THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



2T5 



DR. MILLER UXl'LAINS; AND ADMITS 

 THAT SOME OK THE QUEENS WILL 

 HE POOR WHEN THE BEES ^.v' 



CHOOSE THE LARVAE. 



Dr. Miller explains in Gleanings that 

 he does not believe that all of the queens 

 will l:)e first-class when a cjueen is remov- 

 ed and the bees allowed to exercise their 

 own choice in the matter of selecting 

 larvte from which to rear queens to re- 

 place their loss. He says that he has not 

 Ijelieved any of the time that all of the 

 queens would be good, but, for some 

 reason, he neglected to explain and 

 make clear his belief on this particular 

 point. I think that even the doctor him- 

 self will admit that any one reading his 

 writings might be excused for believeing 

 that the doctor thought that all of the 

 queens A'ould be good. It isn't worth 

 while, however, to waste words on this 

 point. The main point is that the doc- 

 tor contends that the first queen, or 

 queens, to hatch will be up to the stand- 

 ard, because they were the first to be 

 stalled, and were started when there 

 were a plenty of young larvae from which 

 to choose. Then, so the doctor thinks, 

 the bees start some more cells, later, 

 after they have got the first ones partly 

 completed. These later, so says our good 

 friend, will not hatch so soon as will the 

 first ones that were started, and they will 

 be destroyed by the queen that hatches 

 first. Somclitncs the first-hatched queen 

 leads in the destruction of the remaining 

 cells, and soi/irlii/n's shclcaclsoj/a szcann 

 and leaves the later-hatching (jueens to 

 fight it out among themselves. 



Doctor, let me tell you a little of my 

 experience. I presume that I have, dur- 

 ing my queen-rearing days, started as 

 many a»one thousand batches of queen 

 cells. For a year or two, until experi- 

 ence taught me better, I practiced large- 

 ly the plan of taking a (|ueen away from 

 a colony and allowing the bees to build 

 queen cells. The most of the cells were 

 started the next day after the queen was 

 removed. Occasionally some would 



be started the second day after the re- 

 moval of the queen. Asa rule, all of the 

 queens hatched the same day. Some- 

 times some of them would not hatch 

 until the next day after thej' began 

 hatching. I am speaking now of the 

 regular cells. Occasionall)', some two or 

 three days after the regular batch of cells 

 had been started, there would be two or 

 three "fool-cells" started. I call them 

 "fool-cells" because it seemed so foolish 

 to start them. They were built over half- 

 grown worker-larvte, and were small, and 

 smooth, and insignificant. The queen- 

 breeder who would allow such cells to 

 hatch and use the dwarfed queens that 

 hatched out, would be a fool queen breed- 

 er. I have sometimes allowed them to 

 hatch simply out of curiosity. These are 

 the kind of cells that don't hatch until 

 the others have hatched. With )HC the 

 bees don't do as the doctor says they do. 

 They don't start a few queen cells to day, 

 ( that is, the regular, normal queen cells, ) 

 then a few tomorrow, then a few more 

 the next day, and so on. I mean they do 

 not doit as a rule. As a rule, all of their 

 queen cells are started within twenty-four 

 hours. As a rule, all the queens in a 

 batch of cells hatch within twenty-four 

 hours. Now then, with me, the taking 

 avvay of a queen, and the allowing of the 

 bees to choose their own larvai for the 

 rearing of queens, even when all of the 

 cells are starled within twenty-Jour 

 hours, and all of the queens hatch with- 

 in twenty-four hours of one another, re- 

 sults in a. large proportion of very inferior 

 qneens, as I know fiom trying the plan a 

 great many times. Tlie doctor .says that 

 when left to themselves the bees choose 

 the best larva; that they have for the pro- 

 duction of queens; that is, when left to 

 themselves after their queen is taken 

 away. The trouble, he thinks, is that 

 they keep on choosing when there are 

 none except old larvee. Doctor, I won't 

 dispute you, but I know what the results 

 have been when I have allowed such selec- 

 tion. If it isn't a ])oor selection of larva; 

 it is something that does not occur with 



