334 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



MANY EGGS IN A CELL, ETC. 



Friend Root: — Please find one dollar for Glean- 

 ings for another year. I am an A B C scholar, and 

 a dull one at that. I thought I was ready to advance 

 to the next lesson, but my bees have taught me that 

 I am not ready for promotion. I have been reading 

 to pick up an idea of some way of increasing our 

 colonies in strength as early as possible, to store- 

 honey when the harvest comes; and notwithstand- 

 ing the absolute rule of one queen, sometimes it 

 seems there are two occupying the same hive at the 

 same time, and in perfect harmony, which would 

 give us a populous colony speedily. Again I have 

 been observing the difference in the fertility of dif- 

 ferent queens. But to the point I wished to make: 

 I have a black queen in a very weak colony. I ob- 

 served the other day that she was laying eggs like 

 the hens, whole nests full, as high as seven eggs be- 

 ing in one cell, and a great many cells containing 2, 

 3, 4, 5, and 6 in a cell; but they don't seem to hatch. 

 Three or four days is the usual time allowed by 

 writers and observers for hatching, but these have 

 been in the cells for a week, and have not hatched 

 yet, and remain as laid in the cells. What will they 

 do with these eggs? But one bee can remain in the 

 cell. Will they take them out of the cells and de- 

 posit them in other cells? or will they all be allowed 

 to hatch and be disposed of after hatching? Do they 

 ever take an egg out of one cell and place it in 

 another? Dr. E. T. Polk. 



Louisville, Ky., May 12, 1880. 



It is not very unusual to And two or more 

 eggs in a cell, especially where a colony is 

 too weak to give the queen room. She then 

 lays all the cells full that are ready for her, 

 and then, for want of something else to do, 

 goes around and puts in extra ones. Only 

 one egg hatches, because no egg can hatch, 

 if I am correct, until the bees have covered 

 it with their milky food. As they only care 

 for a single one, the rest do not hatch. I do 

 not think the bees ever carry them to other 

 cells, to make any use of them ; they could 

 not well do it, because, at such times, they 

 have no empty cells for them. If they had, 

 the queen would lill them. Bees can remove 

 eggs or larvae for the purpose of queen rear- 

 ing, but I do not know that they ever under- 

 take it for any other purpose. Queens may 

 also become so decrepit from old age, as to 

 lay several eggs in a cell. Drone laying 

 queens and fertile workers almost always 

 lay several eggs in a cell, but, as a general 

 thing, they do not fill all the cells regularly, 

 as does a normal queen. 



TENEMENT HIVES, REPORT FROM. 



Mr. Root :-- 1 have eight swarms of bees which I 

 wintered in tenement hives of my own make. I 

 packed them with buckwheat chaff. All came 

 through the winter, and were stronger in the spring 

 than they were last fall. One of them cast a very 

 large natural swarm on the 27th inst., and lam ex- 

 pecting three more as soon as the weather clears up. 



W. A. (iREGG. 



Callicoon Depot, N. Y., May 30, '80. 



WHERE SOME OF THE TROUBLES COME FJ&OM. 



The enclosed P. O. order was returned to me from 

 the dead letter office to-day, the trouble being that 

 it was mailed without stamping. This was another 

 of the results of misplaced confidence. I. sent the 



letter to be mailed by a neighbor, with the money ' 

 to buy the stamp, which he neglected to do from 

 sheer forgetfulness. Horry you are compelled to 

 wait so long for your money, but it explains some 

 mysteries. Wallace Young. 



Casey, Clark Co., 111., May 29, 1883. 



It is bad, I know, friend Y., but do not be 

 too severe on your neighbor; you and I make 

 mistakes too, but 1 hope we are all learning 

 to overcome these little weaknesses that 

 seem to cling about us in spite, almost, of 

 all we can do. 



STRONG STOCKS VERSUS CHAFF CUSHIONS. 



My 63 stocks of bees, 5 of which were three frame 

 nuclei, have all come through safe, with the excep- 

 tion of one queen. She was raised last July, and 

 died in April, leaving but little brood in her hive. I 

 believe in strong stocks of young bees for winter- 

 ing. I looked over all my Simplicity hives April 22d, 

 and found one that was left without any packing, 

 with only a piece of carpet and the frames. This 

 stock had brood in 8 frames, and 1 of them were full 

 of brood and eggs from top to bottom; while some 

 that were put on 5 frames with chaff division boards 

 on each side and a quilt on top did not have over 3 

 frames of brood. 



GRAPE SUGAR FEEDING OUTDOORS; 



I commenced feeding grape sugar on April 1st, 

 and in the first four days, they carried off 3 gallons 

 of syrup. Then the peach and plumb trees came in, 

 and I fed them no more till last Thursday; since 

 which time they have carried off 2 gallons each af- 

 ternoon, although the raspberries are in bloom, and 

 the bees are thick on mine till after sundown. 

 There is over an acre within 1J£ miles of me, and not 

 over a elozen hives of bees besides mine. Now, how 

 much syrup should they have? They empty a % gal- 

 lon can twice, from 7 o'clock in the morning till 

 night, on my grooved board, and they crowd around 

 the jar so thick that the syrup does not get half way 

 across the board, which is 1 foot square. I cut the 

 grooves with my wood saw and then nailed strips 

 around it and run wax and rosin around to prevent 

 leaking. Although they are taking so much syrup 

 and woi king on the raspberries, some of them are 

 driving out their drones. Several of them were so 

 full that the bees were piled outside at 5 P. M. yes- 

 terday, and did not all get in during the night. I 

 think I will cut their rations down y$ to-morrow, as 

 the black locust trees are coming into bloom. 



ALIGHTING BOARDS. 



I make mine out of any kind of scrap lumber that 

 is not sappy, and when I get them ready to nail I 

 paint the surfaces that come. together with thick 

 paint, and nail immediately, and then paint them all 

 over, top and bottom. I think the side that fits up 

 to the bottom board of the hive needs painting as 

 much as the top side. My bees and my garden keep 

 me so busy that I have no time to read or write ex- 

 cept at night. C. T. Smith. 



O'Fallon, 111., May 10, 1880. 



I do not think it very material how much 

 you feed them, friend S., providing they 

 have enough to keep brood rearing going on, 

 and do not kill off their drones. Of course, 

 you do not wish to feed so much as to have 

 very much grape sugar stored in the hive. 

 When rearing brood largely, they will use 

 daily an amount of stores that is sometimes 

 surprising. 



