572 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



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PUTTING QUEENS IN TUMBLERS. 



Question. — I bought a colony of bees whose 

 queen's wings were clipped. When they 

 swarmed I picked up the queen from the 

 alighting-board and placed her in a clean 

 common tumbler. The hives were changed, 

 and, upon return of the swarm, the queen al- 

 lowed to run in with the swarm, after which it 

 was taken to its new stand. The next morn- 

 ing the most of the bees returned to the old 

 hive, when I found the queen dead at the en- 

 trance. I also caught another queen and 

 placed her in a tumbler. She also died while 

 confined, which was about twenty minutes. A 

 wire screen was placed over the tumbler to 

 prevent her escape. What was the cause of 

 their death? I do not think I injured either 

 in handling. 



Answer. — Were it not that I have known of 

 many queens dying under similar circumstanc- 

 es, I would not take up room in Gleanings to 

 reply to this question; but as it seems to be a 

 common custom to place queens under tum- 

 blers, by beginners, if the loss of valuable 

 queens can be saved by a few words of mine 

 then it is my duty to give them. The first 

 queen I ever lost was lost in just this way, I 

 not understanding why it was not best to cage 

 a queen under a glass dish, through which I 

 could see the queen and know she was safe. 

 The cause of the death of the first queen is not 

 so apparent; yet it is my opinion that she was 

 so impaired by the heat in the tumbler or by 

 her struggles to get out that she died from the 

 effects of one or both, during the night. When 

 the bees come to realize her loss and their hope- 

 less condition they did the wise thing, and that 

 which their nature always prompts them to do 

 — return home, where they have not been out of 

 the hive more than 34 hours. The cause of the 

 death of the second is quite plain for three 

 reasons; the first and most common of which 

 is, that the glass tumbler is allowed to stand in 

 the sun, whose heat, through the direct rays, 

 and by reflection also, soon becomes sufficient 

 to destroy the life of any thing but a salaman- 

 der. No one should be faolish enough to put a 

 queen under a glass or tin dish, and allow it to 

 stand in the sun for a single minute; yet the 

 writer was once guilty of just such foolishness 

 when he first began to keep bees. But our 

 questioner tells us that he placed wire cloth 

 over the tumbler, so that he was not so foolish 

 as was the writer; yet he lost his queen just 

 the same; and this brings us to the second 

 reason why a queen should not be placed in 

 any glass, glazed earthen, china, or tin dish. 

 As soon as the queeti finds she is a captive she 



begins to try to get out, and this she can do 

 only by climbing; and as she can not climb far 

 on the smooth surface of any of the dishes spo- 

 ken of above, she gets as far as she can and 

 then falls back, only to repeat the effort time 

 and time again, till she dies from exhaustion. 

 The third reason is, that no queen will live any 

 great length of time without food; consequent- 

 ly the bees are constantly feeding their queen, 

 where they can do so. But the tumbler ex- 

 cluded their feeding her, unless she could get 

 to the screen; and as she could not do this, 

 she was liable to die from starvation as well as 

 from exhaustion. The only proper cage in 

 which to keep a queen is one made of wire 

 cloth, or of wire cloth and wood; and it is bet- 

 ter to have all such cages provisioned with 

 queen candy. The bees will generally care for 

 a queen all right where they have access to 

 such a wire-cloth cage; but to be always on 

 the safe side, I bore a hole in the inside end of 

 the stopper, when it is always ready, no matter 

 whether the bees can get at the cage or not, so 

 long as this hole is filled with candy. Such 

 cages are very handy to have during the sum- 

 mer season, and I have some in different places 

 in the bee-yard so I can get one at a moment's 

 notice. 



REPLACING AGED QUEENS. 



Question.— I have several old hybrid queens 

 that are past their usefulness, and I wish to 

 replace them. How and when shall I proceed 

 to do it? 



Ansiver. — First as to the when: This can be 

 done at any time; but I find that the bees su- 

 persede more queens just after the main honey- 

 flow for the season is over tfcan at any other 

 time of the year; consequently, where I wish 

 to supersede queens for any reason I do it just 

 after the basswood-blossoms drop off, as the 

 most of the honey in this locality comes from 

 basswood. Now as to the how. Unless a change 

 in variety of bees is desired, I would advise the 

 beginner to leave this matter of supersedure of 

 queens to the bees, as they will make fewer 

 mistakes, if this matter is left to them, than 

 the smartest bee-keeper in the land — especially 

 where there is any Italian blood in the bees. 

 But if we wish to change the breed of bees, 

 then of course the apiarist must do it. The 

 plan I use most, and like best, is to start queen- 

 cells just before the basswood honey-yield 

 ©loses, when the bees are in the best possible 

 shape to raise extra good queens; then two 

 days before these cells are about to hatch I go 

 to the colonies having queens which I wjsh to 

 supersede, and hunt out the queens and kill 

 them. Two days later the nearly mature cells 

 are placed in queen-cell protectors and placed 

 in these colonies; and my experience has been 

 that, in nineteen cases out of twenty, young, 

 thrifty, vigorous queens will be found laying in 

 volonies thus treated, fifteen days later. If we 



