544 



GLEANINGS IN JiKK CULTURE 



SkI'T. 1 



Stray Straws 



By 1>K. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



A. Dewey, page 533, says there are often 

 two or three queens pi]nngatonce. A num- 

 ber of (jueens in a hive may be making 

 noises at the same time; but, strictly speak- 

 ing, is there ever more than one piping? 

 The free virgin pipes, and then is heard in 

 reply the quafikitiff of one or several virgins 

 in their cells. [See "Conversations with 

 Doolittle." — Ed.] 



Chas. W. Hopsecget, shade maybe best 

 for bees, but your one hive in the shade 

 doesn't prove it. It doesn't swarm, and my 

 non-swarmers are the ones that yield record 

 crops, shade or no shade. Try letting it 

 swap places with one of the swarmers and 

 poorer yielders, and see if the one in the 

 shade does better and the other worse — page 

 497. 



Half a pint of carbon bisulphide is ad- 

 vised for a stack of frames six stories high, 

 p. 480. I made effective work with less than 

 half that. [We usually succeed with less 

 than half a ])int also; but on one occasion 

 we found some live moths in the honey aft- 

 er fumigating; and as we had every crack 

 stopped tightly, we were afraid that we had 

 not used enough of the bisulphide. Of 

 course, the chemical might have been weak; 

 but to be on the safe side we now use rather 

 more than formerly, hence the advice, page 

 480.— Ed.] 



If bees breed late in the fall, they are 

 late to begin breeding the following spring. 

 If they stoj) rearing brood early in the fall 

 they begin early the following spring. So 

 says H. Hesse, Leipz. Bztg., 116. [We ques- 

 tion very much whether this is always true 

 or even '.^ewtra//^ true. If the conditions 

 are favorable in the spring, bees will rear 

 brood, whether they did any late brood- 

 rearing the previous fall or not. As a gen- 

 eral thing a colony will not rear brood in 

 the fall unless it has a young queen or it 

 has been a good fall flow. — Ed.] 



M. T. Pbitchard, what possible differ- 

 ence can it make whether a cell is in a cage 

 or out, so long as it is in the same tempera- 

 ture? But there's no use trying to buck 

 against cold facts, and you've made out 

 your case, p. 946. Sorry; but thank you all 

 the same. 



Now here's something else that I believe 

 you're just the man for. In the American 

 Bee Journal for 18G1 we are told that it is 17 

 days from the laying of the egg to the emerg- 

 ence of the virgin. Most authorities now 

 say 16 days; but Cowan says 15. You please 

 tell us. [We don't know; but we do know 

 that conditions have a large influence. They 

 may all be right. — Ed.] 



E. F. Robinson, p. 516, are you sure mi- 

 cro-organisms have nothing to do with bee- 

 l)aralysis? CaUhig it paralysis doesn't make 



it a disease analogous to ])aralysis in the 

 human subject. Indeed, Cheshire, Vol. II. , 

 p. 570, attributes it to Bacillus Gaytnni. 

 But it is douljytful if we know much about 

 it. [We really know less of bee-]iaralysis 

 than of any other bee-disease. Dr. Phillips 

 has told us, however, that Dr. White will 

 make an investigation of this disease as 

 soon as he determines the cause of Europe- 

 an foul brood. — Ed.] 



Say, you, New Mexico Chap, ])age 515, 

 l)lease "notice" that I didn't think lack of 

 ventilation was the only thing that caused 

 swarming. I said "also." You are quite 

 right that strength and crowding promote 

 swarming; but bees will stand more crowd- 

 ing with ventilation than without it. But 

 my chief grudge at you is for saying that a 

 y& entrance gives less surplus than a H one, 

 and that ventilation retards egg production. 

 If so, my two-inch entrance ought to make 

 bad business. But I ought not to be too 

 cock-sure about how things are your way. 



Chalon Fowls, page 508, has discovered 

 anew the G. W. Demareeplanof preventing 

 swarming, which was published many years 

 ago. At the beginning of the honey-flow 

 l)ut all brood above excluder, or nearly all, 

 and let the queen fill up the lower story 

 afresh. [Chalon Fowls, if you will look 

 again, did not claim the honor of the "dis- 

 covery." You will see we quoted him as 

 saying that he got the idea from " recent ar- 

 ticles in some of the bee-papers." Indeed, 

 we are not sure but he might, at the time, 

 have mentioned the name of Mr. Demaree. 

 —Ed.] 



Swarms that have lodged in hollow trees 

 or in walls of houses may be routed with 

 carbolic acid, the crude acid being the bet- 

 ter. Upon burning rags in a smoker, drop 

 a few drops of the acid, then smoke lightly 

 at first so as not to stupefy the bees. In a 

 few minutes the bees will issue and settle as 

 a swarm outside. Pounding below the place 

 of the bees will help. — L'ApieuKeur, p. 283. 

 [This appears to us like a good suggestion. 

 It would almost seem to us, however, that 

 the carbolic-acid fumes would drive out only 

 a part of the bees. If any of our readers 

 have tried this we hope they will report. — 

 Ed.] 



Early this year, ray colonies appeared 

 clean of foul brood; later it appeared in some 

 colonies. Dr. Phillips says the usual thing 

 is for it to appear early and then disappear. 

 That looks as if my bees had got the disease 

 again from surrounding apiaries. But I'm 

 afraid some of it was the home i)roduct. It 

 appeared in colonies that had been thrown 

 upon foundation as well as others. Only a 

 few bad cells in most cases, and colonies in 

 general were very strong, and stored as I 

 never knew bees to store before, until the 

 terrible drouth stopped them. [You omit- 

 ted to say. Dr. Miller, that the foul brood 

 that is in your apiary is the European and 

 not the American. What we want to know 

 is whether the Alexander treatment actual- 

 ly effected a cure. — Ed.] 



