The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-18
A QUEENS QUEER JOURNEY.
She Travels All Around the World
For Il Dime.
From the San Francisco Call.

From the San Francisco Call.
Fancy queen being sold for a few dol
lars, and then boxed up like a piece of
freight and sent on a journey, the eX-
penses of which are paid with a 10-cent
postage stamp. You may think It cannot
be done, but it has been done and is done
nearly every day in the year right here In
California. And not only does the queen
travel frst-class, but she has a whole
suite for company, and takes along a large
supply Of luxuries for use on her journey.
OF course, you have most likely guessed
by this time that the queen referred to is
a queen bee, and you have guessed right
ly. But have you any idea of what an
important matter the transportation of
these queens is to the Golden state, or how
they are brought into existence so that
they can be sent on their travels?
California is now conceded TO be among
the foremost honey producing states in
the union, and some of the finest queen
bees that have ever lived have come into
existence here and afterward been sent all
over the country 10 propagate the species
and furnish the Sweetest of sweets for
all the land. But it takes billions of the
little busy bees to produce all the honey
needed. Furthermore, bees are extremely
delicate and whole hives of them are like
" to meet death from some mysterious
cause in a few hours. To keep up the sup
DIV it. is necessary to have queen bees al
ways on hand, and in any of the towns
near the bee districts they can be obtained
every day In the year. In San Jose, Bak-
ersfeld. San Diego, and many other
places there are men who just make 1t
business to raise queen bees for sale to
apiarists.
A queen bee is not exactly born queen.
She Is laid in an egg the same as all the
other bees, but when queen is needed
in the hive she is, while still in the en-
bryotic stage fed a certain myterious
Jelly that hastens her development and
renders her capable of reproducing the
species. In the natural stage Of affairs
i'm the hive only one queen is permitted
at a time. Should she be lost or destroyed
the other inmates of the hive at once pre-
pare to create another, or perhaps sew
eral This is done by simply selecting a
number of cells containing the neuter or
female eggs and feeding them the mys-
trious compound. Unlike the other bees,
the queens are not allowed to escape
from their cells as soon as developed, but
are kept sealed up until wanted. Some
times a fully developed queen enters the
hive. and is at once accepted by the 9TH
ers. In that event she is allowed to kill
the partially developed queens in the
cells.
At one time the only way to obtain
queen bees was to remove them from
their hives as fast as they were produced,
hut this was a slow and uncertain pro-
cess. Science at last came to the rescue,
so that now queen bees can always be
obtained.
In the course of studying bees IL was
discovered that II any cell were even
touched with the mysterious substance
that creates queens the inmate OF II was
soon supplied by the working bees with all
she needed and giving all the care neces-
sary to make her a royal parsonage.
This phase OF nature has been taken ad-
vantage of by queen bee raisers all over
the world. and particularly in California.
The way this Is done Is to remove the
queen bee from the hive. The workers
then prepare a few cells for the purpose.
providing another queen. At this stage the
aplarist selects several dozen cells and
anoints them with as much Of the mystic
rious compound as can be obtained from
the cells already prepared. The anointed
from the working bees, so that IN sixteen
DAYS the apiarist can obtain large sup
ply Of queen bees. These are each put In
a suitable receptacle with a retinue OF
drones or males and workers.
When an order comes for queen bee
the apiarlst selects the one wanted and
puts her In her travelling box. The price
Of queen bees varies from 81 10 $50, ac-
cording 20 the breed aud the known pow
er OF reproduction.