Gillmore's System Doubted
Categories:
HIVES.
Bee Keeping:
Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained
Now this fact is not known by a recent patentee from the State of
Maine, (else he supposes others do not,) as he recommends placing bees
in a house, and empty hives in connection with the one containing bees,
and in a few years all will be full. He has discovered a mixture to
feed bees, (to be noticed hereafter); this may account for an unusual
quantity being stored by an ordinary sized family. He said another
thing, t
at is, each of these added hives would contain a queen! This
would seem to explain away the first difficulty of the continued
increase of bees, and so it would if it did not get into another
equally erroneous; one error never made another true. This idea of bees
raising a queen, merely because they have a side box to the main hive,
is contrary to all my experience, and to the experience of all writers
(except himself) that I have consulted. If the principle is correct,
why not sometimes raise a queen in a box on the top or side for us? I
never discovered a single instance, where two perfect queens were
quietly about their duties in connection with one hive. The deadly
hostility of queens is known to all observing apiarians. Not having the
least faith in the principle, I will leave it.