134 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Feb. 



150 or 200 queens, of the untested ones, which are 

 most invariably taken from a nucleus hive, in 

 which they have never been required to fully stock 

 themselves with eggs in order to supply their colo- 

 ny, as tested queens usually are necessarily com- 

 pelled to do, and are usually removed to the ship- 

 ping-cage while in that condition. This is very 

 wrong. I have found that, to remove a laying 

 queen, in the height of her laying season, from a 

 populous colony, and ship her, generally speaking 

 she is a failure, to a large extent thereafter, as a 

 prolific layer. The same conditions may exist when 

 we take a queen and cage her in a full colony for 

 ten days, and she suffers no deterioration from it, 

 being just as good as ever when she is liberated and 

 gets down to business again. Therefore it has been 

 my practice, the past year or two, when expecting 

 to ship a queen that is in a strong colony, and a 

 prolific layer, to either confine her to one or two 

 frames in her own hive, or remove the hive to an- 

 other stand, leaving the queen and two or three 

 frames on the old stand for a few days before ship- 

 ping her. It works like a charm— no complaint 

 being made of queens so treated before being ship- 

 ped. No matter how prolific they were before 

 shipment, they are the same when received by the 

 purchaser. 



So, friends, never ask a queen-breeder to send 

 you " a prolific queen out of one of your strongest 

 colonies," as most buyers are apt to do when order- 

 ing a queen, especially if it is a tested one. Rather 

 get a well-developed queen out of a nucleus or 

 weak colony— one that is not overtaxed in egg-pro- 

 duction at the time of shipment, but, rather, one 

 that is capable of developing up to your require- 

 ments after you receive her. 



Not one in a hundred, mailed from a nucleus or 

 other small colony, have I ever had any complaint 

 from. Queens appear to time theii egg-production 

 according to the requirements of theirhives; hence 

 in one instance it is very rapid; in the other, it is 

 slow and more fitted to meet the requirements of 

 shipment by mail, without loss or damage thereby. 

 Abbott L. Swinson. 



Goldsboro, N. C, Jan. 26, 1889. 



I think you put it a little too strongly, 

 friend S. While we do have now and then 

 reports of extra prolific queens not laying at 

 all after a trip through the mails, I do not 

 believe that such reports come oftener than, 

 say, two or three in every 100 queens taken 

 right from full colonies in the height of the 

 laying season. 



WINTERING OUT-APIARIES AT HOME, AND MOVING 



THEM .JUST AFTER THE HONEY-FLOW 



COMMENCES. 



I wish to ask a question or two. Brother and I 

 have about 125 colonies of bees, about half in the 

 cellar, and half in Root chaff hives. In the spring 

 we wish to buy 25 colonies, making 150 altogether. 

 For the surplus-honey harvest we wish to divide 

 our apiary, and have 75 colonies in two apiaries, 3 

 miles apart. Can we run all together in one yard 

 up to within two or three weeks of the honey har- 

 vest, and then about May 15th move half of them 

 3 miles, so as to increase the yield of honey per col- 

 ony? By having all together, we can save one 

 man's time for nearly two months. 



Our folks feel as if Gleanings were one of the 

 essentials, as we have been subscribers, off and on, 

 for twelve or more years. It seems only a few days 



since I paid our subscription for two years in ad- 

 vance, and one of them is almost up. 



We began last spring with 70 colonies, some rath- 

 er weak, and increased to 125, and in July extracted 

 pretty closely, getting about 3600 lbs. Add to this 

 600 lbs. of comb, taken later, makes 4200 lbs. of nice 

 honey. We expected to feed, for winter, sugar 

 syrup, as we can sell extracted and comb for 18 to 

 20cts. per lb.; but our bees gathered, after July 

 25th, about 1800 lbs. more honey, enough to winter, 

 which we left in the hives for that purpose. 



Rockaway, Ohio, Jan. 18, 1889. H. F. Moore. 



Friend M., I believe this is exactly the 

 way that C. C. Miller, Boardman, and per- 

 haps many others, are already managing. 

 If your home locality is overstocked, how- 

 ever, your bees would not breed up quite as 

 well if you delay removing them until the 

 honey-yield commences. 



CHAPMAN HONEY-PLANT SEED; CAN IT BE OB- 

 TAINED OF THE GOVERNMENT ? 



I saw the notice last spring in Gleanings, stat- 

 ing that the Agricultural Department at Washing- 

 ton had obtained seed of the Chapman honey-plant, 

 for distribution. I applied to our representative, 

 and he notified me that he had never heard of such 

 a plant, but said that he had sent my application to 

 the department, since which time I never heard 

 from it. Were any of your readers more fortunate? 



POLLEN BEFORE THE BIG STORM. 



On the 8th of this month (the day before the big 

 storm) we noticed a few bees come in laden with 

 pollen of a yellow color, and this morning some of 

 mine from chaff hives were flying before 8 o'clock. 

 I fully concur with Dr. Morrison, of Oxford, Pa., 

 that bees are not looked after in this section. Many 

 that went into winter quarters with plenty of stores 

 in the fall may be found dead in the spring. 



FERTILE WORKERS, AND HOW TO TELL THEM. 



Please tell me how to distinguish a fertile worker 

 from other bees. I should like to know. I had 

 such a colony destroy two Italian queens for me 

 the past summer, in one hive, before I found out 

 what was the matter with them. I then concluded 

 the cheapest way was to sulphurize the colony. 

 The one Italian queen they kept in the hive for 8 

 days, before I found her dead on the outside. 



Duncannon, Pa., Jan. 17, 1889. A. L. Lane. 



Friend L., I can not help you any about 

 procuring seed of the Chapman honey-plant. 

 I opposed the measure of asking the Gov- 

 ernment to buy friend Chapman's seed, at 

 the National Convention held in Chicago; 

 also at the Michigan State Convention at 

 Saginaw, a year ago. Some of the friends 

 who were in favor of it admitted that the 

 Government Seed Bureau was a big humbug 

 any way; but they gave, as an excuse, that 

 friend Chapman might as well have some of 

 the humbug money as anybody else. They 

 did not state it in just that way, but it 

 amounted to that. Now, the $2800 that was 

 paid to friend Chapman for his honey-plant 

 seed might almost as well have been thrown 

 into the fire, in my opinion. The seed is 

 very likely stowed away with other old rub- 

 bish, and it will probably get too old to ger- 

 minate before it gets into the hands of bee- 

 keepers, if it ever does at all. Another 

 thing, I do not believe that any bee-keeper 

 wants a lot of Chapman honey-plant seed 



