Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-26
BEES AND THEIR WAYS.
How They Are Transported and How Quee
Bees Are Bred.

lees are Bred
EoREIGN BEES WITHOUT PEDIGREEs
Il may be admitted to the United States free
of duty. The Secretary OF the Treasury has so
decided. Until the last tariff bill was passed
bees from abroad came in gratis animals
imported for breeding purposes" The Nc
Kinley law declared that this ruling should only
apply to animals regularly entered in recog-
nized herd books" Accordingly. bees were as
sessed 20 per cent ad valorem because they had
no pedigrees. The beekeepers protested and
carried their point.
Some time ago the Post Office Department
declared that bees were ''unmailable, on the
ground that they would be likely to sting peo-
pie il they got loose. The beekeepers secured
the recall Of this regulation by proving that
the packages employed could not be broken.
Most of them use for purposes Of transporta-
| ton an ingenious wooden box with sliding
cover, invented by DR.. Benton. an expert at
| tached to the Department of Agriculture. 1t
| is four inches long and is divided into three
communicating compartments. The compart-
ment at one end is filled with soft candy for
the insects to feed upon; the one at the
| other end has holes for ventilation,
while the middle compartment is dark
chamber for the occupants to crawl
into when il is cold. In such a receptacle bees
can be sent around the world and will reach
| the ir destination in good health and ready to
fly to the nearest flowers for honey. Each box
will hold queen and from twelve to twenty
workers. Before mailing il is secured with
rubber bands or put in a strong envelope.
THE BREEDING OF QUEEN BEES
for market has grown to be an important in
dustry in this country. In every hive are de-
veloped each summer from q dozen to a score
or two of queen cells, each Of which is destined
to produce a queen. They are bigger than the
ordinary six-sided cells and of an elongated
shape. The queen mother lays the same sort
of eggs in them that she deposits in the other
receptacles. but the worms Matched from these
eggs are fed by the nurse bees with such extra
rich food that the winged insects into which
they are metamorphosed become queens instead
of ordinary workers-that is to say, big females
fully developed sexually. 1t is purely matter
of diet But jnasmuch as there can be but one
queen in a hive, after the old queen mother
has gone away for good with a swarm those
of the workers left behind guard the sealed
cells OF the young queens that are about to
| emerge, only permitting one to get out at
| time. If two escaped at once, as sometimes
happens, they would kill each other. Perhaps
| one or two of the new queens fly out Of the
| hive with swarms, but the workers which finally
remain allow the next queen who comes out TO
stab all the others tc death in their cells, even
! helping her to perform this cruel but neces-
paratively few queens are permitted to live.
The beekeeper, however, saves their lives by
cutting off the superfuous queen cells from
the combs. selling the queens produced from
them for 50 each and upward.
Agents nowadays travel around the world TO
seek new varieties of bees. A very excellent
and popular stock of industrious honey getters
has recently been introduced from Cyprus. When
the Venetans owned the island zoe. 600 hives were
kept there. People used honey for sugar in those
days. Now there are only $4,000 hives, owing
to oppressive taxes levied upon the industry by
| the Turks. The residents are usually unwilling
to sell any of their bees believing that those
| left behind will fly away after the ones which
| are disposed Of. Accordingly, the purchaser is
commonly obliged to buy fifty hives in order
to secure fifty queens. This is apt to be bore
| DIR. Benton found it sc on one occasion when
he tried to carry number Of earthenware
| hives across the country on muleback. Some
of the hives got broken by an accident, the bees
attacked the mules and the doctor was so
badly stung that he swelled up to about twice
| his normal dimensions. IL he had not been
thoroughly inoculated with bee poison in
moderate doses during previous years he would
undoubtedly have died