598 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



plants will not sufficp, to put the extractor in 

 motion or to get filled supers of comb honey. 

 No, the gain of such planting lies in another 

 direction. According to a common saying of 

 our old experienced bee-masters, " One ounce of 

 newly gathered honey and pollen, carried into 

 the entrance of the hive by the bees, is worth 

 more than one pound from the old storage in 

 the hive or feeding." I am of opinion that 

 drops of honey and little bits of pollen gathered 

 early in the spring will agree well with the 

 health of a colony, causing them to thrive, even 

 if after some fine days followed by some very 

 bad weather. Experience has taught me so, 

 and the last spring has confirmed it. 



For more than twenty years I have taken 

 care that my bees find on their flights, early in 

 the spring, some fresh honey and pollen; and 

 therefore I planted in the apiary, or close by, 

 snowdrops, crocuses, scrophularia vernalis, wil- 

 lows, and winter rape. I sowed the rape in the 

 month of August on a patch two rods square. 

 Eape is one of our best honey-plants, and will 

 blossom early or late in the month of April, 

 according to the weather. New honey and 

 pollen, although they came in driblets, have 

 the stimulative effect peculiar to spring, and 

 will serve to make the old stores in the hive, or 

 the food one maybe feeding, agreeable to the- 

 bees, and at the same time will do them much 

 good. Of coursf , the more bees can gather from 

 this fresh honey and pollen, the better it is for 

 them. In most parts of Germany the plants 

 yielded this year, from the end of April till 

 the beginning of July, so much honey during 

 those fine days that followed the bad ones, 

 that, at the time of fruit-blossoms, the extract- 

 or had to be set in motion to keep the honey 

 from crowding out the brood. 



The first natural swarms appeared in April, 

 some in May; but only a few. Where the 

 extractor wa'^ not used at the right time, there 

 was no swarming at all. 



On the beginning of June the cold and 

 stoi'my days were over: hot days and warm 

 nights set in, and prevailed till this time. The 

 repoi'ts from South Germany tell us that the 

 fir-trees yield as much honey as in the year 

 before. In North Germany, at least here in 

 Wilsnack, we have not such honey, and only 

 honey from the blossoms of the plants. There- 

 fore I can say that we have had a very good 

 honey season till now; and if buckwheat and 

 heathei- will yield as much honey as the other 

 honey-plants have yielded, we in Germany 

 may say that the year 1893 was one of the best 

 ones in Germany we have had for a decade. 

 C. J. H. Gkavenhokst. 



Wilsnack, Germany, July .5. 



THE THREE METH^WW OF ftUEEN-KEARING. 



doolittle's preferred; j. d. fooshe de- 

 scribes HOW HE USES IT. 



Friend Root:—l have just received Glean- 

 ings, and have read some articles with plea- 

 sure. Gleanings is always good, but now and 

 then we see an article from some one of experi- 

 ence along the line we are working on. This 

 number has an article from S. F. Trego, on cell- 

 building. I have been interested in this sub- 

 ject for ten or twelve years, and have made 

 queen-rearing a specialty; therefore I like to 

 read any thing I see pertaining to it. I have 

 tried three plans, and will give them as I learn- 

 ed and experimented with them. 



1. By removing the queen and letting the 

 bees build cells, or placing a frame of choice 

 brood, of the right age, in a queenless colony. 



Neither of these gives cells enough. The frame 

 of brood inserted in a queenless colony is better, 

 as they will build as many cells on one frame as 

 they will on all the frames the other way. 



2. By cutting strips of comb containing larvaj 

 of the right age, and fastening to the bar — 

 about three bars — including top, and known as 

 the Alley plan. 



3. The Doolittle wax-cup plan. These I fas- 

 ten to bars, as on the Alley plan, and transfer 

 the larvae, which we might term grafting. The 

 latter plan I have almost entirely adopted, be- 

 cause I can get more cells built out by that plan 

 than by any other, and they stand well apart, 

 and in nice condition to place in protectors. I 

 generally have them built out in double stories 

 above the excluder; but when there is no honey 

 coming in, there is a great deal of risk jn upper 

 stories unless the excluder is of the right size. 

 Mine is larger than the more modern make, and 

 therefore (jueens sometimes get above; and even 

 if they do not, the inquisitive little fellows 

 will very often tear down the cells, commenc- 

 ing about two days before they are to hatch; 

 therefore, to have cells built in an upper story, 

 the colony ought to be very strong — so much so 

 that the bees should be inclined to build comb. 

 I like this cup plan better than the other two, 

 because there is no mutilation of comb, and we 

 gel cells that hatch with more regularity. I 

 notice you say that you ha,ve never succeeded 

 with this plan satisfactorily. I gave my plan a 

 year or two ago, by which I never failed to get 

 a half or more of the cups accepted. I usually 

 put forty to fifty cups into a colony which has 

 been made queenless, and from which all brood 

 has been removed, say, six hours, or long enough 

 for them to moan when you o[jen up their hive. 

 When they do that, the colony is in proper con- 

 dition to receive cells with larvie, and not be- 

 fore. Some colonies will not moan or cry under 

 12 hours, and sometimes not at all; but when 

 they don't, they never start as many cells as 

 when they do. The cells, before giving the lar- 

 vte, should have hung in a weak hive for a few 

 hours, say 12 to 24. bcifore transferring the lar- 

 vse. I always get better cells, and more of 

 them, by this plan than by either of tlie other 

 two. The objection to the first plan mentioned 

 is. that the combs are mutilated, and the cells 

 are irregular in hatching, and it does not give 

 as many cells at a time as I should wish to run 

 inO nuclei or over. 



I like the Alley plan better than the first: but 

 it has the objectionable feature of crowding the 

 cells together, and irregularity of hatching, and 

 also of mutilating the combs; but if the combs 

 are patched with worker comb at the time the 

 larva is cut out, it is not so objectionable, as 

 there is no danger of the bees building drone 

 comb; but we all know that, unless we are care- 

 ful to give the combs to hives containing young 

 queens, they will, as a rule, patch them with 

 drone comb. When I followed that plan I had 

 a great many combs with drone comb built 

 wherever I cut out chunks of comb for larva?, so 

 I was glad when I found a better way. I have 

 tried the plan Mr. Trego gives, when I have been 

 pushed for cells, but I was always afraid to fol- 

 low that up, as we are liable to have cells start- 

 ed on larvEe from an inferior queen. Unless 

 they are well marked I am very apt to make a 

 mistake; and to follow the plan successfully, 

 all the larva? around the cells started should be 

 killed; but even then there will be many cells 

 that can't be separated. And I also find that, 

 to transfer a young larva of the right age (which 

 is about one day after the egg has hatched) to a 

 cell containing royal jelly two days old, the bees 

 often clean out the jelly and commence new. I 

 have never tried giving a larva of about the 

 same age as the one in the cell containing royal 



