191)1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



93' 



their projjfeny. in accordance with the 

 "fundamental rule of uniformity " in pure 

 stock; but I never yet have seen all the bees 

 of so-called five-banded queens show uni- 

 formity five yellow bands. The best aver- 

 asje for one queen is, perhaps. SO per cent 

 with five bands; 25 per cent with four, and 

 the rest with three. As a rule we do well 

 to f^et 25 per cent five-banded workers, and 

 the rest three and four banded, all from 

 the same queen. I never yet have seen a 

 uniform number of bands from anyone queen 

 of the extra-yellow stock; therefore I have 

 my doubts whether the " rule of fundamen- 

 tal uniformity " would apply in this case, 

 althoug-h it mig-ht do so. — Ed.] 



• •• f ♦♦♦♦^-.-^ — 



BEE-KEEPING IN MONTSERRAT. 



BV A. J. JORDAN, AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCT- 

 OR. 



Montserrat is a small island 16° 45^ N. , 

 62° 1' W., 8 miles broad and 12 miles long-, 

 forming one link in the chain of beautiful 

 islands known as the Lesser Antilles. The 

 bare statement of the length and breadth of 

 the island would give the bee-keepers used 

 to a flat country no idea of the possibilities 

 of a place like this. There is not an acre 

 of level land in the whole island. As in the 

 case of Dominica and St. Kitts, Montserrat 

 is of volcanic origin, and was, in ages past, 

 thrown up into the most fantastic peaks. 

 The heavy rains, too, have lent themselves 

 to the cutting-up of the surface of the land. 

 As the water pours dow'n on the steep slopes 

 of the mountain-sides it gathers together 

 and forms torrents which cut deep chasms, 

 called here "guts," in the surface of the 

 earth. Many of the trees and plants grow- 

 ing at or near the top of the guts send down 

 their long aerial roots to the bottom of the 

 gut; and upon these manj' of the climbing 

 plants (iponeas, legumes, etc.), which ob- 

 tain sufficient soil to root in at the bottom, 

 climb upward. The mountain-sides are 

 like a greenhouse stage, rising in such a 

 way as to enable the plants to grow far 

 more thickly than they could possibly do on 

 the level. 



Bee-keeping has been carried on for many 

 years in a rough-and-ready way, the bees 

 being kept in boxes and barrels, and the 

 combs containing young bees as well as 

 honey being periodicallj'cut out. The comb, 

 when cut, was, as a rule, put into a coarse 

 cloth, and squeezed; and you may guess 

 that the honey obtained was not of the best 

 quality, and was useless but for consump- 

 tion among the people themselves. 



Some tw^o or three years ago Mr. I. T. 

 Allen commenced to keep bees in the mod- 

 ern hives, and a little more than a year ago 

 Mr. E. F. Dyett obtained two ten-frame 

 hives; but the actual beginning of the pres- 

 ent bee-keeping stimulus was the sending, 

 by the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture 

 for the West Indies, of Mr. W. K. Morrison 

 to lecture here on bee-keeping. Since then 



several people have g^ot hives, and are ex- 

 perimenting in a small way. Three colo- 

 nies of black bees were obtained by the 

 Agricultural Department, in barrels, from 

 one of the people here, and were transferred 

 to ten-frame hives. Nine colonies have since 

 been obtained from these three, milking- a 

 total of twelve. 



The two Italian queens you sent are 

 working well. It is interesting to see how 

 the bees from these queens dash in and out 

 of the hives, very difi'erently from the delib- 

 erate movements of the Creole black bee. 



The three difficulties the bee-keepers have 

 to overcome here are bullfrogs, moth, and 

 lizards. The first is, I suppose, peculiar 

 only to this place. Bee-keeping with the 

 hives on the ground would be a failure here, 

 for the frogs would simply lick up the bees 

 as fast as they could come home. We keep 

 the hives two feet from the ground. 



The moth has given a little trouble in 

 slack time — that is, September, March, 

 April, and May; but they do not trouble 

 strong colonies. 



Nothing as yet has been discovered to 

 prevent the lizards from attacking the bees; 

 but as about three bees satisfy' a lizard the 

 damage done is not great. 



I see by Glkanings that "covers " are 

 still under discussion. I may say those 

 sent here are a failure in this climate. No 

 matter what is done, water finds its way 

 to the combs. 



WIRED FRAMES WITHOUT FOUNDATION. 



Are they Practicable ? Use of Wooflen Stays in 



Place of Wire ; an Unwelcome Fact about 



Alfalfa-growing. 



BY O. R. WEAVER. 



I wish to secure the advantages of wired 

 combs without the expense of using full 

 sheets of foundation. I arn not able to 

 stand the expense. Can I have combs built 

 from starters on a wired frame ? I never 

 tried it, but don't think I can have them 

 built that way. 



I have another plan that I never heard 

 of anyone using, so I wish to ask your idea 

 of it. This is my plan: Take strips of 'sx 

 '4 -inch stuft'; cut them off" -^V inch longer 

 than the distance from the top of the bottom- 

 bar to the bottom of the sawed grooves on 

 the under side of the top-bar. Cut a notch 

 j'o deep in top of the bottom-bar; spring the 

 bottom-bar down a little, and slip the strip 

 in, putting one end in the groove where 

 foundation goes. First, one would have to 

 cut the starters so they would go in be- 

 tween the strips, and strips and end-bars of 

 frames. Now, would the bees cover the 

 strips with comb so the comb would be 

 stronger? I am up 6500 ft. high; winters 

 are cold, and snow gets deep. Don't you 

 think double-walled hives would give better 

 results ? 



While 3'ou are writing so much about al- 

 falfa, I think it would be advisable to sound 



