1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



113 



Heads of Grain 



From Different Fields 



STRAIGHT WORKER COMB BUILT BY A COLONY 

 WITHOUT A QUEEN. 



Oa page 932, Aug. 1, R. F. Holtermann says 

 the building of worker-cells naturally is a sure 

 sign of the presence of a queen. I have found an 

 exception, if that is the rule. While out in the 

 country I transferred a colony of bees that had 

 been in a box hive about a month. When I 

 opened the old box I found that the bees had 

 eight or nine nice sheets of comb, about 9 inches 

 long by 12 wide. They had about a pound and 

 a half of honey, and the comb was as clean and 

 white as any I ever saw. It had never had brood 

 in it, with the exception of a very little drone 

 brood scattered about in three or four corabs, 

 which showed that there had been laying work- 

 ers or possibly a queen that had never mated. 

 There were no eggs at the time. If a queen had 

 been in the hive, there would have been many 

 cells of drone brood; but there were not over 75 

 if that many. There were fifteen or twenty queen- 

 cells started all over the middle of the combs, 

 which shows the bees were trying without success 

 to raise a queen. L. S. Dickson'. 



Kuttawa, Ky. 



LFhe'e is no absolute proof to show that there 

 might not have been a queen in the box at the 

 time the comb of which you speak was built In 

 a box hive you can't be sure of any 'hing. In 

 any event we are inc'ined to think Mr. Holter- 

 mann, in the quotation, put it a little strong. 

 Worker comb will sometimes be bu^lt where there 

 is no fertile queen in the hive. — Ed.] 



CAPPED BROOD IN DECEMBER. 



In October, when examining my 40 colonies I 

 found that over half of them did not have stores 

 sufficient to last them through the winter. I 

 bought 500 lbs. of granulated sugar, got a tin can 

 which held 30 lbs. of water and sugar, and put 

 into it 15 lbs. of water. Then I set the can on 

 the stove until the water began to simmer, when 

 I took it off the stove and stirred in 15 lbs. of 

 sugar which made a syrup of one-half sugar 

 and half water. I commenced feeding Oct 1, 

 and fed a quart of syrup to each colony for 24 

 days On the 24th of October I examined the col- 

 onies again, and found that they had plenty of 

 stores, and the brood-combs full of young brood 

 capped over. I didn't examine the bees again 

 until Dec. 7, which was a warm day, and I look- 

 ed through all of the hives again that I had fed, 

 and found young brood capped over at that date, 

 and in good shape. 1 believe that fall feeding is 

 a great advantage Ja.mes W. Bell. 



Bedford, Ky., Jan. 5 



[After feeding the bees as you did, it is not at 

 all surprising that you found brood in the hives, 

 even as late as January, considering your climate, 

 which, of course, is milder than what we have 

 here. Very often late feeding and brood- rearing 

 will use up nearly all the stores. One should be 

 careful to see that a sufficient supply is left after 

 brood-reaiing ceases. — Ed. ] 



WHY DO THE GOLDENS KEEP LEAVING THE 

 HIVES.? 



I have two colonies of bees — one a leather- col- 

 ored Italian, the other golden. They are outside 

 on their summer stands, protected by a shed. 

 The golden Italians are always trying to get out 

 in this cold weather, and, naturally, they get 

 lost. I gave them a two-inch opening, therv 

 changed to five inches. The front is darkened 

 with boards. Then, again, I bring a bag over 

 the whole, and yet they press out. What do 

 you think is the reason.' Is it too warm.? The 

 other colony does not act that way. 



Detroit, Mich., Dec. 24. F. G. Walter. 



[We can not understand why your goldens 

 should fly out when the other bees failed to do 

 so. The fact is, in our locality they do not win- 

 ter as well as the ordinary leather colored bees 

 that have not been tampered with so much in 

 breeding to produce color. Nearly every spring 

 we have noticed that the colonies of goldens wiU 

 have abnormal quantities of dead bees out in 

 front of the entrance, while the darker strains 

 will have comparatively few. 



Our experience with goldens in winter has 

 been decidedly unsatisfactory, although we do 

 not deny that some strains of them may winter 

 well. — Ed.] 



CLOVER NOT KILLED; GOLDEN ITALIANS. 



So far as I can learn, the clover is not killed in 

 this vicinity. There is a very heavy growth here. 



I have eight colonies of golden Italian bees. 

 Do you think they are as good as or better than 

 other Italians.? Would they stand the winters as 

 well in this climate.? They are very quiet, and 

 nice to handle. Frank Rovve. 



Pleasant Hill, Mo. 



[See answer to Walter, just preceding. — Ed.] 



can FOUL-BROODY COLONIES BE TREATED DUR- 

 ING WINTER? 



I am having my first experience with foul 

 brood. It developed late this fall. I did not 

 discover it until the middle of this month. Win~ 

 teis are mild here. We winter on summer stands. 

 Bees fly more or less every few days. Can they 

 be treated any way to advantage during winter, 

 having no extra combs of clean honey ? I moved 

 to this locality last spring, and found I got into 

 a hotbed of foul brood. There are some old 

 mossbacks here who keep their bees in old gums. 



P. S. — How would it do to confine all hives 

 with wire netting, then go through them and cut 

 out the dead brood of diseased hives, and remove 

 such hives to a cellar for the rest of the winter.? 



Canon City, Colo. W. G. Wright. 



[There is not much you can do in mid-winter; 

 but all empty combs should be melted up and 

 the wax converted into foundation. Combs that 

 contain some honey should be extracted and then 

 rendered up. The empty hives should be scorch- 

 ed out as per direciions in our booklet, "Diseases 

 of Bees." Next spring we would advise shaking 

 every colony on to foundation as soon as the 

 warm weather begins, and before very much 

 brood is reared. 1 he combs should be extracted 

 first and then rendered into wax. No other pro- 

 cedure, if foul brood has got well started in your 



