52 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15 



Fig. 3.— Shaking bees off the combs of baby nuclei late in the fall 

 for the purpose of strengtheningr weak colonies in the same yard. 



one — that is, one queen in each pound pack- 

 age. 



The last operation of all is to dip a brush 

 or rag into thick syrup and spread a thin 

 tilm over the wire cloth. Care should be 

 taken not to give them too much. If wire 

 cloth is left dauby they will not go through 

 alive. 



Now, then, to answer the question why 

 the bees do not fight or kill the queen. 

 When bees are shaken into a box and made 

 queenless, combless, and broodless, and kept 

 confined over night, and fed sugar syrup. 



they will be in a mood to ac- 

 cept any queen; and then, 

 moreover, when they are shak- 

 en from several different hives, 

 the colony odor is destroyed, 

 and the absence of the queen, 

 of brood, and comb, makes 

 them fairly cry for something; 

 and when that something is in 

 the shape of a fertile queen 

 she is accepted readily because 

 of their dire distress. 



Our Mr. Pritchard believes 

 the mixing of several lots of 

 bees has a tendency to make 

 them more kindly disposed 

 toward the queen, or to stay in 

 a new location, than when all 

 come from one hive; but our 

 Mr. Bain thinks this makes no 

 difference — that it is confine- 

 ment without comb or brood that 

 destroys their colony spirit, or 

 that spirit that would resent 

 the placing among them of a 

 strange queen. 



UNITING BEES IN THE SPRING 

 OR FALL. 



At the close of queen-rear- 

 ing, perhaps in the fall, we 

 usually have a lot of baby nu- 

 clei containing a few bees. It 

 is impracticable to unite them 

 in the ordinary way, and much 

 less to winter them as they are. 

 Last fall Mr. Bain shook or brushed the frames 

 of these babies into the swarming box as seen 

 in Fig. 3. When the box was fairly filled he 

 closed it up, put it in a cool place, gave its 

 bees a feed of syrup, and left them over 

 night. The next morning the box was taken 

 around to a hive that was a little shy of bees, 

 and jarred on the ground to ^et all the bees 

 in the bottom. They are next wet down 

 with water from a brush or broom to keep 

 them from flying. He then took a dipperful 

 or two and dumped them in the entrance. 

 This was done in the cool of the morning — 



pig. 4. — How bees are dropped from the swarm-box in front of entrances of colonies needing a few more bees^ 



for winter. 



