mi 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



in my description. The question of drones and 

 queens must yet be answered. In the Apis ftorea, 

 the queen and drones are much larger than tlie 

 worker-bee. comparatively, than is the case in the 

 A.Iiidiva. The drones are of a beautiful slate col- 

 or, lam inclined to think that this bee has more 

 tl»aii one (jucen to each stock, but am not at all cer- 

 tain. As I remarked in a former letter, the Ajjis 

 l\:M-ei\ resembles the .1. iloisiita in many ways. 



A. lUXKKH. 



Toun^oo, IJritii<h lUiruuih, .July 3, lS>^ii. 



Many thanks, friend Bunker, fur tlie addi- 

 tional information you give us. It seems to 

 be a little hard for us to get hold of tlie idea 

 of these cylindrical honey-combs. Could 

 you not make some kind of a drawing of it 

 when you are writingV 



In atldition to the above facts, friend Bun- 

 ker sends the following in a private letter: 

 and this private letter is of so mnch interest 

 toalln'hoare interested in A/iix darsata, that 

 I am sure friend P.uiiker will excuse ns for 

 making at least a part of it pul)Iic. It is as 

 follows: 



You have verj- kiulb- ottered to hel|> bear the 

 <nUlay in experimenting- with A. dorsaki. I should 

 not hesitate to accept your kind offer, if I were sure 

 1 could f-et any good for you and the public out of 

 the experiments; for the fact is, we missionaries, 

 with our divided families, part hei'c and part in 

 America, find it hard to make the ends meet. W^e can 

 not use our allowance for support t(j the best ad- 

 vantage. No complaint, however, you understand. 



Doubtless if I had ample funds I could drive the 

 experiments with A. dorsata much faster. I have 

 to hire men to climb the trees and transport the 

 bees 30 miles, and carpenters to make the hives, 

 which is expensive. The last hive cost me 1~ rupees 

 (a rupee, or, rather, 2 5 rupees, etiual $1.00). I paid 

 S rupees for men to climb for the bees and bring- 

 (hem into town. Of course, I now have the hive and 

 I shall not be obliged to get another very soon. 



By the way, every hive must be thoi-oughly pro- 

 tected from ants, by surrounding the base with wa- 

 ter or oil. I am exceedingly interested in these bee 

 experiments, and am leaving nothing undone by 

 which to post myself on all the ways of bees, and 

 I shall do my best to give -1. dorsata a fair test. 



Inclosing, my dear brother, allow me to bid you 

 " (jod speed in your good work." You have been 

 liberal to this missionary, for which you are held in 

 grateful remembrance. 



I hope to send to you soon an order lor tin pails 

 for honey. My helper in the study of bees, a very 

 intelligent Karen, wants to try an experiment in 

 marketing the tO bbls. of honey from the A. dors ita 

 of his village. He thinks that if the pails are ant 

 proof he can put up the honey with a neat label, 

 and ship to the Kangoon market, now the railroad 

 is open, and make a good profit. 1 mention this as 

 a fact of progress; so, look out for an order, say 

 when the season slacks with you, as I suspect then 

 will be best time to l)uy. A. Bunkek. 



Friend B.. I believe the best way of ex- 

 pressing my heaity s.\ mpathy with your en- 

 terprise for i)utting the .l/;/,s- d<irf<at<i honey 

 up in tin p:iils for market would be to tell 

 you that I have placed to your credit !?2.').0(). 

 to be used for tin pails, or in any other way 

 you may suggest. If, as you suggest, it 

 should not auKnint to anv thing. I will risk 



so mucli in the experiment. I know how it 

 is with missionaries, and I liave always had 

 reason to believe that they as a rule make 

 pretty careful investments. 



CLIPPED QUEENS. 



FOU AND AGAIN SI 



X 



:o .Aour questions on page 435, arisiug- 

 it from comments on Mr. Doolittle's article on 

 j clij)ping queens, I will say, from my observa- 

 "'*' tion and experience, that it takes a natural 

 swarm but a very few minutes to ascertain 

 whether or not the <iueen is with them in the air, 

 and every thing in order for further proceeding. 

 If the queen be not clipped, swarms will issue 

 (juickly, and at once cluster; while with a clipped 

 queen they ai-e longer leaving- the hive, and so 

 much time is usually spent before clustering (which 

 they often do, and sometimes do not), that many 

 bees return to the old stand. Even if the queen be 

 found and caged immediately, and hung- upon 

 something where a few show disposition to cluster, 

 as Mr. Uoolittle mentions, as a rule it does not war- 

 lant their clustering- there. To suspend the cage 

 among the bees in the air by means of a long stick, 

 and "fly" it around with them often induces them 

 to cluster quickly; but even this is not usually sat- 

 isfactory. If they do not happen to fly all over 

 your yard and jour neighbor's yard too, as swarms 

 with clipped queens often do, they do take up a 

 good deal of time. This may not matter, if one has 

 a few colonies; but when a dozen swarms are likely 

 to come out within an hour, some quicker method 

 of disposing of them works better for me. 1 have 

 occasionally had half a dozen swarms issue, one 

 after the other, with an average difference of not 

 more than three minutes, with queens having good 

 sound wings, and I alone find no difflculty in get- 

 ting each swarm hived by itself with its own queen, 

 as it should be. Imagine the ")nuss"I should 

 have had, if those queens had been clipped. Some 

 would say the bees would return to their respective 

 hives. This they mi(iht do, but more than likely 

 some one or two out of half a dozen would get the 

 most of them. I believe more clipped queens are 

 lost at swarming than are swarms by absconding. 

 If tWey are not lost outright, they are quite often 

 balled or superseded shortly after. 



Now, doesn't it depend upon the comimrative val- 

 ue of queens and bees, together with one's ability 

 to manage successfully at all times, whether or not 

 we can advisf clipping'/ As for me, in my home 

 apiary, managed expressly lor comb honey, I al- 

 low a certain amount of swarming, and prefer the 

 queens not clipiKd; while if I were running an 

 apiary away from home, equally strong, for comb 

 honey, and not in charge of an excellent hand, I 

 would allow no natural swarming, and have all 

 (|ueens e?i'pP''t'. C. W. King. 



Kibbles, Mich. 



Friend K., I have luid (lueenswitli clipped 

 wings act just about as you describe, a good 

 many times, and that is one reason why I 

 have several times before made the state- 

 ment that it seemed to ns we had more 

 bother where the (pieens were clipped than 

 where they were imclipped. I agree with 

 you, that it is (ptite likely circumstances 

 may greatly alter cases in such matters. 



