1890 



(CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



203 



with you in regard to bees for business. I 

 once had a hybrid colony that built comb 

 and stored honey right through a severe 

 drouth when the otlier bees got scarcely an 

 ounce, and hardly stirred a peg. The bees 

 from this hybrid colony were Hying every 

 day, as fast as they could put out and come 

 back ; but when we went to their Iiive. they 

 fought like tigers. Finally I got a theory 

 into my head, that, the more lioney I took 

 away from them, the harder they worked; 

 and in order to demonstrate ttiis to my 

 satisfaction, what do you think 1 did '? 

 Why, it was like the last straw that broke 

 the camels back. I crowded them so close 

 that I found them one day all starved to 

 death. I had neglected to look at them for 

 some little time, thinking they would lind 

 enough to live on any way. 1 always feel 

 bad whenever I think of it. I consoled my- 

 self at the time by thinking it was not very 

 much matter, as they were so pesky ugly. 

 With the outlook now before us. however, 

 and the great things we are expecting to 

 accomplish by bee-escapes, etc.. we might 

 put such a strain of bees away off in the 

 woods somewhere, and then take tlie honey 

 away by lifting off tinished cases, without a 

 bee to bother or hinder.— I hope it is a 

 notion, that I can not eat honey of late 

 years. If so, I am going to try hard to get 

 over it. 



^ I m' 



CAGING QUEENS, ETC. 



WRITING FOR PRINT OR FOR THE WASTE-BASKET. 



The following private note accompany- 

 ing an article came to hand ; but as it con- 

 tains one or two spicy hints, we take the 

 liberty of making it a sort of prelude to our 

 friend's article. 



Friend Root:— Don't think that I shall get mad if 

 I don't see this little effort in print, as some have 

 done, for I have learned better. Some eis'ht or ten 

 years ago I used to conceive some ideas about how 

 bees and " flxin's " ought to be, and would imag-ine 

 how this great throbbing world was standing still, 

 waiting till I could and would let my lisht sliine. I 

 remember of sending you some of these (to me) 

 master productions and you cut off all that amount- 

 ed to anj' thing to me, and threw it into the waste- 

 basket, and told me, as a friend lin need), that your 

 grandfather or some one else had abandoned the 

 same idea away back in the fifties. You see, this 

 is " awful convincin' " to an aspiring writer, that 

 " new ideas " are scarce. M. A. Gill. 



Viola. Wis., Feb. 20. 



The following is the article, and a valua- 

 ble one it is too: 



C.A.GING QUEENS TO PREVENT SWARMIXG .\ND EX- 

 CESSIVE BROOD-RE.\RI.\G WHEN NOT DE- 

 SIRED. 



While thinking upon some of the important ques- 

 tions that have been discussed in Gle.\nings in the 

 past few months, I thought a few observations of 

 my own might not come amiss. lam glad to see 

 the subject of caging queens during the honey- 

 flow receive some attention, for I consider it one of 

 the sources which are to relieve us of so much in- 

 cref.se at u time when we wish to control it at all 

 hazards. I mean bee-keepers north of the 44th par- 

 allel, who have struggled, so to speak, to get their 



bees in working shape for basswood, and know that 

 what honey they do get must come in 1.5 days. Yes, 

 we work the whole year, as a rule, for what we can 

 get the first '^i) days of Ju'y. If this be the case, it 

 is a self-evident fact that we don't want any swarm- 

 ing during this time ; and more, we don't want the 

 combs occupied with brood in the top story; and 

 for my part I don't allow it in eitlur story from the 

 10th to the 1.5th of June, until basswood bloom is 

 half passed, or, say, 10 days after basswood has 

 opened. If my queens are caged I liberate them at 

 this time; and if I have taken the queen away (and 

 killed her if she does not come up to my standard, 

 or given her to a nucleus, if she be a good one), I 

 gauge that time to this event, and aim to have her 

 laying from four to six days before basswood- 

 closes. You will say, no doubt, that this would be 

 an extravagant loss of young bees. But I tell you, 

 while we are working for extracted honey during 

 basswood, with a full supply of combs, that we 

 have no use for any thing but honey-gatherers, and 

 no use for any thing but young bees for the subse- 

 quent month, as that is here our dry month for 

 honey, and September, when we get our next flow; 

 this gives us ample time to produce another crop 

 of workers. 



I wish to mention here two queens that were 

 caged on the 12th of July, and missed by some help 

 I had on the 18th (when I ordered them liberated). 

 These were found caged on the 18:h of November. 

 Of course, all the bees were dead, and so was one 

 queen; but the other was as lively as a cricket, and 

 had two frames of brood 10 days later, when I put 

 them into the cellar. The colony is still alive, but 

 of course weak; but quite a goodly number of the 

 old hybrid colony are still there, and, of course, 

 they are eight months old. How is that for a hardy 

 strain? 



A VALUABLE SUGGESTION ON THICK TOP-BARS. 



In regard to thick top bars, I will sav that I made 

 3D hives, six years ago, with top bars "a deep by one 

 inch wide, and they were not spaced properly, be- 

 ing only 8 frames in 12 inches; but the space above 

 was "g. of an inch, and it prevented brace-combs to 

 such an extent that inexperienced help spoke of it. 

 I noticed another prominent feature that I have 

 not heard mentioned in any of the comments; 

 namely, the bees would build their combs clear 

 down, and fasten them to the bottom-bar in the top- 

 story, and that with only a small starter of founda- 

 tion. This, you see, would leave the space between 

 the frames intact, while in hives with "« top-bars, 

 no more crowded than the others, the space be- 

 tween the top and bottom set of frames would be 

 built full, and the bee-space left between the 

 combs and bottom-bars of the top-story frames. 

 This last feature I consider the most valuable of 

 all; for if it would prevent so much under such cir- 

 cumstances, would it not be infallible with a prop- 

 er adjustment of frames and spaces? I have no- 

 ticed, too, that, where one or two of these frames 

 are mixed through my other hives, that the effect 

 is visible. 



Since I wrote from Tennessee about this section 

 of Wisconsin, its large basswood forests, its sure 

 crop, etc., I have received many scorings from lo- 

 cal bee-men, and some that are not so local. But, I 

 ask, what harm can come to us if this country is 

 worked to its full ciipacity by specialists who would 

 not, from self-interest, overstock the territorj'? 

 What harm would it d ) if all our honey were gath- 



