1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



513 



HEADS OF Grain 



From Different Fields 



WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THE BROOD BEING CARRIED 

 OUT BEFORE IT HATCHES? DRONES OF DIF- 

 FERENT COLOR FROM SAME QUEEN. 



I have a colony of poor hybrids which was queenless 

 for some four or five weeks. I introduced an untested 

 queen. The brood is dying before it hatches. Every 

 mornintr there are some ten or fifteen yountr bees on 

 the alitrhtintr-board and inthe entrance, dead. They are 

 white, and I can't detect any bad odor by >mellinK of 

 them. What is the cause? Is it because the queen is 

 youHK? or does the brood from a yountr queen some- 

 times fail to hatch? 



Do bees carry away the brood when it dies from foul 

 or black brood? The workers carry the dead brood 

 away in the mornintr when they po to work. 



I boutrht an untested queen, and some of her drones 

 are yellow and some ate black. Her workers are all 

 three-banded. Now, why are her drones not all the 

 same color? 



One other queen that I have will, if I give her drone 

 comb, lay as many drone etrffs as worUer. If I under- 

 stand your ABC book, a queen so young should not 

 lay many if any drone eggs. Am I right, or did the 

 queen-breeder give me an old queen? 



Alston. Ark., July 1. B. F. Lewis. 



I There are several things that might account for the 

 bees carrying out the brood before it hatches. The 

 presence of the moth-worm in the hive might be re- 

 sponsible for it. In hives of pure Italians, and gener- 

 ally in hybrid colonies, a mixture of Italians and blacks, 

 the pest will not be tolerated; but if tiie hybrids are al- 

 most black, you might find moth-worms under the 

 c--.ppings; and, if so, this would account for some of the 

 brood being carried out. 



It is more probable, however, that the trouble is due 

 to some other cause. Once in a great while a queen is 

 poor so that her brood will fail to hatch. In rare cases 

 no lari/a; will hatch from the eggs; in other cases a 

 qu»en's larva? will hatch out all right, develop almost 

 into perfect bees, and then die. 



Bees never carry dead larvae of foul brood out of the 

 hive; but they might do so in the case of black brood. 

 Perhaps some one who has had more experience with 

 this disease than we have could enlighten us on this 

 point. 



The markings of the drones are no test for the purity 

 of the queen. If the bees show uniformly three-band- 

 ed workers you may assume that their mother is a pure 

 Italian. Drones and queens from a pure queen will 

 sometimes vary greatly in their markings. As a gen- 

 eral thing, queen-breeders select a mother that will 

 give uniformly marked drones, bees, and queens. 



Referr'ng to your last paragraph, it is possible that 

 the queen you purchased was more than a year old. 

 While it is a rule that a young queen is not inclined to 

 lay drone eggs, yet if there were a lot of drone comb 

 mixed in with the worker she would be quite likely to 

 lay in the drone-cells, whether young or old. — Ed.] 



INTRODUCING QUEENS BY MEANS OF DAMP SMOKE. 



As it was my lot to introduce some hundreds of 

 queens last season I decided to experiment somewhat 

 along that line, and. if within the scope of my good 

 fortune, to discover some saf>r and quicker means of 

 introdu ing. I felt that the method in common use 

 among most bee-keepers is rather slow, especially 

 when one is in great need of brood in the hive, as when 

 the colony has been queenless for a long time, or, 

 agairi, when a bee-keeper purchases a queen late in the 

 fall and is anxious to get a test from her the same sea- 

 son. In the latter case, is it very necessary to have 

 her lay as soon as possible? 



By the method in present use one should keep the 

 queen caged at least two days, and five is a much saf- 

 er number. I mean to give here a method that I can 

 positively rely upon to introduce the queen without 

 danger to her in any way; also by this method one may 

 expect a laying queen the second day if she is a good 

 fertile one. 



This method ithe only one I now use^ is as follows: 

 To begin, place a lighted piece of cloth of heavy tex- 

 ture in the bottom of the smoker. On top of this, press 

 in tightly a layer of dry grass, and on this a layer of 

 partially green grass. Now open the hive and remove 

 the queen: or if the hive has already been prepared, 

 do not open it at all, but proceed at once to puff a good- 



ly quantity of smoke in at the entrance. Next take the 

 cage (containing the queen to'be introduced) in the left 

 hand and proceed to smoke the queen. Do not place 

 the smoker close enough to her to burn her. After 

 giving her two or three strong puffs, remove the cover 

 from the hive and release her among the bees. Next 

 work the bellows of the smoker rapidly for a short 

 time so as to get up a furious blast of dense damp 

 smoke (the smoke is made damp by taking up the 

 moisture set free from the green grjss. Now having 

 the hive closed up all but the entrance, blow in a heavy 

 volume of smoke and close the entrance for about 

 thirty seconds. During this interval the bees will have 

 fanned the smoke to every part of the hive, and this 

 smoke, being heavily laden with a very adhesive and 

 disagreeable sediment, every bee is soon ciothed in i 

 thin, invisible, sticky garment of damp ashes. O' 

 course 'he queen gels treated to a similar application, 

 and by the time the smoke leaves the hive the bees can 

 not tell the new queen from their own, as the newly 

 introduced queen and,the bees are now alike covered 

 with a substance smelling the same. 



I am quite willing to risk the introduction of the 

 most valuab'e queens to this method of proceeding. 

 However, as a precaution against not having used 

 enough smoke, it is best to examine the hive shortly 

 after and see if the dose needs to be repeated. 



Sandusky. W. Va. C. O. Fluharty. 



[While it is possible to introduce a queen in the man- 

 ner you describe, by smoking the bees and queen furi- 

 ously, we think you will find in almost every case that 

 some damage has been sustained both by the queen 

 and the bees. We used to work the method somewhat 

 before the modern introducing-cages were construct- 

 ed, and while we could introduce bv th it plan, we are 

 very sure now it was at a sacrifice of the vitality of the 

 queen as well as of the bees. We would be of the opin- 

 ion that, if you would go back to some of those colo- 

 nies a day or two afterward, you would find too many 

 dead bees out in front of the hive, and also find, a lit- 

 tle later on, that those colonies will lose strength rath- 

 er too rapidly. 



Then it is a question whether such an excessive 

 amount of smoke is not really cruelty to animals. 

 Sometimes when we have smoked bees vigorously we 

 have inhaled a considerable quantity of the fumes our- 

 self. After one of those strangling spells we have al- 

 ways made the resolve that we would never smoke 

 bees again in that way. When you smudge bees as 

 you describe, and then close the entrance, you are put- 

 ting each individual bee in extreme pain. Such treat- 

 ment can not do other than damage the colony, in our 

 opinion. — Ed.] 



PROPOLIS OR TRAVEL STAIN IN PUNICS. 



Mr. Root: — Noting what you and Dr. Miller say on p. 

 391 about greasy sections and Funics, I can not refrain 

 from offering a short reply. I know nothing about Tu- 

 nisian bees, or Punics, as they are sometimes called, 

 but take your statement as correct, namely. "Now 

 that you [Millerj recall it, we remember very distinct- 

 ly that there was a general complaint against Funics 

 because the capping of their honey was so dirty-look- 

 ing — apparently travel-stained. We remember very dis- 

 tinctly that combs of two or three colonies we tested 

 looked dirty, and the cappings themselves presented 

 any thing but an inviting appearance, even though 

 the honey itself was clover and basswood." (Italics 

 mine.) 



Again, on page 59 of the ABC book in regard to the 

 Tunisians you say, " These are a black race, natives of 

 North Africa, sometimes called 'Funics.' They have 

 been tested to some extent in this country, but so far 

 have not been able to establish any claim in their fa- 

 vor that would entitle them to any consideration on 

 the part of American bee-keepers. They are cross, 

 and so inclined to smear every thinu witli a red bee-glue 

 that they would be entirely unsuited for the produc- 

 tion of comb honey." (Italics mine.) 



We all know what propolis (bee-gluei is. We all 

 know how much more inclined some races of bees are 

 to smear their combs, frames, and hives than others. 

 We all know what travel stains are, and their cause. 

 We all know, or ought to. that none of these elements 

 enter into the production of watery or greasy-looking 

 cappings. The one is no more like the other than 

 chalk is like cheese. While greasy-looking cappings 

 are pure wax. the other is an entirely dilferent sub- 

 stance, mixed more or less with dirt. We are very 

 willing to admit that some races of bees, like some 

 races of humans, are not very neat housekeepers. A 

 noted instance of this fact, and one familiar to us all, 

 is the bumble-bee; and jet no one, I think, would call 

 the cappings of its comb greasy. 



