9 Of; 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURK 



facts, I decided that it was disappointment and dis- 

 gust over the failure of a promising honey harvest 

 that caused the late swarming. The migratory in- 

 stinct is strong in bees under normal conditions; 

 and when for any reason they become discouraged 

 and dissatisfied with their environment, is it un- 

 natural or natural that they should " Seek fields 

 anew and pastures green " even at unseasonable 

 times ? 



I find no bad results following late swarming if 

 care is taken to see that no colonies are left queen- 

 less or too weak to stand the winter. 



Aurora, Mo., Oct. 6. Frank M. McMuhti.w. 



Eaising the Price of Honey 



We have been producing honey for only two years, 

 but have had fair success in establishing a local 

 market. I believe there are a great many beekeep- 

 ers shipping their honey to distant markets and not 

 supplying their own town. Shipping honey to dis- 

 tant cities is not only very expensive for high freight 

 and express charges, but the loss by leakage of comb 

 honey is sometimes great. 



We have been selling our honey mostly to consum- 

 ers. Our competitors sell their honey for 15 cents 

 per lb. We sell ours for 20 cents just as easily. 

 One lady told me the reason she preferred our honey 

 was because she knew it had not been exposed to 

 tiies. I assured her that our honey was produced 

 and handled under strictly sanitary conditions. This 

 alone will go a long way in selling honey to women, 

 as they realize the importance of sanitation. 



There has been a great deal said in the bee-jour- 

 nals about maintaining the price of honey. But 

 wp decided to raise the price five cents a pound at 

 the very beginning. 



Oak Grove, Ky. Bbyan Stroubk. 



Why Eeoueening Does Not Always Regener- 

 ate 



In my experience of requeening habitually poor 

 colonies I have frequently found that the new queen 

 does little or no better, and I have had colonies that, 

 while they were given a new queen every year, re- 

 mained useless to the end. I have not tested this 

 myself, but I think I have now found the reason. 



A colony that is always in a poor condition is so 

 because the bees commencing from the larval stage 

 have not been fed properly, and they in turn do 

 not feed the new queen's larvae in a proper way; 

 consequently, when the new bees hatch they lack 

 vigor, and so this goes on all the time. The remedy 

 for this would probably be intensive feeding for 

 fully three months after requeening, which might 

 force the old bees to establish a vigorous progeny; 

 but I am doubtful, as their way of rearing their 

 young may be constitutionally bad. 



Fred B. Hooper. 



Liguanea, Jamaica, B. W. I. 



A Queen Whose Eggs Fail to Hatch 



I have in my possession a supersedure queen that 

 commenced to lay about July 10. Four weeks later 

 I noticed that this colony was slowly dwindling 

 away, and on ex:in\iniition found five frames con- 

 taining eggs but no larvae. I transferred the queen 

 to a quecnless nucleus and gave the colony a good 

 ouecn. Both were accepted without challenge. I 

 have kept the queen ever since for observation, but 

 to dute not an egg has hatched. 



I have had about everything in the line of freak 

 queens, but this is a new one. Do you know of a 

 similar case? 



Berea. C, Oct. 4. W. H. Danalds. 



[ It sometimes happens that a queen that has been 

 laying fairly well, and whose eggs have hatched. 



will later fail to hatch; but when that takes place 

 such a queen is of nc further use. It is more com- 

 mon, however, to find a young queen that lays reg- 

 ularly whose eggs will not hatch and never did 

 hatch. Of course, such queens are worthless and 

 should be destroyed; but it is rather uncommon to 

 find a queen whose eggs have hatched regularly and 

 then later on fail to do so. — Ed.] 



Uniform Success with Winter Cases 



For four years I have used tenement cases for 

 two, three, and six liives, and have had uniform 

 results. In the winter of 1913 I wintered one yard 

 of thirty colonies with a very small loss. In 1915 

 1 wintered fifty-six colonies with a loss of four. I 

 could not see any difference in the different sizes of 

 cases. My cases are built so the entrances are all 

 in the same side of the case and facing south. 



Kirkwood, N. Y. J. Stuart Sco field. 



How to Handle Laying Workers 



\Then a colony contains laying workers, move the 

 hive about thirty or forty feet and put in place of 

 it another hive containing a frame or two of btood 

 and a queen, to^i■ether with empty frames. Then 

 shake all bees from frames in the old hive on to the 

 ground, removing the hive and frames. The bees 

 shaken will at once go back to the old stand and 

 the new queen. The laying workers are either too 

 heavy to return or are treated as intruders and de- 

 stro> ed. I tried this with one colony, and it worked 

 perfectl.v. These instructions were given me by one 

 of our state inspectors, Mr. Charles Stewart. 



I'almyra, N. Y. G. H. Parker. 



A Satisfactory Cellar 



The cellar I made for my 74 colonies is 6xl0i/^ 

 X 6 ft. There are 18 inches of sawdust between the 

 inside casing and outside. Ventilation is through 

 the center of the room at the top. 



As we have sand here it did not need a wooden 

 floor, only the earth. Two doors, one outside and 

 one inside, keep the frost out and allow me to look 

 at the cellar at any time. The temperature keeps 

 about 45 degrees, never below 42, and not often 

 over 50. 



There was some dampness which can be prevent- 

 ed. The bees remuin quiet the entire season in tlie 

 cellar. 



Last year they were put in December 9. A two- 

 inch rim was placed between the hive-body and the 

 bottom-board. Both the covers and the bottoms were 

 left on, and the two entrances left open — one at the 

 bottom-board and the other between the rim and the 

 body. 



Grand Rapids, Wis. Charles Pkttchard. 



Never Too Late to Treat Foul Brood 



Is It too late to do anything for European foul 

 Drood this season ? 



f>add. 111., Sept. 29. John Wolf. 



rit is by no means too late to do something for 

 Eiiropean foul brood this season. In the first place, 

 we would recommend you to Italianize all your bees 

 with the very best Italian stock that you can secure. 

 Generally, you would get better results with leather- 

 colored: but some strains of bright or golden Ital- 

 ians are just as good for resisting European foul 

 brood. This is the initial step to cure European foul 

 l)rood. You may not have to do anjthing more 

 next season than to dequeen for about ten days, 

 and then let her loose again. See Dr. Miller's di- 

 rections given in a recent issue of Gleanings. — 

 Ed.I 



