1875 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



wtiiijr (see pajios 70, 71 and 93, of A. B. ,/., Vol. 

 3>,) was lilted for a lecture on Bce-Keepinjj: at 

 A\\\. We have a high respect for Mr. Clarke's 

 talents and worth, but luis he had sullicient 

 j>r(ictu-<d experience among tlie bees themselves "/ 

 3Iany of our readers are familiar with the 

 blunder Agassiz made when he attempted to 

 tell how l)ees made comb, (sec Vol. 1, page 43, 

 <TLEANiNt;s) and it seems that our world re- 

 nowned Tjndall, who not only attcmps to di- 

 vine from where we came, but where we are 

 tending, has recently- tried hin hand at "comb 

 making." He, wisely atlmits that bees do not 

 stand insuk' the cells to work, but makes al- 

 most as bad a blunder, in saying: "The bees 

 place them selves at e«iual distances apart up- 

 on the wax, sweep and excavate — " etc. Now 

 if Tyndall is teaching us other things In the 

 same way, i. e., delivering lectures on some 

 *<ubject on which he knows nothing, how much 

 can we depend on any thing he says. Oh why 

 could not he and Agassiz, before attempting to 

 explain the matter to the people, take the time 

 to get a hive of real live bees, as did Durwin, 

 and not be ol>liged to take any thing at second 

 hand. If they tir-o were afraid of stings, au}' 

 expert honey raiser could attbrd them the fa- 

 cilities for a safe observation and tluis prevent 

 their going into such folly, or falsehood to call 

 things by their right names, for 1 hey pretended 

 to have knowledge where they had none. 

 Take the Dwney mid buy a him of bees all ye that 

 that thirst for knowledge, and take it direct 

 from God's own works, instead of receiving it 

 second hand. 



For particulars in regard to the North Pole, 

 or as to whether the planet Jupiter is inhabit- 

 able, we may be ol)liged to listen to those who 

 know better than we do, but in our own in- 

 dustry no such necessity exists, for a swarm of 

 bees is within the reach of all. 



lATRODlCIIVG QUEENS. 



A STOUV WITH A MOKAL. 



ST^ RIEXD "XOVICE" :— I don't know as there i-s 



5\~' anytliing' for nie to write about, and yet in spite 

 ._j ofotir siiort acquaintance, 1 feel lilie indulging 

 in a little ^'o.^.sip witli you. You seem to be ijuite ami- 

 able wiien tormented liy imiuisitive people, so I 

 llionght 1 would question you a little, i'racticallj' I 

 am a "green horn" at the bee business, and yet I have 

 been reading bee literature lor a dozen yeais, but was 

 not situated until now, so that I could handle bees, 

 l^ast June I bought a swarm of black bees from a box 

 hive, hiving these in an "American." They went to 

 work with a good will building nice straight combs, 

 and not seeming to mind my iuquisitiveness for I had 

 them ojien and the Irames out nearly every ilay, yet 

 they were soon strong in bees and honey. My neigh- 

 bor" Mr. Spear, in July rec'd a nice Italian Queen 

 from Theo. G. 3IcGaw, and as he has only one band 

 ( o work with, asked me to assist him in introducing. 

 His hive was an "American" and the colony had been 

 tjucenless since the '20th of June, the date on which 

 it sent out a swarm. We caged her royal highness in 

 the hive for twenty four hours, then took out frames 

 till we came to the brood nest, and I held the mouth 

 of the cage .as I thought close enough to the comb, but 

 when slie came out instead of going on the comb she 

 liew into tlie air. Well we felt pretty^ blue, but con- 

 <duded to call this lesson No. 1, and alter some delay 

 during which the frames stood around "pi-omiscuous- 

 ly," we cloaed the hive and wrote to friend Theodore 

 for another Queen, whidi came the following day. 

 When all was readj- we tried it again, and this tinie 

 you may rest assured she went on the combs. The 

 bees received her well, fed her, and she deposited 

 eggs, t>ut in about one hour we had a Royal cori)se 

 lying in front of the hive. This was lesson No. 2, and 

 "we boys" were not ready to "recite" either. 

 Well, a consultation was held, the result of which 



was, we sent immediately for two more (Queens. They 

 were not furnished for some ten days, but on July :Wth 

 tliey made their appearance, and witli a determina- 

 tion to succeed, or break a trace, we iccnl for that hive. 

 And— well we could "spell" in lesson No. 2, for there 

 was a <iuantity <'i' brood in all stages. The teadiing 

 of the lesson is, never put a IJueen into a liive taking 

 it for granted there is no CJuecn already there, bu; 

 know there is none. We 0])ened anothi^r hive and suo 

 ceeded in introducing her Majesty witlioul dilliculiy, 

 but the strange part of the story is to come. In diio 

 time handsome Italians maile their appearance in tlie 

 first hive, increasing in numbers rajiidly, and llie 

 conclusion we came to was that when the lirst (^ueen 

 escaped she settled on one of the combs whicli was 

 setting outside, and was returned to tlie hive with the 

 frame. One day about the middle of Sept., Mr. Spej.r 

 told me the hive was producing black bees. We matio 

 an examination of the hive and found a fine large 

 black t^ueen in possession of the premises and slie 

 still continues to usurp authority. Now tliis was alter 

 all swarming was over, there being no lioney to gath- 

 er, and after racking my brains, and tryinj; to look 

 and talk "wise," I confess I can't tell wliere the Ital- 

 ian Queen went to, and where the black one came 

 from, can you ? 



The fourth Queen I undertook to introduce into my 

 own hive, after caging her in it for over forty eigli't 

 hours, but the bees hugged her and Mr. Spear reached 

 in and took her out with a handful of bees but before 

 we could get her separated from them, one vicious 

 imp gave her a sting. I sent for another, leaving the 

 hive Queenlcss. It did not come for over a week, and 

 in the mean time I fed the bees eight lbs. of sugar 

 syrup, slowly to imitate natural honey gathering and 

 they received her gladly, and are now as pretty a col- 

 ony of Italians as I ever saw. The lesson learned 

 here was, that it was not safe for a greenhorn to un- 

 dertake to introduce a Queen when there was no 

 honey gathering. 



This yarn has spun out pretty long, but you had 

 better not get discouraged, for 1 have a lot more stuj^' 

 I want to tell you and will in all i)robabiliy trouble 

 you again. W. O. Atkinso.n. 



P. S. — I have several hives now and if I have sense 

 enough to care for them expect to have manv more. 



Vermont, Ills. Dec. 6th, 1874. 



If you continue to reason and practice as 

 cogently as above we think you soon will have 

 ifj'ou have uot already, "sense enough." We 

 earnestly commend the "lessons," not only to 

 novices, but to veterans as well. You were 

 certainly inexperienced or you would have 

 watched for the Italian Queen to return instead 

 of giving up. Whenever a Queen takes wing 

 without the bees, keep still and await her re- 

 turn. She will almost invariably soon return 

 to the very spot where she left. Without a 

 doubt some weak colony starved out in Aug., 

 ellected an entrance into the hive and in the 

 combat, the Italian Queen came out vanquish- 

 ed. This has many times happened. 



■^K «»» ^ 



PROBI.EIVI NO. 38. 



1 



fiS swarming a natural impulse and does it afl'ect 

 I bees in June and July independent of condition ? 



I want the ojiinion of your correspondents on this 

 question. Gko. Thompson, Geneva, Ills. 



Our opinion is that food, proper temperature, 

 etc., Avill induce the swarming fever at any 

 season, although we cannot prove it by exper- 

 iment as yet. 



ANSWER TO PROBLEM 26. 



{This Problem wax numbered 25 by mistake on page 



193 last JVo.] 



In conducting a series of experiments in wintering 

 bees two years ago this winter, I deprived one swarm 

 entirely of pollen giving them perfectly dry combs. 

 The bees were wintered successfully but reared no 

 brood until I gave them combs with pollen when they 

 began immediately to till the combs with brood. 

 They were witliout pollen in all about three and one 

 hall months. M. E. McMasteks, Shelbyville, Mo. 



son TION' OF I-UOISLKM NO. 25. 



I am a great hand to experiment— I have sacrificed 

 many colonies of bees in that way. Many a bee, 



