324 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Wltli Rei>lleH tbereto. 



[It is quite useless to ask for answers to 

 Queries in tliis Department in less time 

 than one month. They have to wait their 

 turn, be put in type, and sent in about a 

 dozen at a time to each of those who answer 

 them ; get them returned, and then find 

 space for them in the Journal. If you are 

 In a "hurry" for replies, do not ask for 

 them to be inserted here.— Ed.1 



Rearing Queens anil Italianizing. 



Query 421.— I want to Italianize my 



apiary the coming season, rear my own queens 

 from an imported mother, and work my apiary for 

 comb honey. What is the best way to proceed, 

 and at the same time procure the best results In 

 honey, with no desire to rear queens for sale ?— L. 

 R., W. Va. 



This is like asking a carpenter how 

 to build a house.— Jambs Heddon. 



I should proceed as recommended 

 by Mr. Hutchinson in his new book ; 

 then rear queens from Italian stock, 

 and supersede by use o£ these.— A. J. 

 Cook. 



Have queen-cells built in full colo- 

 nies, transfer them to nuclei, and 

 when the queens are laying, introduce 

 them to the full colonies.— W. Z. 

 Hutchinson. 



This space is too small to give any 

 good method. Procure " Bees and 

 Honey," read it carefully, and you 

 will obtain the information you want. 

 — H. D. Cutting. 



As Prof. Cook says, " Consult the 

 books," and back numbers of the Bee 

 Journal, and you will probably find 

 better answers than 1 can give. 

 Queen-rearing must interfere with 

 honey-gathering to some extent.— C. 

 W. Dayton. 



Set aside a few colonies for the pur- 

 pose of rearing queens, and then pro- 

 ceed according to the rules laid down 

 in any standard work on bee-keeping. 

 —J. P. H. Brown. 



Form as many nuclei as you think 

 you will need, and as fast as you get 

 queens to laying in them, introduce 

 them to your full colonies, using the 

 same nuclei till the required amount 

 of queens are secured.— G. M. Doo- 



LITTLE. 



I am not sure that I know the best 

 way for any one, and without know- 

 ing your experience, etc., I could not 

 say what would be best for you. One 

 good way might be to rear queens at 

 the beginning of the honey harvest, 

 and then as fast as swarms issue, 

 give queens or queen-cells to the 

 colony in the old hive, and change the 

 old queen toward the close of the 

 harvest.— C. C. Miller. 



In my locality it interferes less with 

 the honey-Beld to change the queens 

 at the close of the honey season. I 

 sometimes rear the queens in nuclei 

 and introduce them, but more fre- 

 quently I remove the black queen and 

 give the colony a maturing queen- 

 cell, 3 days after removing the queen. 



Last season I introduced hundreds of 

 virgin queens after the colonies had 

 been queenless 3 or 4 days, by caging 

 some of them and leaving the bees to 

 release them by eating away the plug 

 of soft candy with which the cage was 

 stopped, and by simply running them 

 in at the entrance of the hives.— G. 

 W. Demareb. 



Break up enough colonies into 

 nuclei to give you the number of 

 queens you want. Then rear a lot of 

 queen-cells in a full colony ; when 

 they are sealed transfer them to the 

 nuclei to come out from the cells, and 

 to fly on their wedding tour. Let the 

 colony the queens are reared from 

 have from ten days to two weeks rest 

 before rearing a second lot of cells ; 

 and three weeks, sure, again before 

 rearing the third. Be sure and keep 

 the air full of drones during the mat- 

 ing season. — J. E. Pond. 



I would not Italianize and try to 

 work for comb honey at one and the 

 same time, except to introduce queen- 

 cells to all colonies casting swarms, if 

 convenient. After the principal honey 

 flow has ceased is the best time to 

 Italianize, in my experience. Then 

 take out all undesirable queens, and 

 on the third day after take out the 

 larvae of the queen-cells and introduce 

 very small larvse from the select 

 stock ; mark the cells, and afterwards 

 destroy the other cells made. Another 

 good plan is to take out the queens, 

 and in nine days all the cells, then 

 introduce just hatching larvse in a bit 

 of comb, and let each colony rear a 

 queen.— G. L. Tinker. 



To Italianize an apiary, it will be 

 necessary to catch and destroy all the 

 drones, or the young queens you pro- 

 pose to rear will be impurely mated. 

 Take away the queens to be super- 

 seded, and after 24 hours cage the 

 Italian queen and insert it between 

 two combs containing honey, which 

 the queen may be able to reach at 

 pleasure. In about 48 hours release 

 the queen upon one of the combs. If 

 she is molested by the bees, return 

 her to the cage for another 36 hours, 

 after which she will no doubt be ac- 

 cepted. If queen-cells have been 

 started, destroy them. This need not 

 interfere with honey-gathering to any 

 great extent. There are other 

 methods, and it will be well to con- 

 sult Alley's book on queen-rearing. 

 Select a method, and then follow the 

 directions given.— The Editor. 



f orter-Conili and Drone-Eggs. 



Query 422.— It an 8-frame Langstroth 



hive is tilled with all worker-comb, and no drones 

 hatch during the season, what becomes of the 

 drone eprgs. If it is not the size Of the cell that 

 causes the impregnation of the egg ?— G. P. 



They remain unlaid.— C.W.Dayton 



I suppose the drone-eggs in that 

 case are all impregnated and become 

 worker eggs. — C. C. Miller. 



According to our best authorities, 

 the eggs are all alike until impreg- 

 nated, then they produce workers; 

 otherwise they produce drones.— W. 

 Z. Hutchinson. 



Your " if " is hardly possible. I 

 have yet to see a strong colony pass 

 the swarming season without drone- 

 brood.— G. M. Doolittle. 



There are no drone-eggs laid, that's 

 all. If you imagine that a queen has 

 a certain number of drone-eggs to lay 

 in a season, you had better read what 

 the modem writers say about parthe- 

 nogenesis —Dadant & Son. 



It is bee-nature to rear some drones 

 during the swarming season, and to 

 accomplish this object they will alter 

 and change worker- cells around the 

 margin of the comb into drone.— J. P. 

 H. Brown. 



I have never seen any trouble about 

 bees rearing drones in worker-cells 

 when they have no drone-cells. Drone- 

 eggs, if they hatch and mature, make 

 nothing but drones iaall cases. I do 

 not think the size of the cells has any- 

 thing to do with the impregnation of 

 the eggs.— G. L. Tinker. 



All I know about it is, that where I 

 have no drone-comb in my hives, I 

 see no drones in the hive at any time 

 of the year. I was not aware that 

 any " drone-eggs " were laid.— James 

 Heddon. 



I presume that there are no drone- 

 eggs to " become of," if the queen has 

 none but worker-cells to lay in. I 

 know that queens can lay eggs that 

 hatch out drones, in worker-cells, for 

 I have seen the like several times. I 

 think that the preponderance of the 

 evidence is on the side of the theory 

 that the queen lays male and female 

 eggs at her own option. Still I be- 

 lieve the matter has never been dem- 

 onstrated.— G. "W. Demaree. 



If there is no place for drone-cells, 

 you will have no drone-eggs, unless 

 the hive contains an old queen ; then 

 they will make a place for drone-cells. 

 The size of the cell has nothing to do 

 with the impregnation of the egg. 

 In other words, if there are no drone- 

 cells to put drone-eggs into, all the 

 eggs will be impregnated by the 

 queen and produce workers.— H. D. 

 Cutting. 



They are deposited in worker-cells, 

 and the drones emerge therefrom the 

 same as from drone-cells, but are 

 much smaller. There is no difliculty 

 in the matter at all. Every bee-keeper 

 of experience has seen drones emerge 

 from worker-cells, and thousands of 

 them also at times ; this particularly 

 where a virgin queen has been kept 

 for experimental purposes. — J. E. 

 Pond. 



I should say that the queen controls 

 this matter, and knows better than to 

 lay drone-eggs in worker-cells, and so 

 she lays no drone-eggs in the case 

 mentioned. The fact so often wit- 

 nessed, of a queen laying worker-eggs 

 in cells but partially completed, some 

 times only just fairly commenced, 

 utterly refutes, it seems to me, the 

 compression theory,— A. J. Cook. 



Before impregnation occurs the 

 eggs are all alike ; after that they 

 produce worker bees. If no drone- 

 comb is provided, the queen impreg- _ 

 nates the eggs and uses the worker- " 

 cells. This shows the value of using 



