58 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



"A common error is to suppose that, in setting 

 a weak colony in place of a strong one in order 

 to strengthen it, it is important that the change 

 be made when the largest number of bees are 

 out. There will be just as much gain if the 

 change is made at midnight."' Usually we find 

 Dr. Miller saying " I guess so," or " I shouldn't 

 wonder," or '"I don't know;" but here is a pos- 

 itive statement, made under his name, and. 

 strange to say, that, in dropping his usual dis- 

 creetness, he has fallen into an error which he 

 would not have fallen into had he been so 

 discreet as to say, "I don't know." But I im- 

 agine I hear him saying, " That is aM right; let 

 Doolittle prove wherein I am wrong." Well, 

 that is just what I am going to try to do, doctor. 

 When a colony is in a normal condition, the 

 young bees go out to take their first airing at 

 the age of six days, if the weather is favorable; 

 and in doing this they mark their location to a 

 certain extent, but not to an extent great 

 enough so but that subsequent flights have a 

 greater impression on their memory, for we 

 find them taking these markings anew at every 

 flight till they are sixteen days old, when they 

 leave the hive for gathering supplies for the 

 first time, after which they take no more mark- 

 ings during the working season, unless it be in 

 the case of a swarm, or some rude disturbance 

 of their home. If the hive is moved at mid- 

 night, as Dr. Miller suggests, then, on the com- 

 ing morning, all the bees over sixteen days old, 

 upon going to the field, leave in a straight line, 

 and, having the old location established in 

 their memory, and not taking anv markings 

 that morning, come back to the spot where the 

 old entrance used to be; consequently they go 

 into the hive having the weak colony, if such 

 has been placed on the old stand, or are lost, if 

 no such provision has been made. But let us 

 wait till about 2 o'clock p. m., at which time 

 all of the bees under sixteen days old, and over 

 six days old, will fly, if the weather is fine, and 

 we shall find that these young fellows head 

 toward the hive the same as they did the last 

 time they were out before, hence notice the 

 change which has been made, and. instead of 

 going to strengthen the weak colony which has 

 been placed on the old stand, they return to the 

 spot last marked, hence do nothing toward the 

 desired strengthening. Now, had Dr. M. wait- 

 ed about his changing till these young bees 

 were in full flight, and moved the hives when 

 the most of these young bees were in the air, 

 he would have caught these also, in addition to 

 all those which were over sixteen days old. 

 Then, 100 of these young bees are worth fully 

 300 of the older ones, for strengthening weak 

 colonies, inasmuch as they are just commenc- 

 ing life, instead of being near its close, as many 

 of the field-bees are. While I had known that 

 bees less than sixteen days old would not return 

 to the old stand, if a colony in normal condition 

 were removed at any time other than when 

 they were flying, yet it was not fully forced 

 upon me till I tried preventing after-swarms by 

 the Heddon plan. In trying this I found that, 

 if I moved the parent colony at any time I was 

 ready, it would more often than otherwise 

 swarm again; but if I moved it when the young 

 bees were out to play I had a sure thing of it, 

 for the colony was then so depopulated that it 

 never undertook to swarm again that season. 



LOADED FIELD-BEES IN THE SECTIONS. 



On page 915 of the same issue of Gleanings 

 I find an error in Bro. Manum's article, which 

 error is also sanctioned by the one who wrote 

 the footnote to the same. Near the close of the 

 article, Bro. M. tells of introducing queens by 

 letting them run down into the sections, and 

 says that, in this way, "she is first introduced 



to loaded bees just from the field, or quite 

 young bees, both of which," etc.; while the 

 editor says, "Mr. Manum's idea of having a 

 queen pass down through the sections among 

 young bees and loaded field-bees is excellent." 

 If loaded field-bees ever visit the sections to 

 any great extent, all of my hours and days of 

 watching to discover the inside workings of a 

 bee-hive, when a colony was in it, have been in 

 vain. I claim that not one bee in one thousand 

 that returns from the field with a load of honey 

 ever enters the sections till after it has disgorg- 

 ed that load. I have watched hundreds of bees 

 come into an observatory hive whose colony 

 was at work in sections, and never saw a single 

 loaded bee offer to go up to those sections. On 

 the contrary, the bee generally gave its load of 

 honey to a young bee that was anywhere from 

 one inch to six inches from the entrance 

 through which it came in, and that young bee 

 carried the load to the cell in which it was de- 

 posited, or held it for a while till it was evap- 

 orated, as the case might be, being governed by 

 the number of loads coming in. Again, I have 

 many times changed black or hybrid colonies to 

 Italian, by changing the queen during the 

 working season; and on the sixteenth day after 

 the last black bee hatched, I have seen only 

 black bees going in at the entrance with their 

 loads of honey, while a look at the sections 

 revealed scarcely any but Italians there at 

 work, all of which were apparently as full of 

 honey as they could hold. No, gentlemen, the 

 field -bee gives her load to a young bee, and 

 this young bee carries it to the sections. While 

 this does not affect the plan of introduction in 

 the least, yet a knowledge of these things can 

 be of much help to us in many of the manipu- 

 lations of the apiary. G. M. Doolittle. 

 Borodino, N. Y., Dec. 26. 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



In a casual reading, or. rather, hurried scan- 

 ning, of Cowan's " The Honey-bee " last spring, 

 I thought it contained nothing but what was in 

 my book, and said so in Gleanings. I find, up- 

 on closer study, that I did the work and its 

 most able author injustice, which I hasten to 

 correct. It is very full and accurate, and con- 

 tains much that is new to English readers. It 

 should be in every bee-keeper's library. Mr. 

 Cowan gives the fullest credit, and has given 

 us a work that is an honor to him and to bee- 

 keeping. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., Dec. 19. 



the hewes bee-escape. 



Friend Ernest: — After reading your descrip- 

 tion of Mr. Hewes' bee-escape, I thought, "An- 

 other step in the right direction, for I have 

 been looking for some genius to invent a bee- 

 escape that would be less complicated than the 

 Porter, and answer every purpose." As you 

 were stumbling over those irregular awl-holes, 

 did it not occur to you that machinery made 

 for the purpose would punch the cone-shaped 

 perforations just as accurately for a bee-escape 

 as any designed to make the queen-excluders? 

 I hope you are not guilty of making fun of in- 

 ventions simply because the name of some lead- 

 ing light does not accompany the model. 



Belfe Vernon, Pa., Dec. 20. A. B. Baird. 



[We are not sure that certain fixed machinery 

 in the shape of punches and dies would make 

 the nujqed holes that the common bradawl 



