A Thousand Answers to Beekeeping Questions

by C.C. Miller

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ...on Beekeeping.-Q. What are the laws governing the keeping of bees, disease control, etc.? A. Laws concerning bees and diseases are made by each state individually. Write to your state bee inspector or state entomologist for information. If you do not know who he is, the publishers of the bee journals should be able to inform you. Laying Workers.--Q. In overhauling a friend's bees today, I had a new experience. I found a colony that was queenless (at _least no queen was noticed), and no brood was found in any of the combs, excepting a small quantity of drone-brood sealed up. Ninety-six drone-cells, actual count, and one sealed queen-cell; no worker-brood at all. The queen-cell was right among the sealed drone-cells. A. It is not only possible, but probable, that not only a laying worker, but a number of them were present, and that the bees attempted to rear a queen just as you have suggested. Q. In appearance are laying workers different from workers? A. Not a bit. I suppose I have seen hundreds of them--for in every colony with laying workers it isn't a single worker, but a whole nest of them at the miserable business--but I never could tell which the laying workers were, except one single laying worker that I caught in the act of laying. Q. Do old bees become drone-layers, or do only the younger ones "go astray?" A. I have a strong impression it's only the younger ones. Some have advanced the theory that laying workers, in their larval existence, have been located near queen-cells, and so have been fed some of the royal jelly as a sort of overflow. If that Were the true theory, of course there would be no drone-layers except those which started in at the business early in life. But I wouldn't take much...

296 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2009

About the author

1831-1920