1S4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 



oftener you extract from those combs behind the 

 section, the faster they store in the sections; or, if 

 you just uncap the honey in front, if there shf)uld 

 be anv. they carry it back and store it in the sections 

 and rill its pluco with brood. Thus you caa talie 

 both extracted and comb honey at the same time; 

 and should there be a sudden large flow of honey, 

 the bees would not lose it by waiting to build comb, 

 but would always have empty combs to store in. Be- 

 sides, they build or draw out more comb in the cen- 

 ter of the brood-chamber than any other place. Cold 

 nights do not drive them from their work. There is 

 no coaxing them into the boxes, as is often the CMse 

 with other systems; but, rather, you make them 

 store the hcney just where you want it, and yet let 

 them put it where they are sure to if not prevented, 

 or, rather, where thsy always will put it it there is a 

 Chance to do so. Besides, the honey stored in the 

 brood-chambor is richer and finer than that stored 

 elsewhere, because it is better ripened; the heat of 

 the bees and brood evaporates it faster, thicker, and 

 more lively. A lady bee-keeper once remarked to 

 me, that bread, if kept an unusually long time bak- 

 ing, is never as good as that baked in time, and she 

 also thought honey is simifir. and should be ripened 

 rapidily after being gathered from the flowers. All 

 the first-prize honey at the great honey show last 

 fall was taken from the Jones hive on the above 

 principles. The shallow frames were invented more 

 than twenty years ago, before the honey-extractor 

 was known, and were made as shallow as possible, to 

 make room on top of the frames for honey-boxes. 

 The honey-extractor or perforated metal, and many 

 other valuable inventions, have completely super- 

 seded what has been considered by many the only 

 way to manage bees. 1 have used two and more sto- 

 ries of both shallow and deep frames, and lind, for 

 extracting, the single, or one-story, the best, all 

 things considered. In the long season I frequently 

 take over oOUO lbs. of honey in a day, and I could not 

 do it if I had the cumbersome complicated ti.vtures 

 that some use and call beo-hives. D. A. Jones. 



The above frame, it will be noticed, is not 

 very different from the old-style American 

 frames which were in such extensive use a 

 few years ago. We used them for about iive 

 years exclusively, and for both comb and ex- 

 tracted honey. Of course, we did not use 

 the perforated metal division-boards. These 

 will, witliout doubt, keep the queen out of 

 the section honey ; but so Avill our present 

 division-boards, for that matter. Perforated 

 separators were used to a considerable ex- 

 tent last season ; but we have had no very 

 favorable reports from them, that I know of. 

 Eriend Jones feels sure that I will, in time, 

 come over to his way of thinking, and it 

 may be I will ; for I well remember when I 

 agreed with Mr. Langstrotli, that comb fdn. 

 was not very practicable. At present, it 

 does not seem to me i)robable that a deep 

 frame, and metal division-boards, are going 

 into general use. 



IIVTKODUCIIMG CtUEENS. 



SOMETHINQ OLD. 



apsliO numerous have been the modes of introduc. 

 ^^ ing queens, detailed from time to time, I fear, 

 upon reading the naption of this article, you 

 will be more likely to consign this to the waste- 

 basket than to give it a place in Gle.-vnings. Yet, 

 like a child that is pleased with a new toy, and 

 would be thrusting it into the face of every one for 

 admiration, I must need risk a rebuff, by essaying 

 a description of what I amccive to be an infallibU 

 waij,\i the instructions are strictly followed. I have 

 followed it since 1876; have sold many queens, and 

 Instructed the parties to follow this plan, and there 

 has never yet been a queen lost. You will find the 

 plan detailed by Frank Benton (whom you will ad- 



mit is good authority), in Dee-Kcepcrs' Magazine, 1875, 

 page 130, in answer to an inquiry I made on page 66, 

 same volume, which I suppose is on your shelves. 



In 1880 1 got hold of your ABC book, which I con- 

 sidered the best of any book 1 ever saw. I at once 

 adopted your instructions wherever they differed 

 from my former manipulations, and, among others, 

 your plan of introducing queens, thinking it might 

 possibly also be an improvement, and followed it 

 that summer, and was alwaj's successful when 

 bees were gathering honey. But when there was a 

 drought, I in a few instances kept them caged for 

 two weeks before they quit balling the queen; lost 

 some 3 or 4, and then quit it, and fell back on the 

 Benton plan. When bees are making honey, a queen 

 may generally be turned loose right away; but dur- 

 ing a drought there are always robbers ready to 

 pitch in as soon as a hive is opened, and then there 

 is danger of a new queen being balled or stung. 

 Benton's plan will work at all times, drought or no 

 drought; the entrance being contracted so as to be 

 c uite small, and care taken that no bee can enter any- 

 where, save at the entrance, and the queen being re- 

 leased in the dusk of evening, when all robbers are 

 at home, and the bees drenched with honey, puts 

 them in a good humor at any time, and they will 

 adopt the queen without examining her closely, and 

 by morning all things are ready for them to move on 

 rejoicingly. S. C. Fox. 



Maysfield, Milam Co., Texas, Feb. 20, 18S2. 



We always stop and look at the " new toy," 



friend E.,and so Ave give place to your letter, 



and don't put it into the waste-basket. The 



following is the Jienton plan mentio ed : — 



DON'T KILL THE QUEENS. 



In a recent number of the Magazine I notice that a 

 North Carolina correspondent asks for " a safe and 

 sure way to introduce a queen to a hybrid colony." 

 Success in introducing queens seems to depend upon 

 but these three simple principles: — 



1. The colony to which the queen is to be intro- 

 duced iHust have been, at the time the queen is re- 

 leased, without a reigning queen long enough for 

 everj' bee to have become aware of the loss, and yet 

 not long enough for them to have queen-cells well 

 under way. 



3. The strange queen must have the peculiar scent 

 of the hive to which she is to be introduced. 



3. The bees must be in a good-natured mood at the 

 time the queen is released. 



I have introduced from fifty to one hundred queens 

 each season during the past four years, and by ad- 

 hermg closely to the following method have, in eve- 

 ry instance, succeeded in introducing fertile queens 

 even to the most obstinate:— 



Remove the common, or hybrid queen, and imme- 

 diatelj' place the wire-cloth cage (made of wire cloth 

 about ten meshes to the inch), containing the Italian 

 queen with three or four of her workers, between 

 the central combs, and against sealed honey if possi- 

 ble. Just before dark the following day (after using 

 a little smoke to quiet the bees), open the hive, driz- 

 zle honey in a fine stream between the combs and on 

 the tops of the frames, and allow the Italian queen 

 to crawl down between the comhs, completelij daub- 

 ing her witli honcji as she leaves the cage. Close the 

 hive at once, and contract the entrance for a day. 

 On the second or third day after, examine for the 

 queen. 



I have detailed this method before: but believing 

 that, if followed, it will save the life of many a 

 queenly beauty, I have here repeated it. 



Knoxville, Tenn. Fr-^nk Benton. 



Granting it is infallible, as you say, it 

 takes 21 hours or more to get the queen to 

 laying, while by the plan we use we often 

 have the queens laying in an hour. This ad- 

 vantage would, I think, make it pay to lose 



