676 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



THE GREATEST HONEY-FLOW EVER KNOWN. 



There has been the greatest honey-How this year 

 1 have ever seen since 1 have had bees. I divided 

 mine early, and both parts pot strong, and swarm- 

 ed. I started with 60 colonies, and increased to 130, 

 and have taken over 4000 lbs. of honey— one-third 

 comb, the rest extracted. The clover is still fair, 

 with a good prospect of a full crop. 



George Briggs. 



New Sharon, Iowa, July 28, 1889. 



ENCOURAGING FOR COLORADO. 



This is the finest season for crops ever known in 

 Colorado, and promises to be fine for honey. There 

 are great fields of alfalfa, and it is being raised 

 more and more, and very fine honey is made from 

 it. Colorado promises to be a great honey State. 

 Henry Knight, an extensive bee-keeper ten mil- s 

 from Denver, sold six tons of honey last season. 



Denver, Col., July 21, 1889. J. L. Peabody. 



0qr (j)aEgJFieN-B@& 



With Replies from our best Authorities on Bees. 



All queries sent in .for this department should be briefly 

 stated, and free from any possible ambiguity. The question 

 or questions should be written upon a separate slip of paper, 

 and marked, " For Our Question-Box." 



Question 139 —a. Do you let the bees supersede the 

 queen naturcdlyt b. Ordoyou tliink it pays to super- 

 sede, as (( rule, yourself, say in one or two years? 



a. No; b. Yes. A. E. Manum. 



a. Generally; b. Ye6,if she shows signs of failure. 



S. I. Freeborn. 

 a. Generally I do. b. That's an unsettled ques- 

 tion with me. C. C. Miller, 



a. Not as a rule. b. It pays, because you can se- 

 lect your breeding stock. Rambler. 



a. Yes, unless I have a poor one. Then I do the 

 superseding. A. B. Mason. 



a. Yes, unless the queen has ceased to be prolific, 

 b. I don't think that superseding queens pays, as a 

 rule. C. F. Muth. 



I always let the bees do the superseding, as they 

 know best when to do it. Paul L. Viallon. 



a. Very often we do. b. But it pays well to super- 

 sede, in all cases, yourself. P. H. Elwood. 



a. Yes. b. As a rule, I think it pays better to let 

 the bees do their own superseding. They can do it 

 cheaper, and with fewer mistakes, than I could. 



J. A. Green. 



a. I have usually left this to the bees; b. I shall 

 look after it more in future. I believe it will pay 

 to do so. if we can manage it so as to lose little or 

 no time. A. J. Cook. 



a. No, not asXrule. b. Yes, 1 think it pays for us 

 to take this business into our own hands. For a 

 fuller answer to thi6lquestiou see article in Glean- 

 ings forvl888, page 525. O. O.JPoppleton. 



a. Yes, if they'do so in time; b. When the queen 

 begins to play out, and the bees do not supersede 

 her, I kill her, and either supply the colony with 

 imother or let the bees raise one. Geu. Grimm, 



In conducting large apiaries I think It pays best 

 to leave this matter pretty much with the bees. 



H. K. Boardman. 



Let the bees do it, as a rule, unless you notice 

 that a queen is failing, when it is a good plan to re- 

 place her. Dadant & Son. 



a. As a rule, I do; but many times, when I find a 

 queen is faulty in some respect, I supersede her; 

 b. I should not supersede a queen that was a good 

 layer and her progeny docile and good workers, 

 even if she were three years old. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 



a. Generally; b. Not unless I wish to change the 

 strain of bees which certain colonies have. There 

 are very few colonies indeed in my apiary which I 

 could benefit by taking this matter into my own 

 hands, as the bees know their wants along this line 

 much better than I do. G. M. Doolittle. 



My practice is to let the bees attend to that mat- 

 ter. I think they know rather better than I do 

 when a queen needs superseding. Yet the practice 

 of superseding, at two years old, all queens not 

 known to be specially excellent, seems to commend 

 itself as a sensible plan. B. E. Hasty. 



a. Yes, in many instances, b. Were I running an 

 apiary exclusively for queen - rearing, I think I 

 6hould do the superseding myself; but in running 

 for surplus honey I should let the bees do it, except 

 in a few instances here and there, when I happen- 

 ed to blunder on to the necessity, and had every 

 thing in readiness to supersede with. 



James Heddon. 



a. Sometimes we And that a queen is not doing 

 good work, then we kill her and give brood from 

 some other good colony, and let them raise a queen. 

 But as long as a queen is doing good work we don't 

 destroy her. b. I think it pays to supersede a 

 queen when she doesn't do good work, regardless of 

 of her age; but I would not supersede a good pro- 

 lific queen on account of age. Let her remain as 

 long as she does good work. E. France. 



a. Ordinarily I let the bees supersede the queens 

 themselves; but if their merits are in any way 

 doubtful, I kill them. I started cropping, intending 

 to kill all two-year-olds; but I am thinking they will 

 not give me a chance. In March, 1888, 1 cropped the 

 left large wing of 283 old and young queens; in 

 March of this season, only 80 of those queens were 

 left, and I think that more than half of them are 

 gone now. I am inclined to think that bees are 

 more reckless of queens in California than in the 

 States east. b. It will take a little more experience 

 to decide about the paying. R. Wilkin. 



I am inclined to think there would be 

 more superseding than there is if it were 

 not so much bother, especially where there 

 are large apiaries and out-apiaries besides. 

 A great many start out with the determina- 

 tion to supersede every queen that is not 

 first-class, as soon as she is discovered ; and 

 after awhile it becomes too much of a task 

 to keep track of them, and, like Hasty's 

 book, is abandoned. Most bee-keepers I 

 visited, however, promptly replace poor 

 queens when they come across them ; and 

 in several places, by asking questions I 

 found they were in the habit of superseding 

 queens where the bees were very cross, even 

 though they produced gQod crops of honey, 



