92 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



FEB. 



(with three competitors). From the hive with sec- 

 tions filled with foundation I took 24 pounds, a part 

 of which were poorly tilled. From the hive with 

 starters only, I took 13 lbs. I used the 4 1 4x4Mxl , ,f ; 

 section. A season with a good flow of nectar, the 

 result might have been different. 



Thanks for the biographies of our leading bee- 

 keepers. ELIASCOLE. 



Ashley, 0.. Jan. 10, 1889. 



Friend C, your report is very valuable, 

 but 1 am sorry to say that you omitted in 

 your experiments one of the most valuable, 

 or, perhaps I might say. vital points. No 

 one claims, I believe, that the bees will 

 fill a case sooner when entirely supplied 

 with new sections containing foundation. 

 Every crate of this kind should have one or 

 two sections, with comb partly built out, to 

 induce the bees to make a starting. Now, 

 had you prepared the case in this way, my 

 opinion is that it would have given more 

 honey than the one where the crate was 

 made up entirely of partly finished sections 

 from the previous year. Will somebody 

 else please give us reports in regard to this 

 matter, especially tests made as I have stat- 

 ed it V 



MATING OP THE QUEEN AND DRONE ON THE WING, 

 AS SEEN BY AN EYE-WITAESS. 



I have your ADC book before me, open at page 

 72— "Mating of the Queens and Drones." On 

 June 21,1888, I saw this mating take place. The 

 queen issued from the hive, took two circles, and 

 came within five feet of my face, and was there 

 met by a drone. They seemed to face each other, 

 clinging by their fore legs, their bodies being per- 

 pendicular, and in this shape flew from my sight. 

 It happened so unexpectedly that I hardly knew 

 what was going on before it was too late to follow' 

 them. I could have easily kept up with them. I 

 have described this because your book says they 

 have not been seen, only as they were whirling 

 about each other. I saw these fasten; and as they 

 did so they turned and came together, square up 

 and down ; and as they flew away their bodies 

 inclined about like this /, and each bee was 

 using its wings. I now would ask you bee-men of 

 experience if you would call this a mating. Have 

 any had the opportunity of seeing the same? 



Myrtle, Pa., Jan. 2, 1889. E. A. Pratt. 



Friend P., we have had accounts already, 

 similar to yours, but I believe that, in most 

 cases, they speak of insects whirling one 

 about another, which you do not mention. 

 The point yet undecided, if I am correct, is, 

 to witness the whole operation until the 

 1 1 ueen releases herself and leaves the drone 

 to drop to the ground dead, or, if both fall 

 to the ground, the separation of the queen 

 and going back to t lie hive. The meeting 

 lias been described at least several times, 

 much as you describe it ; and by standing at 

 the hive, the queen lias been seen to come 

 borne with the usual appendage attached to 

 her, so that we know pretty nearly all about 

 it. It is quite likely that they do not be- 

 have, at all times and under all circum- 

 stances, exactly in the same way. At the 

 time when so many were experimenting, 

 with the view of being able to bring about 

 this meeting by artificial means, the subject 

 assumed the shape of a good deal of practi- 



cal interest ; but since the matter of artifi- 

 cial fertilization has been mostly dropped as 

 impracticable, by universal consent, there 

 is also less inquiry in regard to it. 



DR. MILLER'S BEE-ESCAPE; TAKING OFF FALL 



HONEY. 



As soon as we read of Dr. Miller's miniature tents 

 we made three; but we did not find their use nec- 

 essary for fall. One morning when we found the 

 bees all out of the supers and down on the brood- 

 combs we took off the supers. Altogether there 

 were four of us— two to open and take off supers, 

 one to carry in the supers, and one to put on a quilt 

 and the hive-cover. We ran through them so 

 quickly that we needed no smoke, and we had the 

 hive covered before they woke up. In that way we 

 went through the whole apiary very quickly. 

 Roseville, III. Mrs. L. C. Axtell. , 



Mrs. A., you do not explain enough. Do 

 you mean that the cool frosty weather 

 drove the bees down out of the supers, and 

 that you took advantage of this state of af- 

 fairs, and got the honey off without any 

 need of driving the bees out of the sections ? 

 I have sometimes succeeded in doing this ; 

 but the snapping of the supers when they 

 come off will ordinarily start the bees out 

 unless w r e work very rapidly. As the en- 

 graving came in the issue for Sept. 15, it 

 was probably October before you got to 

 taking the honey off. 



out for a fly ; SOME statements reviewed. 



I am out for a fly, and intend alighting wherever 

 I can get any thing to pick at. I think Dr. Mason 

 deserves the first "dab." About a year ago he 

 promised he would keep a paternal eye on the 

 bee-.iournals and bring up sharply all and sundry 

 who deviated from the true line. Either bee-litera- 

 ture has been exceedingly straight from then till 

 now, or he has gone woefully back on his promise. 

 I have not noticed a single instance in which he 

 has brought, the erring to task in the meantime. 

 He can hardly plead that every thing which has ap- 

 peared since can be brought to the plummet and 

 prove truly laid. Surely the doctor's promises are 

 not like pie-crusts— made to be broken? 



I should like to gently tickle the ear of Mr. Doo- 

 little with a feather from my wing, if it would cor- 

 rect his mistaken notion of the honey-producing 

 qualities of the hard maple. He says: "We are 

 told nearly every year of bees getting honey from 

 hard maple.*** I have come to the conclusion 

 there was a mistake somewhere." Without doubt 

 the mistake lies with Mr. Doolittle and those who 

 think with him: for a very considerable quantity 

 of honey was gotten from this source in this sec- 

 tion during the early part of this season. A neigh- 

 bor of mine took several hundred pounds of hard- 

 maple honey. Of the source from which it was 

 gathered, there can be no doubt. I suppose noth- 

 ing short of proof will convince the gentleman of 

 this fact. Fortunately, I am in a position to sup- 

 ply the proof by sending you a sample of the hon- 

 ey, which you may, if you please, transmit to your 

 doubting correspondent. If the soft maple flourish- 

 ed to any extent here, it might be said it was from it 

 the honey was gathered; but it does not. 



T think I had better now alight on the shoulder of 

 Dr. C. C. Miller, as I see him and his companion 

 bearing toward the cellar-door a well-stored hive, 



