124 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MAR. 



seen how the cape is made. AVe put on a linen sack, 

 or a gent's vest is buttoned on, and we then have a 

 perfect head-g-ear, as no bees can gain access by 

 creeping under the cape or around the arms. Our 

 assistant will wear a long-sleeved apron, fastened 

 around the bottom of the hat, and, if bee3 are very 

 cross, wear leggins or a long skirt. 



The hat is made of green wire gauze, such as 

 screens are made of; the top of pasteboard, and 

 bottom of calico. In making, we are careful to leave 

 no wires to stick our hands or head when \9e put it 

 on. We first roll up a hem; and if the wires stick 

 through, hammer it upon a flatiron. When all 

 sticking wires are disposed uf, it is bound top and 

 bottom, joined at the back, the top and cape sewed 

 on. At the bottom of the cape is a wide hem, 

 through which a string is run ; under one arm is left 

 open, and the other is joined with a string, thus 

 forming an arm-hole. We put our arm through 

 this hole, slip on the hat, and tie it at the open side. 

 When we are stooping over a hive, the wire cloth 

 rests upon the back of the head; and, to prevent 

 bees stinging through there, a postal card is sewed 

 on the under side. Our hands are covered with 

 buckskin gloves, which have deming sewed on to 

 the gauntlets, kept in place by elastic. The apron 

 has capacious pockets, which are always handy for a 

 screw-driver, handkerchief, etc. 



We never succeeded very well with a veil. If we 

 only wanted to walk around the apiary, it was al' 

 right; but when we worked, getting in all sorts of 

 positions, it was sure to get close to our face or 

 neck, and stings were the result. 



We see by your letters, children, that you almost 

 all say, that you would like bees better if they 

 "didn't sting." For our part, we like bees that can 

 fight their own battles; they have driven off thiev- 

 ish boys from our apiary several times, when they 

 were trying to steal honey, and they protect our 

 fruit and vineyard better than a dog. Before the 

 busy time comes for work in the apiary, rig up a hat 

 and gloves, so you will be of use there. If you are 

 afraid all the time, you are of no account to work 

 with bees. The expense is trifling — the gauze for 

 the little girl's hat cost only ten cents, and atop was 

 cut from a paper box. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Peoria, 111., Jan., 1883. 



By all means, bring the convention here, 

 Mrs. H., and you can have the ''prayer- 

 meeting-room," "lunch-room," or any other 

 room, to do what you please with. I would 

 suggest, however, that you might be disap- 

 pointed to find the former room so filled up 

 with bee-hive frames, section boxes, etc., 

 that you cotild hardly see the speaker. How- 

 ever, you shall have the court-house free of 

 charge, and it is but a short walk from the 

 factory. The lunch-room shall be free to 

 everybody who comes to the convention ; and 

 if we do not give you a very imposing bill of 

 fare, we will give you all the honey you may 

 consume (California mountain-sage includ- 

 ed), with hot cakes and coffee to match. 

 The ladies shall have lodging also, free, as 

 long as they choose to stay ; and as the time 

 is a long way ahead, perhaps we maybe able 

 to study up a place for the gentlemen also, 

 free of expense to them. By all means, have 

 Brother Johnson come, to ask a blessing at 

 the table, and assist in various other ways. 

 —May God bless you, Mrs, H., and the little 



girl by your side, whom you have forgotten 

 to tell us about. Has she ever written for 

 our Juvenile Department? 



MORE ABOUT LAYING AVORKERS. 



ALSO A PLAN B'OR GETTING GOOD QUEEN-CELLS. 



eN page 603, D. A. McCord speaks of a laying 

 worker and a laying queen living har- 

 ■ moniously in the same hive, and you ask 

 if the queen or bees were not of the Holj'- 

 Land race. With me, such a case is not unusual 

 with the Italians, where they have been queenless 

 for some time. 



It has been demonstrated to my own satisfaction, 

 (1) that laying workers will often be produced while 

 unsealed larvse and qaeen-cells exist in the hive, if 

 the colony has been long queenless. (2) That some- 

 times a great many laying workers will occupy the 

 same hive in harmony. (3) That it is not always diflS- 

 cult to Introduce a laying queen to such a hive; and 

 (4) that when the queen gets a firm foothold, her in- 

 ferior substitutes disappear or stop laying. During 

 the past season I had l;iying workers appear in 5 or 

 6 nuclei, each of which was always supplied with 

 either a queen or a queen-cell, and almost always 

 with eithereggsor unsealed larvae; but I think that, 

 generally, several queens had failed in succession. 

 Into these hives several virgin queens from the lamp 

 nursery were introduced successfully, without re- 

 moving the laying workers, which afterward dis- 

 appeared. It has been my practice to have my 

 queen-cells built in strong and prosperous colonies, 

 as follows:— 



I deprive a good colony of its queen and young 

 brood, and give it plenty of sealed brood, and the eggs 

 from the imported queen. As soon as the queen- 

 cells are fairly started over the hatching larvae, they 

 are given to another strong colony, with brood in all 

 staqoi (the queen of course having been removed) 

 where the cells are completed. 



After this colony has finished two or three batches 

 of cells, their brood is all ceiled, and they are given 

 eggs from which to start cells for a fresh hive. Al- 

 though this system requires intense watchfulness, I 

 think it comes nearer than any other to nature's 

 plan. 



But, to the point bearing upon laying workers. 

 After a colony has finished two or three batches of 

 cells, and started several other batches, I have 5 or 6 

 times found eggs from workers about the time the 

 last brood was hatching. After the workers began 

 to lay, but few if any cells were started, although a 

 large number were promptly started before. Upon 

 introducing queens to these hives, they were gener- 

 ally accepted. In one hive the queen held her own 

 for 3 or 4 weeks, and then disappeared. In another, 

 after the queen had been laying several days, I 

 picked from a single comb (drone) ten workers that 



1 found in the act of laying, within two or three 

 minutes' time. There was no trouble in that hive 

 afterward. In another, queen and workers laid to- 

 gether for several weeks. The latter Increased in 

 power until nearly all the brood (several cards) and 

 one-half the population were drones. I gave them 



2 or 3 cards of young brood, and very soon the 

 ground around was covered with dead drones black 

 and white. I knew this queen to be an extra good 

 one, and wanted to test her " sand." She did splen- 



