88 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JlTLY. 



OUR OWJV APIAKir. 



^yipPAY 14th. Three colonics are Queeuless. 

 (j^Kit, One Avas quite an old Queen, and two 

 were young ones ; all had been laying briskly 

 up to their demise. Only 43 now that have 

 Queens, but many of our best now have brood 

 in six combs. The colony suspende<l on the 

 spring scales was last fall only ordinary, but 

 now bids fair to outstrip all others. With the 

 high winds we have had this spring, their hive 

 has been swinging almost constantly, and in 

 spite of the wires attached to steady it, it has 

 been bumped about at times so as to fairly jar 

 the combs out of place, and we really feared 

 l>ees could not live, disturbed so constantly in 

 this manner. Strange to say they not only 

 live, but have been the most active colony at 

 the open air feeding. "When all the rest have 

 l)een driven home by cold or rain, these fairly 

 tumbled out of their hive in their eagerness to 

 get the largest share of the spoils. 



Several have lately advanced the idea that 

 stimulative feeding in the spring was a mis- 

 take ; that it really did not help matters. 

 Aside from our own experiments, we would 

 point to the results of open air feeding given 

 on pages 79, Vol. 1st, and cover of Dec. No. 

 Vol. 2.' 



May Ibth — To-day it is quite cool, with pros- 

 pect of a frost. In regard to our 3 Qiieenless 

 colonies we reasoned thus : Although they 

 have cells started, it will be two or three 

 weeks before they can get laying Queens, and 

 during this time they could rear a large 

 amount of brood if they only had the eggs ; 

 now as we have several colonies the Queens of 

 which are putting two or three eggs in a cell 

 because they have too few bees, is it not plain 

 they should be united for their mutual advan- 

 tage, even if the result be that we have 43 col- 

 onies instead of 46? This idea we put In prac- 

 tice at dinner time, by simply lifting the combs 

 and all out of their hive, and setting them in 

 with the Queenless one so quietly that not one 

 of them took wing. In one case we lifted the 

 Queeuless colony thus and set them in with 

 one containing a Queen. An examination a 

 few hours after, showed her majesty in the 

 very heart of the camp of the enemy very busi- 

 ly depositing eggs, while a circle of sympa- 

 thetic • observers viewed the progress of the 

 work, with every appearance of complete sat- 

 isfaction and hearty approval. And why not? 

 They had prepared cells for eggs flays ago, 

 and probably after their fashion had lamented 

 their sad fate as their numbers were lessening 

 daily ; the Queen on the other hand had been 

 putting two eggs in a cell, and then wishing 

 in vain for a broader field of usefulness. Are 

 you sure no such bad economy is to be found 

 in yottr "bee yards" kind friends? We have 

 introduced six Queens, or rather united 12 

 stocks in this manner this spring, and have 

 had no failures. Wc have been surprised also, 

 to learn that the bees after being carried where 

 there is a fertile Queen, show very little if any 

 disposition to return to their former hive. 



May IWi — Heighho ! Honey is coming in. 

 Yesterday we omitted their morning rations 

 out-doors, for the first time, and yet our sus- 

 pended hive showed a gain of half a pound, 

 and to-day, although there isn't an apple blos- 



som to be found, they have actually gained <a 

 pound and a half. We can find no other source 

 than the hard maple. 



The colony given a "tea-kettleful" of feed ha>r 

 staid at home to fuss with it until they arc 

 far behind their fellows that have been fed ii> 

 the open air ; those among the latter that com- 

 menced first, and were most active, are the 

 ones that have gathered the most pollen, and 

 are now our best stocks. We have decided to 

 feed all summer long Avhenever we have a 

 week of weather that does not afford pastur- 

 age. If we feed only sweetened water, it wiD 

 not prevent them from going to the fields, and 

 in fact they will not notice it, until forage 

 fails. We are going to raise hees bear in mind, 

 and at present there is a much greater demand 

 for bees than for honey. We really believe we 

 could sell 1000 nuclei at good prices if we hacS 

 them. Cannot those who complain that honey 

 don't sell, help supply the demand for bees ? 

 We really have been obliged to advise those 

 just commencing, to send way across the Union 

 to Adam Grimm, to get bees for a start. Who 

 will offer them at a reasonable price ? 



May 22nd — A plump l^o lbs. each day, the 

 suspended colony shows, and we think it all 

 comes from dandelion and cherry blossoms. 

 Do you know what a glorious beauty there i» 

 in a field yellow with dandelions ? 



While our strong colonies are growing finely, 

 our medium ones are actually going down 

 hill ; we explain this by the fact that the latter 

 all ceased brood rearing during the freeze (near- 

 ly three weeks ago), and now they have no 

 young bees hatching, and their brood is almost 

 unprotected. Young bees are seen scattered 

 about on the ground in the morning, unable to 

 fly, so thick that we have to be careful in 

 walking among the hives to avoid treading on 

 them. We can conjecture that these are 

 weak, because they were insuflicieutly fed in 

 the larva? state. Weak stocks and nuclei ! O 

 why were such things ever thought of? 



June 5t7i — The yield of honey ceased about 

 3Iay 26th, and since then we have resumed the 

 out-door feeding, just enough to keep brood 

 going. 



A few days ago we paid friend Dean a visit ; 

 Mr. D. uses division boards. We have not 

 used them in the spring, and perhaps we got 

 an idea that they were not very important, 

 from a remark oi' Gallup's, we think, that he 

 would as soon have a comb as a division board 

 and they were an extra bother too. We no- 

 ticed last season that Mr. D's division boards 

 hung on the rabbets like frames, and that they 

 were beveled sharp at the edges so as to be " 

 easily movable, and concluded as they did not 

 fit closely — having a space of ^^4 inch at the 

 bottom for the bees to get under, besides "looj) 

 holes" under ends of the frames, formed by the 

 metal rabbet — that they really were not 

 much better than a whole frame of comb. 



Well, friend D. commenced showing his bees 

 — opened a hive near us and showed almost 

 every comb filled with brood clear down to the 

 lower corners of the frames — do you remember 

 we once objected to a deep or even a square 

 frame because the bees would not extend the 

 brood clear doAvn iintil late in the season? 

 Well, these Queens laid eggs clear down to the 

 bottom board, and the bees "cared for them" 



