486 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



ANTS FOUND GUILTY OF STEALING EGGS. 



On page 10, of the "A B C of Bee Culture" you say, 

 "I cannot find that ants are guilty of any thing that 

 should warrant the apiarist in waging any deter- 

 mined warfare against them." Now, I will give you 

 my experience. This summer I made a nucleus 

 swarm, and introduced the queen, which they re- 

 ceived all right. A few days after, I made another 

 nucleus, gave them a queen, and they killed her. I 

 gave them another and they killed that one. Then 

 I put a frame of comb in a colony, and after it was 

 filled with eggs put it in the queenless nucleus. 

 Two or three days after, I took it out and the eggs 

 were gone! That was a poser. But, on looking at 

 the bottom of the frame, there was a small black 

 ant with an egg in its mouth. The mystery was 

 solved. Then, examining the first nucleus, I found 

 on the inside of the two combs where the bees clus- 

 tered, a spot on each the size of a silver dollar, filled 

 with brood; the balance of the combs were empty. 

 I put the hive on small blocks with dishes of water 

 under them, and the combs soon filled with brood. 



Climax, Mich., Aug. 20, 1880. J. E. Pierce. 



INTRODUCING BY AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



I introduced the queen without trouble. I have 

 introduced ten queens this summer without pre- 

 vious experience or observation, and, by following 

 A B C, have had but one balled, although I intro- 

 duced a virgin queen 8 hours old to a stock from 

 which I had removed the queen but 5 minutes be- 

 fore, and did not cage the virgin at all. 



Bean Blossom, Ind., Aug. 24, '80. E. S. Arwine. 



41 DAYS TO INTRODUCE A QUEEN. 



Now about those queens: You will notice that it 

 is 41 days since we took them over. One stand of 

 Mr. Wilcoxen's shows nearly all nice Italian bees. 

 The other showed no trace of Italians, and as he had 

 never touched the hive since liberating the queens, 

 and knew but little about them, he supposed they 

 must be queenless. But, from their actions, I told 

 him they were surely not queenless, and we would 

 see. So we proceeded to investigate. His hives 

 have the old L. honey board, and, for convenience, 

 after we had taken out the black queen, we placed 

 the little cage containing the Italian queen on top of 

 the frames, so it could be taken up and opened 

 without removing the honey board, showing him 

 how to open the lit tie cage, etc. He had opened the 

 cages, as he supposed, and placed them back, to al- 

 low the queens to walk out at their leisure. This 

 one, however, he had failed to open; and when I 

 opened the hive, there was the little cage, queen and 

 all, and, from all appearances, the queen was just as 

 lively and healthy as when we' put her there. The 

 hive contained plenty of honey and pollen, and the 

 combs in the centre of the hive were trimmed up all 

 ready to receive the eggs, showing that the little 

 fellows were waiting with all patience for the 

 queen's liberation. I gave them a cornh from anoth- 

 er hive, containing brood and eggs, liberated the 

 queen, and told Mr. Wilooxen there would be one 

 happy little home that night. S. A. Shuck. 



Bryant, Fulton Co., 111., Aug. 31, 1880. 



DIPPING FOUNDATION. 



With regard to the fdn. machine, it did cost me a 

 severe struggle to keep still; but the demonstration 

 of the fact that God wiU plead the cause of those 

 who submit it to him, even though by the pen of a 

 distant stranger, is worth more to me than the "hon- 



or of the invention," or the $100.00 either. The call 

 for queens has been such that, although I had hop°d 

 to do so, I have never had time to experiment far- 

 ther since my machines were burned. My success 

 so far with the machine is described on page 109, 

 March No.; but I hope, before long, if the Lord sees 

 fit to give the time and means, to show the brethren 

 a dipping machine that will roll out thin Wired fdn. 

 "a mile long" at our operation. Now, my friends, 

 you may all try it first, if you wish, and welcome; 

 but please don't quarrel over it. Oliver Foster. 

 Mt. Vernon, Iowa, Sept. 4, 1880. 



HOW LATE IN LIFE MAY A yUEEN BE FERTILIZED, 

 AND BECOME A PROLIFIC QUEEN. 



I see in Gleanings that there has been some 

 query as to how old a queen can be and yet become 

 fertilized, and a good, prolific queen. I will give my 

 experience in the matter. The first of March I no- 

 ticed that two of my colonies were queenless, and 

 had queen ceJls formed mid capped. In a few days 

 the queens were out, and I watched carefully to see 

 if they would become fertilized, as there were but 

 few drones, and the weathpr was rather cool. I 

 watched until the afternoon of the 24th day after 

 hatching, when I saw evidences that the queen had 

 mated; and, on the second day after, she com- 

 menced to lay, and proved to be a very prolific 

 queen. 



HOW YOUNG A QUEEN CAN LAY. 



On Monday, Aug. 2d, I had a swarm about o'clock 

 in the morning, which clustered. I caught and 

 caged the old queen, and then opened the old hive 

 to cut out and destroy the cells. I had found and 

 cut out one, when I noticed that the cap was par- 

 tially loose. I took the knife and raised the cap, 

 when out walked the queen. She was rather large, 

 and finely shaped. Having a few nuclei that were 

 without queens, I took her to one of them, and let 

 her run in at the entrance. I looked at her in about 

 an hour and found her all right. The two following 

 days she was there all right also; and on Thursday, 

 the 5th of Aug., about oue o'clock, I looked again, 

 and she was laying, and had a space as large as my 

 hand, full of eggs, it being 3 days and 4 hours from 

 the time she came from the cell. I have raised sev- 

 eral hundred queens, and these are the two ex- 

 tremes. Henry H. Lawrence. 



Columbia City, Wbitley Co., Ind., Sept. 2, 1880. 



TOO much brood in a hive. 



You say that you never saw too much brood in a 

 hive at any season of the year. I am sure that 1 

 have, and this unseasonable brood rearing is the 

 only thing that ever troubled me in the bee line. 



I have had colonies commence rearing brood 

 about the middle of July (the terminus of the honey 

 season), and consume all the stores they had, and 

 swarm, leaving a hive full of brood. It has always 

 worried me to see a great horde of bees raised to be 

 hatched at a time when there was no honey to be 

 gathered. My queens are now laying steadily, as 

 there has been sufficient honey coming in to keep 

 up moderate brood rearing. I have had a "test col- 

 ony" since the honey seasou closed, and they have 

 made a living. I think that my bees will be in bet- 

 ter condition for winter than they ever were before. 

 I am putting in young queens as fast as I can raise 

 them. 



ABSCONDING SWARMS. 



If bees have a location picked out before swarm- 

 ing, no amount of brood will induce them to stay. 



