574 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



it was evident that the bees were needing more air; 

 so instead of leaving them on the load they were 

 taken off and allowed to fly. Kims were then made 

 and covered with wire cloth, and used in place of 

 muslin to finish the trip, and with the remainder. 

 He usually makes new apiaries in the spring when 

 bees are few, or when it is cooler in the fall, then 

 the muslin works all right. 



Three horses are used during the season, and oc- 

 casionally extra ones hired. 



There are seven out-yards, 2^ to 16 miles from the 

 home apiary, and through the swarming and honey 

 season a man is kept in each. There are about 700 

 colonies in all, and he intends to leave 125 in a yard 

 every fall. This number insures, after making 

 nucleus colonies, at least 100 good strong working 

 stocks ready for the honey-flow. 



Pawtucket, R. I. Samuel Cushman. 



To br continued. 



MANUM IN THE APIARY WITH HIS 



MEN. 



HOW TO SAVE LABOR AND TIME IN MANIPULAT- 

 ING HIVES. 



TULY IS.—" What are you looking after. Will?" 

 „ Jl " I am trying to find this queen. She is two 

 |U years old, and I want to supersede her with a 

 young one, as you told me the other day to re- 

 move all two and three year old queens and 

 introduce young ones in their place. I have now a 

 number of fine ones just commencing to lay, and 

 more queen-cells coming on to take the place of the 

 young queens in the nuclei. I have looked through 

 the hive twice, but I can't find this old queen, there 

 are so many bees in the way." 



"Well, just close the hive, and allow them to 

 quiet down for a few moments, and then we will try 

 to fmd her. Never keep a hive open too long; it is 

 better, after looking a while, to close the hive for 

 an hour, and then try again." 



"While we are waiting, Mr. Manum, I wish you 

 would look at No. 10. I have tried three or four 

 times to introduce a queen in that hive, and have 

 failed each time. They ball her as soon as liberat- 

 ed, and I don't wish to lose any more queens by 

 that colony." 



"How long have they been queenless? Can you 

 tell?" 



"By the record, 17 days; and I have kept the 

 queen-cells cut out. as T wished to give them a lay- 

 ing queen; but I have failed in that, and they have 

 nothing now but sealed brood." 



" We sometimes have such obstinate colonies, and 

 it is not many years since I hit upon a plan to make 

 them accept a queen. Have you any virgin 

 queens?" 



" Yes, several." 



HOW TO MAKE AN OBSTINATE COLONY ACCEPT A 

 VIRGIN QUEEN. 



"Very well; you may cage one and bring her 

 here. There, I will now shake all of these bees on 

 to the ground, in front of the hive, say two feet 

 from the entrance— there, so. Now, this last comb 

 I will shake near the hive, so that the bees that are 

 on it will attract the others to the hive. Now, when 

 they get well to running into the hive, just let the 

 virgin queen run in with them, and the job is done. 

 I have found that a colony in this condition will 

 accept a virgin queen when they will not one that 



is fertile. Another way I have succeeded in mak- 

 ing such a colony accept a queen is to take out 

 three of their combs and give them a good nucleus 

 having a laying queen, by setting the combs, bees, 

 and queen, from the nucleus at one end of the hive, 

 where I take out the three combs. This should be 

 done very carefully, not to excite the bees either 

 from the nucleus or those in the hive. It is a good 

 plan, when uniting in this way, to drop a few drops 

 of essence of peppermint on the bottom of the 

 hive." 



HOW TO FIND A QUEEN IN A POPULOUS COLONY, 

 WITHOUT LIFTING OUT ALL THE COMBS. 



" We will now return to hive No. 10, where you 

 failed to find the queen, and I will try to find her 

 for you. Now watch and see how I look for queens 

 when that is all I am after. There, I first remove the 

 comb nearest to me and set it against the hive near 

 the entrance, after first looking it over for the queen. 

 Now I cast my eye over the side nearest to me, of 

 the next comb, and carefully move it toward me to 

 the side of the hive in the place of the first comb. I 

 raise it barely enough to move it; at the same time, 

 I look for the queen on the side of the third comb 

 which is in sight, by the removal of the second 

 comb, and at once look on the opposite side from 

 me of the second comb, and then raise the third 

 comb and set that in place of the second, and quick- 

 ly look at the side of the fourth, and so on through 

 the hive until she is seen on one of the combs, 

 when it is quickly raised, and the queen removed. 

 I can find queens in this way much quicker than by 

 lifting the combs out of the hive; but if 1 do not 

 find her when going through the hive in this way, 

 when returning I lift out each comb and look it 

 over carefully until she is found, or the combs all 

 looked over and placed back where they belong, 

 when, if she is not then found, I close the hive for a 

 short time, as I told you to do with this one. There 

 she is on the fifth comb. Now look at her before I 

 lift out the comb, and see how plainly they can be 

 seen in this way. 



"Here is another thing I want you to observe; 

 that is, that queen* have red leys; that is, the lower 

 half of their legs is a dark brownish red, while 

 drones and workers all have black legs. This fact 

 will sometimes help you to find a queen where the 

 bees are very thick, and cluster over her; so then, 

 when you see a bee with red legs you may know it 

 is a queen. 



" She is a nice queen, and it seems too bad to dis- 

 card such a fine one as she is; but she must go. 

 I would rather have young ones to carry a swarm 

 through the spring. Now, just at night you may 

 give them another queen." A. E. Manum. 



Bristol, Vt. 



Very good, friend M. I have practiced 

 exactly the plan you speak of for finding 

 queens, although it never occurred to me to 

 put it in print ; and I have used that same 

 plan when some one else had tried and fail- 

 ed before. I have never noticed that the legs 

 of a queen were of a different color from 

 those of the other bees, but I have discovered 

 that I can detect a queen a great many 

 times by getting a glimpse of her legs, es- 

 pecially when she is under a clump of bees, 

 when I could not otherwise. And since 

 you speak of it, I think there is a shade of 

 difference in color. Sometimes I got just a 

 glimpse of her long striding legs, and then 



