BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Let it be understood that all which has been said about requeeing to eliminate disease _does not_ apply to American foul brood. As this book is a treatise on queen-rearing, we need not discuss American foul brood but only touch on one or two points. American foul brood cannot be eured by requeening. At the present writing, the "shaking treatment" is the only cure advocated. In Dr. E. F. Phillip's excellent book, "Ieekeeping," (page 404) the disease and its treatment are described in detail. Many beekeepers wish to requeen colonies having American foul brood--not to eure the disease, but to replace the queen on account of her age, for a good young queen is needed in the colony after losing all its brood and having to build up on foundation. The question is very frequently asked, "When is the best time to requeen a colony affected with American foul brood--before shaking or after?" I recommend that they be requeened after shaking: for, if a vigorous queen is introduced and allowed to lay heavily before shaking, she is liable to be injured when this is done from the fact that her egg-laying is suddenly stopped, in the same manner as a queen laying heavily is injured by being placed in a mailing cage. Many have reported that queens that were very prolific before the disease was treated, were worthless after the colony had been shaken for its eure. Another reason is that it is not a good policy to open a colony affected with American foul brood any more than is absolutely necessary, on account of the danger of spreading the disease through robbing. After the colony has been treated and has several frames of brood, it is a good time to requeen. If the Push-in eage is used it will be necessary to get an old black comb from some other colony on which to use it, eure being taken that it is from a healthy colony.
Another difficulty arising from a heavy flow is found in the nuclei. This is not so serious as the former, and the only inconvenience is that the combs get crowded with honey and bulged at the tops so that they are removed with dilibulty. If only one comb with a division-board feeder is used, the bees will get crowded and so over the division-board and build comb in the empty space. These small bits of comb, when removed, may be thrown into the solar wax-extractor, and, if much honey is placed in the newly built combs, it goes well with hot biscuits and is helped along with a glass of Jersey cream! At least, that rule holds good in this locality. If much of this honey is found, cut it out, put it into tin buckets and tell the neighbors about it. It always moves off at a good price. This condition in the nuclei is remedied by giving empty combs or foundation. I usually prefer to leave one comb with them and give them a frame containing foundation. If the flow continues, the heavy comb is taken away and another frame with foundation is given.
**Cell-Building at the Close of the Honey Flow.**
By far the most difficult period of queen-rearing is at the close of the honey flow. The flow has restricted broad-rearing, and the fielders have worked themselves to death, so that the colonies are losing strength and the proportion of young bees is small--two serious conditions in queen-rearing. The feeders must be brought into use on the cell-buiklers and on the hives containing bees for the swarm box. Search must be made through other colonies to find frames containing brood, which will be scarce for the reason that all have retrenched in brood-rearing. Some colonies have more brood than others. All coinbs not containing brood should be taken out and replaced with brood. If this is done after an early honey flow, such as white or sweet clover, cell-building will go on nearly as well as at any other time.
After a fall flow, to keep the bees interested in the queen business is much more difficult. Finishing cells in a colony made queenless may be necessary. In case a few flowers, such as asters or goldenrod that the bees may work on, still bloom the queen-rearing season may be prolonged. If brood can be secured good cells can be built, but cold weather and a scarcity of drones make queen-mating difficult.
The duality of Queens.
CHAITTER XXXVI.
It is a very simple matter to rear queens that are just "queens"; but to rear the very best, those that are long-lived and prolific, and to do this with uniformity under the changing seasons and weather, require not only skill and experience but eternal vigilance which is the price of success. Bees observe the change in nectar secretion much more readily than the beekeeper. From all appearances the honey flow is at its height, with no indications of slacking up as far as the beekeeper can see, but the worker bees may be seen astroaddle of the drones, riding them to destruction. The workers see the slacking of the flow. As the only opportunity that the drones might have had is past and they will have outlived their usefulness before any more queens are reared, the bees seem to reason. "Why keep these drones around to eat up the profits?" so the poor fellows are driven out to starex. When the apiarist sees this condition he should put on the fewlers, or a poor batch of cells will be the result.
It is the easiest matter imaginable to rear poor queens. I have seen queens in every stage of size and quality from a worker up to the very finest. Upon several occasions I observed, in nuclei, virgin queens, if we may call them queens, that were no larger than workers. The only way I could tell that they had a touch of queen make-up in their nature was the shape of the abdomen, which was more pointed than a worker's, and the color was a little different, showing more yellow. The first one of these I found was a puzzle to me. I had taken out a laying queen and introducel a cell in the regular way. When I looked three days later the cell was torn down, and then it was that I discovered this pygmy queen. I left her to see what would become of her. She disappeared about mating time, as did the few others that were discovered later. Now this pygmy queen emerged from a regular worker-cell, as no sign of a queen-cell or an enlarged worker-cell could be seen.
I believe the pygmy queen was reared in this way: When the laying queen was removed, the bees began to feed some of the larvae profusely with royal jelly preparatory to rearing queens. When the queen-cell was given and the virgin emerged, these larvae that were given the extra feel or royal jelly were not destroyed but were left to go on and develop as
**DRONES**.
CHAPTER XXXVII**.
All recognize the fact that the drone has as much to contribute toward keeping up the stock as the queen. Placing drone couls in colonies containing the best queens has been advocated to rear drones. If this is done in a large way and drone coub given to a large number of colonies, good results may be obtained. I believe a much better plan, however, is to re-queen the entire yard systematically and restrict the drones as much as possible by using full sheets of foundation. Enough drones will be reared, and no colony will be injured, as would be the case if a lot of drone couls were allowed in a number of colonies.
Of course, if you are able to keep all drone comb out of the colonies, some provision would have to be made for rearing drones, but I have yet to see a colony that could not rear a few. Many say that, if they do have all pure drones, it would do little good as their neighbors have hybrids and thleks. There are many times when this would prevent pure mating of queens, but in many cases it would not. We are finding out that queens do not go so far to mate as was formerly supposed. A number have reported seeing queens mate within a very few feet of their lives. I have witnessed the same thing. If there are no bees nearer than a quarter of a mile, and, if you have all pure drones in your own yard, my experience would prompt me to say that you will have very little mismating.
As in the case of American fool brood, a lot is laid to the neighbors that rightfully belongs to yourself. I have laid several amusing experiences concerning the above. One man said he could not get rid of American fool brood because his bees got it from his neighbor a couple of miles away : and when I called on that neighbor, he told me the same thing about the beekeeper to whom I first talked. It was evident that both were spreading infection among their own bees. So it is in the case of drones; see that all drones in your own yard are pure and you will be surprised at the few mismatings which will occur. Of course, it is still more desirable if you can get the co-operation of your neighbor and interest him in better hees. Get him to request by rearing his own, or you can rear them and sell to him.
More than one queen in a five.
(Chapter NXXVIII.
Normally, bees permit but one queen in a hive. Frequently, however, during supersedure the old queen remains for some time after her daughter is mated and laying. In such cases the old queen is so incapeitated that the bees and young queen do not seem to recognize her as a queen, and pay no attention to her. These old queens may be dropped into any queenless colony and are generally accepted. They may be utilized in this manner to carry a colony along until it can be requested with a good queen.
Sometimes a fresh case seems to violate all general rules. I have shown two vignains to emerge in a hive and be the best of friends. They would mate and lay for quite a while; but sooner or later the hees decide this state of affairs is irregular and kill one of them. Sometimes two queens get into the same hive upon returning from their mating flight. They get along together for a while; but after a time the hees decide they cannot serve two masters. One faction balls one queen, the other faction the other; thus both queens are so badly crippled that they have to be removed. I remember once when one queen had both wings nippel off close to her body and the other queen lost both legs on the same side. The bees were satisfied then and seemed to think that these two queens, since they both had been trimmed, were about equal to one good one.
A number of years ago there was considerable talk about the possibility of having several queens in one hive, and quite a good deal of experimenting along that line was done by many beekeepers. If it were possible to winter over fifty or one hundred queens in one hive and then have them to supply the demand for queens early the next spring, why, it was worth working for. Personally I was much interested. I used up all the old queens I had left from requeening and sacrificed several dozen good young ones. I learned some very interesting things but little of economic importance. I learned it was not difficult to introduce queens to each other, so they would be friends, yes, regular old reonies, always working together, and usually found on the same comb. The only discovery of importance was the fact that it is the _bees_ that make plural queens in a hive impossible.
True, the queens usually fight, but they can be introduced to each other. However, the bees will swear allegiance to only one queen and declare war on all others. Once I put twelve queens in a Mason jar to see what would happen. They began to fight, so I shook then around until they were tired. Five had been killed. The other seven called an armistere and apparently signed a treaty that was satisfactory to all. They probably laid the trouble to the dead ones entirely. They held out their tongues to each other and always clustered together. Now, I thought, my troubles were over, for I knew I could safely introduce them. I took six frames of emerging brobrushed off all of the bees, put the frames into a live and tunnel loose the seven queens. They said together on one frame of brood, and, as they emerged, they all began to lay. They certainly did furnish a generous supply of eggs, placing many in enel cell. Now I reasoned that, as the young bees emerged, they would never know how many queens they were supposed to have and would neeept the seven all right.
Things went well for about two weeks, when this small colony began to assume the proportions of a real one. Then trouble developed very rapidly. Having arrived at the age of accountability, the bees decided there were too many queens. This multiplicity of stepmothers was intolerable, so they killed one. In a few days they killed another, then another. I carefully examined them and found them balling another. For nearly a month this weeding process to get down to one queen continued, but they finally did it and saved the youngest and best.
In concluding this subject, I wish to give as my opinion that it is indeed useless to try to get the bees to tolerate more than one queen for any time long enough to do any real good to the colony. The above is given that it may save others costly experimenting. Of course, if one wishes to experiment merely for the fun of the thing, that is a different story.
In one experiment the stings of two virgins were clipped. These virgins could not fight, but mercy, how they did wrestle! The bees stood aside merely interested bystanders until one of the virgins began to squeal, when the workers closed in and halled both queens and injured them so it was necessary to replace them.
As stated, an old queen is readily accepted. Usually when a queen gets old and lays but few eggs, she is killed by the queen that supersedes her or dies a natural death. I observed one notable exception, however. I requested a colony yearly for two years and then found an old queen in the hive that had been there for four years. I could tell her by the manner in which her wings were clipped. She had been in the colony, and a young queen was reared to supersede her. This queen was removed when one year old; and another, a year later. As far as I could observe, this old queen had reused laying altogether and was treated with absolute indifference by both bees and queens.
queen only the colonies that have poor queens'; while others say, let the bees do it themselves. "I'reunstances have to determine; but it is safe to say that there should be vastly more sequencing than is practiced at present. I believe in most parts of California the honey crop could be doubled if each colony would be requeened every year with good Italian queens reared by the bekeeper himself, especially if a large brood-nest full of stores should be provided.
In many other parts of the United States, the same or similar conditions prevail. In the far north where the queen is idle such a long period in the winter, possibly it does as well to represent every two years as to do so every year where the honey season is longer and the queen kept on the job ten months. In this locality I have found it profitable to requeen every year, with an exceptional case where queens of unusual qualities are found which are desired for breeders. I believe a good rule that applies to all localities is to go over all colonies each year and replace every queen that is not the very best. In case a queen has a big brood-nest packet with brood, is large and has all indications of being a splendid, prolite queen, I would leave her another year. One can usually tell by the size and general appearance of a queen whether she is to be trusted to do the best work for another year or not. If there is any doubt about it, err on the safe side and requeen. Another point, that should not be lost sight of in requeening, is that one can continually improve his bees by breeding from the best. We should also keep in mind, if we requeen every year and keep all colonies strong, we shall not have to "eure" Europ'en forl brood, because we will prevent it.
Some have advocated that the best breeder is the one that lives the longest. Now that depends on the amount of work she has done. I believe the best beekeeper is the man who can get the most eggs out of a queen in the shortest time. If managed properly, the queen should lay the bulk of her eggs the first year. In the north exceptional queens do well the second year; but, if a queen does even fair work the third year, it is evident she was not worked as she should have been during the two years previous.
Sometimes beekepers believe they have discovered an exceptional queen from the fact that she lived four or five years. Possibly the queen _was_ a good one; but I have some doubts about the hekeeper himself, for, if be had given her a chance, she could have done her work in one or two years instead of losing along for four or five.
## Chapter 11 Commercial queen-rearing.
The question is frequently asked, "Does commercial queen-rearing pay?" So much depends upon the person and locality that it is difficult to answer this question in a satisfactory manner. If one is in a reasonably good honey-producing location, he can make much more money at honey production. Much more skill and experience are required to make a useless of queen-rearing than to make a success of honey production. However, as we believe every honey producer should learn the queen-rearing business, some will prefer queen-rearing.
The main requirement for a successful commercial queen-breeder is a love for the business. If he has that, no obstacle is too great for him to overcome. The many difficulties in queen-rearing on account of failures in the honey flow and unfavorable weather conditions will cause all but the stoutest hearts to throw up the business in disgust. However, some prefer to engage in the queen business for the enjoyment and satisfaction they get out of it, even if the financial returns are not so great as in honey production. To attend to an ordinary queen trade requires the handling of many details, much time must be given to bookkeeping and correspondence; therefore, additional help is required in these lines. On the other hand, the demand for queens of high quality is great, and a good queen-breeder should experience no trouble in disposing of his output.
Queen-rearing involves no heavy work, but it is an exceedingly busy job while the season lasts. It is an ideal ocupation for women or men who cannot do heavy work, but who are willing to be on the job early and late during the queen-rearing season. It is not a "get rich quick" occupation and takes a number of years of careful study and experimenting before one can get things lined up and moving smoothly. Considerable expense is connected with it for office help, shipping eages and other supplies, stationery, and for sugar with which to feed the bees in cell-building and swarm-box colonies. The honey crop largely has to be sacrificed, for, as one uses brood to form nuclei, the colonies, thus weakened by the loss of such brood, will do well if they build up strong and make enough honey to carry them over to the next season. This holds true in a season when the honey flow is good. In a poor season large quantities of sugar must be purchased to build up the colonies and provide winter stores.
Locality plays an important part. Many-localities similar to ours have a succession of light honey flows which are suitable to queen-rearing, but not heavy enough to give a surplus. For instance, our season opens with peace bloom followed by pear, apple, loust and a little lulip tree and upelo. Then some white clover and alsike, which are very uncertain, and are frequently mixed with a vile honeydew that ruins the honey for market. Sweet clover is next, followed by a short dearth. Sometimes a little honeycomes from unknown sources, probably from thoroughvert, figword or ironweed. Then a little climbing milkweed or blue vine is followed by the heaviest flow we have, heartsease. This flow rapidly tapers off into aster and goldenrod. If one is in a locality where there is but one heavy flow, he will do much better at honey production, since queen-rearing during a dearth of pasture for any length of time is both difficult and expensive.
Personally, queen-rearing is so fascinating and enjoyable that I would prefer to rear queens, even if the financial returns were but one-half as much as from honey production : for, after all, it is the pleasure we get out of life, not the money, that counts. We should follow that occupation which we most enjoy.
After all, what is money for? To purchase enjoyment in one form or another. Therefore, if we are getting the enjoyment from our occupation direct, it is the same as money and we save the middleman's profit.
To the commercial honey producer, I can truthfully say I believe there is a bright future for him. More and more we see health experts call attention to the value of honey as a wholesome hygienic food for young and old, for the ill and well. Let us all co-operate to get honey into more bones as a regular diet, at a reasonable price. Especially should we practice better methods of honey production. First, increase our output per colony and then increase the number of our colonies. With these improvements, there is no reason why bekeeping should not be profitable and, as Dr. Miller used of say, "Just think of the fun I have had."
Hive Hedy for a Nucleus.102.101
Hive Nucleus for Queen rearing.47.50
HONKEY
as a Food.119
Production Dependent on Queens.9
Strain of Queens.10
Insitent of the Bees in Tearing Brown
Cells.50
Fouse of Failure.61
Insitute Care for.86
Browning Method.84
Emerging Brood Method.86
Honey Method.84
Laying Workers.86
Loss from.86
Mailing Capr for.85
Miller Page for.87
Push-in-the-Cank Care for.87
Queens.84.92
Smith Page for.87.88
Saturation Method.84
Invert Sugar for Queen Cage Candy.76
Italian Bees Mech Superior.8
Jelly Royal.23.24
Jelly Spons. How Made.86
LARVA.8
Haw to Pick Up.86
Hirth size for Grafting.86
to Bugs.86
Jaying Workers in Nachr.71
Letter Writing in Queen-rearing.65
Locality and its Effect on Queen-rearing.86
Institution.118
Cage for Introducing.85
Cages for Queens.73.74
Cages. Why Queens.39
Quenching laying in Pull Capacity.70
Mending Diamond Comb.300.101
Misofertones of the Queen-Hereder.63.66
N
N'CLF1
Raby.47
Gare of.71.72
Turgining of, at Close of Stream.68
Forming.61
Importance of Being strong.60
Laying Workers.87
Made of Standard Hive Bodies.102
Packing Cases for.84
Where to be Located.61
Why Tear Down Cells.50,60
N'CLF1
Hoses for Queen-rearing.17
Hoses with Standard Frames.84
Houf Twin Mating.84
Nursery Cages for Virgins.85
Pitchard CellStarting Colony.43
Pitchard, the Queen-breeder,96,97
Preram in Queen-rearing.71
Preram. Our Daily..
## Scientific
QUESEN - REARING,
--AS--
PRACTICALLY APPLIED,
--BEING A--
* METHOD BY WHICH THE BEST OF QUEEN-BEES ARE REARED IN PERFECT ACCORD WITH MATURE'S WAYS,
--BY--
G. M. DOOLITTLE.
--
FOR THE AMATEUR AND VETERAN IN BEE-KEEPING.
THIRD EDITION -- FOURTH THOUSAND,
CHICAGO, ILL.
GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY,
Publishers American Bee Journal,
144 & 146 Erle Street.
_Morea Italy_
_S. M. Dolittle_
THIS Book
**IE AFFECTIONATELT MEDICATED**
**Elisha Gallup,**
_MY TEACHER IN BEE-KEEPING,_
_From whom I learned my first lessons in Queen-Rearing, and who truth-fully claimed that around the Queen centers all there is in Apiculture._INDEX TO CHAPTERS.
Importance of Good Queens,
Nature's Wry of Rearing Queens,
Another of Nature's Wray,
Old Methods of Rearing Queens,
Later Methods of Rearing Queens,
New Way of Rearing Queens,
Getting the Bees off the Cells,
What to do with the Queen-Cells,
Queen-Cell Protectors,
Nuclei--How to Form,
Nuclei--How to Multiply,
Bee-F Feeders and Bee-Feeding,
Securing Good Drones,
Introduction of Queens,
Introducing Virgin Queens,
Keeping a Record of Cells, Queens, Etc.,
Queen-Register,
Clipping the Queen's Wings,
Shipping, Shipping-Cages, Bee-Candy, Etc.,
Queens Injured in Shipping,
Quality of Bees and Color of Queens,
Rearing a Few Queens,
Later Experiments in Queen-Rearing,
Latest Feats in Queen-Rearing,
INDEX TO COMB HONEY MANAGEMENT.
Production and Care of Comb Honey,
Management of Weak Colonies,
Getting the Boxes Ready and Putting them on,
Swarming,
How to Get the Largest Yield of Honey,
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
Portrait of G. M. Doolittle,
Queen-Bee,
Toothpick for Transferring Larvae,
Embyro Queen-Cup or Queen-Cell,
Comb with Queen-Cups,
Division-Board Feeder,
Paraphernalia Used by a Queen-Breder,
Affixing the Wax-Cups to the Stick on which they are to be Built,
Frame with Stick of Queen-Cells,
Queen-Excluding Division-Board,
Queen-Nursery,
Surgery-Cage,
Group of Queen-Cells,
Ovaries of the Queen,