488 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



such a task. This is my first year as a bee-keeper. 

 I commenced the season with 14 swarms. I extract- 

 ed from 7 swarms which gave me 568 lbs. of honey, 

 actual weight. The best one gave me 114 lbs. ; the 

 poorest 70 lbs. My other 7 swarms I set to work on 

 comb honey, and they turned out 250 lbs. But I do 

 not feel discouraged, as I know nothing of the busi- 

 ness except what I have learned this year. I in- 

 creased my 14 colonies to 30, and now comes the 

 task of wintering; but they are in good shape, for I 

 can assure you they have not been neglpcted. I use 

 the Novice extractor, which I consider a good one, 

 and am a reader of Gleanings, although not a sub- 

 scriber. I do not write this article especially for 

 publication. Orson J. Terrell. 



North Ridgeville, Lorain Co., O., Aug. 24, 1880. 



QUEEN CELLS; GREAT NUMBER FROM ONE COLONY. 



We have had a poor honey season. My bees have 

 had the swarming fever. I increased from 23 to 41, 

 and put back about a dozen. I also had 4 or 5 buck- 

 wheat swarms, which I put back. I had a very 

 large swarm about the 10th of August, which 1 re- 

 turned, and killed the queen, a hybrid. I waited 6 

 days, and took out 86 large queen cells, and gave 

 them a frame of brood and eggs, 9x11 inches, from 

 my favorite queen. They built 40 cells with queens 

 in them on that comb, and 6 more on their own 

 comb; in all, 132. How is that "for high?" 



H. H. FOX. 



Tribulation, McDonald Co., Mo., Sept. 9, 1880. 



QUEENS BEING FERTILIZED TWICE. 



I have seen 15 or 20 queens come in with unmista- 

 kable evidences of fertilization. On June 19th, I 

 saw one come in with evidence attached, and just 

 21 hours after I saw the same queen— no mistake- 

 come in with the same evidence of fertilization 

 again. She was a pure, but very dark, Italian, and 

 now produces pure, rather bright, Italian workers, 

 and queens some dark and some moderately so, but 

 all brighter than herself. 



HOW TO GET RID OF BLACK DRONES. 



I suppress black drones in box hives, by moving 

 hives every two weeks, and substituting a movable 

 frame hive with 2 or 4 frames of brood in it, and a 

 queen cell, and thus make a large part of my 

 swarms. So also I make a certain number of box 

 hives and black bees almost as useful as any I have. 

 If you move them often enough, they will raise few 

 or no drones. G. W. Young, M. D. 



Lexington, Lafayette Co., Mo. 



I have about 70 stands of bees in all, more than 

 half of which are Italian. I bought an albino queen 

 of Mr. Valentine, last spring, and have now about a 

 dozen of her daughters at work in my apiary. I be- 

 lieve they are the gentlest bees I have, and are as 

 good honey gatherers as I ever saw. The bees have 

 done very poorly here till since the rains abated, 10 

 days since. They then began to work and have had 

 lively times ever since. 



INTRODUCING. 



I have been experimenting on introducing queens, 

 and the plan that causes the least trouble with me I 

 will now describe. I first assure myself that there 

 is no queen in the hive, and wait until they have 

 built a few queen cells, and capped some of them 

 over. Then I put the queen in the cage, and lay it 

 gently on the alighting board, while I examine the 

 inside of the hive, and remove all the queen cells 

 that are started. The bees arc making the acquain- 

 tance of the new mistress, and after the hive is 



closed you will generally find the bees clustering on 

 the cage on the alighting board. Wait a little while 

 and witness their motions. If of a friendly charac- 

 ter, you may take the queen in the hand and then 

 hold it closely and gently to the entrance. If the 

 bees crawl upon the hand and try to feed the queen, 

 she is perfectly safe; let her go; and this will al- 

 most always be the rule. I have never lost a queen 

 introduced in this way. I very often take the queen 

 in my hand simply, and try her at the entrance of 

 the hive. If they attempt to sting her, I take her 

 away; but if they treat her kindly, she will remain 

 nearly still, and when a few bees have thus formed 

 her acquaintance she can be let go into the hive 

 with safety. When the cells are all destroyed as 

 above, they seem very anxious for a queen, and are 

 very apt to receive her quite readily. 1 have found 

 three hives this summer with two queens, and a 

 neighbor has a swarm that persistently keeps two 

 queens, and when he takes one out they forthwith 

 raise another. Please tell us through Gleanings 

 if this is not a f i eak. It certainly is not the rule. 

 Bedford, la., Aug. 11, '80. A. H. Van Voorhes. 



Your plan is substantially the one I rec- 

 ommend, friend V., only I do not advise you 

 to wait until cells are capped over. Is not 

 this wasting almost too much time, with a 

 good colony? The secret of almost all these 

 plans lies in the fact that a queen allowed to 

 run in at the entrance of any queenless hive 

 will be accepted in the majority of cases. 

 You will remember that I toid you, a short 

 time ago, of letting 7 queens in at the en- 

 trances of as many queenless hives, and all 

 but two were acccepted. One of them was 

 a black stock, whose queen had been taken 

 out but an hour or two before, and they ac- 

 cepted the queen all right. In reporting on 

 new plans, it is well to bear in mind these 

 facts.— Two queens in a hive has been of 

 late a fertile topic. 



EGGS disappearing. 



A dollar queen which I had introduced commenced 

 to lay, and filled one frame of comb, made from fdn., 

 full of eggs. In a few days, I looked in, and the 

 eggs were all gone. What was the cause of this? 

 I am putting frames of hatching brood in my nu- 

 clei to build them up strong. One of them came 

 out every day for about 5 days, and left brood and 

 honey. Its hive was new, and all nice and clean. I 

 could see nothing the matter. There were Vi gallon 

 of bees, and the queen was fertilized and laying. 

 Then I clipped her wings, and gave them another 

 frame of brood and honey, and they seem now to 

 have located. I have used "lots" of fdn., and the 

 bees seem to like it, and I just like to work with 

 bees.— Would you recommend me to use the chaff 

 hive for this latitude? M. P. Carter. 



Carlton, Kan., July 3, 1880. 



I have seen eggs disappear as you men- 

 tion, but it was usually to be explained by 

 the sudden stoppage of the honey yield. 

 Was it not thus in your case?— I think you 

 cured your nucleus from swarming out by 

 making it a little stronger in both stores 

 and bees ; but, ordinarily, I should not ex- 

 pect a frame of brood to help the swarming- 

 out matter, where the nucleus had unsealed 

 brood already of its own. — I would use chaff 

 hives in your climate in winter, or anywhere, 

 where ice freezes a half inch thick. 



