QUINBY 
709 
eggs and brood in the fall and early winter 
months, or, in fact, at any time when there 
is a considerable dearth of pasturage. At 
such seasons, beginners are more apt to 
think their colonies are queenless, because 
the queens are much smaller than when 
they are laying profusely, and therefore 
are not as easily found. In the North 
queens often cease laying during the whole 
of the winter months. They will not lay 
much when their colonies are in the cellar 
except sometimes the last month in the cel¬ 
lar. In California and the semi-tropical 
States of the South queens may lay every 
month of the year. 
For further particulars regarding queens, 
see Drones, Queen-rearing, and’ Bee Be¬ 
havior, 
QUEENS, HOW TO FIND.— See Ma¬ 
nipulation of Colonies, subhead, “How 
to Manipulate Hoffman Frames,” and 
“How to Handle Unspaced Frames;” also 
Diagnosing Colonies. 
QUINBY.* —Moses Quinby was born on 
April 16, 1810. During his boyhood his 
family removed to Coxsackie, Greene Co., 
New York. 
In 1828 at the age of 18, he earned his 
first money, working in a sawmill, and with 
it purchased his first swarm of bees and 
began the 25 years of study and experiment 
which prepared him for the writing of his 
book, published in 1853. In 1832 he mar¬ 
ried Miss Martha Powell Norbury, also of 
English extraction, and, like Mr. Quinby, a 
Quaker. They were married at the Nor¬ 
bury homestead. From this time till his 
removal to the Mohawk Valley he lived at 
the home. There was a mill on the place, 
and he earned the support of his family in 
these early years running the turning-lathe 
and doing cabinet work, many specimens of 
household furniture made by him being 
now the valued possessions of his grand¬ 
daughters. Here also he made his hives 
and the first honey-boxes. 
I have reason to believe that at this 
period there were more bees kept in this 
section than in any other part of the 
United States. For years after Mr. Quin- 
by’s death I have been to this location to 
buy bees to replenish my home apiaries. 
* Written by his son-in-law, L. C. Root. 
On a recent visit I saw small apiaries, 
many of them using the form of hive Mr. 
Quinby had recommended. 
He says he “commenced without any 
knowledge of the business to assist him, 
save a few directions about hiving, smok¬ 
ing them with sulphur, etc.” Beekeeping 
was considered a matter of luck. His 
friends and neighbors on all sides discour¬ 
aged him. One wise old man predicted 
failure for him because he pottered with 
them too much, boring holes in the top *of 
the hives and disturbing them. All of this 
advice only stimulated him to greater ac¬ 
tion. He prefixed to the word “luck” a 
big P, and underlined it. 
Here lie spent 25 years experimenting 
and writing, with a determination to place 
beekeeping on the same successful financial 
basis with other branches of agriculture. 
All his experiments during this period were 
made with bees in box hives, there being no 
better ones at that time. 
His first move to avoid destruction of 
the bees in securing the honey was by bor¬ 
ing holes in the top of the hives, for he 
found that the bees would fill large boxes 
put over the hive. These were the fore¬ 
runner of the super and section. 
Another menace to success in beekeeping 
