1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEEICULTURE. 



5G9 



limbs branched out. so by holding on to the 

 big limb with my left hand I sawed off all 

 the small ones; then taking hold of one of 

 the ends of the small limbs with my right 

 hand I sawed the large limb off with my left. 

 By this time I had shaken the bees up pretty 

 well, and many of them were flying around 

 quite lively; but I held the branch at arm's 

 length until they were all clustered again, 

 and then started down, arriving at the bot- 

 tom safely. I had to carry them about a 

 quarter of a mile right through town, and 

 every one who saw me coming with those 

 bees got out of the way. I told them, how- 

 ever, that I had the bees hypnotized so that 

 they would sting no one, and they did not. 



When I reached home I got an empty hive 

 and put them in it; but as the limbs were 

 not cut short enough I had to let them rest 

 on the edge of the hive, for by that time the 

 weather was getting quite warm, and the 

 bees were getting uneasy. I laid an oilcloth 

 over them until the next morning, when I 

 sawed the limbs off so that I could hang 

 them in the hive by nailing two small cleats 

 on the side. They would have been short of 

 feed, as they had but very little honey, so I 

 fed them syrup made of candy and sugar. 

 To-day I have them in the cellar all right, as 

 I put them in before the weather became 

 too cold. 



Quasqueton, Iowa, Jan. 1. 



BREEDIN G OF QUEENS. 



Queens from Swarm Cells Perpetuate 

 Swarming; Cells should be Cared for by 

 a Strong Colony; a Colony Long Qaeen- 

 less Stores Much Pollen in Brood-frames. 



BY WM. H. LONGSDORF. 



COMB BUILT IN THE OPEN AIR LATE IN THE FALL. 



The swarm alighted on a limb of a pine-tree and built comb, even though the weather 

 was beginning to get cold. One piece of comb broke off before the picture was talien, so it 

 was laid on top. 



I for one can most heartily indorse Mr. 

 Alexander's recommendation to rear queens 

 from a queen-mother only at a time when 

 she is not under the swarming impulse, page 

 209. However, I want the queen larvre /ed 

 and cared for in a colony that is as nearly in 

 a swarming condition as possible — that is, 

 with an abundance of bees, a good supply of 

 sealed brood and honey, a comparatively 

 small amount of unsealed larvjc and eggs, 

 and a somewhat crowded condition. I use a 

 single queen-excluding division board in the 

 brood-chamber, with the queen-cells on one 

 side, and queen, preferably an old one, on 

 the other. Queenless bees are not so good 

 for rearing queens, as they are usually very 

 poor feeders and will nearly always select a 

 few cells for feeding, and somewhat neglect 

 the others, producing many poor queens 



I have reared nearly all of my queens for 

 the last ten years from selected queen moth- 

 ers on the Doolittle plan. I did it at first for 

 the simple purpose of getting niy bees Ital- 

 ianized by buying a select queen and rearing 



all my queens 

 from her, the 

 next year do- 

 ing the same; 

 and then not 

 being satis- 

 fied with the 

 qualities o f 

 all my bees I 

 selected from 

 the best for 

 bre eders, 

 rearing all 

 my queens 

 from them. 

 I found so 

 many advan- 

 tages in this 

 plan that I 

 have followed 

 it up to the 

 present. 



But for a 

 considerable 

 time I did not 

 think of what 

 influence this 

 method might 

 have on their 

 swarming 

 propensity. 

 I soon began 

 to notice, 

 however, that 

 the colonies 

 that swarmed 

 with the hive 

 only half full 

 of bees and 



