1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



4J)1 



HOW OLD MAY A QUEEN BE, AND 

 STILL BECOME FERTILIZED? 



WISE AND OTHERWISE, FROM E. FRANCE. 



TN reading' my new A B C book I came across 

 glr this subject on page 218. The author says, 35 

 W days is the longest period he has ever known 

 to elapse between the birth of a queen and the 

 laying of worker eggs. I have always held an 

 independent position on this matter, but have nev- 

 er taken the pains to prove it. Place a virgin queen, 

 with a good colony of bees, clear away from the 

 reach of any drones. A swarm of bees traveling 

 over the country could perhaps easily settle down 

 to work in just such a locality. Now, if there were 

 no drones with them, how is this queen ever again 

 to be fertilized? Has nature left this swarm to 

 dwindle, and perish from off the earth, or has there 

 been a provision made for their salvation? We all 

 know that a virgin queen will lay eggs that will 

 hatch good-looking drones. Those eggs will hatch 

 in about 28 days. Now, is it not possible and even 

 probable that the queen in this case would be fer- 

 tilized by drones of her own, and then produce 

 worker bees, and save the colony? why not? Why 

 did nature provide that a virgin queen should pro- 

 duce drones unless she had some use for them? 

 Perhaps you will say that a swarm of bees always 

 have drones with them. Not always. I have known 

 swarms to come off without a drone. I know it is 

 not common for a swarm to come off without 

 drones, but it does sometimes happen. 



MOVING BEES. 



In the middle of the day, when the bees are at 

 work, is there any way to collect the bees that are 

 out at work, and at the same time keep the bees 

 that are in the hive from going out so we can move 

 all, or very nearly all, the bees that belong to the 

 hive? Yes. I will tell how I have managed several 

 times. Perhaps you all know. All you have to do 

 is to blow smoke enough into the hive to be moved 

 to keep the bees that are there from going out, and 

 wait for the field bees to come in. When they are 

 all in, shut them in and move them. I think al- 

 most any kind of smoke will do. But I have al- 

 ways used tobacco smoke. The bees in the hive 

 will need smoking a little as often as you see any 

 bees starting out— about once in five minutes. 



Almost any one will be surprised at the short 

 time it takes for them to all get in. Of course, it 

 depends upon what the bees are at work on at the 

 time. When honey is coming in fast, half an hour 

 is a long time for a bee to be gone. At other times, 

 perhaps some would be out a whole hour; but not 

 often. Don't smoke them too hard. It takes but a 

 little smoke to keep the bees at home. They don't 

 like to leave home when their home is meddled 

 with in any way. I have bought bees five to ten 

 miles from home, and moved them in May. When 

 the bees are at work nicely, I smoke them three or 

 four times and wait about half an hour, and then 

 shut them in the hive and take them in my wagon 

 and go home with them. 



COLONIES LIVING AND PROSPERING IN THE OPEN 

 AIR. 



We keep our queens' wings clipped to prevent 

 swarms from going off. When we quit extracting, 

 near the close of the basswood season, our bees are 

 usually very strong, and sometimes swiirms issue. 

 The queen's wing is clipped, and she can not go. 

 Our hives stand on Ave stakes, leaving a space of 



from 6 to 10 inches under the hive. When the 

 swarm returns to iind the queen they sometimes 

 find her under the hive. The bees cluster under 

 the hive with her, and soon go to work there in the 

 open air, with no protection except the hive over 

 them. As we have done extracting, and have no 

 work to do in the yard, it often happens that it is 

 six or eight weeks before we see them; and if there 

 happens to be a fair run of fall honey, those 

 swarms will have from a peck to half a bushel of 

 comb built. They sometimes have from 10 to 25 lbs. 

 of honey, and are breeding the same as bees in the 

 hive. I once had a case of that kind that stayed 

 under the hive until Christmas, and were then in 

 good order. The snow was 6 inches deep, and the 

 thermometer had been down to zero two or three 

 times. As they had honey enough to winter them, 

 I have always been sorry that I did not leave them 

 until spring. I believe they would have come 

 through all right. There was no stock running in 

 the yard, and the blue glass had grown up thick 

 around the hive, so they had some protection. 

 The grass hid them from sight, so that was the rea- 

 son they were not seen before. 



Last season we found one swarm under a hive 

 when we were preparing our bees for winter. This 

 was in November. They had about half a bushel of 

 comb, and about 10 lbs. of honey. There was no 

 grass to hide them. We could see the combs ten 

 rods away; and the strangest thing about it was, 

 they had not been robbed of their honey. As the 

 hive directly over them had been full of honey, and 

 had been cleaned out by t he bees, there was nothing 

 in it but empty combs. No doubt the swarm under 

 the hive came from the one above; and the upper 

 one failed to mature a queen, and dwindled away 

 and was cleaned out by the bees in consequence. 

 It doesn't look as if it were possible for those bees 

 to so protect their combs of honey from robbers, 

 with no protection around them; but such are the 

 facts in the case. We have from none to three or 

 four every year of swarms under the hives in this 

 way, and seldom are they disturbed by the other 

 bees. 



A QUESTION. 



How is it that bees can build combs out in the 

 open air when there is so much talk about confin- 

 ing the heat in hives and supers to get combs built? 

 Why is it so necessary to contract the entrance of 

 hives to secure the bees from robbers? 



Platteville, Wis. B. France. 



I have thought of the same thing you 

 mention, and 1 used to wonder, as you sug- 

 gest, if it were not a safe provision to save 

 the life of such a colony. As in all my ex- 

 perience, however, I never had a queen he- 

 come fertilized at the age she would be 

 when her own drones were able to fly, I 

 gave it up. It may be, however, that under 

 some circumstances it might be possible. 

 Of course, there would be the objection of 

 breeding from a near relative ; but nature 

 may have decided such a course to be bet- 

 ter than utter extinction ( 'an anybody else 

 tell us more about it ? We have for some 

 years adopted the plan of smoking the bees 

 all into the hives when moving them in our 

 neighborhood. I have seen colonies live 

 for some time under the hive, just as you 

 describe ; and I have no doubt but that 

 they would winter all right. In fact, the 

 idea was advanced, many years ago, that if 



