42(i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July 1 



Heads of Grain 



from. Different Fields 



Some Questions on Keeping Bees in an Attic. 



I have kept bees where I had plenty of room for 

 the hives, but expect soon to move to a city lot 

 •\vliere there is neither room to set the hives, nor, I 

 think, neighbors who would be pleased to have 

 bees in the back yard, liut there are two gables, 

 one on the north and one on the south side of a 

 large attic chamber. As I understand it, the idea 

 is to give the bees so much room that they are kept 

 busy continually, trying to fill their hive, and so 

 have no need of sending out a .swarm. I should 

 like to get advice. First, can I keep bees in this 

 attic without tlieir swarming? If so, how? By giv- 

 ing extremely large quarters? Should tliev be giv- 

 en all frames, and the honey extracted, or can I u.se 

 sections also ? Can the bees work as well from a 

 hive in the third story as from one on the ground? 

 Which side should the hive be set— south or north? 

 What breed of bees will do the best work in one of 

 the.se upstairs hives? 



WHY NOT IMPORT STINGLESS BEE.S ? 



I read some time ago tliat there is a stingless bee 

 in Mexico. Is this true? If so. can tliey bear the 

 •cold of a northern winter? If they can, why don't 

 we import lots of them? If the bee could only be 

 induced to leave its sting behind, and forget to 

 have one. every one would have a hive or two of 

 bees. Ten times — yes, a liundred times, the amount 

 of honey would be eaten if it could be purchased 

 conveniently, or "home grown.'" 



Kit Clover. 



[We expect to have a series of two or three arti- 

 cles on how to keep bees In garrets. In the mean 

 time we venture to say that colonies should be 

 strong, and the hives in which they are placed 

 should be ample in size. That means tiering up as 

 fast as or faster than the bees need room. If they 

 are at any time cramped they will swarm just as 

 quickly from a garret as they would if the hives 

 were placed on the ground. 



Yes. bees can work as well from a hive in the 

 third story as from one on the ground: and why 

 not? In the natural state we find them in tall trees, 

 and in rocks on the ground or near the grovind. 



We recommend the Italians lather than any 

 black race. Carniolans and ( 'aiic.isians will swarm 

 when Italians keep right on working; at least, that 

 is our experience. There may be some strains of 

 old-fashioned black bees that will swarm as little as 

 Italians. 



It would never be practical to domesticate sting- 

 iess bees in our northern States; and even if we 

 could do so they are much more "holy terrors " 

 than bees with stings. With their powerful man- 

 dibles they can bite; and while that bite is by no 

 means as severe as a sting, yet when one has sevei"- 

 al hundred of these little rascals in his hair, each 

 pulling (ine hair, he is inclined to believe he would 

 rather be stung, kicked, and pounded to death than 

 to have a lot of stingless bees after him. — Kd.] 



Why Did the Honey Melt when the Temperature 

 was so Low? 



My strongest colony this year is hybrid — Italian 

 and black. To-day 1 looked for th is colony to swarm, 

 and therefore placed an Alley trap. About 1:;!0 I'.M. 

 I noticed something wrong, and lifted the cover off 

 the hive. There were two supers on the hive; and 

 as the cover came off. the bees rolled out of the top 

 super in a black sticky mass. After .a minute the 

 •queen came out too. .-Ml the honey had been taken 

 out of both supers, and apparently spilled over ev- 

 ery thing. Tlie second super was drenched, and 

 dead bees lay thick on the sections. < )n top of the 

 brood-frames dead bees lay almost an inch thick, 

 all seemingly drowned in hone.v. 'I'he bottom-board 

 was a mass of dead bees and honey, .so that the en- 

 trance was choked though the honey was thin 

 enough to run out on the ground, which it did. 

 There were no .sealed queen-cells in the hive. The 

 day was sunny but cool; temperature (U R in the 

 .shade. 



In all I think about one-fourth of the bees in this 



hive were drowned In honey: but a great many 

 more were lost by trying to force an entrance Into 

 other neighboring hives, where they were killed In 

 great numbers. In my ten years' experience In 

 bee-keeping, the above is unique; and I can not 

 imagine the cause. I hope you can throw some 

 light. 

 Aptos, Cal. .1. W. W. Macdonald. 



[This is a clear case of suffocation. In some un- 

 explainable way the entrance must have been 

 closed. The probabilities are that, in applying the 

 queen-trap, you put it on in such a way that it 

 closed the entrance almost entirely. In the case of 

 a powerful colony, abnormal heat would be generat- 

 ed very soon — heat sufficient to nielt down the 

 combs and kill the bees. — Ed.] 



Does a Queen or her Colony Give a Warning 



Two or Three Days Before a Swarm Comes 



Forth? 



Swarniing is a frequent occurrence in this locali- 

 ty. Perhaps it may be of some benefit to tell you 

 how I know when a swarm is going to issue. Go 

 out early in the morning and put your ear against 

 the side of the hive. If the colony is going to swarm 

 you will hear "toot, toot, toot, toot,'' inside the 

 hive. Some say it is two queens fighting: but I be- 

 lieve it is just the queen calling her bees to fill up 

 their stomachs with honey. It will not be over three 

 days before the swarm issues, depending on the 

 weather. 



Dacula, Ga. O. E. Buchanan. 



[While it is possible that a swarm might give a 

 preliminary "toot, toot, toot," we think that, in the 

 great generality of cases, they do not give any such 

 warning. We know positively that sometimes 

 swarms will issue without any preparation. Some- 

 times the queen will lead forth, and sometimes the 

 bees; but more often the bees will go forth followed 

 by the queen. On one particular occasion we re- 

 member hearing a long "zeep, zeep, zeep," in front 

 of a colony where we were standing. The bees shot 

 out of the hive like shot from a gun, and with them 

 tlie queen in the vanguard: but we have been pres- 

 ent hundreds of times since, in front of hives when 

 swarms would come out, and have never heard that 

 jjreliminary " zeep, zeep," and in almost all ca-ses 

 the (lueen was among the last to come out with the 

 swarm. 



If it is a fact that a colony that is preparing to 

 swarm will give the signal of " toot, toot," or " zeep, 

 zeep." two or three days beforehand, no one has re- 

 ported it up to this time. We shall be glad to 

 hear from our subscribers as to whether they have 

 ever ob.served any thing similar. — Kd.] 



Plaster of Paris a Sure Cure for Rats. 



I followed the meat-market business for nearly Ifi 

 years in my younger days, at the old home in Wis- 

 consin, and was greatly plagued by rats around our 

 slaughter-house. This was during and just after the 

 civil war. Well, to get rid of them, and not have 

 them a stench to my nostrils, was a study. I tried 

 to kill tliem off witli a shotgun, and did kill hun- 

 dreds in this way; but they kept coming just about 

 as fast as we killed them, so we did not gain much 

 by shooting. About this time one of my friends ad- 

 vised me to try plaster of Paris, mixed half and 

 half, the same as your correspondent mentions: but 

 f did not set a i)au of water near them, because 

 there was a good-sized creek close by. If I should 

 tell you that 1 and one of my men picked up and 

 buried a bushel basket of de;ul rats within ten days 

 after giving them the meal mixture 1 don't think I 

 should be stretching the liuth a particle. I was 

 obliged to re))eat this about four times each year to 

 keep the pests down. It is an absolute cure; but 

 look out and do not set it where chickens will get 

 into it, as they will eat it with just as good an appe- 

 tite as the rats do. 



Missoula, Montana. .1. M. Pruvn. 



Combs Melting when Entrance was Contracted for 

 Only a Short Time. 



A few years ago my hives were in a room fac- 

 ing east. For some reason I closed the entrance 

 of the south hive down to a bee-sj)ace. intending 

 to enlarge it in a few moments; but I was bus.y at 

 the other end of the yard, and it was .some time be- 

 fore I returned. When I did get back the honey 



