m 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



another and remote part of the hive, and begins 

 laying; or if she loads out a swarm, the conditions 

 for queen-rearing are essentially changed. The 

 bees of that brood-chamber will then start queen- 

 cells, and, with proper mechanism, the bee-keeper 

 may get every one of them hatched, fertilized, and 

 laying, all in the same hive; at the same time, the 

 bees have access to all of the queens. 



Thus we may rear and get young queens fertiliz- 

 ed from a hive while the mother-queen is actively 

 depositing eggs in the same hive; but it is impera- 

 tive that her operations be transferred to a part of 

 the hive remote from the brood-chamber. 



In storifying a lot of brood-chambers containing 

 combs of honey upon a colony (without excluders 

 to prevent the queens going up), I found shortly aft- 

 er that she had gone up to the third story, and the 

 bees below in the first story had started queen- 

 cells. The queen was laying vigorously, and her 

 attending bees were flying from the first story and 

 the only enti-ance. 



This liability of the queen to leave the brood" 

 nest will account for the probable fact that colo- 

 nies of bees in caverns and other places in a wild 

 state have many laying queens, although all of the 

 bees are seen to issue from a common entrance. 

 In no other way can we account for the large 

 numbers of bees seen to fly from some of these 

 wild colonies. In the instance above noted, of the 

 queen deserting the brood-nest, I put her back in 

 the first story; put on an excluder, and then the 

 seven other brood-chambers I had on this hive. 

 The bees then balled and killed the mother-queen, 

 and raised a queen above and below the excluder. 



In two other cases, where I had put swarms con- 

 taining the mother-queen above the sections, the 

 bees reared young queens below while the mother 

 was laying above. So in this case, where the moth- 

 er-queen had gone up to the third story, if I had 

 left her there she would not have been disturbed, 

 and there would have been two laying queens in a 

 short time. Hut I have yet to record a single in- 

 stance among many cases I have had in the last 

 three years, of a young queen becoming fertilized 

 from an upper story above an excluder, where 

 there was a laying queen in the brood-chamber. 



One of the many plans of using the new queen- 

 rearing chamber is to take the old queen from a 

 hive and put her in an upper story, above an ex- 

 cluder, or, wait till she leads a swarm, and hive in 

 the usual manner; then place all above the exclud- 

 er. Before the queen-cells are ready to hatch, set 

 the combs over the new chambers, so that there 

 will be one cell to each of the compartments, and 

 all of the young queens that hatch will become fer- 

 tilized, and begin laying in due time. 



The many and highly successful uses to which 

 queen-excluding zinc maybe put, hails the advent 

 of great changes in our methods and fixtures. My 

 prediction on page 88 of Gleanings, Vol. XVI., 

 see the three closing paragraphs, will speedily 

 come to pass, and other much-needed changes with 

 it, not the least of which will be the sacrifice of the 

 present largely used Langstroth brood-frame for 

 one of a smaller size, or one about V x 17 inches. 

 The new conditions and requirements brought 

 about will compel these changes, which are des- 

 tined to place bee-keeping upon a more successful 

 and profitable basis. It will be soon made to ap- 

 pear, if it is not already apparent, that bee-keep- 

 ing, as a pursuit apart from other business, is not a 



profitable one (barring a few exceptions in favored 

 localities!, with our old methods and fixtures for 

 handling bees. The new system, with its larger re- 

 turns and financial success, will work its own way 

 to popular favor. 6. L. Tinker. 



New Philadelphia, O., July 27, 1889. 



I proved by some expensive experiments 

 years ago that queens can be hatched and 

 fertilized in a colony having a laying queen ; 

 but said colony required adegree of watch- 

 ing and manipulation that made it out of 

 the question to raise queens at a profit. If 

 we could develop a strain of bees where 

 young queens would be raised continually, 

 while their mother kept on laying eggs, then 

 we should have what we want. 



THE HONEY CHOP OF VENTURA CO., 

 CAL., AND VICINITY. 



FRIEND MERCER GIVES US THE FIGURES. 



T P your correspondent from Los Angeles Co. still 

 ||j> thinks we shall have a fair crop of honey, I 

 W think he had better dust around among the 

 -*■ bee-keepers and learn what is going on; for 

 there is less than one-fourth of a crop in all of 

 the southern part of the State. The crop has most- 

 ly been sold for about 6 cts. per lb. The comb hon- 

 ey crop was nearly an entire failure There was 

 only about 3 tons produced in Ventura Co. 



NAMES 



AND 



POSTOFFICE ADDRESS 



Bee Keepers. 



T. Barrows, Nordhoff 



G. E. Stewart, Nunlhoff 



s. c. Gridley, Nordhoff 



\ Vancusan, Nordhoff • 



George Bey, Nordhoff 



.1. a. Ireland, Nordhoff 



J. W. Denlson, Nordhoff 



.1. II. Cooper, Nordhoff. 



P. W. Sopher, Nordhoff 



J. J. Rapp, Ventura 



Robert Lynns. Ventura 



S. G. Wills, Ventura 



Mr. Sheldon, Ventura 



R. Wilkin, Ventura 



M. II Mendelson, Ventura 



George Reynolds, Ventura 



Lewis Walker. Ventura 



J. McFarlan. Ventura 



.Inlin Fox, Ventura 



L. E. Mercer & Sons, Ventura 



J. M. Brooks Ventura 



Mr. Quesnel, Ventura 



C. Healey, Ventura 



Mr. Twininu', Ventura 



Mr. Lowery, Santa Barbara 



Mrs. W. 1). Alexander, Santa Paula . 



Mr. Basset, Santa I 'aula 



J. Lugar, Santa Paula. 



C. E Hoar, Simi 



Woods Earley, Simi 



I', i larmichel, simi 



\V. G. Richardson, Simi 



i ! M. Drake. Springville 



s. stew art, Hueneme 



S. Fox, Hueneme 



s. Mahan, Hueneme 



.1. M. Stewart. Hueneme 



r I diver, Hueneme 



M. 1". Butts, Hueneme 



Savers ,v Davenport, Hueneme 



.1. P. Mclntyre, Fillmore 



F. Jepson, Fillmore 



Thos. Arundel, Fillmore 



S. Kinney, Fillmore 



Josiah Keene, Fillmore 



R. Strathern, Fillmore 



M. Encinos.Piru City 



Robert Dunn. Pirn City 



Mr. Moffit, Piru City 



.1. A. Canaway, l'iru City 



W. Whittaker, l'iru City 



T. Whittaker. l'iru City 



i. Stockton, l'iru City 



H. D. Dunton. l'iru City 



John Holder, Piru City 



i: Ri :e oner, Piru City 



(I. P. K vis. mer, l'iru City 



W. ,V G. I.eelller. l'iru City 



San Buena Ventura, Cal. 



VA 



■ 



2 



ioy. 



v. 



5& 



IX 



:;■ 



80 



4 1 Ml 



■Mb 

 76 

 100 

 ISO 

 500 

 150 

 1300 

 160 

 Mall 

 L60 

 170 

 150 

 170 

 160 



L. E Mercer. 



