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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 1 



What to Do when You are Not Sure that a Colo- 

 ny has a Queen; Uniting; Wintering 

 Indoors or Outdoors, 



I am a beginner in bee culture, and have had 

 several puzzling experiences, and so I write for ad- 

 vice. 



1. One colony which did well early in the season 

 was found in August with no brood except drone 

 brood, and the bees carried the larvee out as soon 

 as they hatched. This drone brood was in the cen- 

 ter of the combs, and in cells previously occupied 

 by worker brood. I began liberal feeding, without 

 any result except that the bees allowed the drones 

 to live. When first discovered, the colony had a 

 number of very large Queen-cells, rich in royal jel- 

 ly, but without any eggs. I never could find the 

 queen. I put the hive over another colony, with 

 newspapers between, and moved it off again in a 

 week, and did that a second time. By so doing I so 

 reduced the colony that only a mere handful re- 

 mained, and robbers finished them one day. Please 

 tell me the trouble, and what I should have done. 

 Worker bees do not lay in every cell, do they? 1 

 tried giving them a frame of young brood and eggs, 

 but no queen-cells were started. 



2. Another colony with a young queen was found 

 with several sealed queen-cells about the middle of 

 September, and no other brood, and I could find 

 no queen. I gave them some of that drone brood. 

 They allowed the drones to live. After a week I 

 looked, and the queen-cells seemed to have hatch- 

 ed, but I could not find any queens or drones. I 

 had ted sugar syrup in the mean time. The colony 

 is .strong in bees. What shall I do ? I have been 

 afraid to unite for fear there might be virgin queens 

 which would kill the queens of another colony. 



3. A colony having a very fine prolific three-year- 

 old queen has to-day a sealed queen-cell, sealed 

 worker brood, young larvse, and eggs: but I can not 

 find the queen. This colony has made no previous 

 attempt to requeen. Please tell me what to do. 



4. What is the smallest colony safe for wintering 

 in a cellar? 



5. What kind of arrangement or cover is best for 

 bees wintered in a cellar? 



6. Would you consider it safe to attempt to win- 

 ter No. 2 as it is? 



7. Should I ascertain for a certainty whether or 

 not each colony has a queen before putting them in 

 the center? 



Richland Center, Wis., Oct. 13. Subsckibbr. 



[1. We should judge that this colony had a fertile 

 worker. The fact that you could find no queen of 

 any sort would lead us to believe that the old one 

 must have died, and that the colony, failing to 

 raise a regular queen in her place, degenerated into 

 one of fertile workers. Of course, the bees would 

 save the drones after you began feeding. We usually 

 recommend giving to a fertile-worker colony a 

 good ripe queen-cell. If they destroy that, give 

 them another. Giving a frame or two of good 

 brood will impart new life and blood to the dis- 

 couraged survivors: and if you give a ripe queen- 

 cell at the same time, you will usually cure the 

 trouble. 



2. This looks as if the colony lost its queen, and 

 the bees began rearing cells from the eggs or young 

 larvEe that were left. After one of the virgins 

 hatched she would immediately or very soon pro- 

 ceed to destroy the other cells. She might have 

 been lost in a mating-trip after killing off all her 

 possible rivals, and left the colony hopelessly 

 queenless. However, sometimes it is not easy to 

 find a virgin five or six days old. If you were to 

 look again you might find a queen: but in late fall 

 she might not lay, or until next spring. In unit- 

 ing, one will usually have a surplus of queens: and 

 the thing to do is to put some weak colony that 

 has a queen with a strong one that is possibly 

 queenless. If the stronger one has a queen it will 

 be a question of the survival of the fittest between 

 the two queens, for there will be a royal battle end- 

 ing in the destruction of one or the other. We 

 would, therefore, advise you to unite this colony to 

 another one having a queen. If one of theui is 

 queenless, or if both have a queen, the matter will 

 take care of itself in either case. Proceeding on 

 this policy it Is not necessary to hunt either queen 

 unless there is a choice between them. 



3. This colony is a good deal like the one referred 

 to in No. 2. The old queen possibly failed or died. 

 If the young virgin by this time has not begun to 

 lay, or did not lay this fall, unite her colony with 

 a stronger one that surely has a queen. 



4. This depends on localities. In your climate we 

 would not attempt to winter outdoors less than 

 eight frames pretty well covered with bees: and 

 even then it would be better to winter indoors. If 

 you have a dry cellar with a uniform temperature, 

 capable of proper ventilation at times, you could 

 winter four, five, and six frame colonies. 



5. The answer to this question depends upon the 

 cellar. In indoor wintering it does not make so 

 much difference what sort of cover is used. Many 

 use just an ordinary quilt: others use the summer 

 cover, which the bees seal down. In the latter case 

 the entrance should be full width at least, and, if 

 possible, it would be better if the hive were raised 

 up at the front so as to leave a space of about two 

 inches by the full width of the hive. 



6. We would not attempt to winter No. 2 (nor No 

 3, for that matter) as they are. Better unite them 

 with other bees that have a queen. 



7. It is wise to see that every colony is supplied 

 with a queen before it goes into winter quarters. 

 As a general thing the queenless colonies are the 

 first to die in winter or in the spring. The chancss- 

 are far better, in other words, if every colony has a 

 good queen.— Ed.] 



Location of Bees in a Fruit- orchard; Mortality of 

 Bees Near a Body of Water, etc. 



1. Would you advise me to put my 20 colonies of 

 ■ bees In one place together, rather than distribute 



them over the whole orchard? I am manager of a 

 fruit-orchard. 



2. Is it a great disadvantage that my apiary is lo- 

 cated near the Zviider Zee (Southern Sea)? The dis- 

 tance between the sea and the hives is about 800 

 yards from the east side, and 500 yards from the 

 south side; but the ground between the sea and the 

 apiary is covered with fruit-trees, and a kind of 

 rape seed that yields much honey lor about three 

 weeks before the main honey-flow. 



3. Would you advise me to build a honey-hou.se 

 near my bee-yard? 



4. About fixtures, is it advisable to buy a power 

 extracting-outfit for an apiary of forty colonies? 

 Would it pay? P. Balk. 



Oosterleek by Hoorn, Netherlands. 



[1. It will not make very much difference whether 

 you scatter the colonies over the whole apiary or 

 put them in one .spot 6 or 8 feet apart. 



2. We do not believe that the proximity of your 

 bees to the sea can have any very serious effect. 

 While it is true that some of them might be lost In 

 flying across the water, yet there are conditions 

 like this all over the United .States, and in such lo- 

 calities we do not believe the mortality will amount 

 to so very much. 



3. If you need a bee-house we would advise you to 

 put it in the center of your apiary, especially if you 

 expect to do your extracting in it. It should be as 

 near the center as possible in order to save steps. 



4. For a forty-colony apiary you would not need 

 any power extractor. Such an outfit is not needed 

 except where there are two or three hundred colo- 

 nies or more. A two-frame hand power extractor 

 would handle such a yard very nicely.— Ed.] 



Propolis Wanted for Varnish. 



Can you supply propolis free from beeswax? S. If 

 so. at what price? 1 am anxious to make u-se of It 

 for a special purpose. If you are not able to supply 

 it, will you kindly say where it can be obtained ?i- ■; 



I have read somewhere that, in the Middle Ages, 

 the woodware in household use in Northern Italy 

 was usually varnished with propolis: and it was 

 claimed that certain special and unusual virtues 

 were attached to it. If you know where I can ob- 

 tain any information on this head I should esteem 

 it very much it you would let me know. 



Point Loma, Cal. C. Woodherd. 



[It there were a sufficient demand for propolis we 

 are sure it could be obtained: but we fear, however, 

 it would be too high in )jrice to compete against 

 other natural gums. If there were a sufficient de- 

 mand for it, and the price warranted, we should 

 soon be able to gather quite a quantity. Bait we 

 do not believe that any honey-producer would be 

 warranted in saving it. or trying to scrape it from 

 frames and hives, unless he were paid at least $5.00 

 per lb.— Ed.] 



