BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
For many years I have been urged to write a book on bekeeeping, and almost scolded because I did not do so. My excuse for not doing so has been, that there were many exhaustive treatises on this subject already before the public, written by Messrs. Langstroth, Quinby, King, Cook, Root, and others --hence there was no reason for thrusting more books upon the world, which had nothing for their subject-matter but the genera) outlines of bee-keeping.
As all bee-keepers of to-day are aware, I have given all of my best thoughts, on the subject which the desired book would cover, free to the world through our many bee-papers, so, had I complied with the request made, the matter in the book would have been mainly that which I had written before ; and owing to this self-same cause, the reader will perhaps find some fault with the present work.
Finally, the urgent requests of my friends for a book became so numerous, that I decided to hold back from the public a part of my experiments and research along the line of queen-rearing (as in this branch of our pursuit I have taken more interest, and gave to it more thought and study than to all else pertaining to apiculture), and when that research and the experiments were completed, give all which I had dug out regarding queen-rearing to the public in book form. The culmination of this decision is now before you, and the reader can decide whether or not I have made a mistake in the undertaking.
Although I have given to the book the title of "Scientific queen-rearing," there is much in it that is not scientific, as the reader will soon discover, and some lofty minds may pass it by in disdain on this account.
It is not a manual, giving in terse, sharp periods the greatest amount of accurate information in the briefest space. My style, I fear, is often like my bee-yard, which in looks is irregular, while it attempts something useful. I never could be pinned down to systematic work. I always did like to work at the bees near a gooseberry-bush, full of ripe, lusclous fruit, or under a harvest a!ple-tree, where an occasional rest could be enjoyed, eating the apples which lay so temptingly atout. Do we not all need an occasional relaxation from the severer duties of life? If so, the rearing of queens for our own ap
**VI**
**PRFACE.**
**ary gives us a change from the all-important struggle for honey, whereby we can get money.**
**In brief, it is my sincere conviction that something to relieve the monotony of every-day life is good for humanity, and it is my wish to diffuse this belief as widely as possible.**
**I frankly admit that the following pages are very much the same in character as if I had taken the reader by the arm, from time to time, and strolled about the apiary and shop in the time of queen-rearing, and chatted in a familiar way on the topics suggested as we past along.**
**At the outset I shall undoubtedly be met by those inevitable " Yankee questions," Does queen-rearing pay? Would it not pay me better to stick to honey-production and buy the few queens which I need as often as is required?**
**I might answer, Does it pay to kiss your wife? to look at anything beautiful? to like a golden Italian Queen? to eat apples or gooseberries? or anything else agreeable to our nature? is the gain in health, strength and happiness, which this form of recreation secures, to be judged by the dollar-and-cent standpoint of the world?**
**Can the pleasure which comes to one while looking at a beautiful queen and her bees, which have been brought up to a high standpoint by their owner, be bought? Is the flavor of the honey that you have produced, or the keen enjoyment that you have had in producing it, to be had in the market?**
**In nothing more than in queen-rearing can we see the handwork of Him who designed that we should be climbing up to the Celestial City rather than groveling here with a " muck-rake" in our hands (as in " Pilgrim's Progress) trying to rake in the pennels, to the neglect of that which is higher and more noble. There is something in working for better queens which is elevating, and will lead one out of self, if we will only study it along the many lines of improvement which it suggests. I do not believe that all of life should be spent in looking after the "'almighty dollar!" nor do I think that our first parents bustled out every morning with the expression seen on so many bee-keepers' faces, which seem to say, " Time is Money." The question, it seems to me, in regard to our pursuit in life, should not be altogether, "How much money is there in it?" but, " Shall we enjoy a little bit of Paradise this side of Jordan?"**
**However, being aware of the general indifference to Para-**
**disc on either side of Jordan, I will state that I have made queen-rearing pay in dollars and cents, having secured on an average about $500 a year therefrom for the past five years ; and that all may do as well, I proceed at once to de
**Preface.** **vii**
scribe the ground over which I have traveled, and tell how it is done.
Before doing so, however, I wish to say that all along the way I have pickt up a little here and there, so that most of the credit for that which is valuable in this book (if there is any value in it), belongs to some one else besides Doolittle. It has been pickt up in such little bits that I hardly know to whom I should give credit, so I will simply say, that most of the suggestions which I have received have come through the beeperolicals, and quite largely from the reports which they have given of different thoughts dropt at many bee-conventions.
G. M. Doolittle.
Onondaga Co., N. Y.,
Christmas, 1888.
**Publishers' Note.**
Upon informing Mr. Doolittle that the first edition of his book was about exhausted, hence a new one would soon be needed, and asking if any changes were necessary, the publishers received this answer thereto:
Onondaga Co., N. Y., Dec. 11, 1898.
George W. York & Company,
_Dear Sirs_ :--Yours of the 9th at hand. Replying to your question, I would say that I do not think I care to re-write or revise any of the chapters in "Scientific Queen-Rearing," should a new edition be necessary. Later experience only proves the correctness of the position taken in 1889, when the first edition was publish.
_Queen-Bea (magnified) and Egg._
## Chapter 1 Introduction Remarks
When I was about seven years old my father procured some bees by taking them of a neighbor on shares. I remember, almost as if it were yesterday, how animated I was, as he and the neighbor of whom he took the bees, came near the house with the hive suspended on a pole between them, by means of a sheet tled at the four corners. The hive was deposited on a bench a few rods from the back door of the house, one cold morning in early April, where it was thought that it would be a good place for them to take up their abode for the future.
My curiosity about these bees hardly knew any bounds, and altho that day was cold and dreary, I was often out by the hive to see if I could notcatch a glimpse of some of the inmates. The first warm day on which they took a general flight, my delight was great to see them " cut up their antics " about the hive, as I termed it; and when the first pollen appeared, or when they began to go into the hive with "yellow legs " (as father always would speak of the gathering of pollen, even in the later days of his life), I was near the hive an interested spectator.
## Chapter 1 Importance of good queens.
Upon no other one thing does the honey part of the apiary depend so much as it does upon the queen. Give me a good queen--one which can be brought up to the highest production of eggs, just when we want them--and I will show you a honey crop, if the flowers do not fail to secrete nectar; but with a poor queen--one that you must coax for eggs, to little or no purpose, at the right time--the flowers often bloom in vain, even when the honey-secretion is the greatest. I have had in my apiary, at different times, queens that with all the coaxing which I could bring to bear on them during the forepart of the season, would not lay any more eggs previous to the honey harvest than were needed to keep the spring strength of the colony good, so that when the yield of honey was at its height there would not be one-fourth the number of bees to gather it that there should be. When the yield of honey came then these queens would begin breeding, so as to get plenty of bees in the hive just as the harvest closed, only to eat up the little honey that the few laborers there were in the harvest had gathered. The more queens of this sort a bee-keeper has the worse he is off. This is a peculiarity of the Syrian races of bees, but many poorly reared queens act in the same way, no matter to what race they belong. Then, again, I have had queens which would not be coaxt to fill more than three or four Gallup frames with brood at any season of the year; so that at no time were there laborers enough in the hive to make a respectable-showing, no matter how much honey there was in the field. Others would appear very prolific for a short time, but just when I wanted them the most, and when I supposed that all was going well, an examination would show that they had died of old age, even when they might not be more than six to twelve months old. This would cause a break in the production of bees at a time when every day of such production would count many pounds of honey in the honey harvest. From the above it will be seen that in no one thing in be-keeping does quality count for as much as it does with the queen or mother-bee. Of course, if we are only to count our colonies then a poor queen is better than none; and there are other times when she is such, as in holding a colony together till we can get a better one ; but I repeat, that an apiary with all poor queens is worse than no bees at all. When we come to fully realize the great achievements which can be obtained with a really good queen -- one that will give us from 8,000 to 4,000 workers every day for a month previous to the honey harvest, we, as apiarists of America, will put forth more energy along this line of our pursuit than we ever yet have done.
Look at that colony you had one spring which gave you 100, 200, 400, 600, or even 1,000 pounds of honey (one or two reports of nearly 1,000 pounds of honey from a single colony have been given in the past, while the reports of those giving from 400 to 600 are numerous), and see why it did so well, while the average of your whole apiary did not come up to one-half that amount. Why did that colony do so well? Simply because it had a large working-force of the right age, and at the right time, to take advantage of the honey-flow when it came. And how came it to have such a force at the right time? Because the queen was a good one, doing her part just when she should, and not at some other time. Why did the others fail of doing the same thing? Either because they did not have good queens, or because the owner failed to have the queens do their duty, when they should have been doing it.
"But," says one, "can I get all colonies to do as well each year, as my best colonies do?" I will answer that by asking, What is there to hinder? If all are in the same condition as the successful one, would they not do equally well? Most assuredly they would. So then we see that the trouble lies in not having the colonies all equal with the one which did so well. The reason that all are not in the same condition devolves primarily upon the queen; and secondly upon the strength in which the colonies come through the winter. Of late, I have inclined to the opinion that on the queen rests, to quite an extent at least, much of the cause of our wintering troubles. One thing is certain, if we cannot have all colonies exactly alike, we can approximate very nearly to it--much nearer than many imagine, if we work for that object; along the line of bringing the queens to as nearly perfection as possible, and cease the breeding of cheap queens--that class which "' do not cost the apiarist anything."
If there is anything in which I take some little pride it is that since I began to breed my queens for good quality, and for that only, this variation of yield of honey from different colonies has grown less and less, till, at the present time, the average yield of honey from each colony in the apiary is very nearly alike, while fifteen years ago some colonies would give 75 percent more honey than would others.
## Chapter 14 Doolithic on queen-Reading.
What a few of our best queen-breaders can do all can do, if they will only put the same interest into their work along this line; and one of the objects of this book is to tell those who desire how they can, by careful attention to the rules laid down herein, become breeders of the best of queens, as such are of great importance to the amateur as well as the specialist.
## Chapter 13 Nature's way of hearing queens.
The Creator of all things lookt over His work after He had finish it, so we are told,-and pronounced it "GOOD;" hence we could reasonably expect that at that time all things created by Him were of the highest type of perfection. He then told all animated nature to " multiply and replenish the earth." For this reason we find a disposition in our bees to swarm, and alto during the last century men have tried with great persistency to breed this disposition out, or make a hive which would accomplish the same thing, yet so far that disposition stands defiant toward all of these unnatural schemes, and just as some individual is ready to cry "Eureka," out comes a swarm, and all of our plans lay prostrate in the dust.
Many have been the reasons given to account for bees swarming, such as the hatred of an old queen toward the rival inmate of a queen-cell, which the bees had succeeded in getting, in spite of her frowns and anger; the hive being too small to hold the accumulated thousands of workers, insufficient ventilation, etc.; yet in my opinion none of these things ever caused a swarm to issue, in and of themselves, for everything in Nature is held obedient to the command of Him who controls the universe. And I rejolce that this is so, for I firmly believe that better results can be obtained where bees swarm than would be the case if we could breed out the swarming-trait.
A new swarm goes to work with an energy never possest by the bees at any other time (unless it is by the parent colony) immediately after its young queen gets to laying. This swarming-trait also produces queens of the highest type ofperfection, not being equaled by any except those ieared under one other of Nature's conditions, which will be spoken of at length in the next chapter. Many have been the claims made that queens reared by different methods are _just as good_ as those reared under the swarming impulse; but I have yet to hear it claimed that queens so reared are any better than are those reared where the swarm issued under the conditions which Nature designed they should.
I am met here by the claim that many colonies of Italian bees swarm without any preparations for swarming being made, by way of providing queen-cells before the swarm issues, as is usually the case; and that queens reared under such circumstances--where there are but few bees in the hive to feed, nurse, and keep the royal occupants of the cells warm --certainly cannot be as good as those reared under the super-_r_or planning of the skilled apiarist.
I freely admit that queens reared by some of the plans of " artificial" queen-rearing, may excel such queens, but I claith that the first-named conditions are not such as Nature originally designed they should be. I do not believe that an isolated colony (as'all colonies are isolated except by the intervention of man) ever cast a swarm under such conditions. It is the compacting of colonies together in large apiaries which brings about such results, thereby causing what is termed " the swarming-fever "--where swarms issue under the most unfavorable circumstances imaginable, sometimes even swarming without a queen, thus leaving the parent colony broodless, and without means from which to provide themselves with a queen. After careful watching in my own aplary for years, and closely questioning other bee-keepers, I have yet to find where the first swarm of the season, from any apary, has'ever issued previous to the sealing of the first queen-cell:
"But," says one, " you are always crying'Nature! Nature! I' Don't you know that man's intelligence, by opposing Nature's laws at the right time, can get ahead of her ways, and thus secure better results?" No, I did not know any such thing; nor do I believe it. It is only as the intelligence of man moves along harmoniously with the laws of Nature that any Improvement can be expected. Is not this true?
Suppose I cut my finger quite 'badly, and when it stops bleeding I wonder what I am to do with it to have it get well as quickly as possible. While I am thus wondering, along comes a man of superior (?) intelligence, and he says; " I see you have cut your finger. I am glad I happened along just at this time, for I have a salve'which will heal up that wound at once, and, by your using it, your finger will be as well as ever
## Chapter 10 Doolithic on queen-reading.
In a few days. This save of mine has the greatest healing properties of any salve known." Reader, do you believe that the salve has any healing quality, or that my finger will ever be as perfect as before? I do not. All that any salve can claim as doing, is to assist Nature to make the best of a bad job, for it is Nature that does the healing, not the salve. Would I not have been better off had I not cut the finger?
**Again, some day during the month of June, I chance to run against the body of a choice apple-tree with the hub of my wagon-wheel; and in doing so I knockt a patch of bark off the the tree as large as my hand. Along comes a man familiar with grafting, and applies some grafting-wax, saying, "This will heal over the place, and make it as good as ever." Do you believe it? Will not the tree always show a scar? In the knocking off of that bark the apple-tree received a shock, or something which was contrary to its nature, and as soon as the first effect was over every power that was in the tree was brought to bear on this place to remedy the damage, and it was only wherein the wax kept off the warring elements which would work against the repairing of the damage, that the wax did any good. Just so with anything that goes against Nature's laws. The first thing to be done is to get rid of the antagonizing force, and as soon as that is done Nature tries to get back to the spot where she was before, as nearly as possible, and as quickly as she can.**
**Let a man take a drink of whisky, and in a little while you will see him cutting up all manner of antics (that otherwise he would not have thought of doing), when you call him "drunk." What is the matter? He has taken something Into his system that is not moving harmoniously with Nature, and Nature is trying to " kick" out this antagonizing force. If so much antagonizing force (whisky) has been taken that Nature has to kick vigorously to expel it, the man is kickt over for the time being ; but after this force has been expelled Nature begins the work of healing, and the man "'rights" up again, but never gets back to where he was before.**
**Now apply this to the bees : Along comes the antagonizing force--the apiralst--who is going to rear queens intelligently (unnaturally), and kills the mother of the colony. What is the result? The whole colony acts for the first few hours very much as did the man after having drank the whisky. What is the trouble? Why, Nature is "kicking," that is all. After becoming reconcelled to fat, the bees, through Nature's law, go to work to repair the damage done, and, as in all of the other cases, she does this as quickly as possible, even where only eggs are given from which to rear a queen. Under these conditions antagonizing forces come in,and I do not believe that the " wound " can be made as good as ever, any more than they could in the three illustrations which I have used. Queens partially deficient in some points will be the result.
Some claim that this last is a natural condition for a colony of bees to be placed in, but I take exception to any such claim, for there are very few colonies thatever find themselves In such a condition without the interference of man. During all of the ages, up to within about a century past, how different the methods whereby queens were produced which have stood the test of thousands of years.
Let us look at Nature's plan for a moment or two, so as to see how it does compare with the above work of many of our apilarsts. We find that queen-rearing and swarming are only done during a period when both honey and pollen are being gathered from the fields. When this condition of things prevails, the bees are getting strong in numbers, and soon embryo queen-cells are started, in which the queen lays the eggs which are to produce the royal occupants.
Some claim that it is not fully settled that the queen deposits the egg in the queen-cells at the time of natural swarming; but my assistant once saw her do it, and so have others, while the position of the eggs in the cells prove it, even had no one ever witness her in the act. Others claim that the queen lays the eggs in worker-cells along the margin of the comb, when the bees build queen-cells over them. Any o o o o familiar with the inside of a bee-hive, should know that such reasoning is fallacious, for the embryo queen-cells are often formed many days before eggs are found in them, as thousands of bee-keepers can testify.
These eggs remain in this form for about three days, when they hatch into larvae which the bees now begin to feed. Some claim that royal jelly is placed around these eggs before they hatch, but if this is true it is something I have never seen, altho I have watch this matter very closely for years. Neither do I find that the larvae are fed much more pleentifully during the first thirty-six hours of their existence than are larvae in worker-cells; but when about this age the bees begin to feed them so liberally on royal food that they actually float in it during the rest of their growth; this supply often being so great that there is left a lump as large as a pea of partially dried food, after the queens emerge from their cells, while all of their operations are conducted leisurely, for the bees are in no haste for a queen, as their mother is still with them in the hive. There is no hurrying up to replace a loss, thereby using old larva, or scantily feeding the same as is done when Nature is antagonized; but all is done by a system reaching perfection. If a cold, bad time comes on now they do not hesitate to tear down the cells and wait for a favorable time to come again for them to "multiply and replenish the earth." All of this shows us that the bees are only obeying the laws which govern the economy of the hive, instead of a force outside of that economy, which compels them to make good a loss that man has brought about. It seems to me that we can always consider it safe to go according to the teachings learned by a close observation of our " pets," and unsafe to go contrary to the rules and laws which govern them. At least this is the belief which I have always had, and along this line has been my study, while trying to find out the best plans whereby queens of the highest type could be reared. I have never succeeded in rearing queens which pleased me every time till I commenced to work in harmony with Nature's plans. When I learned so to work I found that my queens were improving all the while, and to-day I am well satisfied that I have made a great improvement tu my stock beyond where it was ten years ago.
## Chapter 4 Another of Nature's ways.