636 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



sugar to keep the kees raising brood so as to 

 make it pay, without question; and many bee- 

 keepers do this, but no bee-keeper is now feed- 

 ing sugar in order to get something to be sold 

 as honey. He will surely become bankrupt if 

 lie keeps on at it. 



QUEENS LEAVING THE HIVE. 



DO THEY I)f> IT? 



Do laying queens ever leave the hive, when 

 not accompanying a swarm? My experience is, 

 that they sometimes do. The present season I 

 have about thirty hybrid colonies that I bought 

 last spring; and wishing to raise queens to sell 

 I am using an Alley drone-trap on each hybrid 

 colony, to keep the drones shut in. In the" past 

 week I have found the queens of four colonies 

 dead, in the upper apartment of the drone-trap. 

 It is possible, but not probable, that the queens 

 died and were carried then^ by the bees. They 

 were all young laying queens, raised this year, 

 and were purchased of oue of oiu- most eminent 

 queen-breeders, and had been introduced and 

 laying at least three weeks. 



My bees have been working on buckwheat, 

 and swarming, the last two weeks; but I have 

 never been out of sight of the bees long enough 

 for them to swarm without my seeing them, so 

 I do not think it probable that they got into the 

 trap by going out with a swarm. 



By removing the wire nail that closes the 

 opening between the upper and lower apart- 

 ments of the drone-trap. th(^ que(>n could return 

 to the hive; but that would let the drones back 

 too, and one would be obliged to keep the traps 

 on all summer to keep the drones in. 



In C. C. Miller's article in Gleanings, Aug. 1, 

 page 559, he asks, in conclusion, why the queen 

 does not lay drone eggs in incipient queen-cells 

 where they surely would have elbow room. In 

 my eight yeai's' experience in queen-rearing I 

 have found queen-cells built on drone comb 

 several times, and that, too, when the bees had 

 worker eggs in plenty to build cells on. As I 

 was anxious to know what kind of an animal 

 they would hatch, I watched them closely, but 

 they invariably failed to hatch at all, the larva 

 always dying in the cell before hatching. 



Elmek Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Mich., Aug. It). 



NOTES FROM RHODE ISLAND. 



THE HOFFMAN FUAME, ETC. 



Although '* Little Rhody'Ms not much of a 

 honey State, its bee-keepers pride themselves 

 on keeping abreast of the times in the apicul- 

 tural world. They are constantly trying new 

 paths and short cuts, and endeavoring to out- 

 strip their neighbors of "wooden nutmeg" 

 fame, and leave behind " ye pilgrims of ye olde 

 Baye State." We bee-keepers about the shores 

 of beautiful Narragansett lind we must modify 

 systems successful elsewhere, to tit our climate 

 and flora, which, to say the least, is often er- 

 ratic. 



This year there was a good flow of honey all 

 through July, coming from an early variety of 

 goldenrod and two varieties of spirea. This 

 July flow is unusual, bees generally having to 

 live on what they have laid away. To be al- 

 ways ready for these irregular flows we have to 

 keep the queens constantly at work. August 

 and September seldom fail to bring good flows. 

 Perhaps when I say that, in three of the best 

 apiaries in the State, the Hoffman frame is 



used to the exclusion of all others, you wilf 

 think some of iis are progressing backward. 

 Be that as it may, the owners of these apiaries^ 

 will now tolerate no other style, except for ex- 

 periment. 



If you will try the standard Hoffman frame 

 beside your modified style, you will, I think, be 

 convinced of the points of superiority of the 

 standard as explained by Mr. Hoffman in 

 Gleanings for July 1st. 



I find the same trouble with a deep (IK inch) 

 space under the frames as does Mr. Hatch (Aug. 

 1, p. 561). During the past three seasons, with 

 from 1 to 30 colonies so arranged, the result was 

 always the same. 



If Ernest will take foundation partly drawn 

 out, and try his experiment of stretching while- 

 it is yet warm and soft from the heat of the 

 hive.' the result, perhaps, will be different. 



As for the way bees build their comb, they do- 

 not always go "according to Hoyh'." I took 

 from a colony a few days ago a new comb, one- 

 third of which was built as it should be. and 

 the other two-thirds as it is said it should not 

 be. It was built on a new clean frame without 

 any foundation or guide whatever, and by a 

 good thrifty colony in normal condition. That 

 colony evidently needs educating. But once 

 have I had drones driven out in June (1S89) 

 when honey was fairly plentiful. I ascribed it 

 to an unusual scarcity or pollen; for as soon as- 

 that became abundant again, the drones were- 

 undisturbed. Arthur C. Miixek. 



Providence, R. I., Aug. 9, 1890. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



HONEY FROM COBEA 8CANDENS. 



One fine morning I noticed on my porch somo 

 drips that I couldn't account for; porch rather 

 dusty, and there were the drops, eight in num- 

 ber, and not a sign of any thing to show from 

 whence they came (I thought). It was myste- 

 rious to me, as my folks had been away from 

 home some two months, and I thought more or 

 less about it all day. The next morning I 

 found the porch fairly spattered with it; and 

 tasting, I found it honey. In a moment it flash- 

 ed on me (flowers). Covering all the porch are 

 luxuriant vines of Cohen Seandens, whose bell- 

 shaped flowers are daily loaded with honey, 

 clear as crystal. It took the bees about two 

 days to " tumble;" but now as many as five at a 

 time can be found in a single flower, and every 

 morning the drops hang and glisten so plentiful- 

 ly you can gather it with a spoon. It is some- 

 thing new to me, or at least I've failed to notice- 

 it heretofore. 



The season is poor for surplus, fair for in- 

 crease; some few swarms coming, even this 

 late. As usual, Italians in the lead. 



Portland, Or.. Aug. 7. E. J. Ladd. 



A NEW USE FOR PERFORATED ZINC. 



The honey crop is small this year. From 200 

 hives, fall count, I have extracted 1.500 gallons; 

 cause, too much swarming late in the season, 

 v/hen they should have been gathering honey. 

 I have found a new use for your perforated zinc. 

 I place one on a weak two-story hive. I hive 

 the small swarms in the common wooden water- 

 buckets, and set them on the zinc. The bees 

 will go down through the zinc and leave the 

 queen on the zinc. By doing this, weak hives 

 can be made very strong. I then keep putting 

 on top hives, and hiving small swarms, and I 

 have no trouble about fighting, as the bees are 



