1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



201 



©UK OWN APIAKV. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



J'ULY 5th, we received a dozen tested 

 queens, and, as we only had orders for 

 a part of them, five were to be intro- 

 duced. One of the boys asked me if I did 

 not want the job of introducing them, they 

 had had so much trouble in that kind of 

 work. I assented, and took the live and let 

 them out in as many hives, in perhaps less 

 than ten minutes, without any caging, spray- 

 ing, smoking, or anything of the kind. 

 None of them were molested at all, and one 

 was laying in the afternoon. How did I do 

 it? I simply let them out just as any of you 

 or any one else could have done, equally as 

 well. The secret was in choosing the hives 

 to which to introduce them. I chose full 

 blood and gentle Italians, that had been 

 queenless for a week or more. In fact they 

 were all rearing queen cells. The frames 

 containing the cells, of course, were taken 

 out, and put all in a hive by themselves, and 

 to make a surer thing of ft, the brood was 

 also removed, and some of the bees were put 

 entirely on dry, empty combs, that they 

 might feel as nearly as possible like those 

 we put in the section box cages which I told 

 you about last month. Of course, its being 

 in the height of the honey season had some- 

 thing to do with the ready reception of the 

 queens. The result was," that I had the use 

 of my 5 queens almost at once, and the bees 

 went right oft" to the fields, gathering honey 

 to fill their empty combs. I would advise 

 more experiments in taking away all the 

 combs, and obliging the colony to cluster on 

 strange combs when they are to have a new 

 queen. There is certainly a very great dif- 

 ference between pure Italians and hybrids, 

 so far as accepting strange queens is con- 

 cerned. One more point ; I did not feel 

 that I was running any risk in letting out 

 those queens, for I expected to keep such 

 close watch of them, that they could not be 

 harmed. We have lately had some imported 

 queens caged nearly a week in trying to in- 

 troduce them, and had one killed even then. 

 The next lot we receive, I shall let out at 

 once, as I did these. If one colony will not 

 accept a queen, I will try another. 



ECONOMY IN MATURING: QUEEN CELLS. 



One point I touched on. in regard to queen 

 cells. You can take all the queen cells you 

 have in your apiary and put them in one 

 hive, if you wish. Take all the combs con- 

 taining cells, bees and all, mark the date 

 when the cells will hatch on each top bar. 

 get a hive large enough — two stories or more, 

 and you can take care of them with less 

 trouble than if they are in a great many, 

 different hives. 



SIMPSON'S HONEY PLANT. 



In the spring I purchased about 200 plants 

 of friend (Simpson, and planted them on our 

 honey farm, setting them about as far apart 

 as corn. Somewhat to my surprise, they are 

 now, July 8th, commencing to bloom ; and, 

 sure enough, every little pitcher-shaped 

 blossom has a shining drop of nectar in it. 

 This nectar is very fair honey, although it 



has a sort of weedy flavor, which, I presume, 

 the bees will readily remove. The amount 

 of honey is what astonishes me. One of 

 these little flowers contains, I should say, as 

 much as a hundred basswood blossoms. At 

 present, I know of no other plant that prom- 

 ises so well for cultivation for honey alone. 

 A single plant in the garden, for curiosity, 

 it nothing more, I think, would be well worth 

 the trouble to every bee keeper. 



INTRODUCING AGAIN. 



11th. — Since the successful introduction of 

 the 5 queens, it has been remarked that I 

 could not do the same thing with cross hy- 

 brids. I told the boys to show me the Gross- 

 est stock of hybrids on the grounds. I took 

 an empty hive containing four combs, and 

 desired them to carry the hybrid colony to a 

 new r stand, which was done by simply lifting 

 the Simplicity hive off from the bottom 

 board, and to put my hive with empty combs 

 in its place. The bees were so cross while 

 this was being done, that it was with diffi- 

 culty I could work among them. Of course, 

 they ran in and out of the hive, making a 

 terrible ado, when they found their own, well 

 filled combs and brood all gone, and thus I 

 left them an hour. At the end of that time, 

 the greater part of them were out in the air, 

 and on the outside of the hive. I placed a 

 laving queen on the empty combs, and, as if 

 by magic, the mournful note gave place to a 

 joyous hum. All parties, both in the hive 

 and in the air, gathered about the queen as 

 a new swarm will gather about her on a bush. 

 Was she harmed ? To be sure not; I closed 

 the hive, satisfied, and the next morning 

 found her laying. The secret consisted in 

 making them feel that they were homeless 

 orphans and lost, unless they could get a 

 queen, or the means of rearing one, and in a 

 mood to take up with anything that offered. 



This is not all ; the other part of the colony 

 that was carried away was given a queen in 

 the same way ; and they, too, accepted her, 

 and she had a comb pretty well filled with 

 eggs next morning So, you see how much 

 time was gained over the old fashioned 

 formula of waiting 48 hours, etc. A very 

 important point is to be here noted; this 

 hive had been queenless about a week, and 

 had, at the time, a lot of sealed queen cells, 

 which, of course, were carried to another 

 hive when the queen was released ; it was 

 also done during basswood bloom. How 

 shall we get hives that have been a week 

 queenless, without great loss of time V Let 

 them rear a lot of cells, and when the cells 

 are nearly ready to take out carry them to 

 some other hive, or put them in the lamp 

 nursery. 



THE HONEY FARM. 



V2th— It is really fun, to see the Italians 

 take a row of the Simpson Honey Plant and 

 hover over every bud, to see if there is not 

 a, cupful of honey for them. The little flow- 

 er is visited so often, however, that the hon- 

 ey has no time to collect, and if we wish to 

 see one full, we shall have to protect it with 

 lace, on the plan of our friend Mollie. The 

 prettiest honey plant on the grounds is the 

 Italian or Scarlet Clover ; and, to my aston- 

 ishment, beautiful clover heads of the size, 



