584 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



A. CHICKEN THAT LEARNED TO CATCH 

 DRONES BUT NOT WORKERS. 



After reading Mr. Franklin G. Fox's arti- 

 cle in regard to feeding drones to young 

 chickens, on page 1505 of the Dec. 1st issue, 

 1907, I felt that I should like to give my ex- 

 perience. Last summer my bees were locat- 

 ed near my poultry-house, and the chickens 

 used to run in my bee-yard a great deal. I 

 had one chicken that had learned to kill bees 

 and eat them. It seemed strange to me that 

 it never seemed to get stung. It would walk 

 up to a hive, catch a bee, walk off and beat 

 him on the ground, and then swallow it. 

 After this, it would repeat the performance. 

 It seemed to have certain hives it worked on, 

 and these were pure golden Italians. 



I killed the chicken and began to dissect 

 it. I examined his crop very closely, and 

 found it contained 27 drones and not a sin- 

 gle worker. This astonished me, because I 

 had expected to find a lot of workers instead 

 of drones. 



If I had only known that the chicken was 

 destroying drones only, I would not have 

 sold it at any price. The chicken, I suppose, 

 knew the drones by their size and shape. 

 E. S. Hudson. 



QUEBEC BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



On February 5, in the City Hall of St. Hy- 

 acinthe, there was a meeting of a consider- 

 able number of bee-keepers of the province 

 of Quebec, for the purpose of forming a bee- 

 keepers' association. The chair was occu- 

 pied by Mr. C. P(51oquin, M. C. A., of St. Hy- 

 acinthe, as president of the meeting, and A. 

 O. Comird, M. D., as secretary. 



In a few words Mr. Peloquin explained the 

 purpose of the meeting, and upon his prop- 

 osition the following resolutions were adopt- 

 ed: 



That an association known as the Quebec 

 Bee-keepers' Association shall be formed in 

 the province of Quebec, and shall be com- 

 posed of those interested in bee-keeping, who 

 become enrolled as members by paying the 

 annual membership fee of one dollar to the 

 secretary of the association. 



That the direction of the association shall 

 be composed of nine members. 



That the following persons shall be the di- 

 rectors: 



Chas. Peloquin, of St. Hyacinthe; Hector 

 Belaud, of Louisville; Thc^odule Cloutier, of 

 L'Islet; Napoleon Gaudet, of St. Simon; F. 

 W. Jones, of Bedford; J. A. Camirand, of 

 Sherbrooke; Dr. J. L. Coming, of Yamaska; 

 Michel Dufault, of St. Joseph of Sorel; One 

 siphore Fontaine, of St. Guillaume. 



That the president shall be Mr. C. P(?loquin, 

 of St. Hyacinthe, and the secretary A. O. 

 Comire. M. D., of St. Francois du Lac. 



That the Hon. Jules AUard, Minister of 

 Agriculture, shall be asked to bring before 

 the government, at the next session, a law 

 providing for the legal formation of bee- 

 keepers' associations in the province of Que- 

 bec, and another law pi'oviding for the sup- 

 pression of foul brood among bees. 



Secretary. 



IS IT advisable TO MAKE A COLONY QUEEN- 

 LESS 24 OR 48 HOURS PRIOR TO THE IN- 

 TRODUCTION OF A NEW QUEEN? 



How long would you advise me to take 

 the old queen away before introducing the 

 new one? C. W. Barr. 



Florence, Kansas. 



[It is our rule to take out the old queen, 

 and cage the new one to be introduced, at 

 the same operation. There is nothing gained 

 in waiting 24 or 48 hours, according to our 

 experience. If a longer time elapses, the 

 problem of introducing is considerably com- 

 plicated, for the reason that the bees get 

 into the notion of raising their own queen, 

 start building cells, and when these are once 

 started they are inclined to act unkindly 

 toward the new mother to be introduced. 



It very often happens that a customer will 

 remove a queen from his hive and then send 

 on to a queen-breeder asking to have a queen 

 sent by return mail, which he intends to in- 

 troduce to the hive just made queenless. 

 Perhaps the queen-breeder is unable to till 

 the order promptly. A delay ensues, dur- 

 ing which cells are started, and by the time 

 the new queen-mother arrives she is quite 

 likely to be maltreated, if not killed outright. 



Never remove a queen from a hive until 

 you are sure that you will have another at 

 least within 24 hours. There is no objection 

 to keeping the hive queenless for that length 

 of time prior to the introduction of a new 

 one; but such queenlessness should not con- 

 tinue for a longer period. — Ed.] 



bee account for 1907. 



April. 



16 stands bees, April 17 $ 80 00 



Supplies carried over 12 10 



New supplies 26 10 



Queen 2 00 



June. 



283^' lbs. honey at 15 $ 42 55 



3V4 lbs. beeswax 1 00 



July. 



174 lbs. honey at 15 26 10 



September. 

 2403i5 lbs. honey at 15 ?6 05 



175 lbs. for home use 26 25 



December. 

 24 stands bees 120 00 



$120 20 $251 95 

 120 20 



Balance in my favor $131.75 $131 75 



In this account I have not counted what 1 

 gave away and what we used up to Dec. 1, 

 and we have used no little amount, for 

 there are eight of us. 



Underwood, Ind. Raleigh Thompson. 



A correction. 



The directions for making the spacing- 

 blocks, in my article on page 432, April 1, 

 should read, "A fraction less in thickness 

 than half the width of the section." 



Meridian, Ida., April 14. G. J. Yoder, 



