1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



495 



Heads of Grain 



from. Different Fields 



Does More than One Virgin Ever Leave the 

 Hive at One Time for a Wedding-flight? 



On April 17 I uupacked my colonies and clipped 

 their queens. I had them packed on the Orton 

 plan, as illustrated in tlie ABC book, and on that 

 date they had from six to nine frames of brood, and 

 the hives were literally full of bees. 



On May 7 I found a good-sized swarm near my 

 yard; and as I had clipped all my queens I congrat- 

 ulated myself that bees from somewhere else had 

 swarmed, for I was sure mine could not. While 

 hiving them I saw the queen and clipped her. Go- 

 ing to the hive two hours later I found the bees 

 balling on the alighting-board. She was dead, 

 and I was about to shake the swarm in front of some 

 of the hives when I noticed another queen. I did 

 not shake the bees there, but gave them a stand in 

 the yard. I afterward noticed three dead queens in 

 front of one of my hives. I opened tliis hive and 

 found a fine bright queen there, and her wings were 

 whole. There were empty and vacated queen-cells 

 all through the hives. 



Now, were these queens all virgins? I found only 

 sealed brood. 1 think the old mother was lost when 

 I clipped her wings two weeks before: but why did 

 not the first queen hatched destroy the rest? Why 

 did the swarm ball one and not the other when 

 both came from the same hive? 



Niagara Falls, N. Y., May 9. J. Roy Lincoln. 



[With nearly every after-swarm, and sometimes 

 with first swarms, there will be one or more virgin 

 queens. There may be a dozen or even two dozen 

 — depending on circumstances. One of our corres- 

 pondents once said that, in the case of an after- 

 swarm, it seemed to be all queens. 



Alter the swarm is hived it is then a qviestlon of 

 the survival of the fittest. The strongest of the vir- 

 gins, or it may be the: one that gets the best death- 

 grip, will kill oflf the others; the experience, there- 

 fore, that you relate is nothing unusual. Some- 

 times the bees take a hand by balling one or more 

 of the surplus queens. They are much more in- 

 clined to do so immediately after she has been clip- 

 ped, especially if they have other queens in a hive 

 that has not been tainted by human fingers. 



It is possibly true that, when you touched the old 

 queen in the act of clipping of the colony that had 

 the virgins, the odor of the queen had been changed 

 so that they balled and killed her. They then raised 

 a number of cells, and when one or more of the 

 queens went out for a flight the bees followed them. 

 This very often happens. In answer to your ques- 

 tion, we may say that one or more queens may 

 leave a hive and be mated at approximately the 

 same time. Moreover, a single virgin may take 

 several wedding-fliglits and possibly meet a drone 

 more than once. On this last point we liave w'ell- 

 authenticated cases on record. — Ed.] 



A Bee-keeper who Found Solid Tires Not 

 Satisfactory. 



I note on page 18SI, March 15, that H. G. Quirin has 

 an idea that a solid-tire automobile would be ideal 

 for a bee-keeper. To any one who contemplates 

 buying a solid-tire auto, especially a bee-keeper, I 

 would say, don't. I bought an auto four seasons 

 ago fitted with solid tires, and have known inti- 

 mately several who have had them, and we dis- 

 cussed our troubles together. After the first season 

 we changed to pneumatic tires. Solid tires are 

 noisy, hard to ride on, hard on the machine, and 

 cost more in the end, than pneumatic tires, through 

 trouble and breakage. 



The constant jar caused by solid tires causes crys- 

 tallization of the steel in various important parts of 

 the car where the most strain occurs, and sooner or 

 later they will break, with the liability of causing 

 serious accident, should one happen to be going at 

 high speed at the time. Our particular trouble was 

 breaking of the steering knuckles, which was really 

 dangerous. There was always something getting 

 loose. 



A car fitted with good pneumatic tires, of dimen- 



sions to correspond with the weight of the car, will 

 give the best service in the long run, for less money, 

 and for a bee-keeper will carry his bees and honey 

 with greater safety than solid tires can ever be 

 made to do it. 



As to the high-wheeled buggy, they are no better. 

 There were four buggy autos sold in this vicinity 

 last season, and every one of them had broken axles 

 in from six weeks to thi'ee months. The higher the 

 wheel the greater the strain at the shoulder in the 

 axle. 



Belgrade, Montana. C. A. Kinsey. 



[It is not quite clear to us whether you refer to 

 solid tires on low wheels or on high buggy-type 

 wheels. Solid tires on the former are not a success; 

 but we have been led to believe that solid tires on 

 high buggy-wheels, large enough In diameter to 

 roll quietly over obstructions, and not bump square- 

 ly against them, give good results. We quite agree 

 with you that pneumatic tires on ordinary roads 

 are far superior; but they are the meanest thing 

 that was ever invented in slippery or in deep mud. 

 Pneumatic tires never ought to be used on any 

 thing except paved streets or on good roads. 

 Where ruts are deep, roads rough, we would advise 

 the high buggy-type wheels, solid tires. If this ad- 

 vice is not correct we shall be pleased to hear from 

 those who have had a contrary experience. — Ed.] 



Robbing Induced by Giving Chunk Honey to a 

 Weak Colony. 



I have just had an interesting but annoying ex- 

 perience with robbing. The day was cool and wet, 

 and the bees were within doors, so I thought it 

 would be safe to put a few bits of broken comb and 

 a little waste honey from the dining-table into the 

 upper apartment of an old-fashioned box hive 

 where the colony needed a little aid. Passing the 

 hive an hour or so later 1 saw that robbers had 

 scented the honey already, and were attacking the 

 colony. There was nothing to do but to shut the 

 entrance tightly, which I did at once. 



About 5:30 p.m. I saw that the grass and weeds 

 around the front of the hive were sprinkled with 

 bees. They appeared to be young bees, as they 

 were small and inactive, but they clung very tight- 

 ly to the points of the goldenrod leaves. I broke 

 olT the leaves, the bees clinging fast, and laid bees 

 and all on the entrance-board, when the bees left 

 the weeds and crawled inside. I searched tor half 

 an hour, or perhaps an hour, before I got them all 

 gathered up and laid at their entrance. At this 

 time the robbers had become discouraged in their 

 efltort to find the entiance, and the way was clear 

 for these enfeebled bees to enter. 



It would seem, from all the circumstances, that 

 the young bees had left the hive for a trial flight, 

 before the robbing began; then about the time I 

 shut the entrance they had become chilled and 

 were returning; but finding the entrance shut, and 

 a horde of robbers buzzing around their home, they 

 had settled down on the weeds instead of alighting- 

 on their entrance-board. Am I right in this ex- 

 planation? 



I have learned a lesson in bee^feeding, and it is 

 this: If I have comb honey to feed to a weak hive, 

 give it to them after dark, when it is impossible for 

 robbing to take place. Possibly a very rainy da.v 

 would do. Be that as it may, the loss of time and 

 the young bees that were destroyed were worth 

 mvich more than the waste honey which I saved 

 from the pigs and fed to the bees only to make so 

 much mischief. 



How are empty combs to be fastened into sections 

 for placing in supers? I am holding them for an 

 instant on a hot stove, then sticking them fast to 

 the section. Is there a better way? 



I have three old colonies, one in a box hive, one 

 in a store-box, one in an ancient form of movable- 

 comb hive. Could these be di ided and transferred 

 into six modern movable-comb hives? Would it be 

 safe for me, with neither experience nor apparatus, 

 to undertake the job? If it seems possible to mul- 

 tiply the three hives to six, is it necessary for me to 

 buy three queens? J. C. M. Johnston. 



New Wilmington, Pa., July 1. 



[It is a little risky to give chunk or broken honey 

 to a weak colony at any time. While the atmos- 

 phere might have been a little chilly, yet the smell 

 of broken honey is likely to attract robbers. As 

 you say, it is a good deal better to feed a weak col- 

 ony at night, although it can be done in the day- 

 time if the entrance is sufficiently contracted. 



