GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



may become easily chilled. Then at certain 

 times of the year it seems to be almost im- 

 perative that bees have an entrance at the 

 bottom of the hive to facilitate carrying out 

 dead bees, debris, etc. 



The experiment described by our corres- 

 pondent is an interesting one, however, and 

 in warm climates would probably be worth 

 trying. There is no question but that, in 

 very hot weather, an upper entrance in ad- 

 dition to a lower one facilitates the storing 

 of honey and saves time and bee energy. 

 There is also somewhat less danger of 

 swarming on account of the added amount 

 of ventilation afforded. — Ed.] 



DOES THE ADDING OF EGGS AND LARV.« TO 



A COLONY WITH A VIRGIN SOMETIMES 



CAUSE HER DISAPPEARANCE ? 



BY JOHN H. JOHNSON 



Dr. Miller, p. 718, Nov. 15, asks that 

 some one settle this question. The doctor 

 had evidently thought the question settled 

 long ago. And now comes one, Arthur C. 

 Miller, unsettling it, and making the doctor 

 trouble. At Medina, Ohio, it seems the boys 

 thought so too, as both Mr. E. R. Root and 

 Mr. Mell Pritchard have endorsed the giv- 

 ing of eggs and larvae. By the doctor's 

 confession, that policy did poorly enough 

 at Marengo. When it comes to prescribing 

 it for the whole country (I mean no dis- 

 courtesy), the doctor might better say, "I 

 don't know." 



If by giving eggs and young larvae I lost 

 8 out of 17 virgins I too, like Dr. Miller, 

 would want the question resettled. I am 

 thoroughly persuaded that the season and 

 the locality have much to do with the dis- 

 appearance of virgin queens. The treatment 

 that may do fairly well at Marengo and 

 Medina may not do at all at Bangor, Pa., 

 nor at Pi'ovidence, R. I. 



I kept bees for about 43 years, and raised 

 my own queens and some to sell, for about 

 35 years. Beekeepers then, in this section, 

 reared queens in nuclei and practiced arti- 

 ficial swarming to some extent. We strength- 

 ened both kinds, even while they had vir- 

 gins, by giving eggs and larvae. The loss 

 of young queens was heavy, especially some 

 seasons. 



I obsen-ed that the colonies that swarm 

 naturally rarely lose their virgins. About 

 that time I also read that the giving of eggs 

 and larvae endangers the life of the virgin 

 queen. That led me to decide that nature's 

 way of having the stands eggless and lar- 

 vaeiess at the time of the young queen's 

 mating is the proper way. I now closely 

 watched to see what treatment the bees gave 



the virgins upon their return from success- 

 fully meeting the drone. I saw that the 

 eg'giess and larvEeless stands very rarely 

 balled their young queens. But in times of 

 dearth of honey, those stands having egg's 

 and larvae were veritable fiends at balling 

 their newlj' mated queens. I found a few 

 that the bees had smothered by the next 

 morning. The dead queens were dry and 

 glossy. Some of these balled queens were 

 released by the bees, and became laying 

 queens, with now and then a leg disabled or 

 wings ragged. Most of those balled had 

 that black glossy appearance as though they 

 were varnished. I should like to hear from 

 other beekeepers regarding their observa- 

 tions. 



The past season I permitted 14 colonies 

 to swarm naturally. There was a loss of 

 one virgin among the 14. I reared in nu- 

 clei, I think, 26 queens with a loss of two 

 virgins among the lot, 



I should like to request that Dr. Miller 

 tiy the eggless and larvaeless method an- 

 other season, with nuclei that have virgin 

 queens, as compared with the egg-and-lar- 

 vae method. 



Bangor, Pa. 



HIVING A CLUSTER OF BEES FROM A RAIL 

 FENCE 



BY MRS. FRANK M'GLADE 



After reading Mr. J. L. Byer's article, 

 page 301, May 1, about liiving a swarm of 

 bees on a rail fence, I thought another ex- 

 perience along that line might be interest- 

 ing to the readers of Gleanings. 



Early one morning in June a swarm of 

 bees came out and settled on a barbed-wire 

 fence near the beeyard. Soon after, anoth- 

 er came and settled near the first. While 

 I was busy hiving them, a tliird issued and 

 settled above the two hives with which I was 

 working. The first swarm went in all right ; 

 but when the third had settled so near the 

 other hives, the second was not managed so 

 easily. I finally succeeded in hiving them, 

 however, and went to the house. On going 

 out in the evening to remove them to a 

 different location I found both hives empty 

 with the exception of a few stray bees. Any 

 beekeeper can imagine just how I felt. We 

 looked everywhere for them, but in vain. 



Two days later, however, just after din- 

 ner, my little son started down across the 

 back lot in search of wild strawberries. As 

 he was crawling through a hole in the old 

 rail fence, he almost touched with his head 

 a cluster of bees on the rails among the 

 briers and tall weeds. He called to me to 

 come quickly, saying that he had found the- 



