GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



success. Mr. Doolittle says in " Scientific 

 Queen-rearing- " that ho lost less than one 

 queen out of lifly by this method. I believe 

 the following to be the true reason for the 

 acceptance of the queen when the smoke 

 method is used. 



The smoke has demoralized the guard, 

 and the queen enters safely. You have 

 caused the entire colony to load up with 

 honey; and when their fright has passed 

 away thej^ are not inclined to make trouble. 

 The fertile queen is protected by her odor. 

 Most vital of all, you have caused the bees 

 to search for their queen in oi'der to j^rotect 

 her, and tliey are aware that she is missing. 



How quickly they become aware of her 

 loss is made plain in Langstroth Revised, 

 page 264. " When she is taken from them 

 under circumstances that excite the whole 

 colony we can easily see how they find it 

 out; for, as a tender mother in time of 

 danger is all anxiety for her helpless chil- 

 dren, so bees, when alarmed, always seek 



first to assure themselves of the safety of 

 their queen." 



When the smoke method is properly 

 applied you have introduced her by demor- 

 alizing the giiard; the bees are filled with 

 honey; they have missed their own queen, 

 and a fertile queen is in the hive. Now, 

 wliy will she be accepted? Self-preserva- 

 tion ! Why should they destroy this fertile 

 queen and risk the life of the colony in 

 raising and mating- a virgin? Nature would 

 forbid this risk at any time except under 

 the impulse to " increase and multiply." 



Editor Root touched the button when he 

 said " Under-smoking or over-smoking may 

 lead to failure." Take your time to do the 

 work, puffing a little smoke along the en- 

 trance; keep every gnard-bee back; grad- 

 ually bring the colony up to a good loud 

 roar; give them time to fill up with honey 

 and miss the old queen, then turn in the new 

 queen and nature will do the rest. 



Audubon, la. 



QUEEN ODOR AND BEE BEHAVIOR 



BY S. G. CROCKER, JR. 



While I agree with Jay Smith on a good 

 many points in his article " Colony Odor of 

 Bees Traceable to the Queen and to the 

 Queen Only," p. 975, Dec. 15, 1914, I have 

 seen phenomena which seem to point to 

 something besides the queen odor as the 

 source of colony identity. I tliink the ac- 

 tions of bees in entering what they know is 

 a strange hive has a good deal to do with 

 the conditions obsen^ed. 



I have had a double hive with a queen in 

 top, and another in the bottom, the body 

 divided by a wire screen with an entrance to 

 both bodies separate. I have taken the 

 queen from the bottom hive and put the 

 queen from the top hive in the bottom all at 

 one operation, and the bees did not seem to 

 know the difference. Now, why don't the 

 bees note the difference in queen odor and 

 ball the queen? 



I have had one hive standing on top of 



another on account of a lack of space and 

 communication between them. I have remov- 

 ed the top hive to work on the lower one, 

 and all the bees that came out of the hive 

 when I jarred it, as well as those that came 

 from the field, have settled on the frames of 

 the lower hive and gone down among the 

 bees without the least fighting. 



When these bees think they are entering 

 their own hive, and show no fear, they are 

 not molested. I tliink that the behavior of 

 the bees is nearly as important as the odor 

 of the queen. 



Roland Park, Md. 



[Jaj' Smith gives room for additional 

 ways bees have of detecting members of an- 

 other colony in his statement, " There may 

 be other means which enable bees to recog- 

 nize bees from another colony ; but I believe 

 the queen is the main factor." — Ed.] 



A MODIFICATION OF 



TRANSFERRING 



BY FRED J. CARTAN 



For the past four years I have been using 

 a system of transferring from box to mov- 

 able-frame liives similar to that of Mr. Mar- 

 chant, May 1, p. 345, and without a single 

 exception I have been entirely successful. 

 It matters not what the size or shape the 

 hives are from which I wish to transfer the 



bees; for should the old hive be narrower I 

 nail a strip to the side, making it equal to 

 the width of my hive. If wider or longer I 

 I'educe by covering part of the opening. 



I use a divisible hive, 5% inches deep, 

 outside dimensions 16 x 20, ten frames, usu- 

 ally two bodies for brood-chamber, super 



