958 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



"IMPROVED QUEEN=REARINQ." 



A Review of Mr. Alley's New Bee^book. 



BY GEO. W. PHILLIPS. 



In reviewing Mr. Alley's latest book, en- 

 titled "Improved Queen- rearing, " I can do 

 so only from my own standpoint — a stand- 

 point taken by many bee-keepers besides 

 myself. True criticism is as catholic in re- 

 jecting as in accepting. I hardly think it 

 necessary, therefore, to make any excuse 

 for conflicting with his views in a few par- 

 ticulars. 



Various have been the methods of queen- 

 rearing set forth from time to time, and 

 their several promulgators have clung to 

 them with tenacity (sometimes a tenacity 

 born of despair), through thick and thin. 

 The present-day bee-keeper comes upon the 

 stage of action at a time when all these va- 

 rious methods are in vogue; and the task 

 that confronts him is to set himself to work, 

 and, from this confusion of systems, evolve 

 one that will be practical in his hands. 



"We have not tried them all, but most of 

 them have come under our notice, and among 

 the rest the Alley system. So far as the 

 quality of queens reared is concerned, we 

 have no complaint to make. As good queens 

 ma3' be reared by the Alley system as by 

 any other, provided the essential conditions 

 exist in the cell-building colonies, and the 

 line mapped out by Mr. Alley be carefully 

 followed. What we object to is its complex- 

 ity and its attendant excessive amount of 

 fussy manipulation. 



But what is the Alle}^ system? There are 

 three different modifications of the same 

 given in detail in "Improved Queen-rear- 

 ing." I shall endeavor to set forth briefly 

 in this the one which the author calls his 

 "favorite," and labels in his book "Meth- 

 od No. 1." It is as follows: 



" Seize " a colony of bees in such a man- 

 ner that not a bee can escape. Take it to 

 your bee-room, and place it on the cap of a 

 hive ; "sit down and commence operations. ' ' 

 Thoroughly tobacco-smoke the bees through 

 the wire screen that confines them, drum- 

 ming the hive in the meanwhile. Next, 

 raise the screen cover and brush them into 

 the aforesaid hive-cap, frame by frame. 

 See that so much tobacco smoke is used that 

 thej' can not fly. Hunt the queen up and 

 remove her. Precipitate the cluster into 

 one corner of the hive-cap bj' a sudden jar, 

 and then dump them into another box, the 

 exact size of the one they originally occu- 

 pied, having on a wire-cloth bottom. Con- 

 fine them in this again. Nail three pieces 



of v^ stuff across the bottom, to allow a free 

 circulation of air when set down, and put 

 in a cool place for the present. " At this 

 stage of the work we have a colony of 

 queenless bees." 



Next prepare your strips of .comb, killing 

 every alternate &^^ by twirling a match- 

 stick in the cell it occupies, and fasten to 

 horizontal bars by means of a preparation 

 of melted rosin and beeswax. Next step, 

 put a prepared frame of eggs into a brood- 

 box, filling the same with combs of pollen 

 and honey — no brood. Next set the brood- 

 box on the floor between yourself and the 

 queenless bees. Give the hive containing 

 the latter a "sudden drop," which again 

 precipitates the bees; and before they "re- 

 cover from their surprise " remove the cov- 

 er. Place it on the brood-box, and quickly 

 clap the same over the hive of " surprised " 

 bees. " Now all the labor is done." (We 

 should hope so; but, alas! no.) Leave the 

 bees in the bee-room over night. Place 

 them on their stand in the yard next morn- 

 ing at ten o'clock. Supply them with wa- 

 ter during confinement by splashing it 

 through the wire screen on top. Upon re- 

 leasing, cage a queen at the entrance in or- 

 der to pacify the bees. At the end of twen- 

 ty-four hours "another thing must be done;" 

 viz., the embrj'O cells must be removed and 

 placed on the top of a strong colony for 

 completion. This, in its most condensed 

 form, is the method recommended by Mr. 

 Alley. 



It is hard to conceive how a more elabo- 

 rate and complex system of queen-rearing 

 could be devised. Still, our duty is to find 

 out whether better queens can be reared by 

 it, and, if so, adopt it. Experience, how- 

 ever, goes to prove that this is not the case 

 (and in this the author agrees if we inter- 

 pret him aright — see page 24, lines 21 — 25). 

 Queens equal in every respect can be rear- 

 ed by methods that are very much simpler 

 — methods more easily grasped by the be- 

 ginner, more effective in the hands of the 

 expert, and more profitable when employed 

 by the man who makes a business of rais- 

 ing queens. 



I am aware that some of our large queen- 

 breeders use the Alley system, are satisfied 

 with it, and prefer it to any other. This, 

 according to my way of thinking, is attrib- 

 utable to the fact that they learned to use it 

 j'ears ago; and although more direct ways 

 to the safiie results have been discovered, 

 they prefer the old beaten path. 



I advise the readers of this article to re- 

 fer to Gleanings for August 15, 1899, and 

 read an article by Mr. Alley, and the edi- 

 torial footnote by Mr. E. R. Root, in the 

 same. For me to start making contrasts 

 again would be irrelevant. 



Mr. Alley also speaks of another modifi- 

 cation of his system, which, although not 

 his "favorite," is highly recommended by 

 him. I give the same without comment: 

 » Proceed as in the manner already de- 

 scribed, but, instead of having the cells 

 completed in the upper story of a strong 



