1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



465 



Heads of Grain 



from Different Fields 



The Need of Shade Depends upon the Weather 

 and on the Time of the Honey-flow. 



On p. 3G0, June 1, Mr. G. A. Barbisch, of La Cres- 

 cent, Minn., gives his opinion regarding shaded 

 hives. I feel confident I can explain why he ob- 

 tained more honey from the shaded colonies. I had 

 60 colonies under observation in my yard during 

 the season of 1909, several of which were shaded the 

 greater part of each day, some during the noon 

 hours, and about 40 colonies in the sun all day. 

 Those in hives that were shaded (by apple-trees) 

 stored practically as much honey as the others. It 

 was an unlooked-for result, but can be explained by 

 the peculiar weather conditions and the time of the 

 honey-flow. We had a severe drouth in this sec- 

 tion during the entire honey season in 1909, and the 

 best of the nectar was available to the bees during 

 the ten days prior to July 3. During that period we 

 had an extremely hot spell of weather, and the 

 shaded bees were able to work: but those in the 

 sun, even with shade-boards for protection, desert- 

 ed the supers and clustered outside during the mid- 

 dle of the day. As La Crescent is only about fifty 

 miles from this point the weather conditions and 

 honey-flow were probably the same as here. 



With the passing of each season I realize more 

 fully the importance of observing carefully the pe- 

 culiarities of the weather, and also the growth, ap- 

 pearance, and profusion of honey-bearing plants; 

 and by working the bees to conform to those condi- 

 tions we can greatly increase our crops of honey, 

 and at the same time keep the bees in better shane. 



IS IT BAD POLICY TO INTRODUCE A QUEEN TO A FULL 

 COLONY? 



I should be pleased to have the experience of the 

 editor, as well as of others, concerning Mr. Alexan- 

 der's rule, never to introduce a queen to a full colo- 

 ny. If in such cases they are superseded in a short 

 time, why have we not heard of it before? 



Chatfield. Minn.. June 6. J. J. Kadletz. 



[You are quite right in your opinion that the 

 question of whether shade is detrimental to the 

 bees or not depends upon conditions: but we may 

 put it down as a general rule that excess of shade 

 throvighout the season is more often detrimental to 

 colonies than too little of it. In very hot weather 

 shade does no particular harm : but during the 

 spring and early summer, especially on cool or 

 chilly days when the sun shines, shade does more 

 harm than good. 



Mr. Alexander's experience has not been the same 

 as our own. We have made it a practice for years 

 to introduce queens to powerful colonies, and dur- 

 ing all of that time have never seen any bad results 

 follow. We are doing it so constantly, every day, 

 that we are of the opinion that either Mr. Alexan- 

 der's special locality or strain of bees must have 

 been responsible for an experience that is so totally 

 different from our.s. So far as we can remember, no 

 correspondent who has ever written has said any 

 thing that would go to show that it is not advis- 

 able to introduce to a strong colony. — Ed.] 



Transferring. 



I have a hive of bees located on a box: and to pre- 

 vent a swarm from the colony escaping I clipped 

 the wings of the queen. A little time ago a swarm 

 emerged from the hive : but knowing that the 

 queen could not go with the swarm I paid but little 

 attention to hiving them. They finally returned, 

 as I supposed, to the hive: but I have since found 

 that they discovered some holes in the box under 

 the hive, and the queen evidently must have gone 

 in there, as there are now active operations in the 

 box as well as in the hive above. In other words, 

 the queen got the best of me in spite of her clipped 

 wings. Now. how can I best get the colony out of 

 the box? I have heard that a correspondent of 

 Gleanings described a method adopted by him in 

 getting bees in bee-trees to leave the trees and take 

 up their abode in hives provided for them, even 

 carrying the honey in, too, which they had previ- 

 ously stored in the trees. I have thought that per- 



haps his method could be applied here, and that 

 you could refer me to the issue of Gleanings de- 

 tailing his method. If so I should be obliged for 

 the information. 



Lowville, N. Y., June 25. R. B. HouGH. 



[While it is possible to get bees out of bee-trees 

 without cutting the tree, yet we would advise going 

 after the bees in the box in the good old-fashioned 

 way: namely, blowing a little smoke into the en- 

 trance of the box, prying the side off. cutting out 

 the combs, and fitting them into regular standard 

 frames. If you do not like the messy job of cutting 

 out the combs, drum two-thirds of the bees out into 

 an empty box. Remove the box from which the 

 bees have just been removed: then turn it half way 

 around so that the entrance will point in the ojjpo- 

 site direction, and then put a hive in the place 

 where the box stood with the extrance facing the 

 direction the box did. Dump the bees from the 

 other box in front of it, then in 21 days drum out 

 the remaining bees from the old box. If you suc- 

 ceeded in getting the queen at the first drive, cut 

 out the combs and melt them up. This latter plan 

 is known as the Heddon short way of transferring. 

 In this particular case, however, you can, if you de- 

 sire no increase, put the hive that was on top of the 

 box down on the ground and let the first drive of 

 bees run into it. — Ed.] 



A Good Plan for Coaxing Bees into Supers. 



I am trying a plan to induce bees to start work in 

 the supers. Some swarms seem to hesitate about 

 going up to work. I have a lot of frames, made the 

 same size and shape of the section-holders. I place 

 supers full of these frames on my strongest colonies 

 early in the season, let the bees draw out the foun- 

 dation, start a little honey, then remove the supers, 

 taking one frame, placing it in the middle of each 

 of my section-.supers, and placing that super on the 

 colonies that are flying off. So far the plan has 

 worked well. The smell of that fresh drawn comb 

 and new honey seems to give the bees courage. 

 While some are finishing the frame, others are at 

 work in the sections near by. The frames of honey 

 not needed for baits are valuable for fall feeding. 



Theresa, N. Y. B. J. Worsley. 



[This plan is somewhat similar to the Townsend 

 plan of producing comb and extracted honey in the 

 same super, although, if we remember correctly, 

 Mr. Townsend has one shallow frame at each side 

 of all his comb-honey supers. We know that these 

 Ideas are practicable for the comb-honey producers 

 because we have tried them. — Ed.] 



Does the Use of Fertilizer Prevent the Secre- 

 tion of Nectar from Buckwheat? 



Some people of this locality say that bees will not 

 work on buckwheat on which commercial fertilizer 

 has been used. Is this .so? We intend to raise 

 about 14 acres of buckwheat this year, which will 

 be about half a mile from the hives. I put full 

 sheets of foundation in my frames and wired them, 

 but did not imbed the wires. Will the bees draw it 

 out the same as usual? 



Halcott Center, X. Y. Chauncey E. Kelly. 



[We never heard of .such a thing as commercial 

 fertilizer or fertilizer of any kind preventing a se- 

 cretion of nectar from buckwheat, and we do not 

 believe there is any thing in it. If any of our sub- 

 scribers believe otherwi.se we should be pleased to 

 hear from them. 



The bees will draw out the foundation: but unless 

 the wires are imbedded there is a possibility that 

 the bees may gnaw around the wires. — Ed.] 



An Interesting Experiment ; Blowing Bees off 

 Combs. 



Some time ago I put in an air-pump and tank to 

 blow the bees off combs instead of brushing them. 

 I tried several pressures, and at last ran the air- 

 pump to 100 strokes a minute. I thought I had the 

 plan down fine, so I hooked on a long hose, ran it 

 out in the bee-yard, took out a comb loaded with 

 bees, and turned on the air. The bees were all 

 blown off slick and clean. Every thing worked 

 finely so far as the bees were concerned: but I .saw 

 at once that I had a honey-extractor too. When 

 the air was strong enough to blow the bees off, the 

 current across the combs took all the uncapped 

 honey out of the cells in a fine spray, blowing it 



