THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



481 



suggested that if bee-keepers would 

 come to tlie Fair prepared to camp on 

 the grounds near the headquarters, 

 we could have a bee-keepers' colony 

 for the week, which would be pleas- 

 ant socially, and profitable in arous- 

 ing interest in bee-keeping, and dif- 

 fusing a knowledge of the subject. 

 President Olute and his two older 

 sons, and two of his students in bee- 

 keeping, were so encamped this year, 

 and found it a delightful and inex- 

 pensive method of spending the week. 

 All persons present were requested to 

 talk with bee-keepers in tlieir vicinity 

 and secure their names as members. 



A vote of thanks was tendered to 

 Eev. O. Clute for the hospitality of his 

 tent for the meeting. 



L. E. Cakdell, Sec. 



Malcom, Iowa, Sept. 7, 1883. 



For tbe American Bee JournaJ. 



Careful Experiments with Queens. 



H. L. JEFFKEY, 



Ever since 1876 I have been trying 

 to solve tlie problem and test a prob- 

 able cause and remedy for the reason 

 that good queens taken from a hive 

 and snipped never give their receiver 

 as good results as their shipper had 

 received or reported. My attention 

 was most strongly directed in this 

 course, in the spring of 1877, by the 

 receiving of two queens from one of 

 the best breeders. Both queens were 

 shipped the same day ; one by mail, 

 in a cage, the other in a 4-frame nu- 

 cleus by express. Both taken from 

 very strong colonies ; the shipper 

 said they had 7 American frames full 

 of brood (it was the first week in May), 

 and were of the previous season's 

 rearing. I introduced the one com- 

 ing by mail, to a strong black colony, 

 and built up the other. The one re- 

 ceived by mail did scarcely anything ; 

 the other 1 increased up to 6 with the 

 help of a black colony, whose queen 

 I killed on receipt of the nucleus, 



fiving the black bees brood from the 

 talian queen, as her combs had eggs 

 and larvai in, when they came, and 1 



fave all the brood combs from tlie 

 lack colony to the Italian queen, 

 dividing the Italian colony when the 

 cells were 24 hours from hatching. 

 The queen, by mail, was introduced 

 to a very strong black colony, and 

 given, as I then thought, an extra 



food chance, but she did not prove to 

 e good for a 3-frame nucleus, and I 

 had to help her colony from the other, 

 all summer, and helped them for 

 winter and some more the next 

 spring. The next summer she did 

 some better, but she never kept up 

 with the nucleus queen. I, of course, 

 said the mail was the cause. By 

 thorough and numerous experiments, 

 I now say it was not caused by being 

 sent by mail, but by not being prop- 

 erly conditioned before being shipped, 

 and by being put into a very strong 

 colony when she was received. 



Now I will tell you how I proved it 

 against the two causes, and not 

 against the cause of being carried in 

 the mail. An accidental occurrence. 



where I was going to take off a queen 

 to introduce, but finally sent her by 

 mail, opened a gap in the mystery. I 

 took the queen and 2 or 3 frames of 

 bees out of the hive and set them in 

 a nucleus. She stood so, nearly a 

 week (when in her own hive she had 

 9 Langstroth frames of brood, well 

 filled), there being mostly young bees 

 in the nucleus. She was sparingly 

 fed, and consequently laid sparingly, 

 and, of course, was in the best pos- 

 sible shipping condition, as was after- 

 wards proved. This was the last of 

 June, 1878. She was sent on a three- 

 days journey, by mail, and was put 

 into a two-frame nucleus, made by 

 taking a frame of hatching brood 

 each from two hives, and was built 

 up to a strong dolony, in the same 

 way as the nucleus was made, as fast 

 as she wanted room, and by the first 

 of August, she again had 9 frames of 

 brood of her own. 



Several other queens, equally good, 

 were caged, from strong colonies, and 

 mailed at the same time, but they 

 proved poor things. Why was this 

 one as good as ever, and the others 

 worthless V I thought over it and 

 asked a few who had received queens 

 to try to help me solve the mystery, 

 but with no satisfaction. I then re- 

 solved to try some experiments to 

 know why. For this purpose, 8 pro- 

 lific queens were selected ; 4 of them 

 were put into nucleus hives; the 

 other 4 were left as they were ; in 5 or 

 6 days the whole 8 were caged, but 

 marked 4 A and 4 B ; all were tied in 

 a bunch and thrown into the stage ; 

 if the package was in the way, it was 

 kicked out of the way. In two days 

 the package was opened, the bees fed 

 and examined, again done up and 

 subjected to two days more of kicking 

 and throwing around ; in no way was 

 any pains taken to handle them care- 

 fully, but some to the opposite. After 

 six days of sueh usage, as rough as 

 could be given in the mail bag, 2 A 

 queens and 2 B queens were given to 

 strong colonies; the 4 remaining ones 

 were given to nuclei, composed of 2 

 frames of hatching bees ; the two 

 queens given to the nuclei, in the 

 course of a month, appeared to be as 

 prolific as ever ; the two queens given 

 to full colonies did not clo as well as 

 before. The two taken from the 

 strong colonies and then introduced 

 into nuclei were doing fairly, but dii 

 not recover their former fertility that 

 season, and the two remaining queens, 

 not conditioned and introduced into 

 strong colonies, were never more 

 than half as good as they were before 

 the experiment. This made link No. 

 1 in both ends of the chain— proper 

 condition to ship and proper care to 

 recover the journey. 



The above experiment was tried 

 during tlie heighth of the season of 

 1879. In 1880, three more experiments 

 were tried, one in the spring, one in 

 the honey flow, and one in the fall : 

 the result showed by both careful ana 

 ropgh handling, that the shipping by 

 mail or the rough handling, that the 

 way prepared for shipping,and the way 

 dealt with after receiving, made the 

 most difference. Over 60 different 

 queens were used, some just com- 



mencing to lay ; but the most of them 

 were one year old. 



I tried several experiments in 1881, 

 by shipping two queens to the same 

 person, when receiving an order for 

 one tested queen ; requesting a report 

 of how they were for being prolific, 

 condition the tested queen and send 

 the other that had been laying 2 or 3 

 weeks right from the hive to the mail 

 bag. 



The result has always shown that a 

 queen which has been shipped is in a 

 convalescent state, and if put into a 

 situation to be copiously fed on her 

 receival,is forced into prolificness, and 

 like a convalescent person who is 

 forced to hard work, of course has 

 recovery retarded for a time, if not 

 wholly prevented ; and when valuable 

 queens are received, they should be 

 handled with care, and, as a rule, 

 should not be used for breeders im- 

 mediately, if the best results are 

 expected. 



VVashington Depot, Conn. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Mahoning Valley, B. K. Convention. 



The August session of the Mahon- 

 ing Valley Bee-Keepers' Association 

 was held in Grange Hall, Newton 

 Falls, on Saturday, the ISth. The 

 day was all that the most sanguine 

 could wish for. A large number 

 were present ; a number of bee-keep- 

 ers from abroad. A large display of 

 honey was on exhibition, showing a 

 creditable advancement. 



At U o'clock President Carson 

 called the meeting to order. 



The minutes of the last meeting 

 were approved. 



The Chair then appointed the fol- 

 lowing committee on exhibits : C. G. 

 Beardsley, William King and Warren 

 Pierce. 



There was some preliminary busi- 

 ness which occupied the attention of 

 the meeting for a short time, then 

 adjournment to dinner, as usual. 

 Sociability and an excellent dinner 

 were important features of the short 

 noon recess ; after this had been dis- 

 cussed, and the committee had made 

 their examination of honey on exhi- 

 bition, our president called the after- 

 noon session to order, and announced 

 the questions in question box now in 

 order : 



" How many colonies can be prop- 

 erly kept in one locality V" Mr. Streeter 

 thought it impossible, at present, to 

 overstock a locality, so few were en- 

 gaged in the business. Mr. Page said 

 it was a matter of business capacity 

 in the one that engaged in it ; 5 colo- 

 nies of bees would overstock some, 

 while a hundred would not be too 

 many for others. 



'•Is white clover the most profuse 

 in honey V" Mr. Oviatt thought that 

 white clover produced most of the 

 honey gathered by the bees. Mr. 

 Simon thought that basswood was the 

 most profuse in honey, at least in his 

 section of country. 



" Is honey ripe before it is capped ?" 

 Mr. Oviatt said, he had observed that 

 the longer honey remained in the hive 

 the riper it gets ; atmospheric influ- 



