784 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



the bees to work on them, in which time they 

 gathered pollen, and no doubt honey as well. 

 Bellevue, O., Sept. 28. H. G. Quirin. 



TWO PROLIFIC QUEENS IN THE SAME HIVE. 



A PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCE. 



Perhaps a very recent experience of my own 

 in this particular will be worth relating, as it 

 occurred under circumstances a little out of the 

 ordinary, and will serve as additional proof, did 

 he need it, of Dr. Miller's position that such ex- 

 ceptions to the rule are by no means rare. 



Some untested queens had been ordered from 

 Eouse & Co. early in the summer; but they had 

 had so brisk a trade that it was found impossi- 

 ble to send mine till the last week in July, the 

 queens arriving on the 28th, and were intro- 

 duced on the 39th. The time happening to be 

 under conditions about the very worst possible 

 for introducing, and robbers rampant, I decid- 

 ed, after introducing all but one very yellow- 

 queen, by the ordinary plans, to make a "* dead- 

 sure " thing of her safety by making a nucleus 

 of sealed and hatching brood, according to the 

 plan laid down in the ABC book, page 157, and 

 which I had always been curious to see worked 

 out. She was accordingly turned loose on three 

 such frames, after every bee had been brushed 

 off ; and during the process her escort all es- 

 caped, so that the beginning of this colony was 

 a queen absolittely alone for a few seconds, in a 

 hive containing mostly sealed brood in three 

 frames between division-boards. Young bees 

 hatched rapidly, of course, but it was some lit- ■ 

 tie time before there seemed to be much evidence 

 of a community interest or acknowledgement 

 of the one sovereign authority. Nor was it all 

 as "plain sailing" as at first supposed. The 

 weather permitting It, the hive had been placed 

 on the stand where it was to remain, and ants 

 took possession, killing young bees and worry- 

 ing the queen. Getting rid of this nuisance, and 

 placing the hive on legs in cans of water, things 

 progressed satisfactorily, and from time to time 

 brood was added — a small entrance, of course, 

 having been opened up about the fourth day. 

 About this time the queen was known to be lay- 

 ing; bees were going to the fields, and in a short 

 time there was a fair-sized colony with six 

 frames and a division-board; honev was begin- 

 ning to come in, and, as the frames were well 

 covered with bees, the entrance opened half 

 width, and was well defended. The hive was 

 not looked into till the 24th of August, when a 

 dead queen was found in front of the hive. On 

 looking in, queen-cells were seen, in different 

 stages, one or more having the appearance 

 common after the young queen has crawled 

 out, and drones were nearly ready to hatch. 



It will thus be seen that preparations for 

 swarming had begun very early in the life of 

 this colony, and escaped my notice until the 

 dead queen was found ; but I can not be positive 

 in regard to the source from which these prepa- 

 rations to swarm began, because both drone and 

 worker eggs or young larvae might have been 

 present before the new queen laid an egg ; yet 

 I feel sure the eggs that hatched drones and 

 queens were all hers, from the fact that the 

 drones (which required the longer time to 

 hatch), when they began to fly, proved to be of 

 the beautiful solid golden color claimed for R. 

 & Co.'s golden queen's progeny, and entirely 

 unlike any ever before seen in my apiary. 



The queen-cells having been cut out and 

 used, and more room given, no further atten- 

 tion was given the colony, other than a glance 

 in, once or twice, to make sure the queen was 



there and laying. The disposition to swarm 

 was apparently over with. 



Sept. 20 a drone-laying queen was discovered; 

 and, to save the colony, after killing the queen 

 I went to the hive above mentioned, to get eggs 

 for them from which they could raise a queen, 

 expecting to have to help them along with 

 brood from other hives, or at least get them 

 started with a new queen before cold weather. 

 The first frame lifted had a queen on it. and it 

 was put back, one frame skipped and the next 

 held up, when there, too, was a queen. Holding 

 the frame in one hand I lifted out again the 

 first one, and there was no mistake. With a 

 frame in each hand, and a queen on each frame, 

 I saw a better thing for my queenless colony 

 than eggs and the long delay before workers 

 could hatch. Knowing the old queen at sight, 

 I put her back and at once introduced the other 

 into the queenless colony, and she began laying 

 at once, proving, if her shape had not (the full 

 rounded abdomen of a laying queen), that both 

 mother and daughter had been laying together 

 in the other hive. The mother in the artificial 

 colony is very prolific, and, like the others pur- 

 chased, was untested, hence young. Why did 

 this colony want to swarm this late in the sea- 

 son? Did the artificial formation of it instigate 

 the impulse? Who ''raised the row"— the 

 queen or those young white baby-bees ? Why 

 did the queen permit one daughter to live and 

 lay after one or more had Ijeen killed? If both 

 had been left in the hive, would swarming have 

 taken place next spring without further prepa- 

 ration? These are some of the questions that 

 arise which, may be, that " experiment station" 

 will solve and answer. C. P. Coffin. 



Pontotoc, Miss., Sept. 36, 1893. 



FLORIDA. 



SELF-SPACING FRAMES; BEE-ENEMIES, ETC. 



This is a decidedly off-year for honey, around 

 Orlando. The bee-keepers here report little or 

 no surplus gathered, and many colonies have 

 been destroyed by worms, ants, etc., which loss, 

 I suspect, is due mainly to short stores and loss 

 of queens. However, my own bees are in excel- 

 lent shape. I have lost no colonies, and all have 

 sealed stores, except two or three. From 24 

 colonies, spring count. I have taken to date 

 about 600 lbs. of honey — .500 lbs. of which was 

 extracted, being an average of 35 lbs. per colo- 

 ny, which I consider, under the circumstances, 

 a most gratifying result. My present number 

 of colonies is 37. 



THE BEE-HAWK. 



I have found a new and destructive enemy to 

 the bee; and that is, the bee-hawk. These pi- 

 rates come by the hundreds around the apiary, 

 late in the afternoon, and catch and swallow 

 the bees in great numbers. I have had to arm 

 with paddles, and open war upon them. 



A SUGGESTION FOR SELF-SPACING FRAMES. 



If those who object to self-spacing frames 

 would try having the projections, or spacing- 

 strips, in one piece attached to one side of the 

 frame, instead of projecting on both sides of the 

 frames, I am satisfied they would find less cause 

 to complain of glue, by reason of the angle be- 

 ing less acute, the connections being more at 

 right angles, which prevents them from being 

 so badly propolized. 



PINKVINE A HONEY-PLANT. 



I send you by mail a specimen of the Antigo- 

 non leptopus, or pinkvine. the queen of vines, 

 unrivaled in grace and beauty. The vine cov- 

 ers 80 to 100 square feet, all this year's growth, 



