42 



"novice's" gleanings in bee culture. 



painted after being waxed and the hoops 

 driven tight.) 



A wire strainer will be needed to set in 

 the top of a deep jar to place the cappings 

 after each day's work; don't put them in 

 the top of the hives nor attempt to save 

 anj' honey of any kind by giving it to the 

 bees during the working season, for it will 

 prevent their gathering honey to an am't 

 greater than such odds and ends are 

 worth. After the caps have drained sev- 

 eral days, separate the wax and honey 

 with the wax extractor. Our wax ex- 

 tractor cost us about !?8.00, but something 

 to answer the same purpose could be made 

 by almost any tin-smith for not more than 

 half as much. 



With the given arrangement of the api- 

 ary, the labor is not great, if each comb 

 be carried in and extracted as fast as the 

 hees are brushed off; but if preferred a 

 light frame can be used holding from live- 

 to ten combs. With proper care in avoid- 

 ing any exposure of honey that may in- 

 cite robbing in the forepart of the season, 

 that disagreeable feature in operating, 

 may be almost unknown. 



When you have some honey barreled 

 ready for sale write us how much you 

 want for it and we will open our honey 

 column again, and we hope to make it a 

 long list too. 



P. S. — "P. G." says, "tell 'em" before wax- 

 i ng the barrels, to stand them in the sun until 

 they are hot aird dry, drive down the hoops 

 and proceed. If the barrels are cool or 

 cold more wax will adhere than is neces- 

 sary or profitable. 



QUEENS. 



Ttjj[|feROLiFic queens are an absolute neces- 



fari sity for strong colonies, and strong 



colonies are the only ones that give us 

 profit. We have, for many years, built 

 up weak colonies in the spring at the ex- 

 pense of combs of brood from the strong 

 ones, but we have of late come to the 

 conclusion that we damaged our best 

 ones by so doing more than poor ones 

 were worth ; yet it must be borne in mind 

 that this applies only to such as are weak, 

 because tin 1 queens are no t prolific ; oc- 

 casionally the bees get thinned down in 

 spring by dysentery or gradually from 

 freezing in small clusters away from the 

 main body until they cannot take care of 

 the eggs even, of our best queens, and 

 such stocks it will unquestionably pay to 

 help. We have this season several colo- 

 nies that had dwindled down to almost 

 nothing, and to save queens that we sup- 

 posed valuable, after futile efforts to 

 strengthen them up with hatching brood, 

 we caged their queens and exchanged 

 places with strong colonies while flying 

 briskly. Two of these were killed when 

 r 'leased, although they had been caged 

 fjurdays; one don't lay eggs at all now, 

 and two have been replaced and queen cells 

 stirted from their brood, a state of affairs 

 that don't please us we assure you. It is 



sometimes difficult to decide whether the 

 fault is with the queen or elsewhere, but 

 we should advise replacing all queens not 

 up to the standard, as soon as we can get 

 a better one. We can usually judge of the 

 queen's prolificncss by her manner of de- 

 positing the eggs. If we find eggs and 

 larvae of different ages mixed up with 

 sealed brood, we should pronounce the 

 queen a ''slow ccach" and deficient in 

 s)*stem and judgment at any rate, and af- 

 ter submitting her to the following test we 

 can be pretty sure of getting a correct 

 measure of her worth, viz: as soon as the 

 colony will bear it without injury, place a 

 nice, clean, empty worker comb in the 

 center of the cluster, and in 24 hours 

 count the eggs, and see if they are in a 

 compact cluster. If at the first experi- 

 ment the comb should be filled with honej' 

 and pollen, try it again. In good weath- 

 es not less than 1000 eggs should be depos- 

 ited in that time ; but much depends on 

 the strength of the colony. 



Who can report the largest number of 

 cg<j:s in a comb in 24 hours ? 



If so many queens are poor, the ques- 

 tion may be asked, how are we to be sure 

 of rearing good ones ? That's the ques- 

 tion, and to be frank, we really don't 

 know. We do know that we have reared 

 long-lived, prolific queens many times un- 

 der what would be called quite unfavora- 

 ble conditions, and others reared under 

 conditions that seemed all we could desire 

 have failed in from three months all the 

 way up to three years. Although Ave have 

 used queen cells constructed when a queen 

 was to be replaced, and also at the time 

 of natural swarming, wo find them on 

 an average no better. 



Suitable weather and enough bees (more 

 than a fair working colony is useless) 

 seem almost a necessity, but even then but 

 few extra prolific queens are reared! 



"Novice" insists that "lots of pollen" is 

 the key to invariable success, but we can 

 hardly expect anything practical from 

 him until he gets somewhat over his "pol- 

 len mania." If each one of our large 

 family of novices will send in their expe- 

 rience and opinions on the subject, we 

 may be able to glean from them some- 

 thing valuable. Are queens reared late in 

 the fall or early in the spring usually as 

 prolific? "P. G-" thinks a lot of queens ■ 

 equally as good as a dozen of our best, 

 would be worth $23 apiece to us now, but 

 that ti dozen like our poorest would be 

 dear at about jbur eents apiece. 



W:; will, for the benefit of Apiarian Sci- 

 ence, advertise gratuitously anything we 

 deem of universal value to bee keepers, 

 offered at low rotes. At present this de- 

 partment only includes honey and eggs 

 from Imported Queens. We hope to add 

 artificial comb foundations, when some 

 can be furnished that fully answer the 

 purpose. 



