1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



17 



other reason for planting' lindens for shade, instead 

 of maples. We should suppose that such insects, 

 living and feeding- in sound hard wood, would be 

 safe from all foes, but this is not so. We have at 

 least two ichneumon flies that bore into trees harbor- 

 ing- these horn-tail larvie, and deposit their eggs in 

 the tissues of the borers. Thus even these borers 

 are not safe, but often become victims to ichneu- 

 mon parasites. How does the ichneumon fly know 

 where to bore ? How can she know that, deep in 

 the hard wood, the borer is working? 1 surmise 

 that, by walking up the tree, she feels a tremor 

 caused by the gnawing of the larva within. It hard- 

 ly seems possible that scent can guide her. Odors 

 could hardly penetrate solid wood. A. J. Cook. 

 Agricultural College, Mich. 



But, friend Cook, there is just one thing 

 I want to know about these augers: To make 

 an auger bore, it must rotate; but the ma- 

 chinery in question, however, can not well 

 rotate. How, then, does this auger work? 

 Can't you give us a drawing of it? In our 

 description of bee-stings the matter was 

 lightly touched ; and inasmucli as it comes 

 in the line of the way in which bees bore 

 holes with their sting," we think it might be 

 profitable to have it fully described, with il- 

 lustrations, in a bee-journal. 



CAGING QUEENS JUST BEFORE THE 

 HONEY-FLOW. 



E. FRANCE SUGGESTS A VERY IMPORTANT .MATTER. 



fHE bee-keeper's summer is past, the harvest is 

 gathered, and what is the result of the sea- 

 son's labor? All who read the bee-papers 

 know that the honey crop was small this 

 year, and smaller last year. I for one don't 

 expect a full crop next year, owing to the dry 

 weather during August and September of this sea- 

 son in our locality. But after all, I individually am 

 thankful for the small crop that we did get, and my 

 faith in the bee-business is still good. I think there 

 are better times coming, when we shall get our re- 

 ward if we stick to the bees. Perhaps it is a good 

 thing for us to have short crops for one or two 

 years. The old surplus will all be worked off, 

 prices will be kept up, and bee-keepers will be 

 made to understand that they are dependent upon 

 some higher power than ourselves to secure a 

 bountiful harvest. No matter how much skill the 

 apiarist may possess, the bees can not gather hon- 

 ey unless it is supplied for them to gather. The 

 supply is beyond our control. But after all, the 

 skilled apiarist can manage and manipulate his 

 bees so there will be a great difference in results, 

 providing there is a now of honey at any time dur- 

 ing the season, of some sort. With us we have had 

 good honey seasons for a long term of years, and so 

 we were able to take a little over 100 lbs. per colo- 

 ny of surplus until the year ISST, when we got only 

 12 lbs. per colony. Owing to the dry weather of 

 1886, the clover was nearly all killed. The year 

 1KK7 was a dry year also, but we had some rain in 

 the fall. A great deal of clover came up from 

 seed, but this was not advanced far enough to give 

 us a crop of honey this year, I8SS; accordingly all 

 the honey we got last year, 1887, and this year, 1888, 

 came from basswood. Last year we obtained 12 

 lbs., but not half as much as' we should have se- 



cured had we managed our bees as we could have 

 done. We had fill colonies, and obtained 4920 lbs., 

 all from basswood, which was the only thing dur- 

 ing the season from which it was possible to ob- 

 tain any surplus. The same is likewise true of this 

 year. 



How could we have done better? I will try to 

 explain the situation a little, and then tell how we 

 could have obtained more honey. First, remember 

 we worked for extracted honey. The year 1886 was 

 a good honey season, and we secured a large crop 

 of clover honey before the dry weather set in. 

 Then the dry weather did not affect the basswood. 

 so we got a big crop of basswood. We let the bees 

 All up their hives with basswood honey to winter 

 on, as we usually do. After that there was honey- 

 dew on which the bees lived until winter, so their 

 combs were loaded with honey. When winter set 

 in they had enough honey to eat for their own use, 

 and to feed their brood until the basswood came 

 the next season. When the basswood opened they 

 had the most of the honey used up, and all the 

 combs were full of brood from top to bottom, and 

 n 3 place to put any honey. All they could do was 

 to fill the cells as fast as the brood hatched. The 

 basswood lasted 12 days, and it took 21 days to hatch 

 out all of the brood. It was positively necessary to 

 leave honey in those combs to winter the bees. 

 Could we safely take out any? Yfes, we could ex- 

 tract for a week, and give them time to fill the 

 combs that we emptied; and if we whirled the 

 combs pretty hard, perhaps we could throw out 

 some of the younger brood and give the bees a 

 chance to fill their places with honey. We conclud- 

 ed to do that, and did do it; but as it took a week to 

 go over the bees we got but very little honey the 

 first three or four days. We got out a great deal of 

 young brood, and that gave more room to store 

 honey. Then as the older brood hatched, that gave 

 room to store honey. By the time the basswood 

 flow came to an end, the bees had enough honey 

 stored to winter on. besides the little we took out. 



Now, I am aware that I have introduced a strange 

 idea in throwing out brood on purpose to benefit 

 the bees; but under the circumstances it was the 

 best thing we could do. as the hives were crowded 

 full of bees. The combs were full of brood, and no 

 place to store honey. If we had had on hand a large 

 quantity of empty combs, then we could have 

 made good use of them; but we did not have them, 

 and so we had to do the very best we could. How 

 could we have done better, and got more honey? 

 By simply caging - the queens ten days before the 

 basswood flow commenced; then the brood would 

 have been about half hatched out by the time the 

 flow commenced, and (til would have been hatched 

 by the time the basswood ceased. The queens 

 could then have been liberated. The bees would 

 not have tried to swarm when the queens were 

 caged. All queen-cells should be destroyed, ami 

 ten days from that time they should be destroyed 

 again. There would then not be any attempt to 

 swarm until the queens were liberated and some 

 brood started, and not then if the honey-flow were 

 over. Why did we" not do it, and secure more hon^ 

 ey? We did not think of it in time, as we had nev- 

 i i- been in the same flx before. But we have been 

 partially in the same boat this year again. We 

 started in this season with 431 colonies, and had to 

 feed about 500 lbs. in the spring to get the bees 

 through to clover, from which they gathered just 



