1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



891 



understands the proper manLpiflation of bees, 

 the eight-frame hive is about right here. 

 Calamine, Wis. 



[Yon and friend Hatch do not agree, although 

 you ai-e both of the same State. You will re- 

 member that, in the first place, I too, in answer 

 to him, took the same or nearly the same posi- 

 tion in favor of the smaller hive. While locali- 

 ty has much to do with this question, it is evi- 

 dent that the individual tastes and preferences 

 of men, even in the same locality, have much to 

 do with it also.— Ed. 1 



AN OPEN LETTER TO DR. MILLER. 



THE QUEEN THAT SULKED; HOW TO GET 



QUEEXS TO OCCUPY ONE OR MORE 



STORIES. 



By Dclos Wood. 



Dr. C. C. Miller:— I have just read your ar- 

 ticle on page 739, Oct. 1st Gleanings. In your 

 closing paragraph you intimate, as usual, that 

 you "'don't know,'' and ask for more light. 

 Perhaps I can lend you a candle for a few min- 

 utes. You complain that, when you took the 

 queen out of the story she was laying in, and 

 confined her to another with empty combs, she 

 "sulked and would not lay." Now stop right 

 here and think what you did, and then, instead 

 of blaming the queen for "sulking," you will 

 probably ask Miss Wilson to make you a paper 

 cap such as I had to wear sometimes in my 

 schooldays. 



When you changed your queens you took 

 them away from the nurse bees, and left them 

 with only the old field-workers, and the queens 

 were com.'pelled to sulk. Next year, when you 

 want to put the queen in confinement, take two 

 combs of unsealed larvae with the adhering 

 bees, and put them into the story you put the 

 queen in, and give them the other six combs 

 empty; and if the queen sulfcs, send the paper 

 cap to me and I will wear it. 



At one time I thought I knew all about bees; 

 but I have had 30 years' experience since then, 

 and find, like yourself, I am compelled many 

 times to say, " I don't know." 



I work entirely for extracted honey, and tior 

 up as many stories as may be required,«always 

 using the same-sized story and frames. I use 

 loose hanging frames. My hives are 16)^ in. 

 long, 13X wide, IQi.^ deep, inside measurement. 

 I use 9 frames with loose bottoms and tops. I 

 always work them two stories high, and tier up 

 more if unable, from any cause, to extract as 

 soon as needed. My queens prefer the top story, 

 and I have never had a queen that would fill 

 more than two stories. Empty combs below will 

 not prevent swarming in my " locality." 



This season I have had two colonies with two 

 laying queens in each. One of them I found in 

 April, and they were Still working side by side 

 in September, and maybe there now for all I 

 know to the contrary. ' ' ■ 



NOT SIGHT BUT PROOF OF A QUEEN'S PRES- 

 ENCE NECESSARY. 



Miss Wilson objects to tiering up because it 

 is harder to find the queen. What does she 

 want to see the queen for? Proof of her pres- 

 ence is all I want. Queen-breeders, of course, 

 will keep the queens for sale in a hive easy of 

 access, but not so with the honey- producers. 

 Of course, you will not expect her to lay in old 

 combs that have been out of the hive all winter. 



Santa Barbara, Cal., Oct. 12. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



I don't know whether I'm willing to put on 

 that cap or not. I have some doubts about it. 

 Of course, any one knows the queen will lay 

 wherever two combs of unsealed larvte with 

 adhering bees are put. That's about equiva- 

 lent to saying she'll lay in the brood-nest, for 

 it's simply transferring a part of the brood-nest. 

 But why won't she do it without the brood and 

 adhering bees? 



You say, when 1 changed my queens I " took 

 them away from the nurse bees, and left them 

 with only the old field-workers." Didn't 

 either. I put the queen alone in the empty 

 chamber above, without any bees, an excluder 

 between. There was nothing to hinder the 

 nurse bees going up any more than the fielders. 

 The bees did go up, plenty of them, and for 

 days that queen stayed up there sulking with 

 the chamber full of bees. Now do you know 

 that those bees that went up were all field bees 

 and not nurse bees? What call have worker 

 bees to go up into an empty story any more 

 than nurse bees? Isn't it rather the other 

 way ? When the bees go up of their own accord 

 to enter the surplus-chamber, is it the field 

 bees or the nurse bees that go up first? 



It looks a little as if the bees had said, 

 "There's no nectar coming in, and we'd best do 

 nothing in the way of enlarging the brood- 

 nest." But when the brood had hatched out 

 below, why did they remain without any brood 

 rather than start in a new place? Would they 

 not have acted differently if honey had been 

 yielding? 



If Miss Wilson has any good reason for want- 

 ing to see queens, she can give it herself; but 

 you know that women are generally supposed 

 to have a great deal of curiosity. 



C. C. Miller. 



[There is one point in the last paragraph of 

 friend Wood's letter that I am interested in. 

 It is not new. but it is one that needs far more 

 attention than it usually receives; viz., accept- 

 ing the proof, as friend W. puts it, of a queen's 

 presence, rather than going to, oftentimes, a 

 large amount of trouble to get a view of her. I 

 never think of looking for a queen (and I don't 

 suppose Miss Wilson or the doctor does either) 

 when I have seen one good comb with brood 

 and eggs, properly distributed. Beginners, and 

 perhaps some of the veterans in some cases, 

 knock quite a little slice off their profits from 

 honey by hunting for queens when it is not 

 necessary. Of course, there are times when it is 



