1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1205 



origin, even though he left Germany 25 years 

 ago, and so his name is pronounced Boi-nay. 



Mr. Beuhne is a genial and interesting talker, 

 and I learned some things. I have always ad- 

 mired the persistency with which Australians 

 seeic to make a London market for their eucalyp- 

 tus honey; but after having sampled it I could 

 hardly believe that any but depraved tastes would 

 take to it kindly. But I've changed my mind 

 about eucalyptus honey. Mr. Beuhne kindly 

 brought samples of half a dozen kinds, and some 

 of them, at least, are very palatable, and I think 

 one would come to be very fond of them. 



One reason why Australian honey is almost en- 

 tirely extracted, is that, about the time sections 

 are sealed, a plant comes into bloom that they 

 call dandelion, although it is not at all like our 

 dandelion, and the surface of a section is discol- 

 ored by this dandelion. 



One feature of that country I should not like. 

 The heat and dryness is at times intense, and 

 grass becomes so dry that, if fire starts in it, even 

 though short, it may run for miles. If one 

 wishes to fire any thing like a brush-pile, he must 

 give 48 hours' notice to neighbors, and then be 

 responsible for any damage that may occur. 



A year or so ago my brother-in-law, Ghordis 

 Stull, hitched a horse at a post quite a distance 

 from the bees — so great a distance that in all rea- 

 son it ought to have been entirely safe. A num- 

 ber of bees attacked the horse savagely, stinging 

 it about the head and neck. My wife insisted 

 that it was because kerosene had been rubbed on 

 the head and neck; but I hardly believed it. 

 From what Mr. Beuhne says about kerosene as a 

 disturber in an apiary, she was probably right. 

 He says that, when he is about to go into an api- 

 ary, if for any reason he has occasion to move a 

 kerosene-lamp, instead of touching it with his 

 own fingers he gets some other member of the 

 family to move it for him. The odor of it at a 

 hive not only enrages the bees in that hive, but 

 for two or three hives distant. If that be correct, 

 it is hardly the right thing to use kerosene in 

 lighting a smoker. 



G. M. Doolittle, at the close of the harvest, 

 advises putting a queen-cell of choice stock into 

 any colony likely to supersede its queen, and in 

 most cases the occupant of the cell becomes the 

 ruling sovereign. Mr. Beuhne goes a step fur- 

 ther. Into a colony that has a three-year-old 

 queen, still better a four-year-old, if she has vig- 

 or enough to keep up a fair supply of eggs he 

 puts a queen-cell, and then when the young queen 

 lays in company with the old queen he removes 

 the younger queen and repeats the performance. 

 This he has been doing for a number of years, 

 and last year he was successful in doing so right 

 in the middle of the harvest. 



I'm not sure about it; but if I understood cor- 

 rectly, Mr. Beuhne does this with full colonies. 

 Now, if this be generally successful in the hands 

 of others, why would it not be a good thing to 

 keep one of these aged dames in a nucleus.' 

 Would it not be more in the line of nature to 

 have a young queen constantly superseding in- 

 stead of having queenless nuclei.' Is it not gen- 

 erally true that a nucleus freshly formed is j st a 

 little better than one that has been used for rear- 

 ing one or more queens.'' and would not an old 

 laying queen keep the nucleus constantly fresh? 



Since Mr. Beuhne was here I've tried the thing 

 on a small scale, only instead of a cell I've given 

 a virgin to the nucleus. It has not been a great 

 success. Possibly a cell is better than a hatched 

 virgin. Possibly the old queens were too nearly 

 played out. At any rate, so far the old or the 

 young queen has disappeared, or both. 



Somehow I'm not a great success with virgins. 

 Others tell about a virgin killing the old queen 

 if she gets into a strange hive. With me the vir- 

 gin is taken into custody by the workers. If a 

 young queen on her return from her wedding-trip 

 enters the wrong hive, I am told she will kill the 

 old queen. I oace saw a young queen as she en- 

 tered the wrong hive on the return from her wed- 

 ding-trip, and she was promptly balled by the 

 workers. I can have a very young virgin accept- 

 ed in any colony, no matter what the age of the 

 reigning queen, and she is kindly treated while a 

 baby; but as soon as she begins to put on airs as 

 an aspirant for the throne she disappears. I'm 

 not sure but I've always failed when the queen 

 was old; but the point I'm making is that with 

 me the entrance of a strange virgin is not likely 

 to endanger the queen. 



This year I had an unusual case. No. 42 had 

 a 1904 queen. I watched the case closely. May 

 9 I saw a virgin in the hive, and the presence of 

 eggs showed that the old queen was present — at 

 least had been within three days. May 22 I saw 

 the old queen and a sealed queen-cell, but I sup- 

 pose the virgin had disappeared. June 2 I saw a 

 virgin that I suppose came from the sealed cell. 

 June 9 I saw both queens. June 13 I clipped 

 the younger. June 26 I was surprised to find 

 eggs in queen-cells, and on searching I failed to 

 find any queen present but the 1904 queen, easily 

 recognized, not only by her old appearance but 

 by the more distinctive fact that both wings were 

 clipped. Poor old thing! I killed her. That 

 young queen may have disappeared because — but 

 that's another story. 



Marengo, 111. 



THE CAUSE OF THE DIFFERENCE 

 IN COLONIES. 



BY WM. M. WHITNEY. 



Mr. Editor: — Noting your comments on page 

 949, Aug. 1, regarding the difference in the con- 

 duct of colonies of bees under apparently quite 

 similar circumstances, I feel like making further 

 explanation of conditions which often exist in the 

 spring, and which are often puzzling to bee-keep- 

 ers. The case you mention, it seems to me, 

 raises an important question, and one that should 

 set an apiarist who is given to experimenting to 

 investigating. Take the case as you give it in 

 your last statement, that " there was a moderate 

 amount of brood, a large amount of honey and 

 plenty of storage room," unless you knew the 

 queen to be old, which sometimes is indicated by 

 drones being found in worker-cells (but then it 

 would seem that there should have been an at- 

 tempt at supersedure), I should be more than 

 half inclined to attribute the cause of listlessness 

 and lack of energy to something else than a poor 

 queen. In the case you mention, your conclu- 

 sions were doubtless correct; but I venture the 

 statement that in seven cases out of ten, as we or- 



