BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
A colony that has cast a swarm seldom leaves over eight or
* 40 Improved Queen-rearing ten queen-cells. In rearing queens it seems to me the breeder might be governed somewhat as to the number of cells a colony should build by the judgment of the bees when working as Nature designed them to work. However, bees do not do things as we think they should, therefore many try to improve matters, and I freely admit that I think in some cases man has made the bees do many good things they would not have done had they not been compelled to, or been assisted to do in their work. For instance, let us take up the way bees construct queen-cells when left to do it in their way, or, in the natural way. Fig. 11 illustrates how bees build queen-cells when they have their way in the matter. Now how can cells built in that manner be cut out without destroying many of them? It cannot be done. The cells are built in a cluster and all fastened to each other. Some of them could be patched up as described on another page, and many good queens would be reared. The very best queens are produced by the cells built as shown in the cluster, nevertheless. Fig. 12 illustrates the improved way of compelling bees to construct queen-cells. It will be seen that all the seven cells can be separated without destroying any of them when necessary to cut them out to place in the nursery or in nuclei. TRANSFERING CELLS TO NUCLEI OR TO THE QUEEN-NURSERY As queen-cells are now built so that they are easily cut out and separated without destroying any of them, the work of transferring them to nuclei or to the queen-nursery is not difficult, nor does it require much time or labor to complete the work. Put all the cells in the nursery and allow them to hatch and then after selecting the best queens introduce them to nucleus colonies prepared as given on another page. Sometimes there is difficulty in separating all the cells without cutting into the side of a few of them. Excepting the time required to patch them up, no great harm is done. When the cells are ripe, and that is on the twelfth day from the day the cells were started, remove from the hive, brush the bees from them and at once take them into a warm room, providing the weather is cool, and 'tis most always cool in the months of May and June. The knife used to separate the cells should be very thin, sharp and warm. If a cell is cut into, just take a piece of thin
foundation, slightly warm it, place it over the aperture and at once smooth it down with a warm knife so that it will be perfectly air-tight, if not so done, the queen might not hatch out, and she certainly would not if she is not within six hours of being ready to. If a patched cell is given to a nucleus colony, and not made perfectly air-tight, the bees would quickly destroy it. Bees will not accept any inferior work about queen-cells. Perfection is their motto. Nevertheless, I sometimes think bees lack in judgment in many things; such for instance as in destroying a fine young queen when they seem badly in need of one. But they lack in judgment very much when they use their stings to their own destruction.
### Description of PIPE for Burning Tobacco
I have always used tobacco smoke for light handling of bees, but more particularly for introducing queens.
I shall state here that for general use in the apiary tobacco is not the thing to burn. Doing light work and temporary use the tin pipe can be made to work all right. As I am constantly working in my queen-rearing apiary, I find tobacco smoke much the handiest, as well as the most convenient.
I do not wish any reader to think I recommend the filthy weed because I am a tobacco fend. Although I have used the vile stuff in my apiary more than forty years, I have not been able to acquire the tobacco habit. So it will be seen that in order for me to use tobacco about my bees, I must have some special device to burn the stuff in.
I devised the pipe illustrated in fig. 13 many years ago. Body of pipe is about 6 inches long x % in. in diameter and made of tin. At each end is a wooden stopper, one a mouth piece, the
other has a % in. tin tube running through it and projecting about an inch beyond the wood through which the smoke is directed among the bees.
The.pipe is filled with fine, dry tobacco, and is lighted by placing the small tube in the mouth and puffing away the same as any old smoker does when he puts fire to his old T. D. When the pipe is well fired up, the mouth piece is put in and all that isneeded to break up a town meeting is to blow the breath through the pipe.
Full colonies of bees can be handled by using tobacco smoke, but they do not take kindly to it, and sometimes resent the insult with a vengeance.
A good bellows smoker filled with dry, rotten wood is much the best thing to use when opening a hive of bees. But in introducing queens and light work, in the apiary, the tin pipe will be found very valuable. Of course no one would think of using tobacco when extracting. In putting cup queens I find the pipe very handy. It is held between the teeth, the cage in the left hand and the queen and bees handled with the right hand, as both hands are at liberty. Well, how handy!
Make hives in two sections same as illustrated in fig. 8. These hives are the same in every way as the little boxes excepting they are made to take 13 combs instead of four combs. Use two sections in winter as this gives sufficient capacity for wintering a large numbers of bees. In three days after the queens are removed from the nuclei, they are in condition to be safely united with little or no trouble. Get the winter hive ready, give it a stand near the nucleus the queen is in that is to be given the united colonies, and then take the queenless nuclei to that stand and at once place bees, combs and all in the large hive. Put in as much brood as possible, placing it in the center of the hive.
When cold weather sets in, put the colonies in the cellar. In the spring when placed on the stand, put on outside cases, fix Above illustration gives a partial view of the author's queen-
rearing apiary. The person on the left is S. M. Locke,
fcrner editor of the American Apiculturis!; on the
right is the author. This photo was taken in
the summer of 1882. There has been
but little change in my apiary
since the picture was
* 44 Improved Queen-rearing
**then up warm and if need be feed more syrup, and my word for it, you will have some fine colonies with which to form early nuclei when needed.**
**I had nuclei enough in the fall of 1892 to form 21 strong colonies of the kind above mentioned.**
TO GET Drones AND PRESEY'E THEM THIS ENTIRE SEASON
Much has been said in the various bee-papers as to how drones can best be obtained and preserved the entire queen-rearing season. Here is how it is done in the Bay State Apiary. When I have settled upon the colony that it is most desirable to rear drones from, a full sheet of drone comb is placed in the centre of the brood-nest: There being no drone comb of any amount in the hive, the queen at once puts an egg in each cell. This comb is allowed to remain in the colony till most of the drone brood is capped, then it is removed and placed in a queenless colony, or one that is caring for queen-cells, or has a lot of virgin queens in the nursery. Another frame of drone comb is at once placed in the same live. The bees, finding they have no drones or drone-brood, at once commence to rear another lot. This goes on all through the season. I have found that one colony of bees will supply all the drones needed for the entire queen-rearing season, or for many thousands of queens.
Please understand that when forage is cut off, the colony must be l in order to stimulate drone brood-rearing.
If the reader knows of any better way to get drones for queen-rearing or for doing any of the things on the foregoing pages, by all means adopt and practice them. I have given you methods that have been successful many years.
WHEN, WHAT AND HOW TO FEED NUCLEI
I think I can save all who use my system of nuclei very much trouble by giving instructions how to care for such colonies, and to make the method a success, and prevent robbing in the apiary. Under no circumstances ever feed anything but plain sugar syrup to the small colonies. If you use honey your entire nucleus apiary will be ruined within a few hours, providing there are any full colonies of bees near then. Sugar syrup is all that is needed to keep the nuclei up to the highest standard of prosperity.
Improved Queen-rearing 45
There are three reasons why such small colonies should be fed as above stated. 1. To keep them in food. 2. To prevent the bees from deserting the hives and 3, to stimulate the bees and cause the queens to fly and mate promptly. Now the last reason is very important. Unless these little families of bees are fed as often as each five'days, the bees will desert the hive (swarin out),.even though they have plenty of stores and brood. Of course they will not ''swarm out'' unless there is a queen to go with them.
Make the syrup as follows : Put 13 lbs. of granulated sugar in a 10 quart bucket and add enough water to fill the receptacle. This is about right--not too thin nor too heavy. See that all the sugar is dissolved before using.
The feeder illustrated in fig. 15 is cone-shaped, made of tin and is atmospheric in principle. When filled it is inverted ; the opening covered by a piece of thin cloth, the collar (a) put on to keep the cloth in place, and when thus prepared the food will not leak out. An aperture, an inch in diameter, is made in the cover of the hive about an inch from the front edge ; and as the apex of the feeder is but seven-eighths of an inch in diameter, is held firmly in place, and no amount of heavy wind will dislodge it.
Figure 14 represents one of the small nucleus hives with
* 46 Improved Queen-rearing the cone-feeder in position. As water during a rain may leak in- to the hive around the feeder, it is always placed in the front part of the cover. Always place the hive in such a position that the rear end is slightly elevated. This keeps the water from running in at the entrance, and if any water gets in at the top it quickly runs out. The success of my nucleus system depends largely upon the manner of feeding. These little miniature colonies are unlike large colonies. They can only care for themselves when forage is abundant. Feed them liberally and success will follow.
THE DRONE-TRAP IN CONNECTION WITH QUENERING:
The reader's attention is called to the utility of the drone-trap in queen-rearing. It's a wonder to me how it is that any queen breeder can produce queens that can be called _pure_ in the same
apiary where there are anywhere from ten to forty full colonies of bees sending out their millions of drones every fine day throughout the season. It has always been my practice to use the drones from only one colony for mating young queens to. How else can any queen-breeder know by what strain of bees his young queens are mated to? Drone-traps are kept at the entrance of my hives the entire season, excepting on the hive from which the drones are
Figure 16:
**allowed to fly.** I do not like a haphazzard way of mating queens.
**There is no way by which the queen breeder can have absolute control of the fertilization of his queens as can be done by using the trap. If you come into my apiary between May 20 and Oct. 1, you will find traps on every hive in the yard. The trap in controlling swarming and catching the thousands of useless drones has a world-wide reputation as all practical bee-keepers well know.**
**I regret very much to have to say that few if any of the supply**
**dealers are sending out queen-traps that are of any value. About all who use the traps have an idea that they can improve its construction. Few of these people realize that all those supposed improvements were tested in my yard years before they ever saw the trap. Yet many of these useless and needless improvements have been attached to the trap by those who are selling them, rendering the trap almost worthless.**
**An improved queen and drone-trap is illustrated in fig. 16. This trap is so constructed that no bees are destroyed by smothering. The trap does not clog and the bees have a clear and easy way through it, in and out of the hive. Three sides are covered by perforated metal, thus affording abundance of ventilation to the hive at all times.**
**The trap prevents any bees from decamping either before or after a swarm has issued or has been hived. When a swarm issues, all that need be done is to move the hive the bees issue from to a new location, and put an empty hive in its place ; take the trap and place it at the entrance of the new hive ; the swarm soon returns, and while the bees are running in, draw the top slide to release the queen, and she will enter with the bees. Then stand back and see the swarm rush in -pell-mell and take possession of the hive.**
**Whew! what fun on a hot day to have all this**
Figure 17:
placed in the hive, just thrust your little finger down between the combs near the top-bars, and thus make room for the cell and immediately place it in the opening made. The bees will not destroy the cell if it contains a healthy queen. If it is late in the season and the colony from which the queen is taken is weak in numbers, it will be necessary to place the cell in the middle of the cluster. Even in this case, you will not be obliged to do any cutting as room can be made for the cell by pushing the finger through one of the combs. Place the cell, small end downwards, in the aperture and close the hive.
QUEENS, HOW TO PRESERVE AND CARE FOR THEM
At the swarming season many bee-keepers have more or less queen-cells, and sometimes young queens, they would like to preserve if possible to do so and if proper fixtures were at hand to aid them in carrying out their desires. At just that time several cages, such as are described on a previous page and are used in the queen-nursery, would be the right thing to have. Remove the cells from the hive at the proper time, place them in the nursery-cages and after supplying each cage with food sufficient for a week, or longer, place the nursery in some full colony, according to directions given on another page in connection with the description of the nursery. A much better way for the novice to dispose of queen-cells would be to supersede old queens and at once insert the queen-cells. If this seems too risky, dequeen the hive a few days before the cells are matured, say on the fifth day after a swarm issues. This method of dequeening would do away with the necessity of nucleus colonies which one would be obliged to have in order to preserve young queens until fertilized.
AGE AT which Queens MATE
I am inclined to think that all who make reports of queens being fertilized when under five days old must be mistaken. I never knew such a thing to happen in my apiary. Have had thousands of young queens take the mating flight when but _five_ days old, but never knew one to do so when under that age.
FORcing Queens to Make the mating flight and to commence to Lay promptly
HOW TO KNOW A FERTILE Queen from AN unfertile ONE
If the queen in the latter hive proves to be fertile, the strange Improved Queen-rearing 5r bees will not molest her; if unfertile, the bees introduced may at once ball and eventually destroy her. This is a simple and quick way to test the matter, and applies only to nucleus colonies, though it may be practiced more or less successfully in full colonies. Another way to decide whether or not a queen is fertile is to feed honey for a day or so. If fertile she will deposit a few eggs, and lay while the feeding is continued.
AGE WHEN YOUN QUEENS COMMENCE TO LAY AFTE BECOMING FERTILE
Young queens, as a rule, commence to lay from thirty-six to forty-eight hours after they become fertile.
The time varies according to the season. During the honey harvest nearly every young queen will commence to lay in about thirty-six hours after mating. Later in the season, when no honey is being gathered, it will be from forty-eight hours to three days. I never have found a young queen laying when less than _seven_ days old.
I believe there is not a well authenticated case recorded where a queen was ever fertilized in confinement. Why should any one desire to have queens fertilized in any other way than the one provided by nature? By the use of the improved appliances for controlling and destroying useless and worthless drones, it is an easy matter to have any and all queens mated to any strain of drones desired.
A practical method of having queens fertilized in confinement will not be devised for a long time to come. However, no one can tell what a day may bring forth. There are a good many wise heads at work upon the knotty questions connected with bee-culture.
RESPECT BEES SHOW THEIR QUEEN
When a fertile queen moves about the combs her subjects always open a way for her to pass, and the bees seem to vie with each other in the respect they show their ruler.
The virgin queen never has much respect shown her. The
Improved Queen-rearing 53
the colony and queen can be seen, and all work from the laying of the egg to the sealed brood may be seen at any time ; how the bees remove pollen from their legs; how they behave when de
**Figure 19**
**prived of their queen, and how they start and build a queen-cell, store honey in the combs, etc.**
**It the observation hive contains a small colony of bees and an unfertile queen, it will be seen that the bees do not take the least notice of her. Apparently she is of no more consequence before becoming fertile than other bees in the hive; yet should she be removed from the colony, the bees would soon miss her, and make as much fuss over her loss as they would had she been a fertile queen. The fact that bees pay no attention to a queen, is the best evidence that she is not fertile.**
**Figure 20**
**Figure 21**
**Comparative size of Queens**
**Figure 20 nicely and accurately represents a large, fine and well-developed fertile queen bee. I have reared many queens equally as large as the one illustrated in above cut.**
**Figure 21 is a good and life-size view of an unfertile queen. Such queens vary much in size.**
**1.**
54 **Improved Queen-Rearing**
**No one should judge of the size of a queen until she is given**
**a chance to develop in a full colony of bees.**
**Queens kept in small nucleus colonies never reach full development. They must be given larger quarters in order to show to what size they will attain.**
**PREVENTING Honey from CANDYING**
**Some years ago I accidentally discovered a process by which**
**honey that has once**
**candied can be preserved in the liquid state for a long time.**
**It is my opinion that it is much the best plan to let all honey**
**candy and then liquify it. Possibly there are some kinds. of honey that if treated by the process below given, would not remain**
**in the liquid state only a short time. But for most kinds the**
**treatment will be a success, and preserve it many months.**
**Several years ago I received some honey in sixty-pound cans that was nearly as hard as sugar. It was melted and put in half-pound bottles. To keep it from candying again before I could dispose of it, the bottles were placed on a shelf over the kitchen stove, where the temperature would rise to**
**during the day and would not go below 60 degrees at night. This**
**same lot of honey stood zero weather for two winters without going back.**
**The above is the entire process. It is heat for a long time that does the business. Honey in large cans would need to be kept in a high temperature at least a month, but the process will surely prevent it from candying after it is once liquified.**
**Arrange the details of heating to suit your conditions. Large**
**quantities of honey can be kept in a room well up from the floor, and a good hot fire running for a long time.**
**Steam heat, if convenient to use, is the proper thing. Small**
**quantities of honey can be treated about as mentioned in my own case.**
**TO THE READER**
**If the method herein given for rearing queens is not made**
**clear I shall be glad at any time to give personal explanation. Later on I may issue a'supplement" in which many of the parts**
**of my system of queen-rearing will be illustrated and more**
**minutely explained. Send in the questions and they shall receive attention.**Improved QUREN-REARING 55.
THE QUEEN-REARING OUTFIT
The queen nursery, 35 cages, $1.50.
The tin pipe for burning tobacco when introducing queens, $0cents.
Small hive, four frames, nailed ready for use, including cone-feeder, $0cents.
Small hive complete, including pint of bees, one best Adel breeding queen, $5.00.
Same with select tested Adel queen, $1.00.
All the above, and one of the latest improved queen-traps, sent for $9.00. These goods must go by express, as they are too large to go by mail.
A successful swarm-catcher. Used in the Bay State Apiary with great success many years. It consists of a brood-box in front of the hive in connection with the queen-trap.
Medina, Ohio,
Bee-keepers' Supplies
In fact, a full line of everything required by bee-keepers. The superior excellence of these goods is such that they have a world-wide reputation, and dealers handling them generally say:
Shipping-
For convenience of bee-keepers in obtaining supplies without sending direct to factory and paying high freight charges, as well as suffering long delays in transit, a number of dealers have established distributing-points at many large centers, where goods are shipped from factory in carload lots.
In a notice of this kind it is impossible to give a list of dealers that will be accurate year after year. If you do not find their card in Gleanismos
in Ber Culture or other journals, send to us and we will give you name of dealer located
nearest you. In addition to twenty-five such
points in Gt. Britain; also in Australia and New
**Sf 523.L206 1907**
Langstrath on the hive and honey bee.
3 1924 003 227 703The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
[http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003227703](http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003227703)
## Biography of L. L. Langstrom
Lorenzo Lorrain Langstroth, the "father of Ameriean Apieulture," was born in the city of Philadelphia, December 25, 1810. He early showed unusual interest in insect life. His parents were intelligent and in comfortable eiremstanees, but they were not pleased to see him "waste so much tine" in digging holes in the gravel walks, filling them with erunhs of bread and dead flies, to watch the curious habits of the ants. No books of any kind on natural history were put into his hands, but, on the contrary, much was said to discourage his "strange notions.' Still he persisted in his observations, and gave to them mueh of the time that his playmates spent in sport.
In 1827, be entered Yale College, graduating in 1831. His father's means having failed, he supported himself by teaching, while pursuing his theological studies. After serving as mathematical tutor in Yale College for nearly two years, he was ordained Pastor of a Congregational church in Andover, Massachusetts, in May, 1836, and was married in August of that year to Miss A. M. Tueker of New Haven.
Strange to say, notwithstanding his passion in early life for studying the habits of insects, he took no interest in such pursuits during his college life. In 1837, the sight of a glass vessel filled with beautiful comb honey, on the table of a friend, led him to visit the attie where the bees were kept. This revived all his enthusiasm, and before he went home he purchased two colonies of bees in old box hives. The only literary knowledge,e which he then had of bee-culture was gleaned from the Latin writings of Virgil, and from a modern writer, "who was somewhat skeptical as to the existence of a _queenbee_."
In 1851, Mr. Langstroth removed to Greenfield, Massachusetts. His health was nueh imjaaried, and he had resigned his pastorate. Increasing very gradually the number of his colonies, he sought information on all sides. The "Letters of Huber" and the work of Dr. Bevan on the honey bee (London, 1838), fell into his hands and gave him an introduction to the vast literature of bee-keeping.