226 



GLE.ININGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



extracting - house. A week later I ex- 

 tract from the hive again, or at least look for 

 queen-cells, but do not find them started in 

 many hives. It will be remembered that the 

 two lower stories need not be examined, which 

 is quite an item with such strong colonies. If 

 ten -frame L. hives are receiving much honey 

 at the time, it would astonish the natives to 

 f^ee how the honey "just grows" in those 

 Heddon hives. 



I never tried inverting brood to get queen- 

 cells torn down, and do not believe it would 

 work. Once while destroying cells I noticed 

 one, quite small, which had no more down- 

 ward tendency than a drone-cell. I thought 

 it was a queen-cell, and gave it a pinch to see, 

 which revealed a lank young queen of sur- 

 prising length for so small a cell. For exper- 

 iment she was given to a nucleus, and proved 

 to be an average queen for laying. Inversion 

 would not have cost her any thing, and such 

 cases are frequent. Early in the summer it 

 might be different. 



Of course, these contracted colonies winter 

 in our climate with less stores than others do, 

 and have ample time to build up for the hon- 

 ey crop. If properly cared for, not one per 

 cent of them should swarm. 



If you come around next September I shall 

 try to convince you that the Draper (Dadant) 

 barn is not big enough for a brood-chamber, 

 and not the right shape. 



Last fall I did not contract any. Egg-lay- 

 ng was reduced by requeening, and it seemed 

 jetter to leave the rest strong for queen-rear- 

 ag operations iu the spring. 



Now, if I can run the bees out of an L. hive 

 into a box or "any old thing" I shall owe 

 thanks to Mr. Lathrop and several others, if it 

 gives the advantages of contraction. The ob- 

 jections which Mr. Massie raises to inversion 

 in Tophet (p. 608, last August) do not apply 

 to this locality. 



BELGIAN HARES. 



Lately I have been feeling very guilty about 

 what I said on page 607 about Belgian hares. 

 The " limited experience " referred to was for 

 a few weeks last winter. Last summer I pur- 

 chased a lot on the strength of that experi- 

 ence, and the almost universal fake claims 

 of breeders — men I could safely believe (?). 

 As an example, they are claimed to dress five 

 pounds at five months old. As they are so 

 big it is natural to believe such whopping 

 statements. In fact, however, they weigh 

 about half that amount. 



The notice they get in Dec. loth Glean- 

 ings, p. 977, is truly amusing. If the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture would pay express charges 

 on a fine pair of hares it would be a pleasure 

 for me to send him a pair for experiment. He 

 would be apt to find so much difficulty in rais- 

 ing them that his fears would vanish about 

 their increase when unprotected by man. 



If I can make honorable exchange for some- 

 thing I can use I'll quit the business ; if not, 

 you can depend on my eating out. They 

 should be good pets, but will never supplant 

 poodle-dog worship. As food they can not be 

 produced cheap enough. I can't learn where 

 their tough hides sell for any thing. The 



stories of water-mouth, death from heat neg- 

 lect, and eating of young by the does ; broken 

 legs, lop ears, bowel complaints, and what 

 not that breeders talk to each other about 

 would surprise an outsider. To make these 

 facts public might cause some folks to cry, 

 " Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! " for the 

 space of half an hour, for their income would 

 be jeopardized. 



When I think of Belgian hares my next 

 thought is, fake ! and this is a valley with a 

 record of 17 pups at a litter, and one cow pro- 

 duced four calves which grewoflf finely. The 

 locality is all right. 



Grayson, Cal., Jan. 1. 



[If I understand, your method of contrac- 

 tion is not contraction as it is ordinarily un- 

 derstood. First, you practice expansion, run- 

 ning the bees up to their greatest possible 

 strength. Then you contract, not by cutting 

 down the size of the brood-chamber, but by 

 restricting the egg-laying of the queen, and 

 giving the bees, in lieu of cases of brood and 

 honey, those containing either empty combs 

 or frames of foundation. 



Belgian hares are getting the black eye all 

 along the line ; and while they are now being 

 condemned right and left I can not help feel- 

 ing that the trend of discussion and opinion is 

 going just as much to one extreme as it did 

 in the other extreme in extolling their merits 

 to the skies. I have been at the homes of 

 bee-keepers where Belgian hares were reared 

 for table use, and they had been so reared for 

 a number of years. 



In time this industry% like all others, will 

 seek its legitimate level ; but in the mean 

 time I think we must conclude that, as a rule, 

 where the growing of Belgian hares would 

 pay, the rearing of poultry would yield a larg- 

 er revenue, because from them we get not 

 only the meat but the eggs. — Ed.] 



FORMING NUCLEI. 



Helpful Hints from a Practical Man. 



BY C. F. BENDER. 



Although a professional b.-e keeper and an 

 interested reader of Gleanings I have never 

 yet contributed any thing ; but in looking 

 over the volume for this year I see several 

 places where I should have liked to put in a 

 word if I could have done so at the proper 

 time. As I seldom have time for much writ- 

 ing, I will, with your permission, write on 

 several subjects in one article. 



1. When I made my nuclei this summer, in 

 spite of the fact that I left them shut up two 

 days I saw so many bees going back to the old 

 stands that I began to fear I should lose all my 

 nuclei. Just for an experiment I moved one 

 of the old hives about four feet back, and was 

 more than pleased with the result. The bees 

 that had no other home would, of course, enter 

 the nearest hive, which was their own ; while 

 those returning from the nuclei would make a 

 few circles and return to their new home when 

 they found the old one no longer there. Just 



