 a laying one is taken from the nu- 

 cleus ; thus making a gain of time to 

 the breeder, and also keeping the nu- 

 cleus constantly supplied with brood. 

 AVith this desirable object in view, 

 many plans were tried, and as a result 

 it was soon heralded in the bee-publi- 

 cations, that if virgin queens could be 

 given as soon as they were hatched 

 ifrom the cell, they would lie accepted, 

 as a rule, wherever put, if there was 

 no queen in the hive ; some asserting 

 that they had no trouble in putting 

 them in at the same time they took 

 the laying queen out. 



After trying the plan (all others be- 

 ing given up to within about two 

 years ago, and after losing 19 out of 

 every 20 queens so tried). I became 

 discouraged, and went back to the 

 cell-plan. Some of those I did get to 

 laying, would be so crippled by the 

 bees hugging them, that they would 

 be of little use ; and soon had to be 

 killed on acx'ount of their legs being 

 paralyzed so that they would fall off 

 the combs, or otherwise being inca- 

 pable of being a good queen. 



About this time I had a lot of very 

 nice cells reared by natural swarm- 

 ing, on which I " lotted " very much 



for choice queens. The day before 

 these cells were ready to be removed 

 from the hive, a second swarm issued 

 from a colony on the opposite side of 

 the apiary. As 1 was auout to secure 

 the cluster and nHiirn it to the old 

 hive, I happened to see the queen 

 which was a very nice one ; and being 

 short of (jueens, I thought I would cut 

 olf a part of the cluster with the 

 queen, and put them in a nucleus 

 hive, thus securing a valuable queen, 

 as 1 had reason to think there were 

 two queens with the swarm. Having 

 secured the (lueen and about a pint 

 of bees in my swarming basket, 1 re- 

 turned the rest of the swarm. 



After they were all in the hive, I 

 prepared the nucleus hive and placed 

 the pint of bees in front of it. As 

 they were entering, the youn§ queen 

 took wing, and fearing she might re- 

 turn to the old hive, I placed a sheet 

 over it. Soon after, the bees were all 

 in the nucleus hive ; they commenced 

 running all over it, thus showing that 

 they were queenless. So I got a frame 

 of unsealed brood and gave it to them 

 to keep them from going back, sup- 

 posing that the vouni^ queen had got- 

 ten back to the old hive before 1 cov- 

 ered them with the sheet. By keep- 

 ing these bees I would have a good 

 nucleus for my queen-cells, I thought, 

 as I had more cells than nuclei to re- 

 ceive them. Tlie next day as I went 

 to get the nice lot of cells, you can 

 imagine my surprise and "chagrin 

 when I found them all destroyed. 

 After a little examination, I soon dis- 

 covered the very same queen which 

 had tlown away from my little swarm 

 of bees the day before. 



After pocketing the loss of 2-5 as 

 nice queen-cells as I ever saw, I began 

 thinking how it was that after trying 

 for years to introduce virgin queens, 

 and failing, that this one should be 

 received. The only solution I could 

 make of it was, that these bees had 

 been queenless so long that they ex- 

 pected their cells to hatch, and so 

 they took this queen as one hatched 

 from their own cells. 



From this I went to experimenting 

 till I ascertained that fi out of every 

 10 virgin queens would be accepted if 

 placed into a colony after the first 

 queen-cells were sealed ; while 9 out 

 of 10 would be killed if given to the 

 colony before the bees had sealed the 

 cells. I also found, as a rule, that the 

 first queen-cells would be sealed five 

 days after the nucleus was made 

 queenless ; and from this knowledge 

 I was enabled to introduce virgin 

 queens with little risk of having them 

 killed. 



It will be noted that if I should give 

 a colony a queen which had just 

 emerged from the cell at this time, 

 that i \\ as one day behind the time 

 gained by the cell-method ; but if the 

 queen given was 7 or 8 days old, she 

 would be laying in 2 or 8 days now, 

 which would give me a gain of a 

 week, over the cells. Accordingly I 

 made a queen nursery, after the di- 

 rections given in Alley's book, in 

 which the cells were placed to hatch ; 

 and the young (pieens kept there un- 

 til old enough to 1)6 used to the best 

 advantage. When old enough, and 



the nucleus was in the right condi- 

 tion, these (|ueens were taken from 

 the nursery, then daubed with honey 

 and dropped on top of the frames of 

 the hive. The next day the queen- 

 cells would be destroyed, and in 2 or 



days more the queen would be 

 laying. 



As I said before, this would work 

 about nine times out of ten. This 

 season I experimented farther, not 

 being satislied with losing one out of 

 ten; and instead of waiting five days 

 before giving the virgin queen to the 

 colony, I placed her in a provisioned, 

 wire-cloth queen-cage ; and when she 

 was 4 or 5 days old, 1 placed the cage 

 over the cluster of a colony after it 

 had been queenless but two days. 

 She was then left for 3 days, when, 

 upon opening the cage, she was al- 

 lowed to run down among the bees. 



In this way I have succeeded every 

 time. I have opened the hive within 

 ten minutes after releasing the queen, 

 and found her on the queen-cells 

 busily engaged in tearing them open. 



1 now fee! that I can introduce vii-gin 

 queens successfully ; and in the fore- 

 going I have told the reader how I 

 do it. 



Borodino, X. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Building up Colonies in the Spring. 



JA3IES M'NEIL. 



I desire to give the result of an ex- 

 periment made in building up colo- 

 nies in the spring. Mr. Doolittle 

 says : " Beginning about May 1, shift 

 the frames of brood and put the 

 frames of honey or syrup in the cen- 

 tre of the brood-nest every week for 

 the following six weeks." Mr. Hed- 

 don says : '" Do not manipulate the 

 frames at all. The bees will extend 

 their brood-nest as fast as it is desir- 

 able.'" When such notable authori- 

 ties in the apicultural world disagree, 

 the novice must hold the weight of 

 opinion in an even balance until he 

 shall have experimented for himself. 

 This I have done, and I throw the 

 weight of my authority, whatever it 

 may be, into the Doolittle scale. I 

 selected 20 colonies, estimated very 

 carefully the amount of brood in each, 

 and then divided them into two equal 

 lots; I ran one lot on the non-stimu- 

 lating plan of JMr. Heddon, and the 

 other lot on the brood- spreadiiig-and- 

 stimulatiug plan of My. Doolittle. 



My observations were made at two 

 diilerent times. May 10 and June 2. 

 Between these dates, 3 weeks and 1 

 day, the colonies run on the Heddon 

 plan made an average gain of l?;f 

 frames of brood ; those run on the 

 Doolittle plan, 2 13-20 frames. Had 

 the experiment covered the period of 

 6 weeks, the contrast would, of 

 course, have been greater. I keep my 

 bees in their winter packing till the 

 middle of May, which allows them to 

 spread brood, with less risk, before 

 settled warm weather is assured. 



Mr. Doolittle, in his directions, 

 makes no account of fruit bloom. 

 Perhaps he does not live in a fruit- 

 growing region. In this section. 



