274 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



having foresworn it for some years. 1 un- 

 Inesitatingly oronoLince clipped queens in 

 swarming time to be an unmitigated 

 nuisance but that is another subject. 



Does artificial supersedure or requeen- 

 ing come in the category of useless and 

 costly operations ? I proceed on the un- 

 derstanding that artificial supersedure or 

 requeening is that method of changing 

 the queen of a colony that involves the 

 purchase or the rearing of a new queen, 

 the finding and the removal of the old one, 

 and the introduction of the new one, and 

 natural supersedure any one that does 

 not require these steps. 



The correct answer to the question con- 

 tained in my title is contained in the an- 

 swer to another, to wit: Which pays the 

 better, financially, for the matter must be 

 considered with reference not to those 

 keeping a few bees from sentimental or 

 experimental reasons, but to those keep- 

 ing them for the direct net cash results. 



It must be admitted that either method 

 costs. Let the matter be considered on 

 the basis of one hundred colonies. In ar- 

 tificial supersedure the first item of ex- 

 pense is the purchase or production of 

 one hundred queens, which can hardly be 

 estimated at less than S50. After that 

 comes the finding and removal of the 

 queens from crowded hives — for to be of 

 any marked advantage it must be done 

 before the colonies become depleted, that 

 is, if it is to be done generally and sys- 

 tematically, unless, indeed, it be done in 

 the early spring, in which case the cost of 

 queens would be doubled. I have never 

 been able to find any pleasure in search- 

 ing for queens in populous colonies; some 

 bee-keepers may possibly enjoy it, but, to 

 me, it is, when it becomes necessary, an 

 indefinable burden — a burden over and 

 above the labor required. The overflow- 

 ing bees, robber bees, perhaps, and either 

 slow work or else the crushing of bees 

 are all but intolerable. Of course, there 

 are ways by which these disagreeable 

 features may be to some extent avoided, 

 but. at best, if to be done when colonies 

 are populous, an offer of $25 for per- 



forming the job would not be a great 

 temptation. 



Then there are 100 queens to be intro- 

 duced; and after all is done, what has 

 been gained? Colonies with queens that 

 possibly, but by no means certainly, may 

 average a little better, and that is all. 

 Some of these queens, as with any intro- 

 duced queens, will disappear after begin- 

 ning to lay; occasionally one will not be 

 accepted at all. It is quite probable that 

 two or three of the colonies, unless looked 

 after closely, may go into winter quarters 

 queenless; and if the bees have wintered 

 badly the queens will keep perishing in 

 the spring just as the rejected ones would 

 have done in the same circumstances. 

 Queens in colonies that have wintered well, 

 even though such colonies have not been 

 requeened, do not disappear by the half 

 dozen in the spring. In an apiary of from 

 150 to 200 colonies I seldom find more 

 than two or three queenless colonies, in 

 fact, as many colonyless queens as queen- 

 less colonies. 



I will not deny that one may keep his 

 apiary a little more uniform in strength 

 by the requeening of an occasional colony, 

 but 1 cannot escape the conviction that 

 his care and time might be more profit- 

 ably employed in a financial point of 

 view. If the gratification of a sentiment 

 is cf more value in his estimation, of more 

 value than a thicker wallet, well and 



Who dare affirm that, not better but as 

 good queens can be supplied colonies by 

 any interference of the hand of man as 

 by natural supersedure, where all is ac- 

 complished without any excitement or 

 disturbance ? The bees, it must be ad- 

 mitted, attend to this very well, as was 

 to be expected, for it is nature. There 

 will be a few failures, no doubt, but if my 

 own experience is a safe guide, five per cent, 

 would easily cover the whole of them. 

 How easy, then, becomes the solution of 

 the whole matter; simply keep, with al- 

 most no trouble or expense, five percent, 

 more colonies. 



Lapeer. Mich.. Aug. 22, 190Z. 



