674 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



her majesty somewhere in sight, and a quick 

 grab with thumb and forefinger will secure her, 

 even if a dive of an inch or two among the bees 

 is" necessary. If the queen is not in sight at 

 first, and does not show herself soon, I tal\e the 

 box on the ground, and, by tipping it from one 

 side to the other, manipulating the bees in such 

 a way that they are scattered thinly all over the 

 inside of the box, sides and bottom; and. nine 

 cases out of ten, the queen will come in sight. 



But how can we tell that all the queens are 

 taken from the swarm, after finding one or two? 

 Well, the bees will tell. I hang the box in a 



LOOKING FOK THE QUEEN. 



convenient place, and wait a few minutes. If 

 they have still another queen with them they 

 will remain quiet, and another search is neces- 

 sary; but if they are queenless they become un- 

 easy and are soon on their way home. 



It is not so easy with large swarms. After 

 they have become quiet in the hiving-box I 

 dump the bulk of them in front of a hive with 

 a set of cleaned extracting-combs. Very fre- 

 quently the queen is then in sight; but if not, 

 when the bees with their accustomed hum begin 

 to travel toward the hive I set the box with the 

 remaining bees (see illustration), which have 

 also begun the same hum, on the other side of 

 the pile, and soon the bees are drawn in oppo- 

 site diipctious, one column traveling toward 

 the hive, the other toward the box. This scat- 

 ters the swarm over so much territory that mat- 

 ters must be very much against us to miss the 

 queen. But in case she did escape our vigil- 

 ance she must be either in the hive or in the 

 box; and as soon as the queenless part begins 

 to show this uneasiness, hunting fortheirqueen, 

 I rirry the other part with the queen in the 

 ij. ar-by bee-cellar. Those left outdoors are 

 iliiis made queenless. and point out to us the 

 liivo from which they issued by their returning 

 t 111 Teto en masse. We have then the opportu- 

 nity to destroy the queen-cells of that colony 

 and return the remainder of the swarm from 

 the bee-cellar if we desire. If for any reason 

 we wish to find the queen it can be done much 

 easier, since the swarm has been divided. The 

 set of combs, over which the half-swarm is dis- 



tributed, can be looked over to better advan- 

 tage than when twice as many bees are crowd- 

 ed together; or, if the queen had happened to 

 find her way into the hiving-box, the same op- 

 eration as taking a queen from a small swarm 

 will accomplish the object. 



All valuable queens, which I obtain by hiving 

 swarms back without their queen, I keep in nu- 

 clei as a reserve in case any are needed; other- 

 wise I build them up as best I can until fall. If 

 by that time they are not strong enough to 

 winter separately, they are united. They oc- 

 cupy a row by themselves, so that two or three 

 can be easily put together. 



These nuclei are made from swarms that are 

 not sufficiently strong to work in supers— gen- 

 erally such as have been found queenless in the 

 fore part of summer, and at that time supplied 

 with a queen-cell or perhaps a virgin queen. 

 To form these nuclei I move the swarm that I 

 have selected for this purpose to a new stand; 

 a comb of brood with a caged queen and a 

 couple of empty combs or frames are placed in 

 a contracted hive on the old stand to receive 

 the flying bees. After a day or two, when the 

 queen is released, this makes a strong nucleus 

 and can be built up very fast. The removed 

 colony is by this time destitute of all flying 

 bees, and contracted to its brood-combs. Any 

 time thereafter, every one of these with its ad- 

 hering bees and a queen can be used to start a 

 nucleus. As they have no flying bees, those 

 taken with each comb will remain wherever 

 placed. 



Naples, N. Y., Aug. 15. 



j4. P., Pa.— Sorghum molasses is not nearly 

 as good for feeding bees as syrup from granu- 

 lated sugar, especially for winter feeding. How- 

 ever, bees do winter very well on such feed; 

 and as you have the article we would risk it. 



C. N. W., N. I^.— Our dovetailed chaff hives 

 are intended to winter out of doors in most lo- 

 calities ; but in extremely cold climates, or 

 where there is great exposure, we recommend 

 putting these hives with the bees into the cel- 

 lar. Then when they are taken out in the 

 spring the double wall protects them much bet- 

 ter than a single-walled hive. We think you 

 will find the plan will work very satisfactorily. 

 Your cellar, however, needs to be perfectly 

 dark, and one where the temperature does not 

 vary much above 50 degrees nor below 40. If 

 you put the chaft' hives in the cellar, we would 

 advise you to try part of them with just a thin 

 cloth laid on top of the brocd-nest — nothing 

 more. 



