406 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



circumstances, if you intend to go into bee- 

 keeping extensively you had better locate some- 

 where else, for there is no doubt that the moun- 

 tain laurel would yield well, and you might be 

 able to sell the honey; but on the other hand 

 you would be liable for heavy damages. 



W. TF., of N. Y., inquires how to feed bees in 

 box hives. This can be done very nicely with 

 the Gray entrance feeder shown on page 27 of 

 the catalog we are sending you; or if you do 

 not wish to go to that expense, use an ordinary 

 common pan; pour in syrup made of sugar and 

 water, about half and half, and spread over 

 cheese-cloth. This should be put out in front 

 of the entrance at night, because, if other 

 bees are in the vicinity, it will cause robbing. 

 The bees in the box hive will take the feed all 

 in. Of course, such a plan of feeding would not 

 answer in cold weather, but will do very well in 

 late spring and summer. 



J. 0. S., Kan. — Yes, the comb in the super 

 that was made last season will do to use this 

 season; in fact, the bees will start in the sec- 

 tions a little sooner if there are a few of them 

 containing a little drawn-out comb made the 

 previous season. When a swarm issues with 

 two queens, if you let them alone one of the 

 queens will probably be disposed of; but if you 

 can catch one of them you will be that much 

 ahead, providing you have a place where you 

 can use her in some other colony. The drones 

 from a tested Italian queen are generally very 

 dark, and to a beginner might appear to be 

 black. You will find the Gault raspberry ad- 

 vertised extensively as formerly. I would refer 

 you to our advertising columns and also to Spe- 

 cial Notices. 



H. B. H., Pa.— You say that the solution for 

 imbedding wire in foundation in the battery 

 that we send out does not seem to be strong 

 enough, and you desire information. The so- 

 lution as given in the directions will certainly 

 give good results providing you follow very 

 carefully what is said. After the solution has 

 been in use an hour or so it may be necessary 

 to strengthen it up a little by putting in more 

 sulphuric acid. Put in enough until the bat- 

 tery gives the requisite power. Before you do 

 this, make sure that all wire connections are 

 perfectly clean. Otherwise you will fail to get 

 satisfactory results. You say that you are ex- 

 perimenting with other chemicals. I do not 

 think you will find any thing that will give you 

 the strength of current that bichromate of 

 potash and sulphuric acid combined in the pro- 

 portions given in our little circular of direc- 

 tions do. 



S. JET. D., W. Fa.— When bees are moved over 

 a distance of\hree miles there is not the least 

 danger of their returning to their old location. 

 If I understand you, you expect to move them 

 very much further than this. If you have an 

 apiary of twenty-five or even fifty or one hun- 



dred colonies I would advise you to have them 

 sent by freight. When bees are moved much 

 of a distance it is customary for some one to 

 accompany them, going right along in the same 

 car. No extra fare is charged for the person in 

 attendance; but as your bees are going a much 

 shorter distance than this, all that will be nec- 

 essary will be to load them on the car and have 

 some one receive them and unload them at des- 

 tination. I take it that you are familiar with 

 putting up bees so as to give them sulBcient ven- 

 tilation. There ought to be wire cloth on top 

 and wire cloth at the entrance, and the frames 

 should be fastened securely, of course, if not of 

 the self-spacing type. 



BEES REMOVING EGGS ; THAT MISSING LINK. 



Do bees remove eggs from worker- cells and 

 place them in queen-cells, and rear queens from 

 them? Yes, they do. How do I know ? I will 

 tell you. Some years ago I found a colony in 

 early spring that had become queenless — no 

 eggs or young larvfe, and the bees vainly try- 

 ing to raise a queen without these essentials. 

 As the colony was small I took away all their 

 combs but one, and then gave them two combs, 

 making three in all, and shoved up a division- 

 board so as to keep them warm. One of the 

 combs given them was well filled with eggs and 

 brood in all stages of development. The other 

 comb contained some honey, and had been kept 

 in an outbuilding during the winter. When 

 sufificient time had elapsed for the bees to have 

 sealed queen-cells from the young larva? given 

 them I opened the hive to see how many cells 

 they had built. Imagine my surprise when I 

 looked over the comb of brood given them, 

 without finding any sign of building queen-cells 

 or rearing a queen. I thought I would look 

 farther, and lifted out the other combs, when I 

 discovered, on the face of the comb that had 

 been given, that had been wintered in a cold 

 room, a single queen-cell well filled with royal 

 jelly, and a larva in it not yet sealed, which 

 was conclusive evidence to my mind that bees 

 could not only move eggs from one cell to an- 

 other, but that they could rear queens from 

 them. This is the only instance in nearly thir- 

 ty years' experience, and much of the time with 

 hundreds of colonies of bees, that I can say pos- 

 itively I knew the bees had moved an egg, and 

 used it for queen-rearing. From this experi- 

 ence I also learned that bees will do very differ- 

 ently at different times, or different colonies at 

 the same time. Their instinct seems to vary in 

 regard to many things, or they seem at times to 

 be guided quite as much by impulse as instinct, 

 which has led me to be somewhat skeptical as 



