278 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



and met the drone. I witnessed her arrival home, 

 and the investigation that she passed, by the bees in 

 the hive. The drone ororau was very large. I kept 

 watching for her to begin to lay. The drone organ 

 seemed to stick to the vulva, and hardened there. I 

 waited; two weeks passed, and she began to shrivel 

 an though she were going to dry up. Finally she 

 grew stupid. She was in a strong nucleus. 1 gave 

 thorn brood suitable for rearing queens. In two 

 hours she was thrown out at the entrance dead. I 

 examined her closely, and found that the drone or- 

 gan had bjcome fastened, by agglutination, to the 

 vulv^a, completely closing the passage. The poor 

 thing could not give birth to her eggs. 



A short time after this, I had another one in the 

 same condition. She would make every effort to lay. 

 The workers would follow her around over the 

 comb, and stick their heads into the cells, and exam- 

 ine and seemingly wonder why their queen was not 

 doing her part of the work in their home. I con- 

 cluded to make an effort to relieve her. I caught 

 her and gently held her between my thumb and fore- 

 finger; moistened the obstruction with saliva, and 

 with a cambric needle picked it away, and turned 

 her loose in the hive. She began to lay the next 

 day, and is to-day one of my most valuable queens. 

 I relieved another a short time after this one. Dr. 

 Coulter witnessed the first operation, and pro- 

 nounced it a successful surgical treatment. I think 

 this Is more liable to occur in hot dry weather. The 

 glutinous substance of which the drone organ is 

 largely composed dries rapidly, and becomes fas- 

 tened so firmly that the bees can not remove it, and 

 it remains there, completely closing the ovipositor 

 of the queen. Of one thing I can be certain — thej' 

 can be relieved. William Little. 



Marissa, 111., May 13, 1883. 



I have had queens that never laid, but I 

 do not remember that any thing of tlie kind 

 was noticeable, as suggested by friend Lit- 

 tle. The experiment, besides showing how 

 queens in such a condition may be saved, 

 also settles the point that has been consider- 

 ably argued, as to whether the organ of the 

 drone should be entirely removed — or at 

 least it seems to do so. While the deduc- 

 tions would at first seem to conflict a little 

 with those brought out by our foreign friend 

 as given on p. 20, Jan. No., closer investiga- 

 tion may show that they do not, after all. 

 Thanks for your contribution to the cause, 

 friend L. 



COM^B FOUNDATION, 



JAMSS HEDDON. 



¥OUR sample came, and also mine back with it; 

 and, after looking them over carefully, we 

 ■ think the Given is the thinner. But however 

 that may be, both have a very thin base, and are ex- 

 cellent foundations. I would have said your sample 

 was made on a Dunham mill, which, of all mills to 

 stick, carries off the palm. 



I find that some days my die-book works much 

 better than on others, and Mr. Given says that he 

 hears from all over the country like this : "My book 

 sticks so badly I can't get off the wire frames in good 

 shape and with any speed. Later.— Now the book 

 works admirably, and we can take off the frames 

 rapidly and in good order." That is just my experi- 



ence; for the next day after I wrote you so discour- 

 agingly for the May No., I took off 100 frames per 

 hour in splendid condition and with great ease. We 

 ran off 20 wired frames without relubricating the 

 book. We ran off 400 sheets of fdn. (not in frames), 

 without touching the lower leaf, and by rubbing an 

 almost dry brush over some spots on the upper leaf 

 every 20 or 30 sheets. We have never had any trouble 

 with the press in making heavy or light fdn. out of 

 wired frames. Now our press works as nicely as at 

 any time last season. 



The lye process is a perfect success, but we have 

 had to discover several new facts in nature to get 

 along with it nicely. Of all that slips and slides, lye 

 stands at the head of the list. 



1. A piece of wax (fdn.) soaked in very strong lye 

 48 hours, shows no change in its texture; rinsed in 

 water a moment, it tastes and feels in the mouth 

 like the same old beeswax. A sheet that is sharp 

 with lye, drawn through the water once, comes out 

 clean. Water has a powerful affinity for lye, as 

 well as all forms of potassium, and wax seems to have 

 literally none. I have rinsed all my sheets this year, 

 except some 10 lbs. for my own use to make further 

 experiments with. 



Experiments with some 30 sections full of strongly 

 lyed fdn., made last season, proved that there was 

 no use of rinsing, the bees taking to the lye sheets 

 as soon as any. The liquid lye upon unrinsed sheets 

 precipitates at once, and after a short time seems 

 to lose its strength, becoming simply an innocent 

 powder, of which the bees take no notice. 



I really think this lye process the best discovery 

 made in connection with the manufacture of comb 

 fdn. 



I have just had reported the first case of serious 

 damage in the transportation of the wired and filled 

 frames, and one which must have occurred by the 

 carelessness of the railroad employes. Nothing is 

 positively safe from being damaged through hand- 

 ling by railroad men, except a solid block of iron. If 

 they can better afford to pay for their recklessness 

 than to go a little more caret ullj', that is their busi- 

 ness and not ours. 



Why does the Dunham mill with its " round cells " 

 stick to the wax so much worse than the Vander- 

 vort mill with its square cells, with equally high side 

 lines? 



Friend Novice, if 1 can see correctly, the Given 

 die-books ore made on the plan you advise in your 

 foot-notes to my May article, are they not, and much 

 more so than any other sample I have ever seen? 

 more so than the one you kindly sent me, which was, 

 as stated above, just like Dunham. The Given lines 

 are not hard pressed as is your sample. They are 

 bulkj' and soft, and, if you will put them to the bees 

 beside of other sorts, they will decide in their favor 

 at once. Try it. Bees prefer heavy fdn. of any 

 sort; and where the base is thin, the heaviest is the 

 most profitable, in either department. I will use no 

 lighter than 8 feet to the pound of Given, in my sur- 

 plus sections. 



HONEY-BOARDS. 



Yes, I will unload my immense stock of knowledge 

 in regard to how to keep the upper and lower sets 

 of frames from sticking to each other, for the bene- 

 fit of all "Novices." I use a slat honey-board, made 

 with a sink in the upper side, so that the super fits 

 the lower hive, both when the honey-board is on the 

 hive and off. This board rests bee space above the 

 lower frames and below the upper frames, which ab- 



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