146 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



BLACKS AND ITALIANS. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT THM DESTKUCTION OF 

 EXThA QUEEN-CELLS. 



T NOTICE in Gleanings that quite a number are 

 ^ talking: about the black and hybrid bees being- 

 ^l superior to the Italians as honey-gatherers. 



■*■ This may be so in some localities, but not in 

 mine, of which fact 1 was convinced last sea- 

 son. I keep in my apiary two colonies of pure black 

 bees, and had a very good opportunity of testing 

 them as honey-gatherers beside my Italians. 



About June 20, 1886, the white clover failed,. on ac- 

 count of the drought. Now for the result: The 

 Italians switched off on to red clover, and worked 

 from morning till night, while the blacks were try- 

 ing to rob. For some reason, the window to the 

 honey-room was left open, and the bees swarmed in 

 by the hundred. I closed the window to keep out 

 those that were out, and darkened the room all but 

 this window. In a few minutes the bees in the room 

 were all on the window, perhaps two hundred in 

 all, and not one had a band. Now, friend R., why 

 should so many black bees come into this room, and 

 no Italians, if the blacks were as good honey-gath- 

 erers as the Italians ? 



Does the newly hatched queen tear down the un- 

 hatched cells ? Yes, the young or first queen hatch- 

 ed will bite a hole in the unhatched queen-cells, and 

 bite and pull the doomed queen to death. This I 

 saw last season, with my own eyes. L. J. Tripp. 

 Kalamazoo, Mich., Jan. 17, 1887. 



Friend T., the question of blacks and Ital- 

 ians has been discussed over and over for 

 perhaps twenty years past, and I think there 

 is no question but that the rule is as you 

 give it. There are also occasional excep- 

 tions, owing, perhaps, to peculiar circum- 

 stances ; and of late we have been gathering 

 up these exceptions, and it is quite likely 

 that hybrids many times produce more hon- 

 ey than either race pure, especially comb 

 honey. It has also been abundantly proven, 

 that the young queen herself bites a hole in 

 the side of the unhatched queen-cell. As to 

 whether she pulls the unhatched queen out, 

 or whether the workers do it, is not so well 

 settled. The workers some times assist in 

 tearing the cell down, for I have seen them 

 do it. 



UNITING BEES, AND ALL ABOUT IT. 



WHEN, WHY, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE. 



"I^^^OTHING is simpler, if the process is properly 

 IIJ|' understood. I am perpetually surprised at 

 in* *^^ cumbersome methods practiced by some 

 "*■ ^ old bee-keepers. Tf done properly, I see no 

 occasion to cage the queen if she belongs to 

 either one of the colonies united. I have never lost 

 one yet that I wanted to keep. If each colony has 

 a queen, either one of which you are willing to sac- 

 rifice, pay no attention to them. One will die, the 

 other survive. If there is only one, naught will hurt 

 her: she is as safe as any queen in the bosom of her 

 own family. You will generally find this to be the 

 case, even though the bees may do some fighting; 

 always, in case they do not. As a rule, bees can be 

 united in safety any time when other bees are not 



flying. The only case in which I have known the 

 rule to fail is during a dearth of honey in hot weath- 

 er, when I find they will sometimes fight consider- 

 ably. There are cool cloudy days in spring and fall, 

 any time during which the uniting can be done. 

 Generally, however, it is necessai-y to do the work 

 early in the morning or in the evening. Evening is 

 the best time. Bees manipulate better then than 

 in the morning, and they are more apt to stay in 

 their new quarters. Unite contiguous colonies if 

 convenient, but you may unite one with another 

 anywhere in the apiary if you have reason to do so. 

 Some time in the day, remove about half the 

 frames from the two hives. Then in the evening 

 set a hive near where you want the colony to stand, 

 and put into it a frame alternately from each hive. 

 This mi.xing-up is the very best way to make the as- 

 tonished and mystified little things form the ac- 

 quaintance of their new home and each other. If 

 you do not in any case want to use all the frames in 

 the two hives, shake the bees from the extra ones 

 on a sheet or wide board in front of the hive, fixed 

 so that they can crawl readily into it. It the two 

 colonies are verj' far apart, set your empty hive 

 near one of them and siiii))ly carry the frames from 

 the more distant one to it. Tf the work is done in 

 the evening, very few (often, I think, none) will ever 

 return to the old stand. Those that do will dis- 

 tribute themselves among surrounding hives, in 

 case you remove the old hive. To load the hive of 

 bees on to a wheelbarrow, and take a run to the 

 stand of the colony with which you want to unite, in 

 order to get the bees stirred up, as directed by Mr. 

 Dooliltle, may be a good expedient; but it is a hard- 

 er way than mine, and by no means necessary. 



WHEN AND WHY. 



The when and the why are interdependent. The 

 reasons for uniting are not always the same in all 

 seasons. There is, however, one ever-present rea- 

 son to one who runs for honey chiefly; viz., to pre- 

 vent undue increase of stocks. 



UNITING IN THE SPRING. 



I do not favor that plan very much. If you want 

 to diminish the number of your stocks at that time, 

 it will do. In case one's capital and stock of fixtures 

 are limited it is sometimes well to do this. It is 

 seldom profitable, I think, to unite weak colonies in 

 early spring, except in case of queenlessness. Pack 

 them up warm and dry on three to five frames; set 

 the hive in the sun, and half a dozen of them are as 

 apt to pull through as that one would if they were 

 all united into one. Inmates of weak colonies are 

 generally weak from dysentery, or are in some way 

 unhealthy. Uniting them stirs them up and causes 

 them to move out and go to work. Their puny en- 

 ergies are unable to stand the drain upon them, and 

 the bees die off much more rapidly than if left in 

 quiet, and they dwindle down to another weak col- 

 ony before the honey-harvest commences. 



UNITING IN SUMMER. 



Mr. Doolittle practices uniting weak colonies at 

 the beginning of the honey-flow. I think I know a 

 " kink " worth six of that for most localities, if not 

 for his. I hive the first swarm that issues on the 

 old stand, and set the old hive off'. In the evening 

 of that or some early day I carry the frames of 

 brood and adhering bees to one or more of my weak 

 colonies, and in a few days they are ready for work. 

 Where they loill swarm all through the honey sea- 

 son, this is much the best plan. 



