THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



203 



There is a Lack of Qaeen Breeders on the 

 Pacific Coast. 



" BAMCLEK." 



T N looking 

 i over the 

 advertisiug 

 pages of the 

 bee jouruais, 

 I tiud that 

 the majority 

 of those who 

 advertise 

 queens for 

 sale are loca- 

 tediu the 

 Middle or far Eastern States, and, although 

 many of the breeders live in States that pro- 

 duce but little honey, and would seem to 

 turn to queen rearing for a livelihood, still 

 many of those in the queen business are in 

 good honey producing districts. Itis a fact, 

 however, that the great honey producing 

 States and islands, like California, Florida 

 and the island of Cuba, have but few who turn 

 their attention to queen rearing. S[)eaking 

 more particularly of California there is not 

 one that advertises in any of our journals, 

 and only one that advertises in one of the 

 agricultural papers of this coast. One 

 would suppose that if queen rearing would 

 pay in the small honey i)roducing State of 

 Mass. that it would pay better in a large 

 honey producing State like Calif., not only 

 large in honey production but also large in 

 area, and where there is more need of re- 

 queening than in any of the Eastern States, 

 where, owing to the shorter honey season, 

 the usefulness of the queen is not impaired 

 so quickly as in a climate where the breed- 

 ing goes on uniuturrupted for many months 

 in the year. In the semi-tropical climate of 

 southern Calif, the only rest for the queen is 

 a short time during the fall months. In Jan. 

 there is usually a good amount of brood; in 

 Feb. the amount increases; in-Mar. it is still 

 further accelerated, and from that time un- 

 till Aug. she is kept under high pressure 

 work. The majority of bee keepers know 

 the state of affairs and remedy it during the 

 dull season by raising (pieens and thus keep- 

 ing their apiaries in the highest working 

 order, others not so provident allow the bees 

 to supersede the worn out queen at their 

 own convenience, and as usually happens in 

 snch cases many swarms do not requeen at 

 the right time, and there is consequently 



many weak colonies at the commencement 

 and even all through the honey season, and 

 many that are altogether queenless and sub- 

 ject to the appearance of fertile workers 

 which are quite a common thing in Calif, api- 

 aries. The importance of this requeening 

 and its effect upon the honey yield was recog- 

 nized and discussed at the last meeting of 

 the Calif. Bee Keei)ers' Association, and 

 those who have the best success in getting 

 large yields of honey are the ones who pay 

 attention to this important feature in bee- 

 keeping. This point was thought of so 

 much importance by a bee-keeper in Inyo 

 County that he journeyed several hundred 

 miles to look up the queen rearing resources 

 of the coast counties, and to tind where he 

 could get a supply of virgin queens with 

 which to requeen his entire apiaries in the 

 early spring mouths, before he could rear 

 queens in his own higher and colder climate. 

 Young queens early mean vigorous colonies 

 for the gathering of honey as soon as the 

 season opens, not only in the higher altitudes 

 is this the case but tlie rule holds good in 

 more favored localities. Much honey is lost 

 from the bees not being strong enough in 

 numbers to secure the honey from the early 

 flowers. This gentleman was level headed 

 enough to see where the profits came in and 

 was in search of the remedy and I have no 

 doubt but that he found it, for there are 

 many localities on this coast where queens 

 can be reared in every mouth in the year, 

 there are also islands where queens can be 

 bred in great purity from selected strains, 

 but thus far no one has made much of an 

 effort to build up a queen rearing business 

 on this Coast and for our select strains we 

 depend largely upon the Eastern breeders. 

 Queens from nearly every portion of the 

 East are found here. We find those who 

 favor Mr. Alley and his various races of bees 

 and iving praise to Funics and Carniolans. 

 Doolittle and others come in for their share 

 of commendation, while many prefer queens 

 reared in the south, thinking them more 

 adapted to our climate. The mail facilities 

 are so great now that it makes but little 

 difference where the breeder is located if the 

 strain of bees is satisfactory to the purchaser. 

 It is evident that honey production is of 

 more profit on this coast than queen rearing, 

 except as it is carried on for the purpose of 

 requeening one's own apiary, and the honey 

 producer is willing to secure his choice 

 (lueens from old, established, and time tried 



