December 19, 1889. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
541 
QGEEN REARING IN RELATION TO HYBER¬ 
NATION AND WINTER DYSENTERY. 
(.Continued from page 497.') 
Some of the plans followed in America are scarcely creditable 
to such an intelligent nation. Here is a plan advocated in a book 
by Gr. M. Doolittle, a great breeder of queens and a “ real Yankee,” 
a regular “ Down Easter.” He gets a number of sticks, soaks 
them in water, then dips them in melted wax time after time, but 
each time not quite so much as previously. When done enough 
he fixes their ends to flat sticks, and when cold he can withdraw the 
round sticks he has used as moulds, as, being wet, they will leave 
the wax. The flat stick is filled with these cups, side by side ; then 
he puts in each a little royal jelly that he has previously collected 
from queen cells, and a just hatched worker larva, then these 
sticks are fastened in frames, and hung in a stock that is inclined to 
build queen cells, preferring one with the swarming fever on. The 
bees feed the worms and finish off the cells, and when sealed he 
removes them, cuts off the cells, giving them either to nuclei, or 
hatching them in a nursery. And he thinks by doing this he is 
improving the breed of bees. If his time at the busiest part of the 
season is of no more value than that of bees, that he can seriously 
hope to compete with them, where the price of labour is admitted 
to be high, I think we cannot do better than flock over to America 
This reminds me of an anecdote I saw the other day, where down 
in one of the Southern States they had replaced mules on the tram¬ 
way with motive power, when an old negro exclaimed, “ What a 
wonderful people those Yankees were ! Twenty-five years ago they 
freed the nigger, and now they have freed the mule.” It is 
certainly reserved for a Yankee to seriously try to free the bees of 
their natural labour by substituting their own. 
Whether Doolittle succeeds or not in his queen-rearing may be 
judged by his losing on an average about half of his bees every 
winter ; then he selects the best in the spring, sometimes only ten 
stocks out of a hundred he had in the fall, which he devotes to 
ihoney getting, all the weak and sickly ones being devoted to rear- 
ng queens ; he probably makes his stocks up to 100 again in the 
fall. Instead, however, of estimating his honey crop pro rata, 
according to the number of stocks he had in the fall, he simply 
does so on the few best he has selected, which enables him to boast 
of an enormous crop of honey of an average amount per colony, 
spring count—not the ten hive3, mind, but all their increase, which 
is seldom less than 100 lbs. “per colony.” According to his own 
showing it is really less than 10 lbs. per stock, while I have made 
the crop to be less than 2 lbs., and nearly every stock required 10 to 
20 lbs. of food to winter it, while all the time he was boasting of 
“ 75 lbs. per colony.” Such statements do to puzzle people who 
cannot think for themselves ; but the most curious part of the 
matter is Doolittle is always advocating a strict adherence to 
Nature, though the only natural plan he follows is rearing his 
queens in stocks with the swarming fever on. In my opinion the 
reason he does not lose all his bees every winter is because his 
frames being llj inches square he always has his brood nest in a 
close compact shape, so that the cells do not run such a risk of 
chilling if cold weather sets in as they would if he used the Lang- 
stroth frame. This again is not without its influence in enabling 
him to harvest large crops of honey from those hives he selects for 
the purpose. 
It was Heddon who started the “pollen theory” to account for 
winter dysentery, just because he ascertained that such bees voided 
undigested pollen. To prove his position he fed a number of 
stocks up for winter on pure sugar syrup in clean combs devoid of 
pollen, which lived through the winter and came out satisfactorily 
in the spring, while many of those with pollen in their combs died- 
He held this up as absolute proof, though a little reflection should 
have told him that he only provided his bees with a more digest- 
able food. 
To understand this subject better my articles in the Journal 
for May 16th (page 407) and July 18th, 1889, must be read as well 
as this. I cannot yet say if bees keep up one uniform temperature 
in the cluster while hybernating in winter or not, though I think 
they do ; nor what that temperature is, which I think is about 60°. 
My bees are all now hybernating except one stock with the queen 
developed from a fertile worker egg which received a slight chill 
while in the cell, and was otherwise not reared as well as my other 
queens. 
To sum the matter up briefly, I advise the following course— 
breed queens from the best stocks. Let them be reared naturally 
whether under the swarming fever or not. Never open a hive to 
look at cells being reared, nor think of cutting one out. If the 
selected stock swarms catch the old queen, or let all or nearly all 
the bees go back to attend to the maturing cells, always remember¬ 
ing that Nature has designed them to be kept quite warm, so that 
there can never be too many bees in the hive. They will come 
outside if no room within. If the weather changes to cold, wet, 
or otherwise bad feed at once gently and continuously until it takes 
up again, to cause the bees to keep up the heat of the hive, other¬ 
wise they would let it go down too low, and thus spoil all the 
queen cells. If young queens are wanted keep taking them in the 
swarms, and let the bees go back, to come off; again with fresh ones. 
If many queens are wanted rear them under the 3warming fever, 
when you will have from ten to 100. If you only want one you 
can rear her in any very strong stock, but be content with one, 
as seldom will there be more than two cells, and you cannot cut 
one out without spoiling both. If you wish the bees to be profit¬ 
able take care that they have sound constitutions, always remem- 
ing that such will enable them to withstand all kinds of failings in 
management and the weather. And always remember that the 
queen is the most important part of a hive of bees, and must 
always be considered the most valuable part. 
I may also touch on the question of clipping queens’ wings. 
I used to be opposed to the practice, as I found bees had such a 
desire to supersede them. I have again reverted to it, as I can 
thus catch the old queen in a first swarm, and soon have the bees 
back again; while if I am not present, and the hive is on a stand 
that overlaps, so that the queen cannot get back, she will be 
found on the ground under the entrance, as she is attracted by 
noise of the returning bees, and tries to get back. Another point 
is, if you clip a queen as soon as she begins to lay you can always 
tell if she has been superseded, which often happens when the 
stock is not as strong as desirable for queen rearing, so that such 
queens should be replaced. Thus, although clipping has several 
drawbacks it also has its advantages when rearing improved 
bees. 
I have now explained the matter, and if it is followed it will not 
be long before a marked difference will be noted between the bees 
as now existing, and those being cultivated, and which will soon 
be known as “ wild bees.” Of course there is the difficulty about 
the drones ; if each kee-keeper will breed these as he is advised 
about his queens, there will not, however, be much trouble ora 
this score. — A Hallamshire Bee-keeper. 
GLASS SECTIONS. 
Allow me to tender my best thanks to “ A Hallamshire Bee¬ 
keeper ” for his brief and practical exposition of the patent laws ; also 
for the trouble he had been at in preparing drawings to illustrate the' 
making of glass sections, which doubtless would have been published 
but for the good reason indicated. If ever 1 had a serious intention 
of cheating the inventor of the metal corners by “ any quibble or 
sophistry,” the idea had vanished from my mind before I knew so much 
of patent laws as I now do. While the note I sent to the Journal was- 
lying at the office waiting for a corner, I have been working and think¬ 
ing, and have come to much the same conclusion as your correspondent 
—viz., that they are quite as well without the tin corners. I hope 
‘ A. H. B. K.” does not include me amongst those who say they “knew 
the dodge before,” or who laughed at him. My motive was a desire to 
