Introducing Queens.
As an introducer of queens I have not been always successful. In several cases, after two or three days caging, the queen has been accepted all right, and within twenty-four hours rejected. I watched one of these cases, in which the queen, when liberated from the cage, was caressed by the bees, until by and by one of a different mind (and of a different body, too; for I have noticed the first to attack a queen are the small-bodied fellows) assailed her, and very shortly was joined by others, until a mass imprisoned her.
With Mrs. Tupper’s favorite method I have sometimes succeeded, and sometimes failed; but then the fault may have been all my own. I have half drowned bees, queen and all, with diluted honey strongly scented with peppermint, and had the pleasure of seeing the drunken fools fondle her as if they had always known her; and then some one of the number, not fully saturated, would attack her.
Latterly, I have taken a different plan, and one which, according to all the authorities ought uniformly to fail; but which, so far, has uniformly succeeded here. It is simply this:
Wait until the bees have started queen cells. Then, without any preparation whatever, put any queen, fertile or unfertile, directly on the comb, among the bees. That is all.
It may be that I shall fail the very next time; but, until I do fail, I shall continue to practice this plan. I give it to the Journal, in hopes that some one else, having a queen or queens of no value, will give it a trial. I have not tried it long enough to consider it a settled thing; but shall report to the Journal the first case of failure. Let me relate a case of success:
August 1st, I put into an empty hive, No. 15, one frame containing some honey and a very few cells of sealed brood. I put into this hive a young queen that had just commenced laying, and set the hive in place of one containing a strong colony. Of course the empty hive received all the flying force of the strong colony. On the next day they had destroyed the queen. I then took a queen two or three years old, covered her with honey completely, and dropped her on the frames. She was received all right. Next day, August 3d, I killed this queen and introduced a young one in exactly the same manner. She was promptly imprisoned, and I released and caged her. August 5th, this queen having been caged two days, is still refused. August 6th, she is caressed by some of the bees, but others imprison her. I then gave her to a full colony, No. 1, which was queenless and had queen cells started, some of which were sealed. Placing her directly on the comb, without caging, she was kindly received and soon commenced laying. I then took from No. 1, the frame with queen cells, and gave it to No. 13. Three days later, August 9th, I gave to No. 15, an unfertile queen three days old, placing her directly on the comb. On the same day I gave another full colony, having queen cells only a day or two old, an unfertile queen three days old. Being out of the State I did not see them again till August 22d, when I found both queens laying.
C. C. Miller.
Marengo, Ill., Aug. 30, 1870.
The smell of their own poison produces a very irritating effect upon bees. A small portion offered to them on a stick, will excite their anger.
After a swarm of bees is once lodged in their new hive, they ought by all means be allowed to carry on their operations, for some time, without interruption.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Bee-culture, Honey Products, Honey Markets, &c.
Mr. Editor:—I herewith send you two dollars as a further fee of incorporation in the bee family. I have profited well by it this year. I was absent on a tour in Europe last spring. On my return I found my bees in poor condition. Two colonies had died from dysentery or the warmth of the bee cellar; and of the remaining sixteen stocks, two were very weak, with some others in prime order. I had but two Italian stocks left. As far as my experience goes, I must give three cheers for the Italians. The earliest natural swarm I got here from blacks was on the 17th of June. This year my first Italian swarm came off on the 13th of May. The parent stock was a good one, though I cannot set it down as my best in number of bees. I had black colonies that were more populous. As for this Italian, it yielded me fourteen natural swarms, four of which left for the woods and the remaining ten are in extra condition for wintering. The parent hive and the first swarm are the heaviest stocks in my apiary. I shall Italianize all my colonies this fall. No man will ever persuade me that black bees are as good. I shall always consider such men as jealous or prejudiced. The advantages derived from Italian bees are well worth paying for—their early swarming and their rapid breeding are sufficient compensation. The color of the queen, too, is a great advantage when looking for her in the crowd on the comb, and her superior fertility is an unquestionable fact. The fourth swarm came off in May. It was small; but as it had a beautiful Italian queen, I put it in a box hive, and today it has nearly filled a twenty pound box. The season from the beginning of May to the middle of July was very good. My hives were so full of honey that no empty cells were to be seen. I have brought up the number of my colonies to forty-five, and four swarms left for the woods; and thus far I have sold seven hundred (700) pounds of honey.
According to the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, there are between 70,000 and 100,000 bee-keepers in this country. If so, the number who subscribe for the Bee Journal is comparatively small. Why is this so? According to my observation and experience there are two reasons. First, because the population of this republic is largely composed of emigrants from all nations, and although they and their immediate descendants may speak and understand English, yet they are not able to read or write it readily. Every one sticks more or less to his native language, and prefers reading newspapers printed in that language, because he understands it best. The second reason or cause is jealousy. It is a fact well known to every bee-keeper away from large cities, that the sale of honey is very slow in small cities and towns; and it is often impossible to sell at a remunerating price. Thus, for instance, Green Bay is a city of 8,000 inhabitants; yet one bee-keeper with 100 hives can fully supply the annual market of that city in a good year. It is of vastly more importance to write on this subject and induce an extension of the market demand for honey, than to teach fertilization by one or more drones. Bee keeping is now very profitable—more so than is acknowledged in print; but men have a disposition to keep the thing to themselves. It is very often the case that a bee-keeper instructs his neighbors in the art of managing bees successfully and profitably, and as soon as these are well posted in the business, they become a source of annoyance, contempt, and jealousy to their instructors. This makes it the more necessary to make more extensively known the best honey markets that are now to be found, and any additional outlets and uses for honey that may be opened or devised. In France enormous quantities of honey are used in the fabrication of honey bread, called pain d’epice. I wish our friend C. Dadant would give us a receipt how to make the best kind. This might become an American institution as well as a French one. The reputation of this delicacy is world-wide, as well as that of the French wines so much liked here. Vinegar also is said to be of superior quality, when made in a perfect way from honey. I should be glad to obtain some reliable information as to the best kind of it. Much honey is spoiled, as many other things are also, by using it when not properly prepared. Let us have the true results of experience. Another matter, not less important, is the preparation of good mead. A bottle of good mead is equal to the best wine; women in confinement use it in preference to wine, and with far more benefit. I think mead can be made as cheap as, or cheaper than whiskey. Good fermented mead ought to be sold in all wine stores for medicinal purposes and other uses. It is used in Belgium extensively as a summer drink.