498 



GLKAXINGS IN BEP: CULTURE 



Aug. 1 



Full-sized Frames Preferred for Queen-rearing 



Nuclei. 



On p. 389, June 15. Is an article from Mr. Pritchard 

 headed "Twin Nuclei v. Sinerle Nuclei." Now, I aiu 

 not going to dispute a word of his. for I have found 

 that he is correct on all points; but I wish to say 

 that, after trying both twin and single nuclei, I 

 h.ave about discarded both, and have for several 

 years used the large triplet, which Is made by using 

 two tight division-boards in the eight and ten frame 

 hives. The entrances are in each cud and one side, 

 and each nucleus in the eight-frame size has two 

 Langstroth frames, while the center nucleus In the 

 ten-frame size has five frames, and is used to draw 

 brood from to restock weak nuclei or start more. 

 These large nuclei are self-supporting, and here In 

 the South they winter as well as the full colonies. I 

 have been surprised to see what good swarms will 

 sometimes issue from them. They are just the 

 thing to build up an apiary, as these swarms will 

 soon make fine colonies. Then wlien the rush of 

 tlie queen season is over I can put on an excluder 

 and use a super on top of the triplets and secure 

 some honey, and have all three queens doing duty 

 below. As each queen uses all the combs she can 

 for brood, most of the honey will go into the supers, 

 the bees from aU three nuclei mixing in the supers. 

 When the flow is over the supers must come off. 



That one nucleus has a queen, and the others 

 now have nothing to do with the bees provided 

 there is no crack or hole in the division-boards 

 through which they might crawl. 



In introducing virgins 1 find many of them miss- 

 ing, some with frazzled wings, some minus a leg, 

 and useless. Those hatched In the nuclei are all 

 right unless naturally deformed, which is seldom 

 the case. Cells, however, should be handled as lit- 

 tle as possible, and not taken out of the hive until 

 nearly ready to hatch, which time can be deter- 

 mined by holding the cells up toward the sun. 



Sabinal, Texas, July 1. Grant Anderson. 



Storing Honey in Galvanized Pails. 



Will extracted honey keep if put in galvanized 

 pails? 

 Holt, Minn., June 2.5. Cha.s. Dohrman. 



[For a reasonable length of time we do not think 

 that it would injure the honey in the least to be 

 stored in galvanized-iron pails; but for keeping It 

 indefinitely we do not believe you had better use 

 the galvanized metal, as there is likely to be some 

 little action on the metal, due to the slight trace of 

 acid in the honey. Occasionally if a small amount 

 of honey is left in a galvanized-iron can it will be 

 tainted a little, and this shows that there might be 

 some action on the metal if a larger quantity of the 

 honey were left on the metal a very long time in a 

 galvanized receptacle. — Ed.] 



not put her In the hive she would probably have 

 gone back of her own accord. 



The fact that the time referred to was not the 

 swarming season does not prove that this could not 

 have been a swarm or an attempt at swarming. If 

 the colony was short of stores, or if some condition 

 was not satisfactory, it might swarm out, swarming 

 season or not. Snakes, mice, ants, and other dis- 

 turbing conditions will sometimes force a swarm 

 out. even when all theconditionsfornatural swarm- 

 ing are entirely absent. 



It is hardly probable that the queen could have 

 been trying to leave for a second mating-trip. No 

 substantial proof has ever yet been furnished to the 

 effect that, after a queen has once been successfully 

 fertilized, or rather, perhaps we should say, after 

 she once begins to lay. she will ever leave again on 

 a mating-trip. Virgins sometimes make two or 

 three flights -several of them — coming in with evi- 

 dences of fertilization before they actually begin to 

 lay. Any amount of proof has been furnished on 

 this point. But these second or third mating-trips 

 must not be confused with the supposed mating of 

 a queen after she once begins to lay. If any of our 

 correspondents, old or new, can refer to a sfngle au- 

 thentic case of second mating, after laying has be- 

 gun, we should be glad to have them furnish the 

 proof. — Ed.] 



Why were the Drones Killed ? 



What is the reason that bees carry out so many 

 drones at this time of the year — May 25? They first 

 brought out the mature drones and now they are 

 bringing out the white larvse. 



THE SOI.AR HONEY-LTQUEFIER. 



J. E. Crane wants to know more about that fire- 

 less honey-heater described on p. 771. Dec. 1. I put 

 some honey through it, and it has not granulated 

 yet. I put it in as soon as it was extracted. If pos- 

 sible it should be left in a full day, and it shouldn't 

 be allowed to reach a temperature of over 160°. I 

 regard this as a very good way for heating up hon- 

 ey in glass packages, for neither the color nor the 

 flavor is injured, provided the temperature does 

 not get higlier than it should. 



Wildwood, Mich. C. W. Reber. 



[Your drones were being killed off simply because 

 the honey-flow h.ad stopped. While drones are not 

 usually destroyed during the fore part of the sea- 

 son, yet if you had been having a flow of honey from 

 fruit-bloom prior to May 25, and that flow was sud- 

 denly stopped, you would probably find your drones 

 being killed off as you describe. \\'& usually figure 

 that when drones are being killed off, the drone lar- 

 vae destroyed, that the honey-flow is either taper- 

 ing off or lias stopped en'^irely. In fact, this is one 

 of the very best evidences that nectar secretion has 

 stopped.— Ed] 



Why was the Queen in the Grass? 



For a period of eight or nine years I have clipped 

 all of my queens. On one occasion when I was 

 busy in my yard I was called in for dinner; and 

 while walking up the apiary I noticed the bees of 

 one hive flying out as though they were swarming, 

 but the colony was in no condition to swarm. I 

 saw the queen in the grass, with a bunch of bees 

 around her, and on opening the hive I found the 

 combs in fair condition. The brood was capped, 

 and there were lots of eggs in the cells. There was 

 no sign of a queen-cell. and. in fact, this colony was 

 not more than a good strong nucleu.s. 1 put the 

 queen back in the hive, and did not investigate for 

 several days on account of bad weather. When I 

 looked again I found the clipped queen on the 

 combs all right, and she is there yet, and no swarm 

 has issued so far this season. 



1 have been wondering whether this queen could 

 have been trying to leave for a .second mating-trip. 

 I believe the swarming theory is out of the ques- 

 tion. 



Ilyndsville, N. Y. J. G. WEtDMAN. 



[We can not escape the conclusion that, for some 

 rea.son, the nucleus had attempted to .swarm out, 

 and the queen tried to follow: but because she was 

 clipped she could go no more than a foot or two 

 from the entrance. When you arrived, of course 

 you would find a lot of bees around her, Had you 



Two Swarms that Hived Themselves. 



This morning two swarms of my bees came out at 

 8 o'clock. There were two hives in which colonies 

 froze last winter, and one of these new swarms went 

 into each of the old hives. I had left the old combs 

 in the hives, thinking I would clean them out some 

 time, but neglected to do so. This is the first time 

 that I ever had this happen, and I have had bees 

 all my life. 



Massillon, O., June 23. G. N. Beiter. 



[The circumstances that you relate are not un- 

 common. In fact, we may say it is the most natu- 

 ral thing in the world for the scouts of a prospective 

 swarm to find empty hives containing combs; and, 

 ■when the swarm does actually come out, it goes 

 into the hive the scouts have located. Quite re- 

 cently, in making some tours among bee-keepers 

 we looked over some old hives containing combs 

 on which the bees had died the previous winter. 

 On asking the owner If he had any bees he replied, 

 saying that he had a kit of old hives with combs in 

 them, but the bees had died the winter before. 

 There were many other bees in the neighborhood. 

 There had been considerable swarming among the 

 bees of his neighbors, and we were not suritrised 

 when we found one or more of these sui)posedly 

 empty hives containing bees. The scouts from the 

 swarms had located them, and the swarms, of 

 cour.se, went Into them. — Ed.] 



