1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



23 



regular intervals. Which of the two is the more 

 delicately constituted, and liable to injury by a 

 slight diversion from regular order of life— the lay- 

 ing queen or the human stomach? I want to em- 

 phasize the fact that a queen that is but a spare 

 layer is just as good to lireeil from, and better than 

 one that is an excessive layer. And, again, that 

 queens taken from a nucleus hive are more profita- 

 ble to the purchaser than those taken from a full 

 colony in the height of her laying season. 



Abbott L. Swinson. 

 Goldsboro, N. 0., Dec. 4,1888. 



With the large number of queens we an- 

 nually send out by mail, it is strange that 

 we have not noticed, or, rather, received, 

 many complaints of such deterioration in 

 said queens. There may be an occasional in- 

 stance that seems to point that way ; but that 

 such cases may be frequent is not a matter 

 of our observation. If you and friend Doo- 

 little are correct (and you may be to a certain 

 extent), why is it that we have never heard 

 more frequently of such failure of egg-lay- 

 ing before V Now, it is just possible that 

 your last sentence explains the difference 

 in our experiences. Although our cells are 

 raised in full colonies, the queens, as a rule, 

 are reared in nuclei. 



BALLING QUEENS; KEFITSING TO ACCEPT CELLS. 



Last spring, a year ago, I bought a queen from 

 Dr. Brown, Augusta, Ga. She proved to be a tine 

 layer, and purely mated. Last month I noticed 

 the bees balling her. 1 smoked them well and 

 closed the hive Now they have a black queen. 

 How did they get her, and why did they destroy 

 their queen? In Italianizing I had colonies which 

 would not receive queen-cells nor build one when 

 given eggs, although they had been queenless for 

 in and 12 days. Is not this unusual? In one of my 

 colonies I often hear a noise resembling the growl- 

 ing of an opossum. You can hear it some 12 or 15 

 paces off, yet I can find nothing wrong. What do 

 you suppose causes it? D. C. McCampbell. 



Harinontown, Miss., Nov. 27, 1888. 



Friend M., it is hard to assign a reason 

 why bees will at times ball a good fertile 

 queen. Sometimes they will attack one as 

 soon as the hive is opened — indeed, the dis- 

 turbance is what causes them to behave so 

 unseemly. As a usual thing, under such 

 circumstances, if the hive be closed immedi- 

 ately the bees will let the queen alone, 

 though it is our practice to blow a little 

 smoke in at the entrance. In the instance 

 you give, the balling resulted in the death 

 of the queen; and her successor, it seems, it 

 was a black one. At certain seasons of the 

 year it is difficult to get colonies to accept 

 cells given them ; but if the bees are actu- 

 ally queenless, beyond any question, we feel 

 pretty sure they will accept eggs and raise 

 cells. We should incline to the opinion 

 that the colony you mention had some sort 

 of a queen, probably a fertile worker. The 

 only thing to do is to scatter the brood and 

 frames throughout the apiary. When a col- 

 ony apparently queenless refuses to raise 

 cells we generally come to the conclusion 

 that they have fertile workers, and a care- 

 ful scrutiny of the combs generally confirms 

 this conclusion. —Unfortunately, we don't 

 know what an t; opossum's growr' sounds 



like ; we therefore can form no conception 

 of what that peculiar noise is which you no- 

 tice among your bees. During the honey- 

 How there is a low hum that can he dis- 

 tinctly heard several feet away. 



jMOTEJS JftND QaEI^IEJS. 



STATISTICS. 



"Ma LLOW me lo Bay that I am highly pleased with 

 ^llk the Honey Statistics in Gleanings. I think 



j$m that that alone should be worth a dollar per 

 ■***• annum to many bee-keepers. 1 see by the 

 latest statistics that friends Nebel & Son, of 

 High Hill, Mo., are away ahead of us other fellows 

 here in Missouri on the average crop of honey se- 

 cured this season, and that with a large number of 

 colonies, if I am not mistaken. How is it, friends, 

 have you a better location, or do you know better 

 how to manage the bees? S. E. Miller. 



Bluffton, Mo. 



bees and fruit. 



I notice a complaint in a recent number of 

 Gleanings, regarding bees working on raspber- 

 ries. I have had the same trouble, the bees being 

 so troublesome as to almost drive away pickers. 



Nichols. Conn., Dec. 13, 1888. H. P. Nichols. 



A QUESTION COB OUR " SALT-WATER " READEKS. 



What is the best paint for bee-hives in a salt-wa- 

 ter locality— pure lead, zinc, lead and zinc, or some 

 other kind of paint? A. B. Mason. 



Auburndale, O. 



[Will some of our readers located near salt water 

 please answer? But why should proximity to salt 

 water make any difference ?] 



APPLE-TREE SILK-MOTH. 



Prof. Couk:—J send you by mail for identification, 

 the pupa of some large insect found adhering to 

 the limb of a plum-tree. Please report through 

 Gleaninos. W. 1). Ali.en. 



Kosse, Tex., Dec. 17, 1888. 



Prof. Cook replies : 



This fine large cocoon contains the apparently 

 healthy chrysalis of our apple-tree silk-moth, Platy- 

 samia Cecropia. Next June there will come from 

 this a large beautiful brown moth. A. J. Cook. 



FEEDING EXTRACTED HONEY. 



I wish to feed my bees honey for winter stores. 

 How shall T do so, so as to have it not granulate in 

 the combs? K. H. Shipman. 



Cannington, Ont. 



(Feeding back extracted honey is rather unsatis- 

 factory. It is difficult to prevent granulation in all 

 cases. At the price honey is now, we would not 

 think of feeding bees with it. By all means, feed 

 sugar syrup well cooked. It makes a much better 

 food, and if you make the syrup rightly you will 

 have no trouble about its crystallization.] 



HUTCHINSON'S PLAN ON EMPTY FRAMES; HED- 

 DON'S NON-SWARMING PLAN. 



I have tried Hutchinson's plan of hiving on empty 

 frames, and failed. I have tried Doolittle's plan of 

 hiving in contracted brood-chambers, filled with 

 empty combs, combined with Heddon's plan to pre- 

 vent after-swarms, by hiving on the old stand and 

 removing old hive the 7th or 8th day, and I believe 

 it superior to any non-swarming plan I have ever 

 heard of for surplus honey. Benj. A. Kapp. 



Chillicothe, Mo., Nov. 9, 1888. 



