110 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



•we find breed very important in any line, 

 but we find that proper care is no less impor- 

 tant. For instance, were I to buy a cow 

 simply for butter and cream I should take a 

 Jersey. Then I would not stuff her with all 

 she could eat while young. If I did I would 

 Kj)oil her. Should I desire the best results in 

 beef I would buy a Short Horn, then I would 

 feed this animal very liberally from the very 

 first. Then I am not, cannot be disai)- 

 pointed. 



So with queens, I would wish queens from 

 the very Iji'st strain. Queens that were busi- 

 ness from the tip of their auteiuue to the 

 tip of the stiny. And (lueens that produced 

 workers that were business from the tip of ' 

 their feet to the tip of their winys. But 

 more, I should wish (jueens reared under the 

 best conditions. If difference in (juantity or 

 ipiality makes active ovaries in lieu of abor- 

 tive ones, as is certainly the case, then surely 

 the more liberal the food the better the 

 queens. 



Thus queens, reared under the swarming 

 impulse, or under such artificial conditions 

 as shall secure the same attention from the 

 nurse bees, are, I believe, the best. 



AGEicuLTUBAii CoL., MicH., Juue .■"), 188'J. 



Queens, and their Influence Upon Success in 

 Bee Culture. 



W. J. ELJ.ISON. 



"^l^rilRIEND H.— The above is a very im- 

 iiri, portant subject, not only to (pieen 

 (^JLjt' breeders, but to honey producers, and 

 to every one at all interested in " Dol- 

 lar and Cent Bee-Keepiug." Bee keepers 

 will be under a debt of gratitude to you for 

 introducing it, and bringing before your 

 readers the opinions of those who have most 

 to do with that line of apiculture, viz., 

 (lueen rearing. 



Prof. Cook says, in his Bee-Keepers' 

 Guide, that " The function of the queen is 

 simi)ly to lay eggs," and he gives lots of 

 good authority to prove his assertions. 

 Then one of the essential tiualities of our 

 iiueens is that they be good layers, even if 

 their whole force is not at all times exerted. 

 Now what do we want to show? " Their in- 

 fluence upon success in bee culture. " 



I know some will say, if their being pro- 

 lific was all one wants, why not get (jueens 

 from a race noted for that quality ? Cypri- 

 ans, for instance, are said to outstrip 

 Italians in that office. But, that is not all ; 

 I have had extra prolific queens, and very 

 handsome ones tliey were, when to all ap- 

 I)earances ready for a good, old age, they 

 would have an egg in every available cell, 

 and an immense lot of bees in their hives, 

 that seemed to take uj) their whole time in 

 nursing. But does all that display of their 

 good qualities, without the actual, nicely 

 tilled sections, warrant all this " stress upon 

 the ((ueeu ? " 



I did not misunderstand you in your review 

 of " Doolittle on (^ueen Rearing" when you 

 said " You felt like exclaiming, othei' things 

 being equal, one ([ueen was as good as 



another," as I was sure your knowledge of 

 queens would not permit you to make such a 

 broad assertion without the imi)ortant prefix 

 "other things being etiual," for if that were 

 the case it would apply to animals, vegeta- 

 tion, etc., and we might expect as much from 

 a common cow as from our best Jersey. 

 They are both cows. Or why pay high 

 prices for choice strawberries when we have 

 the old ones of our father's ? They ai-e both 

 strawberries. Just so with queens. My 

 ideas are that a good ijueen is a very imjior- 

 taut attachment to a colony of bees; and lo 

 get them so that "their influence will be a 

 success in our business," we have to ob- 

 serve two important things in their rearing ; 

 first, to have brood of the right age, and 

 from a pure tested queen, whose workers 

 have been proved, "extra, double-superfine" 

 honey gatherers ; in other words, first class 

 stock, whether home-bred or imported? We 

 can raise queens as good as ever were im- 

 ported. 



The next point to l)e observed, and one 

 that is often overlooked, is that the cells 

 should be raised by bees having the same, or 

 as good, qualities as the ones from which we 

 have obtained the brood. The nature, colf>r, 

 and qualities of the ([ueeus, will be laru'ely 

 effected by the bees that rear the cells. Now 

 we have oidy to get lots of drones from 

 queens reared as above, and have them, it 

 possible, in evei-y colony in the apiary ; not 

 begrudging them their daily bread that 

 nature has provided so bountifully for them, 

 and made the workers their menials lo store 

 it. A few i)urely mated iiueens will jiay for 

 the keep of hundreds, yes, thousands, of 

 them, during tlieir whole lives. Discard all 

 other kinds, and we will not hesitate long 

 upon queens and their influence upon success 

 in bee culture. 



Statebukg, S. C, 



June 0, INS'.). 



Queens, as Related to Success in Bee Calture. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



'Ip HAVE not as yet been able to read one 

 [%) page in Brother Doolittle's book on 

 J^ (lueen rearing. My views uiion the sub- 

 ject are recorded in my own book, and 

 I do not know that I have hail any rcasoji lo 

 change the ideas tlierciu (■xi)ressed even iq)()ii 

 minor sul>jects since I wrote it. If 1 have I 

 have forgotten it for I have been too busy to 

 read my own book. 



There is not only something in good 

 queens, but there is a ijihkI ileal in good 

 queens, and the question arises, what con- 

 stitutes a 'good (lueen ? And right there i- 

 where I shall begin to differ with i-oiiie oHht 

 bee kee[)ers. Tlie records will show iliat I 

 was the first person to pul)lish a differ-ent 

 view of honey production as .i bnsiiu ss, or 

 present different views in regard to ijrcfitable 

 bee culture. Allow me to go over the old 

 grouiul again a little, for I notice that very 

 few bee keeiu^rs seem to agree on that 

 ground, or at least fail or forget to take it jis 

 the true basis of bee keeping. Here let us 

 suppose we have an unoccupied liotu^y area 

 of about six miles in diameter. Now then. 



