1878 



GLEANINGS i^ BEE CULTURE. 



399 



WHV QUEENS VAKV SO MUCH ItV COL- 

 OR. 



^j-q^iUIEXD Ciiming-s, in Oct. No., soenis to be puz- 

 jlrJ zlecl to know wliy an Italian queen will at one 

 ^^ time proiuco briarht (jueen^, and at another, 

 dark ones. We ttiink it is because tlie mother <iueen 

 contains different kinds of blood in her org-aiiism. 

 It is a well known tact among' stock breeders, that 

 if a strain of cattle or iiorses (u- hogs or any other 

 kind of stock contains any bad blood, that bad blood 

 will crop out, and occasionally produce a scrub; and 

 that no confidence can be placed in the strain, until 

 the type becomes tixed by careful breeding from se- 

 lect specimens. 



For instance, in the make up of the modern Berk- 

 shire, blood from a hog containing white in color 

 has been introduced, and, although a well marked 

 Berkshire is black, except face and feet, yet we oc- 

 casionally see them with large white splashes on 

 other parts of the body, atid stock breeders tell mo 

 that it is no sign of impure blood, but the original 

 white cropping out. 



I once knew two baj' mares bred to a black horse, 

 with the hope of raising matches; the result was 

 that neither colt resembled either parent, one of 

 them having a white face, a mark not belonging to 

 either horse or mare. They obtained these marks 

 from some of their ancestors. 



The same principle holds good in the breeding of 

 fowls, and the human race seems tf) be equally true 

 in reproducing the characteristics of their ances- 

 tors. Instances have been noted, in which particu- 

 lar ph.vsical marks have cropped out after having 

 disappeared for several generations. A sixth finger 

 has reappeared in the seventeenth generation. 



Now how can we expect bees to depart from na- 

 ture, and reproduce themselves in exact type. It is 

 simply absurd. That there are very dark bees in It- 

 aly, we know; for even after selection, we get them 

 here almost as dark (queens) as natives. Now, all 

 the queens imported are mixed vip in their ances- 

 tral relations, no doubt, with both light and dark 

 strains, and, therefore, contain both light and dark 

 blood; then shall we be surprised if this different 

 blood reappears in queens of different color? Shall 

 we expect order out of disorder? I think that a 

 (lueen that would produce a uniform progeny would 

 be fi greater wonder. 



Again, to show that a queen .will not produce a un- 

 iform progeny where there is any dark blood, notice 

 the offspring of a hybrid, or three-quarter black 

 queen. You will find among them bees as black as 

 any natives, others showing some one, some two, 

 and some three bands, being as well marked as the 

 best Italians. 



I once had hopes of obtaining, by select breeding, 

 a strain of bees that would come up to my ideal Ital- 

 ians; but I no longer entertain such a notion. AVe 

 must bo able to control the mating of our queens, 

 and then continue select breeding through several 

 generations, and do it ourselves, at home, and not 

 depend upon imported queens, before we can expect 

 uniformity. I do not pretend to say that these uni- 

 form bees and queens would be any better, if as 

 good, as the imported; for we might sacrifice some 

 more valuable (lualities than uniformity, by such a 

 course: but there are a great mauy, and especially 

 beginners, who would rejoice over such an achieve- 

 ment. Jno. W. Beaty. 

 Decatur, Ga., Nov. 4, 1878. 



HO^V TO MAKE BEES ACCEPT A QUEEN. 



NOVEt, MODE OF INTRODUCING. 



Ylp COMMENCED with bees in 10 hives, 5 Quinby 

 JSjl frame hives and the rest box, and transferred 

 4^ them all right, into Simplicity hives. Two of the 

 swarms, I put onto 3 and 3 frames, so you see that 

 they were not large; the rest were fair colonies. I 

 increased to 20 swarms, and had 3 first swarms and 

 1 second swarm that came out with a young queen 

 that I gave them. From them, I have taken 539 lbs. 

 of extracted and 111 lbs. of box honey. 



I have raised 3(5 queens, of which 1 proved to be a 

 drone layer; 3 wore lost, I suppose, when they went 

 out to meet the drones; 3 were lost in introducing. 

 One of the two, I killed myself, 1 won't tell how, I 

 guess. 



1 will tell how I introduced one. I had had her 

 caged 10 days, and had tried her several times, so I 

 thought I would experiment a little. I made two 



frames, put wire screens on them, and hinged them 

 together at the bottom, just wide enough so a brood 

 comb would go in; then I went to the hive, took out 

 a frame of bees and put it in this wire cage, took 

 them into the house and put the queen in with them, 

 and sat down for war. This was a little after 7 

 o'clock, A. M. When the bees went for her, which 

 they did very freely at first, I would give them some 

 smoke. About 11 o'clock, they concluded that "dis- 

 cretion was the better part of valor," and let her 

 have her own way. After dinner, I hung the frame 

 in the hive, and had to go away to thrashing for 4 

 days before I could let them out. ThtMi I took th(! 

 frame out and hung it in the hive, and fouml her all 

 right at night. I let another one out that same 

 morning, that had been caged 14 davs, and at night 

 I picked her out of a ball of bees. If I had not acci- 

 dentally killed her the next day, I should have in- 

 troduced her in the same way as I did the other one. 



I am quite sure these two swarms were hybrids, 

 and the worst ones I have had. One of the' other 

 queens was about a week being introdutsed; the rest 

 from one hour to about two days. The queen I 

 bought of you, I tried about 4 days in one colony, 

 then took her to a nucleus and let her go in about 

 an hour. They seemed bound to supersede her 

 though; I cut out a queen cell or two every week, 

 for 3 or 4 weeks. Then they got too smart for me 

 and hatched a young queen in the hive, but I found 

 her when she was about 3 days old, an<i took her out. 

 She was a large queen, but nearlv black. I got her 

 to laying, and last week, 1 united her and (me other 

 nucleus and the swarm from which I killed the 

 queen together. I believe they have a queen now. 



V. W. Keeney. 



Shirland, 111., Oct. 29, 1878. 



The idea of i)iitting a whole comb in a 

 cage is not a new one, for snbstantially the 

 same process is given by onr German corres- 

 pondent, Gravenhorst (see page 177, Vol. V). 

 Tlie idea that yon have originated, friend 

 K., is sinolving nntil tliey will be good to 

 tlieir queen; if I am correct, it took you 

 about 4 hours to do tliis, but this was proba- 

 bly because they were very hard subjects. 

 From the experience I have had, I think a 

 (pieen could be introduced to almost any col- 

 ony, if they were to be watched constantly 

 with a good smoker, and smoked at every 

 attenn)t they made to ball the queen. As a 

 rule, I think a half hour would be sufficient 

 to take all their viciousness out of them. 

 The bee-easel, illustrated on i)age 329, would 

 be an excellent thing, on which to rest tlie 

 wire cloth frame containing the single comb, 

 for as often as the queen got on another side, 

 it could be turned around. If the bees in 

 the hive were also smoked noAV and then, 

 mrhaiis she could be set loose at once. 

 Friend Hayhurst speaks of making bees ac- 

 cept virgin queens, by smoking them as oft- 

 en as they commenced an attack, and I am 

 not sure but faithful work would succeed 

 with any queen. Of course, this takes time, 

 but it may sometimes pay to take the time. 



QUEENS MATING MORE THAN ONCE; 

 IMPORTED QUEENS. 



MY son and myself noticed several instances in 

 our Oxford apiary where queens certainly 

 ■ mated twice, and one where a queen mated 



t/u-ee times. I never knew a (lueen to mate again, 

 after it was evident from her increased size, that she 

 had been fecundated, and was preparing to lay. 1 

 do not deny the pnssihiliti) of such a thing, but I have 

 seen nntliirijr incoii>;istont in the idea that a queen 

 whose sperniathfcii has been filled has no longer a 

 desire for the male, just as many of our domestic 

 animals lose it, very soon after they have conceived. 

 I therefore think it very improbable that fertilized 

 and laying queens, imported from Europe, ever 

 again seek the male. 



it is possible that reliable dealers may sometimes 

 make a mistake in putting up their queens. In one 



