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QUEEN-REARING. 



In full C'oIonie§, willioiit First 

 Removing tbe Brood. 



Written fur the American Bee Journal 

 BY HENRY ALLEY. 



It is supposed that queens reared at 

 swarming-time are superior to tliose 

 reared by what is called "artificial 

 methods." This point I will not discuss 

 at this time, but will give the results of 

 some experiments which have been 

 conducted in my apiary the present 

 season, in order to induce a colony of 

 bees to build queen-cells without first 

 removing the queen or any of the brood. 

 On August 15, several of the best 

 colonies in my apiary were put in order, 

 to test this matter of rearing queens in 

 full colonies the same as the bees v/ould 

 do if about to cast a swarm. When it 

 was ready, I found the bees were ready 

 also, and they built the cells just as 1 

 expected they would. I must say that 

 I was as much surprised as delighted at 

 the result, to see that my first attempt 

 was a success. 



The cells thus built were very large, 

 and the young queens from them are 

 fine and equal to those reared by any 

 method, or by any one. I intend to 

 present several of them to prominent 

 bee-keepers in this country, and have 

 them tested with those reared at 

 swarming-time ; others will be placed 

 in my own colonies. 



If this new method for rearing queens 

 works as well as it now promises, it 

 will most likely be adopted by nearly 

 all who rear queens in large numbers, 

 as it is the moat practical as well as the 

 most economical method yet devised by 

 anyone. There is no doubt in my mind, 

 that one colony of bees can be kept at 

 work building queen-cells from May 20 

 to September 20. There is one colony 

 in my apiary that is now (Aug. 29) at 

 work on the fourth set of cells, and the 

 bees seem to take as much interest, and 

 work on them with the same vigor, as 

 they did on the first lot of eggs given 

 them. 



One of the best features about this 

 new method is the fact that the bees 

 build no cells except from the eggs 

 given them ; therefore, it will not be 

 necessary to hunt the other combs over, 

 when one set of cells are removed. 



It must be evident to all, that this 

 method has a marked advantage over 

 others so long in use, one of the most 

 important of which is in the immense 

 saving in bees, time and honey, as by 

 this method queens are reared, and in 

 so doing the colony need not be dis- 

 turbed, except when one frame is put 

 in, and removed at the time the cells 

 are capped. 



Some one will say, " I thought you 

 did not approve of naving one cohmy 

 build but one set of queen-cells." Well, 

 I do not in cases where the bees are de- 

 prived of the queen and all the brood. 

 You must remember that with the new 



plan the bees are kept at all times in 

 the same condition that they are in 

 when a swarm issues. Now, if bees are 

 kept in that condition, why are they 

 not ready to rear as fine queens as they 

 would if they had intended to swarm V 

 The queen has the freedom of all the 

 combs, and brood-rearing is not stopped 

 tor a moment, and thus the colony is 

 kept up to the highest point of activity 

 at all times. 



So far as I have any knowledge, no 

 one has ever reared, or has attempted 

 to rear, queens by not depriving the 

 bees of their que'en. I am not quite 

 ready to make public the details of this 

 method of rearing queens, but I shall 

 probably do so at the proper time, and 

 in season for those who desire to test it 

 another year. 



Weuham, Mass. 



THE ABC. 



Early Instruction for Beginners 

 Tilings Worth Knowing. 



Written for the Touthn' Companion 

 BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



" What a beautiful piece of honey! I 

 wonder if it is artificial, or genuine 

 comb-honey made by the bees." 



Such remarks as this may often be 

 heard from those who have read the 

 statement which has been going the 

 rounds of the papers, that comb-honey 

 is made by machinery entirely indepen- 

 dent of the labor of the honey bees. 

 The story was first started by Professor 

 Wiley who says he meant it as a scien- 

 tific pleasantry ; but error travels faster 

 than truth, and may not be overtaken 

 by it for years. 



The truth is that no such thing has 

 ever been accomplished, and I doubt if 

 it has ever been attempted. Mr. A. I. 

 Root made an offer of one thousand 

 dollars for a single pound of honey so 

 made, and although the offer has been 

 standing, if I am not mistaken, for 

 several years, no one has yet called for 



the money. • .i, , . , 



When you examine the wonderful 

 workmanship in a piece of honey-comb 

 and observe its great regularity, it seems 

 that there must be some master-builder 

 among the many thousands, whose 

 province it is to direct the acts of the 

 others that the work may go on as one 

 harmonious whole. But if you watch 

 the bees at work you will see nothing of 

 the kind. True, there is a bee called a 

 queen, but the bees do their work with- 

 out any control on her part. Each bee 

 seems to be working according to its 

 own sweet will, one putting on a bit of 

 wax, another giving it a push here, an- 

 other there, and the only wonder is, 

 that where so little order or system ap- 

 pears, such wondrously regular work- 

 manship is done. 



It is interesting to watch a young 

 worker gnaw its way out of its cell, and 

 become a member of the commonwealth. 

 No mother, nurse nor tutor is on hand 

 to instruct it as to what its duties are 

 to be, and yet that mysterious some- 

 thing, that we call imtinct. which is 

 born with the bee, seems to tell it exactly 

 what to do, so that the same perfection 



of workmanship is found in the hive 

 now as thousands of years ago, no im- 

 provement from practice. The bee 

 does not seem to learn to do its work, it 

 Jyiww without learning. 



The first sixteen days of the young 

 worker's life are spent indoors doing 

 house-work and tending baby, and dur- 

 ing the rest of its life it is a field 

 worker, bringing in nectar and pollen 

 from the flowers, also water and pro- 

 polis. During the busy gathering sea- 

 son, the life of a worker is not more 

 than six weeks, and it seems to wear 

 itself out with work, for the old bees 

 are distinguished by their ragged 

 wings. _,. 



The name queen is misleading. The 

 queen is not a ruler, she is simply an 

 egg-layer, and is said sometimes to lay 

 her own weight of eggs in twenty-four 

 hours, that is, about three thousand 

 eggs. She does this, however, only 

 when all' conditions are most favorable, 

 surrounded by a populous colony, with 

 a copious harvest, for at such times she 

 is bountifully fed by the workers, that 

 can be seen every few minutes offering 

 food to her. 



Under ordinary circumstances a 

 queen is doing pretty good work to lay 

 one or two thousand eggs a day, or 

 rather in a day and night, for work in 

 the hive goes on day and night. The 

 workers rather than the que^n seem to 

 control the rate at which eggs are laid, 

 for at some seasons of the year, particu- 

 larly in autumn and winter, the queen 

 is left to forage for herself, and few or 

 no eggs are laid. 



The cells in honey-comb are six-sided 

 and of two sizes, one size, worker, 

 measuring five to the inch, and the 

 other, drone, four. If an egg is laid in 

 a small cell it produces a worker, if in 

 a large cell a drone. At certain times 

 a third kind of cell is built, a queen cell. 

 When a colony becomes very populous 

 and contemplates swarming, a number 

 of queen-cells are built, looking not un- 

 like so many peanuts, each queen-cell 

 taking as much wax in its construction 

 as would make a great many drone or 

 worker cells. A queen-cell is not six- 

 sided but round, and the young queen, 

 while in it, has several times as much 

 room as.the other young bees. 



About ten days before the young 

 queens are old enough to emerge from 

 their cells, the swarm issues. The old 

 queen goes oS with the swarm, and 

 when the first young queen hatches, a 

 second swarm is likely to issue, to be 

 sometimes followed in two or three 

 days by a third, and not rarely by a 

 fourth and even a fifth. 



The young queens seem to have a 

 mortal antipathy to each other, and as 

 soon as one such queen hatches, her 

 first business is to proceed, if allowed, 

 to destroy her unhatched royal sisters. 

 This she does by digging a hole in the 

 side of a queen-cell, and stinging the 

 inmate in its cradle. If further swarm- 

 ing is contemplated by the workers, 

 they defend the unhatched queens from 

 the attack of the one at liberty, which 

 goes off with the swarm. Previous to 

 going off. however, this young queen 

 may be heard, especially in the still of 

 the evening, uttering a shrill cry, 

 '■ Pe-e-p, peep, peep," replied to by the 



