GLEANINGS TN BEE CULTURE 



The bees bring me relief from business ^^orries. 



any longer. The six stands were in uie old 

 Gary Lives. The same winter they all died. 

 That year there was much black honey, 

 which I believe killed them. Possibly the 

 !ioney-dew liad some effect. The loss of 

 thirty dollars discouraged me somewhat, 

 but I decided to try my luck again. 



1 then procured two stands of Italian 

 bees which I have in my apiary yet. To 

 the present time I have increased them to 

 tourteen. 



Part of my bees are in the ten-frame 



L-haff hives. Since I liave sold my general 

 merchandise business, my health demanding 

 outdoor work, I am now going to pay more 

 attention to my bees and live out in the 

 open. I want to get God's pure air and 

 sunshine, and be away from the shut-up 

 store. 



1 have a beautiful place for my apiary. 

 It stands in the orchard close to a small 

 stream where the ground is jierfectly level. 



Glen Easton, W. Va. 



WHY QUEENS LAY IN QUEEN -CELLS 



1!Y J. E. CRANE 



On pages 489 and 490 are some original 

 thoughts and theories by J. E. Hand, pre- 

 sented in an interesting way. I have nei- 

 ther time nor disposition to reply to tliera 

 all, but will content myself in calling atten- 

 tion to one or two of them. In this he tells 

 lis that " broodiness in queens, as in hens, 

 is a period of temporary exhaustion of 

 fecundity during which the ovaries are 

 speedily developing another batch of eggs. 

 During this ))eriod of broodiness, which 

 vai'ies in duration with different queens, the 

 mother instinct predominates, and the queen 

 irill lay egijs in queen- cells at no other 

 lime." Italics my own. 



Now, if our friend Hand had said that 

 this was true in many cases, we should 

 doubtless have agreed with him. Or if he 

 had said it was far more often tlie ease than 

 the average beekeeper suspects, he would 

 not have been far from right. Or if he had 

 said that he believed such to be the case we 

 should liave had little disposition to dis- 

 agree with him; but when he states it as an 

 absolute fact 1 beg to differ with him. 



Tlie next day after reading this article I 

 went to an outyard whei-e I found a colony, 

 one of the most populous in the yard. It 

 had a last year's queen and a large amount 

 of brood in all stages. In fact, the bees 



