1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



579 



ITALIAN VIKCilNS PURKLY MATKD ALTHOUGH HYBRID 



DRONES PREDoMINATK: WHY SHOl'LO THE STRONG 



COLONIES LOSE SO MANY BEES OVER NIGHT? 



I recently purchased three viruins and succeeded in 

 getlinu them mated and introduced into strong colo- 

 nies. All three were purely mated, although there were 

 only nine Italian colonies producinir drones out of 110 

 colonies of mixed bees within two miles of my yard. 

 I have the only Italian bees, with the exception of two 

 colonies, within four miles of the yard. 



I had one eiirht-frame colony with six combs of drone 

 brood from la> intr workers. I do not know how lonjr 

 tue bees had been queenless, but they had a srood 

 many cells containintr from five to ten eu'trs each. I 

 put a ripe queen-cell in this hive, and, later, when the 

 queen commenced to lay, the workers kept layintrtoo. 

 I moved the hive, first catchinn the queen, and took 

 the queen and the bees that adhered to the cover, and 

 put them on a little patch of brood taken from another 

 hive, and put all in a new hive on the old stand. This 

 was in the evening. The next day I moved the old hive 

 three times, and sot about all the field force back to 

 the old stand. Two days afterward I shook the old 

 combs in front of the old stand, but first trave the new 

 queen two combs of worker brood. The layintr work- 

 ers then stopped laying. I first tried shaking all the 

 bees in front of the other hive, after first moving it 30 

 yards away, but the laying workers went right back to 

 the old stand. Is there a better way to get rid of lay- 

 ing workers? If I take a comb of bees from a laying- 

 worker colony and put it in another hive, the bees are 

 nearly all killed. 



Buckwheat has been yielding here a little for ten 

 days. My very strongest colonies are losing about a 

 handful of bees every night. I find the bees on the 

 alighting-boird early in the morning. The nights 

 have been quite cool, but I hardly think the bees got 

 chilled. Both the bees and brood are perfectly healthy 

 so far as I can tell; but about half of the dead bees look 

 as if they had fallen off the cluster and died, while the 

 other half are a little curved, with their tongues ex- 

 tended, with no signs of being stung. iMy smaller 

 colonies are not losingany bees at night. The number 

 of bees lost by the strong colonies is greater than 

 would be lost in a whole month of cold weather as a 

 rule. The colonies that are so strong that the bees 

 hang below the frames to the bottom-board are the 

 heavy losers. The strong colonies are provided with 

 supers. Two of my colonies that were without laying 

 queens for five weeks, but that have young bees hatch- 

 ing now, lose scarcely a bee at night, so far as I can 

 see, so it does not look as though the trouble were 

 simply due to old age. 



THE FLOl'R METHOD OF INTRODUCING. 



I introduced two queens by the flour method men- 

 tioned by Mr. Gray, page 231, April 1.5, and both were 

 accepted. I let the queens loose among the bees in 

 less than five minutes after the old queen had been re- 

 moved. I should be glad to see reports from others 

 who have tried this flour method of introducing, in 

 order that we may tell whether it is always successful. 



Vincent, Ohio. W. S. Basim. 



I In our opinion you went to a great deal of unneces- 

 sary work to get rid of laying workers. When you 

 gave the cell, and a young queen hatched and began 

 to lay soon after, you did the thing that eliminated the 

 nuisance. All your moving of the hive and shaking 

 of the combs subsequently, probably had no further 

 effect. You say that the laying workers kept on lay- 

 ing after the queen began to lay. In this we believe 

 you are possibly mistaken. The eggs of the laying 

 workers might remain in the hive for some time, be- 

 cause the colony has been in a demoralized state. In 

 the mean time the real queen began laying, and it 

 would be impossible for you to know whether the lay- 

 ing workers kept on after the real queen began her 

 work. 



In getting rid of the fertile workers it is a good 

 thing to give them a ripe cell, just as you did. If the 

 virgin, when she hatches, is destroyed or fails to lay, 

 the next step is to move the hive off its old stand to 

 another location. Secure some good brood in all 

 stages and some young bees from some good normal 

 colony; put them in a hive and place the same on the 

 stand from which the fertile workers were removed. 

 Now give them a ripe cell. In 24 hours after, the fly- 

 ing bees of the laying-worker hive will have gone 

 back to their old stand. Scatter what brood and bees 

 that are left among otlier strong colonies— that is, pro- 

 vided any worker brood was on the combs. If not, 

 you might as well melt up the eombs and shake the 

 bees into some colony after giving both lots a good 

 smoking to prevent fighting. 



Regarding the bees that you found dying off in front 

 of the strong colonies, Mr. I>oo:iltle explains this by 

 saying that these are the superannuated bees that 

 either of their own volition go to the outer edges of the 

 hive or outside of the hive, or are forced to do so by 

 the younger bees that seem to have practical control. 

 In referring the matter to our Mr. Bain, he says he has 

 seen the same thing at our home yard, and he also 

 says that old bees were probably dying off among 

 your weaker colonies; but as the number was rela- 

 tively smaller you did not observe them. 



We should be glad to get reports from others who 

 have tried the flour method of introduction.— ED.] 



SHOULD EXCLUDERS BE USED? WHERE TO LOCATE THE 

 EMPTY SUPERS. 



Doolittle says, p. 379, June 15, that if he were running 

 a yard for extracted honey he would simply add story 

 after ttory of empty combs to control swarming and 

 do nothing else. What I wish to know is, 1. Would he 

 use a queen-excluder or allow the queen to go where 

 she liked? 2. When the first story is occupied by the 

 bees would he put a second story on top of it or under 

 it? R. R. Rabb. 



Poltimore, Que., Aug. 16. 



[Mr. Doolittle replies:] 



1. When a ten-frame L. hive is used, it is a rare thing 

 that more than one hive is needed by any queen, and 

 for this reason it is better to use an excluder over the 

 one ten-frame brood-chamber. With extremely prolif- 

 ic queens it might be well to use two such hives for 

 the brood-chamber, and the excluder over the two. In 

 no case would I allow the queen to scatter brood 

 through all the combs in a two, three, four or five 

 story hive, as brood is a nuisance in any comb which 

 is to be put in an extractor. 



2. I prefer to put all supers of combs at the top. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



THE COW PEA A GOOD HONEY-PLANT THOUGH A SHORT 

 BLOOMER. 



In reply to Mr. C. W. Bapr, p. 413, July 1, 1 will say 

 that there is no finer honey-plant than the cow pea 

 while it lasts, but it blooms only about a week. Dur- 

 ing this time, if the weather is fair, the bees swarm 

 over the fields " from early morn till dewy eve." As 

 a feed for stock it is second to none. I have grown no 

 other hay for many years. We feed it either in the 

 green stage or cured, and all kinds of stock eat it 

 greedily either way. 



There are several varieties. I grow what is called 

 the Whippoorwill, as it is easier to handle when made 

 into hay, on account of its bunchy growth — oes not 

 make much vine. Some of them, like the large black, 

 make long runners, and are difficult to mow or handle 

 after cutting. 



I do not know how this plant would do in Kansas, 

 but would advise Mr. Barr to experiment on a small 

 scale at first. It is too late to plant them this season, 

 any way. The bulk of the crop is planted in June in 

 this locality. 



Tupelo, Miss., July 12. J. D. Rowan. 



THE cow pea often AN ABUNDANT HONEY-YIELDER. 



When a full crop is made here the cow pea is one of 

 our must abundant sources of honey for late summer. 

 The crop is planted here from May 1st to August 1st. 

 and furnishes nectar through a considerable period of 

 otherwise scarcity. Unlike all other plants, the stems 

 and not the blossom secrete the nectar as the young 

 pods are forming. These the bees work on excessively. 

 The honey is of good body, thick, deep, approaching 

 dark yellow in color, and of strong taste like that of 

 poplar or tulip, only stronger, with a somewhat slight 

 wild green-bean-like flavor. C. C. Gettys. 



HoUis, N. C, Aug. 17. 



HONEY DUE INSTEAD OF HONEY-DEW. 



I see in Gleanings, under " Honey-crop Conditions," 

 this: 

 I Kliall have an average crop of honey -dew this season. 



Geo. 8. HVRLBIT. 



I intended to say on my postal, p. 511, Aug. 15, that I 

 should have an average crop of honey due, more on 

 account of strong colonies than the season. I do not 

 think there was any honey-dew to speak of gathered 

 in this locality. 



Batavia, N. Y., Aug. 20. G. S. Hurlbut. 



