1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



263 



and shows that he or she can not have looked 

 into the matter very thoroughly. I have made 

 swarming and queen-rearing a study for the 

 past twenty years, spending hours, days, and 

 weeks upon it; and if any queen was ever fer- 

 tilized, or even flew out to meet the drone while 

 there were other young queens in the cells, it is 

 something I have never noticed, and something 

 that all of my experiments go to prove never 

 happens. All know that after-swarming comes 

 only from a plurality of queens in the hive, and 

 these queens are always those which have nev- 

 er been out of the hive at all, except as they 

 may have gone out with an after-swarm, and 

 been returned by the apiarist. As a rule, dur- 

 ing after-swarming, all young queens which 

 would naturally emerge from the cells, except 

 the first hatched, are kept in the cells by a 

 guard of bees which feed them through a small 

 opening in the cell, made by the young queen 

 trying to bite the cover ofl'; and these queens 

 are constantly quawking because they are kept 

 prisoners; and the one which has her liberty 

 is piping back in her enraged condition— enrag- 

 ed because the bees keep her from destroying 

 these quawking inmates of the cells. J' 



While such a state of things as this is kept up 

 in the hive, no queen has any desire to mate, 

 and no after-swarming is ever conducted ex- 

 cept under just such a state of afl'airs. In one 

 or two instances, where after-swarms had been 

 kept back for several days by unfavorable 

 weather, and where only one queen went with 

 the after-swarm, I have had every evidence to 

 believe that said queens were fertilized while 

 out with the swarm, as I saw them entering 

 the hive with the drone organs attached to 

 them, and they were laying two days after- 

 ward. But the rule is, that all queens accom- 

 panying after-swarms wait about their wed- 

 ding-trip until they are established in their 

 new home, when, in two to four days after 

 hiving, on some pleasant afternoon, the bees 

 will come out for a playspell, and the queen be 

 seen to leave the hive to mate. 



GETTING BEES TO WOKK IN UPPER STORIES. 



Question.— I use the Simplicity hive, and 

 wish to know if the hanging of a frame of 

 brood and honey "upstairs," taken from the 

 lower story, would get the bees up and to work 

 more quickly. I use full wired frames of foun- 

 dation. 



Answer. — Yes, it would in many cases; but 

 would it not be too much manipulation for the 

 advantage gained ? The bees will follow their 

 brood " upstairs " every time; but it does not 

 appear to alwayfi get them to work more quick- 

 ly, as to starting comb-building, than by other 

 methods. The theory, that, as bees will in- 

 stinctively adhere to their brood wherever it is 

 placed, so said brood will set the bees at work 

 wherever there is brood, needs to be taken with 

 a degree of intelligence; for, no matter whether 



the brood is kept together or separated, the 

 bees will not go to work storing honey or draw- 

 ing out comb foundation, in any part of the 

 hive, when there is a dearth of honey; and 

 very many do not seem to think otherwise 

 than that the bees should be at work storing 

 honey on every pleasant day during the time 

 flowers are in bloom. If there were any difficul- 

 ty in getting bees to work in a properly arrang- 

 ed surplus-apartment, when there is any thing 

 for them to do, it would be of advantage to talk 

 about a remedy; but my experience has been 

 that. If there is honey in the flowers, and the 

 weather is fine, and the brood-nest is full of 

 brood, or brood and honey, we shall find it a 

 difficult matter to keep the bees out of the 

 surplus- apartment, even should we wish it 

 otherwise, short of taking said apartment from 

 the hive, or excluding the bees therefrom. I 

 think all of our best practical apiarists agree 

 that, with good average queens, a good strain 

 of bees, proper size and shape of brood-chamber, 

 right communications to the surplus-recepta- 

 cles, bees will, without any artificial induce- 

 ment, begin in the surplus-apartment just as 

 soon as the secretion of nectar will yield any 

 surplus. 



FIXING -HIVES FOR WINTER. :ir 



Question.— Would it be advisable, when pre- 

 paring bees for winter, to place the combs that 

 the bees are going to winter on, in the upper 

 story, and then place the upper story on an 

 empty lower story? If prepared thus would 

 not the dead bees and foul air settle to the bot- 

 tom, and the warm pure air stay at the top? 



Answer.— Here is a question which should 

 have been answered last November, but was 

 overlooked; and as the writer has prompted 

 me, from being anxious to have a reply. I ven- 

 ture to thus put it in, although somewhat out 

 of season. 



There is, without doubt, some advantage in 

 having the hives elevated a little above the 

 usual position during winter; and if it could be 

 done without too much work, undoubtedly it 

 would pay. But I should not want that eleva- 

 tion, when the hives are on their summer 

 stands, to be as much as the whole depth of a 

 hive. I think that Dr. Miller has about the 

 right idea In his reversible bottom-board — the 

 elevation, when on the reversed or winter side, 

 being about two inches. I think this depth 

 better than any greater depth. I am using 

 some of these bottom-boards this winter; and, 

 while they are a success with Dr. Miller, I am 

 using the precaution which I think should 

 always be given when trying any thinc' new — 

 go slow till I have proven the thing success 

 in my locaHty. 



// you loould like to have any of your friends 

 see a specimen copy of Gleanings, make known 

 the request on a postal, with the address or ad- 

 dresses, and we will, ivith pleasure, send them. 



