1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



499 



titude of dwarf drones, to the disadvantage of 

 bees, combs, and owner. Daring my experience 

 with them I found that fertile workers were 

 always present with them, and ready to lay as 

 soon as the queen was out of the hive. At times 

 they sting fearfully; at other times they are 

 nearly as peaceable as the Italians. When 

 queenless they are as vicious as tigers, and 

 often make the bravest beat a hasty retreat. 

 However, they will not venture an attack un- 

 less the hive is disturbed, as will the black and 

 hybrid bees; but at times it is almost impossi- 

 ble to manipulate the hives to do what is neces- 

 sary to be done. Their good qualities were, 

 that they stood our cold winters well, and 

 readily entered the sections when there were 

 sufficient bees to do so, in times of harvest. 



SWAKMING, NATURAL OR ARTIFCIAL,— WHICH? 



Question. — I live in the far North, nearly as 

 far as bees can be kept with any profit, and 

 wish to know which will be the most desirable 

 with me — natural or artificial swarming. 



Answer. — That depends very largely upon 

 the circumstances and surroundings of the 

 questioner. On one point I believe all are 

 agreed; and that is, that a natural swarm will 

 work with greater energy than that manifested 

 by any swarm made by any plan of man's de- 

 vising: consequently, natural swarming is pre- 

 ferred by most of our enterprising apiarists. If 

 the swarm is hived on the old stand, and the 

 partly filled sections taken from the old colony 

 and placed on the swarm so as to throw all of 

 the working force of the whole colony into the 

 sections with that ambition that only natural 

 swarming can call forth, it is doubtful wheth- 

 er as much honey can be secured in any other 

 way. Yet if a person does not have bees enough 

 to make a specialty of the business, so it will 

 pay him to be on hand to hive and care for 

 natural swarms, or if so situated that the bees 

 go to the tops of tall trees to cluster, or in 

 swarming are a nuisance to the neighbors, then 

 it is better to make our increase by division, 

 even if we do not secure Quite as much honey. 

 As many plans are given in the bee-books, and 

 as every one who keeps bees should have a 

 work on bees, I will not stop to give any plans 

 of artificial increase here. 



ROUND PIECES OF WAX AT ENTRANCE. 



Question. — While passing around in my api- 

 ary the other morning I came across several 

 round caps of wax near the entrance to one of 

 my hives— something I never saw before. What 

 does it denote — that the bees are uncapping 

 honey, that queens are hatching, or what? 



Answer.— So far as my observation goes, the 

 finding of such caps signifies that drones are 

 hatching out; for if any one will take the time 

 to examine he will find that the drone, when 

 about to emerge from the cell, bites the cover 

 to the cell entirely off by a smooth cut, while 

 the workers leave only fragments of the cap- 



pings of their cell-coverings when hatching. 

 The queen cuts off the capping to her cell the 

 same as does the drone, except, as a rule, a 

 little piece on one side is left which acts like 

 the hinge to a door, the door often closing after 

 the queen has gone out, so that it is a rare 

 thing to see the cover to a queen-cell at the 

 entrance to the hive. When it thus closes the 

 bees often make it fast so the bee-keeper is 

 many times deceived, by .thinking the queen 

 has not hatched. It often happens that, as 

 soon as the queen has emerged from her cell, a 

 worker goes in to partake of the royal jelly left 

 in the cell, after which the cell-cover flies back, 

 or is so pushed by the passing bees, when it is 

 waxed fast, and the worker is a prisoner, which 

 has caused many to think that the inmate of 

 the cell was not a queen but a worker; hence 

 they call their colony queenless, and send off 

 for a queen, or write to the bee-papers about 

 the strange phenomenon. These round cap- 

 pings do not indicate that the bees are uncap- 

 ping honey, as the cappings of honey-cells are 

 gnawed off in little fragments, and not in the 

 round form spoken of. 



H. C. L., Tex.— From what you say, it seems 

 very evident that your bees are starving, and, 

 being short of stores, they necessarily had to 

 destroy or neglect their larvte, and, as a conse- 

 quence, you found them carrying them out. 

 The fact that it was very dry, and robbers 

 were about, would point in that direction. If 

 robbers should get into the hives and tear the 

 combs any it would also cause the bees to carry 

 the mutilated young bees out in the way you 

 saw; but the probabilities are that they were 

 starving. Feeding is, of course, the remedy. 



J. D., Ohio. — It is not an uncommon thing, 

 when honey granulates, for the thin and wa- 

 tery portion to rise to the top. This is, proba- 

 bly, a part of the honey that is not so well rip- 

 ened as the rest. The fact that the honey be- 

 haved as you say is a good evidence of its 

 purity. Some customers will complain of such 

 honey, and I don't know of any thing you can 

 do except to give them your word of honor that 

 the honey is pure. If that does not satisfy 

 them, tell them to have it analyzed and you 

 will pay the bill if it is not pure. 



W. M. C, Cal.—lt is impossible to give a defi- 

 nite answer as to how much a swarm of bees 

 weighing a given amount will bring in pounds 

 of honey per day. There are so many condi- 

 tions to be taken into account, such as the 

 weather, the kind of bees, the strength of the 

 swarm, the source of the honey-flow, and the 



