52G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



SIMPSON AND SPIDER PLANT. 



WE are very much interested in your reports 

 from your bee-farm, hoping and believing' 

 that such and similar experiments else- 

 where will eventually give us some plants that will 

 pay to raise for honey alone. 



We presume you have noticed the large number of 

 hiney-plants offered for naming by different parties 

 the past year, and there seems to be an increasing 

 interest in this direction all over the country, going 

 to show the great desire that such a discovery may 

 be made. 



I am experimenting, in a small way, for the above 

 purpose, and will give results for this seoson. I 

 sowed my figwort seed early in a cold frame; the 

 plauts came up without any trouble, and in abund- 

 ance. I set them as soon as the ground was suita- 

 ble for corn, two feet and one-half apart both ways, 

 and cultivated likewise, same as corn. I did not ex- 

 pect it to blossom much the first season, but it grew 

 finely, and almost every plant blossomed and yielded 

 honey until frost came. I never saw such a sight be- 

 fore. There was about half an acre of it, and such a 

 rushing and hurrying of bees! Why, they fairly 

 fought, sometimes, to see which should have the first 

 opportunity to stick its head into the little old-fash- 

 ioned honey-hood, bonnet-like flower. One great 

 thing with figwort is, it gives out nectar all day. One 

 day I noticed a large number of humming-birds, I 

 should say between one and two dozen, very busy on 

 the figwort, like the bees, and having a great deal of 

 fun and frolic in their peculiar way. The Spider 

 plant I sowed was set and cultivated the same as fig- 

 wort. The bees worked on it only a short time, 

 morning and night. It seemed to yield the most nec- 

 tar in the morning. I too, like you, have seen that 

 nectar-drop sparkling in the morning sunlight. I 

 have seen a bee alight and ail himself at one of these 

 drops, and fall back, breathing hard, with evident 

 regret, like a boy who has been sucking cider 

 through a straw, and has got so full that he had to 

 quit, but was sorry he couldn't hold more. Perhaps 

 you know how it is yourself —I mean, as regards the 

 boy. Well, it gave nectar about as long as the fig- 

 wort; but there was a drought the last of July and 

 first of August, and many of those hot, dry days, it 

 gave little or no nectar for the bees, while figwort 

 gave honey right along all the time. They were 

 planted side by side. The balm-like aroma of the 

 Spider plant way very pleasant to me, and I could 

 detect its peculiar scent a great was off, and it made 

 me feel sometimes as though I would like to roll in 

 it. I have other plants, but think it not worth while 

 to report at present. I should like to hear from 

 others. R. H. Mellen. 



Amboy, 111., Oct. 11, 1880. 



— m m 



A LAYING QUEEN LEAVING HER HIVE 

 AND KILLING ANOTHER. 



iILL you please take time to read a singular 

 circumstance which happened in an apiary 

 of 35 colonies? Since receiving that choice 

 imported queen sent by you July 1st, we have raised 

 135 queens, 26 of which are in our yard ; the rest are 

 scattered north and south, east and west. But, to 

 the point. 



Eleven days ago we opened a strong stock of black 

 bees, that we had traded four young queens for; 

 found and removed the black queen; went to one of 

 our nuclei, and caged a young queen that we knew 



to be fertilized, but had not commenced laying. 

 We placed her on the frames of the black stock, and 

 the next day we released her. After remaining in 

 the hive 8 days she commenced to lay, and so we 

 thought all was well; but to-day, while tilting the 

 swarm made by uniting this nuclei with three oth- 

 ers, for wiuter, we found, to our surprise, that their 

 queen, which was a very nice one, had just been 

 killed, and was being dragged about on the combs. 

 She was thus dragged, by having a very firm grasp 

 on the wing, close to the body of the queen that had 

 been introduced to the black stock, 3 rods distant, 

 eleven days ago. After liberating the live queen 

 with the point of my knife (for she was held by a 

 grasp that must have meant "business" in the time 

 of it), I clipped her wing, put her in a cage, and car- 

 ried her back home; at sundown, to-night, I again 

 released her among the black bees. They seemed 

 much pleased with her, but I was not. 



The hive (No. 15) containing the swarm made by 

 uniting the four nuclei, was a dark hive, and stood 

 some six feet distant from where this queen was 

 raised— she being raised in a white hive. 



I can call to mind many very interesting and, to 

 me, singular circumstances connected with rearing 

 135 queens and introducing over TO; but this one 

 was uppermost in mind to-night. 



What is the best way to dispose of a fertile worker 

 at this time of the year? E. H. Knapp. 



Fabius, N. Y., Oct. 9, 1880. 



At first glance, the case seems a little hard 

 of explanation, friend K., but I think we 

 can make it out after all. Let us see : 

 Queens that have just begun to lay, taken 

 from a hive in the same apiary, and carried 

 to another, frequently go back to the home 

 from which they made their wedding flight. 

 This has been mentioned in our back Nos., 

 and, I think, in the ABC. T think it comes 

 about by their being dissatisfied with the 

 new surroundings, and so they go out at the 

 entrance and take wing. They then natur- 

 ally remember the landmarks of their for- 

 mer home, and so in there. In your case, 

 there are two difficulties to be explained. 

 The first is, that she had commenced to lay, 

 and we always suppose a laying queen to be 

 a "fixture," as it were. I should suppose 

 she was not very well satisfied with her 

 home or she would not have waited 8 days 

 before laying. The second point is, how 

 did she get into a hive, not the one from 

 which she took her wedding flight? Now, 

 unless you know to the contrary, I would 

 suggest that the very day you opened the 

 hive and found her laying, she took wing 

 from the comb you were holding in your 

 hand, for laying queens, when frightened, 

 often do this, and, of course, she then went 

 home to her original white hive. When you 

 united the four nuclei, you of course sup- 

 posed her in the black colony, but she was 

 really in the nucleus, and you put the two 

 queens together yourself, and they fought, 

 and the result was as you have given it. If 

 you know this can not be so, I would sug- 

 gest that the queen went out while the black 

 bees were playing, and found bees from her 

 old home playing, and went home with 

 them. But this latter looks quite improba- 

 ble. — I would get rid of a fertile worker at 

 this season by uniting the colony to one with 

 a queen. 



