890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



shut out of thought except returning to the old 

 hive which they will invariably do unless they 

 are joined by another swarm that has a queen. 

 I have had as many as five swarms in the air at 

 once, and each one returning automatically, as 

 it were, to the old stand, and all readily enter- 

 ing their respective new hives, and the work is 

 all done inside of 20 minutes. 



In my bee-keeping experience I have had one 

 case that I have never heard of or seen on 

 record; that is, a queen fertilized and laying in 

 four days from the cell. Now, don't let some 

 one jump up and say this is only guesswork, for 

 such is not the case. It occurred at about the 

 beginning of my bee-keeping. I was desirous 

 of increasing and Italianizing. I took a frame 

 of eggs and bees from a strong colony, and 

 placed it in a nucleus hive, and they built cells, 

 and about the 12th day I removed all but one, 

 and on the morning of the 16th day I made an 

 investigation and found the cell not yet hatch- 

 ed. I looked again at noon, and found the cell 

 hatched, and a fine thrifty- looking queen. On 

 the afternoon of the fourth day from this time 

 I made another examination and found the 

 queen had just begun to lay. I caught and 

 clipped her, and she went right along with the 

 business of the hive and proved to be a fine 

 prolific queen. 



Now for another story which to some will 

 seem quite as incredible. Last summer I had a 

 queen that I was desirous of breeding from; 

 and one afternoon late I took an eight-frame 

 hive and took a frame of brood from this queen 

 and put it into the hive. I then took a frame 

 with adhering bees from the upper stories of 

 five different hives and put into this hive, and 

 shook the bees from as many more frames from 

 this same upper story in front of this hive, 

 smoked them in, put a wire screen over the 

 front of the portico, put the hive into my buggy 

 and brought it home with me and set it in my 

 garden. I did not look at it until the morning 

 of the 14th day, when I found four queens 

 tumbled out at the entrance. I opened the 

 hive and found 65 perfect queen-cells on this 

 one comb. Who can beat it? I think I can 

 account for the large number, and I should like 

 to hear from the high authorities to see how 

 many get it right. 



Hillsboro, Wis., Oct. 30. 



[The circumstance you refer to, of a queen 

 laying inside of four days from the date of 

 hatching, is perhaps a little out of the ordinary ; 

 but nevertheless, if I remember correctly I had 

 several such cases come under my observation 

 in our apiary while I was actively engaged in 

 raising young queens. At the time the matter 

 came up in the journals it was concluded, I 

 believe, that very often queens were confined 

 or kepi from emerging from the cells by the 

 bees. Indeed, some took the ground that they 

 were actually fed in the cells. In some cases it 

 was estimated that the queens were confined 

 anywhere from three to four days after the date 

 when they should be hatched. This being the 



case, it would be nothing strange if such queens 

 should begin laying within four days after 

 emerging from the cell. But in ordinary cases, 

 when the young queen hatches at the end of 

 the 15th or 16th day from the laying of the egg 

 she will not begin to lay very often before eight 

 or ten days. 



Regarding the very large number of queen- 

 cells on one comb, I would state that, shortly 

 after friend Jones introduced into this country 

 and Canada the Holy Land bees, there were a 

 number of cases reported, I think, where as 

 many as 50 and even 75 queen-cells were found 

 on a single comb. Holy Land bees will build 

 more cells than any other race of bees that we 

 know of. I remember once of holding in my 

 hand a comb containing nearly .50 cells. It 

 seems almost incredible, but 20 of these cells 

 hatched out while I was holding the comb, or 

 within a period of 30 minutes. This was re- 

 corded at the time in Gleanings, and now 

 appears under the head of " Holy Land Bees " 

 in our A B C of Bee Culture. So many young 

 queens hatching at a time was something ex- 

 traordinary, and probably will not be observed 

 every day by queen breeders by considerable. 

 If the colony you refer to, that reared 65 per- 

 fect queen-cells on one comb, were Italians, the 

 fact is something extraordinary. Six or eight 

 cells are as many as these bees will usually 

 raise on a single comb. 



I omitted to state that, when these twenty 

 young queens hatched inside of 30 minutes, two 

 or three of them took wing and flew a short 

 distance, but were recaptured. I saw this with 

 my own eyes, and I know there was no mistake. 

 This would go to prove the statement above, 

 that some of these queens had been held back 

 probably two or three days beyond the time 

 when they should ordinarily hatch.— [Ed. 



'I Ill" ■"« niimiiiimiiwiF - 



' ANSWERS TO 



BY G.M.D0OLITTLE.BOBOOINO.N.Y. 

 tanamn. 



■ '■" 



FULL SHEETS OP FOUNDATION IN BKOOD- 

 FRAMES. 



Question.— Wh\ch pays better — to put full 

 sheets of foundation in the brood -frames, or put 

 in only starters and let the bees fill the frames 

 with natural comb? 



Answer. — That depends a good deal on the 

 wants of the apiarist. If he is working for ex- 

 tracted honey, and wishes his frames filled with 

 worker comb, so that he can use these combs in 

 any place in the apiary, then it is almost a ne- 

 cessity to use foundation; otherwise only drone 

 comb will be built in the upper stories, over the 

 brood-combs— especially where a queen-exclud- 

 er is used, as it is best to do when working for 

 extracted honey. Extracted honey is best pro- 

 duced with very strong colonies ; and such col- 

 onies, as a rule, will build mostly drone comb 

 when a honey-flow is on, while such comb is 

 a disadvantage to any apiarist only as it is kept 

 for special use over queen-excluders. Of course, 

 drone comb works equally well with worker 

 comb for extracted honey, where queen-exclud- 

 ers are used; but unless the average apiarist is 

 very difl'erent from Doolittle, there will come a 



