570 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



brood, and refused to 

 yield to my usual meth- 

 ods to prevent persist- 

 ent swarming, were 

 those that had man- 

 aged in some way to 

 rear their own queen 

 from swarming - cells. 

 With my methods these 

 colonies are easily lo- 

 cated, as I nearly al- 

 ways introduce laying 

 queens to queenless col- 

 onies and those which 

 have cast a swarm; and 

 the laying queens are 

 always clipped before 

 introduction. If a vir- 

 gin is introduced the 

 records show it. 



One of the first things 

 to show after using se- 

 lect queens only, for 

 breeders, is the more 

 uniform color of the 

 drones and gentleness 

 in the bees as Mr. Al- 

 exander has said. Good 

 wintering qualities I 

 also attribute in part to 

 the quieter disposition 

 of bees from queens 

 reared from n o n - 

 swarming mothers, and 

 also from the fact that 

 I do not allow the bees 

 to remain without a 

 laying queen long 

 enough to get the 

 brood-frames filled up 

 with pollen and honey, 

 and sealed itp. This is 

 quite sure to cause trou- 

 ble in wintering, and 

 also spoils the comb 

 honey produced on the 

 hive after the queen 

 commences to lay, by 

 having the cappings re- 

 moved and built into 

 the new comb in the sections, and the honey 

 filled behind it. This will not be the case if 

 the honey in the brood-combs is not yet 

 sealed over. The honey will be carried up, 

 and new comb built, and it will be as nice 

 as though built over new brood- combs, no 

 matter how old or black the brood-combs 

 may be. 



Another important consideration in the 

 control of swarming is prolific queens which 

 will produce large strong colonies; for it is 

 the medium-sized colonies that are the most 

 likely to swarm — those that will just barely 

 fill the brood-chamber at the time they get it 

 filled with brood and honey. A strong colo- 

 ny will have a large force to put into the su- 

 pers as soon as the honey comes in, and will 

 clean the honey out of the brood-combs so 

 the queen will have plenty of room. I have 

 very frequently had colonies produce from 

 five to six ten-frame-hive comb-supers with- 



RBMOVING HONEY FROM THE KOOF OF A BUILDING. 



out trying to swarm. I rear queens for my 

 own use only, and not to sell. 

 Arkansaw, Wis. 



REMOVING HONEY FROM THE ROOF 

 OF A BUILDING. 



BY M. L. BREWER. 



In the footnote to my article, p. 1326, Oct. 

 15, you speak of the use of the bee-escape to 

 trap the bees out and into a hive, the en- 

 trance of which is close by. The entrances 

 to the cavities are almost universally in such 

 places as would make it next to impossible to 

 station a hive, as the accompanying illustra- 

 tion will show. Four days ago, Oct. 14, I 

 removed the shingles that I relaid at the vis- 

 it described in the article referred to, and 

 duplicated the former amount, or better. 

 Only the upper part of the wagon shows in 



