' 1887 



G-LEANIJ^iGS IN BEE CLLTURE. 



51 



doubling- up, only to witness the same operation. 

 The queen strugg-les to get hold of something, so as 

 to liberate herself if ])()ssible. atul in these strugg-'es 

 curves her abdomen and partly thrusts out her 

 sting'. Wliile in this shape one of tlie front feet 

 catches hold of this apparently' secure foothold, 

 upon which the opening is closed from the sensa- 

 tion caused by the foot, holding the foot as in a vise, 

 thus keeijing the queen in her doublcd-up condition 

 as long as the foot is thus held. I have known 

 queens to remain thus for several minutes, when 

 not returned to the bees. The death reported must 

 have i-esulti'd from tliefoot being stung accidentally 

 while held in this shape. G. M. Doomtti.e. 



Borodino, N. Y., .Ian. 1. 1SK7. 



I should think it quite likely that a bee- 

 cellar within six rods of the track miglit be 

 objectionable, as you say; however, our bees 

 are. the nearest or thera. tifteen rods from 

 tlie^track. and aie, of course, located out of 

 doors ; and as we have been exceedingly 

 successful in wintering, we can not think a 

 railroad at this distance is any detriment. 

 There is, however, comparatively little trav- 

 el on our road, and no lightning express 

 trains, as you have on the great thorough- 

 fares. I can imagine these would be more 

 objectionable than the slow-running coal- 

 trains that comprise the greater p;irt of the 

 business on our road. — Your experience with 

 V)lack bees compared with Italians is sur- 

 prisingly like our own. althougli we have 

 never' tested the brown and gray bee, so 

 much talked of in some localities. T have 

 always been of the opinion, however, that 

 they were common bees, and nothing else.— 

 Yoiir discovery of the cramping of queens is 

 quite new ; and until I verify it I can hardly 

 Ijelieve it possible that the cases that have 

 come under m\ observation were all caused 

 in the way yoii suggest. The queens I have 

 seen seemed absolutely dead, and doubled 

 up exactly as if they had been stung. I 

 have looked them over carefidly. to see, if I 

 could, any thing the matter; aiid when they 

 finally straightened out and walked off, I 

 have been tempted to think they were either 

 frightened out of their little wits, or that 

 they had been •■ pla> ing "possum."" Hereaft- 

 er we will all of us watch :nid try to verify. 



FOUNDATION, VERSUS ITS NON OK 

 LIMITED USE. 



WINTKKING BEKS WITH AN EMPTY HIVE UNDER 

 THE BROOD-NEST. 



"Wp COLONY that had been worked for extracted 

 ^Vlh honey was found, in the early partof the win- 

 ^^r ter of 1S8.">, to have taken up winter-quarters 

 ■^^ in the upper storj- of the hive; and as they 

 seemed to have plenty of honey I concluded 

 to let them remain there. However. 1 carefully 

 lifted the upper story and i-emoved the frames 

 from the lower story, that I might see how the bees 

 would winter when so arranged. This was a single- 

 walled hive with glass in the lower part, which gave 

 an opportunity to see how matters went on. This 

 colony came through in good condition, and kept 

 the lead throughout the season. As the honey-sea- 

 son drew on, and the bees e\inced a desire to build 

 comb, the lower story was filled with frames having 

 starters only of worker foundation. These frames 



were soon filled with nice worker comb, and occu- 

 pied with brood. The queen being' kept busy filling 

 the new combs with eggs, had' left the upper story 

 for the storage of honey. So energetically did this 

 colony work under the stimulus of tilling the space 

 between the entrance and the upper combs, they 

 were quite as far on at the first extracting as were 

 other colonies that ha<l been given a full set of 

 combs to begin with. 



M.VKINO BEES BUIIJ) COMB BETWEEN THEIR 

 BROOD .\ND THE ENTRANCE. 



By this experiment 1 concluded that I had made 

 two important discoveries — first, that bees are 

 greatly stimulated and led on to the greatest de- 

 gree of exertion and activity when induced to go 

 into a '■ good big contract of comb-building'," and 

 that they will begin sooner and work more energ:et- 

 ically when building comb to fill the intervening' 

 space between their brood-nest and the entrance, 

 than to build comb above the brood-nest. Second, 

 that when building comb beneath their brood, and 

 with a view to extend that brood, they naturally in- 

 cline to build less drone or store comb. That you 

 may be satisfied with the desirability of this plan 

 for securing nice all-worker combs, you wotild do 

 well to test it by setting aside, the coming season, 

 some colonies to build combs below, and others to 

 build above their brood-nest. After the trial I think 

 all of the fraternity would read the reports with in- 

 terest. 



HOW TO GET NE-A-RliV .\I,I. WORKER COMB WITHOUT 

 USING FOUND.XTION, ETC. 



it is my opinion, that a clear gain of a full set of 

 combs will be found, resulting from having the 

 combs built beloWtthe brood-nest, with much less 

 drone-comb and a less disposition to swarm. Of 

 course, in any case less drone comb will be built 

 where the queen is young and prolific. As I must 

 have a full set of combs built for extracting pui-- 

 poses the coming season, and must have them 

 worker comb, I " hedged " in my bees a little last 

 summer and fall by superseding every queen I 

 had over one year old. 



WHAT TO DO WITH DRONE COMB WHEN BUlI/r 

 IN THE BROOD-CHAMBER. 



While this question of how to get rid of drone- 

 comb building is before the " house," 1 want to re- 

 late an experience I had summer before last. A 

 large swarm was hived on ten L. frames, no starters 

 used. At the end of one week the frames were 

 pretty well filled down with comb— one-third, or 

 nearly so, drone or store comb. This was all cut out, 

 and, a few days later, on examining 1 found the 

 frames full and but little drone combs; but what 

 had been built was again removed. E.xamining a 

 few days later, I found nothing but worker comb in 

 the hive. The drone comb thus obtained was then 

 cut up and waxed into sections, put into a case, and 

 given to the swarm for completion. They were 

 soon finished— the finest lot of 4ti one-pound sections 

 I ever saw. Here we have an illustration of how to 

 manage Independently of foundation. For any 

 who may have more money than time to invest in 

 the business, 1 say, buy all thefoiuidation you wish. 

 I onlj- mention this to show that those who will may 

 get on as well without foundation as with it. 



John A. Buchanan. 



Holliday's Cove, W. Va.. Dec. ~'T, 188ti. 



Friend B., you have struck upon some 

 very important points. First, having a 

 large empty space beneath the brood-combs 



