356 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1. 



near the swarm coming out. It was amusing 

 to see the bees pour into this box, and then see 

 them dumped out at the hive where he wanted 

 them. 



One day he had five swarms clustered at 

 once in a bunch. I helped him look them over 

 and find three of the queens, which were each 

 placed in a separate hive, and the bees induced 

 to go evenly into them to form three new colo- 

 nies. Then there was a final changing of the 

 hives next morning to even up the bees, just as 

 many bee-keepers still practice. 



S. I. FREEBORN. 



Mr. Freeborn, in a year or so after, obtained 

 a Murphy honey-extractor, the first one used in 

 our part of the country. He afterward obtain- 

 ed one of Novice's extractors, and these two 

 were used by him for several years, and ex- 

 tracted many tons of honey. About this time 

 he obtained some Italian queens, and began 

 rearing that breed of bees, and soon had his 

 apiary fully Italianized. He had some fine 

 queens from H. Alley, and among others one 

 from G. M. Doolittle. This was a tested queen, 

 and cost $5.00. After sending it, Mr. Doolittle 

 found her progeny so good-natured and hand- 

 some that he bought her back toward the fall 

 of the same season. Mr. Freeborn had some 

 splendid bees from this queen. It would be in- 

 teresting to read the history of her offspring at 

 Mr. Doolittle's, and perhaps he remembers the 

 transaction yet. This was bringing bee-keep- 

 ing down to a fine point, when apiarists noted 

 the disposition of their bees. And why not? 

 for what terribly cross fellows some hybrids 

 were ! How savagely they would sting, and 

 how prolific too ! Then we noted how they 

 were out first in the morning, and worked later 

 at night than the blacks. I wonder if they be- 

 have so now. 



In the fall of 1869 or '70 Mr. Freeborn and I 

 bought of a farmer his entire stock of bees in 

 old box hives — 22 colonies. These we hauled 



home on a bobsled. To prevent smothering we 

 turned the hives bottom up, and had a merry 

 load indeed. The hives were very heavy, and 

 we thought we had a fine lot of stores; but, 

 alas! it was largely bee -bread instead of 

 honey. On account of cold weather the bees 

 could not fly before spring after removal, and 

 they wintered rather poorly; but next spring 

 we transferred to frame hives, and, having plen- 

 ty of comb, and a good season, soon had them 

 in fine condition. When basswoods began to 

 bloom I concluded to remove the queens to stop 

 breeding for a time, and let them give their at- 

 tention to storing honey, which they did in 

 royal style. The removal of the queens, how- 

 ever, gave me quite an adventure. When I 

 was preparing to do the work a young son of 

 Mr. Freeborn, who was full of mischief, and a 

 younger brother of mine, heard my plans, and, 

 unknown to me, went to the hives to stir the 

 bees up; and they did it brown. I found it out 

 after I got well to work; but, despite angry 

 stings, 1 held to the work, smoked them lively, 

 and finished the job in a reeking sweat. Hur- 

 rying to the house I combed out about a dozen 

 stings from my hair, and then tumbled on to 

 the bed in a dead faint. My folks dashed some 

 cold water on my head. That roused me as 

 quickly and painfully as if I had been struck 

 with half a dozen clubs. Oh how it hurt ! 

 this time I began to turn purple and red in 

 spots all over, and felt terribly, and for once in 

 my life I was induced to swallow some whisky, 

 which soon brought me out all right, but al- 

 ways with a regret that I had to even taste the 

 foul stuff. Strange to say, that, ever after this, 

 I have been unable to bear a single sting with- 

 out a recurrence of the same symptoms in such 

 a severe form as to forbid further bee-keeping 

 by me. 



NURSERY FOR HATCHING CHICKENS AND 

 QUEENS. 



HOW TO REGULATE TEMPERATURE OF LAMP- 

 NURSERIES. 



H. O. Quirin. 



Can more queens be taken from a nucleus by 

 the use of a lamp-nursery ? G. M. Doolittle has 

 an article in Gleanings for Jan. 15 wherein he 

 intimates that more queens can be taken from 

 a nucleus by the use of a nursery, but says that 

 introducing queens two or three days old has 

 proven an unsafe method with him. Now, I 

 should like to ask him why he would want to 

 keep those queens in the incubator until two or 

 three days old. I do not think I should want to 

 do so, even if I could make a success of intro- 

 ducing them to nuclei. I deem it quite essen- 

 tial to the longevity (or good health, if you 

 please) of the queen, that she be introduced 

 within five or six hours after emerging from 

 the cell, as she does not get the exercise in a 



