624 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 1 



FIG. 1. — INTERIOR OF J. H. M. MARDEN's EXTRACTING-TENT, APOPKA, FLA., SHOWING 



THE EIGHT-FRAME POWER EXTRACTOR, THE STRAINER, AND THE HAND-CAR USED 



IN CA-RRYING SUPERS TO AND FROM THE TENT. 



dead in front of the hive. Then I gave 

 them a comb of brood. They started sev- 

 eral good queen-cells, but just as soon as 

 they hatched from their cells they were 

 balled and killed. Then I concluded I 

 would join it to a neighboring colony which 

 was not so strong, and, of course, this one 

 was weak. When I tried to move it I no- 

 ticed that some of her bees I had shaken 

 down behaved strangely — lifted their bod- 

 ies, buzzed, and walked under the bottom- 

 board. I found about a handful of bees 

 clustering under the bottom-board, in the 

 center of which was our old cli]iped queen 

 which had evidently remained there from 

 the time I shook them, which was then six 

 weeks. She was located just where the 

 alighting-board presses against the back 

 part of the bottom-board, and there was a 

 crack barely large enough for the bees to 

 press through, but too small, apparently, for 

 the queen. 



Well, though the colony was weak by this 

 time, and the bees old, 1 thought, as a mat- 

 ter of experiment, I would see what she 

 would do if placed on the combs with 

 her bees. She almost immediately began 

 laying; but the bees built four or five fine 

 queen-cells. I thought they would super- 

 sede her; but she filled the combs so full of 

 eggs in a short time that the bees, I take it, 

 concluded that she was equal to any young 



queen, and the queen-cells were torn down 

 again before young queens issued. 



From the foregoing experience I conclude 

 that, when we ha\e a colony that kills its 

 queens that are introduced, very likely they 

 have a queen hidtlen from our view, but 

 which, after a diligent search, an eye train- 

 ed for observation will, in the majority of 

 cases, find. It also proves to me that the 

 non-laying of a queen is not the only cause 

 for supersedure. 



Nashville, Ills. 



EXTRACTING HONEY IN A TENT. 



Something about the Shed Apiaries of Florida. 



BY I. H. M. MARDEN. 



Last season I used a tent for extracting 

 my honey. So far as the light is concern- 

 ed, it is all that could be desired; but I find 

 that there should be a separate canvas a 

 little above the tent to kee]) the sun from 

 shining on it and making it too hot inside. 

 On one day it was so warm that ])araffine 

 would soften enough inside the tent to run. 

 The tent stands at one end of my shed api- 

 ary, which is 10 feet wide by 150 feet long — 

 a row of hi\ es facing out on each side. In 

 the middle, between the two rows of hives, 

 is a track, and I use '4 car to carry the su^ 



