548 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



honey, so that the queen is crowded out absolutely. 

 In that case she will shrink down so that she will 

 not look much larger than an ordinary bee; but, 

 as a general rule, when a hive is hone;, -bound there 

 will be a few eggs and young brood which the queen 

 will somehow manage to find room for. Taking every 

 thing into consideration we are inclined to the opin- 

 ion that the twO' colonies mentioned are queenless. 

 To prove this, give them a frame of unsealed young 

 brood. If cells are started, of course you will know 

 that they are without a queen. It you wish to save 

 time it would pay you to put a laying queen in each 

 of the two colonies if they are queenless. If vou 

 would like the fun of raising queens you can raise 

 yon r ow n . — E D . ] 



Another Plan of Increase 



I have been trying a new plan for artificial swarm- 

 ing which seems to prove a good one. The plan is as 

 follows: Take a hive (one-story) ; fill it with brood- 

 frames, and place it on a strong colony. The bees 

 will soon begin to work in the frames, which should 

 he above the old brood-nest, and the queen will be- 

 gin to lay in it. When the brood is in all stages, 

 smoke the bees at the entrance of the hive, then care- 

 fully take the new brood-nest and carry it to the 

 new hive or place where you wish it to remain. In 

 this way it leaves both hives strong. Care should be 

 taken, however, or you will receive a severe stinging. 



Waverly, N. Y., June 26. J. M. Elsbree. 



[The plan will work in most cases during warm or 

 hot weather; but in early summer or spring there 

 will be danger that some of the brood will be chilled 

 or neglected on account of old flying bees going 

 T)ack to the old stand. The Alexander plan removes 

 this difficulty, and in most instances the beginner 

 will succeed better. — Ed.] 



it is evident that the queen was at her best, which 

 was very poor. 



3. Yes, a queen which has mated with a black 

 drone will produce bees and drones of various mark- 

 ings. Sometimes the hybrids are uniformly marked 

 as two-banded bees ; but as a rule there will be three- 

 banded bees, two-banded, one-banded, and black bees 

 in a cross of this kind. — Ed.] 



Small Queens ; Variation in Markings 



Would you please answer the following questions 

 for me ? 



1. Do hybrids fly as far as the Italians do? 



2. Did you ever know of a queen no larger than 

 a worker bee ? In clipping the wings of my queens 

 I came to one hive where I could find none, but 

 found unsealed queen-cells and also numeroiis worker 

 eggs regularly deposited in worker-cells. They had 

 not cast any swarm yet. The next day they swarm- 

 «d; but the swarm returned after clustering in a 

 tree-top. I found the queen in front of the hive as 

 her wings were a little ragged, so she could not fly 

 well ; but she was the real queen, as I caged her 

 and the bees would cling to the cage verj' persistent- 

 ly. W hy do you suppose she was so unusually small? 

 Do you think she would be as good as a normal-sized 

 •queen ? She had a very populous hive. 



3. Have not queens which produce a few black 

 drones and workers been mated to a black drone of 

 ■the ordinary common black or German bees? 



Swea City, Iowa, June 30. Albert Swanson. 



[1. Hybrids fly as far as Italians. There is no 

 reason why they should not. 



2. Occasionally we find a queen not much bigger 

 than a worker bee. They usually are not of much 

 value, and are supposed to have been raised from a 

 cell where the larva was too far developed. Such 

 queens should be replaced. It is evident from the 

 general description in your letter that she was not 

 doing very well, because the bees were building cells 

 and trying to replace her. There is a possibility, 

 also, that the bee that you found was nothing more 

 nor less than a laying worker. There will be several 

 of them in the hive ; but from your general descrip- 

 tion we should be inclined to believe that what you 

 found was really a queen-bee but a very small one. 

 It is proper to state in this connection that, after 

 a queen has ceased laying in the fall of the year, she 

 will shrink down so that she will be only slightly 

 larger than a worker-bee ; but in this particular case 



Is it a Disease or Something they Gather ? 



I notice in Gleanings, June 1, page 387, that 

 Mr. B. L. Fisher tells us that his bees are troubled 

 with paralysis. I was much interested in the article, 

 because in some respects my bees are in a similar 

 condition. I have worked considerably with profes- 

 sional beemen, but this is the first season I have had 

 bees of my own. I have had ample opportunity to 

 watch and study the actions of my bees, and feel 

 inclined to believe that, at least in my case, it is 

 not paralysis. While I have been watching, a bee 

 from the field would alight in front of the hive, a 

 guard would grab it by a leg or wing, and the guard 

 would not attempt to sting the victim for quite a 

 while. Then it seems as if the guard stings the 

 other in the abdomen. The one that has been stung 

 just hops about on the ground, not able to take flight 

 again. Sometimes the would-be victim breaks away 

 from the other and goes into the hive, and no other 

 bees interfere with it. All my stands have plenty of 

 honey ; no robbing going on. All stands have the 

 same trouble. It seems that there are no bees being 

 killed inside the hives because there are none being 

 carried out. It appears to me that the field bee loses 

 its exact colony odor, or the guard mistakes its own 

 colony odor. There are a great many acres of Him- 

 alaya blackberries that have been in bloom for two 

 weeks, which has been the main source of honey and 

 pollen. The blossoms are very fuzzy, and the bees 

 wallow among the hairy stuff, one after the other ; 

 therefore I thought some of the bees might have 

 taken up some of the odor of other colonies. I did 

 not experience any of this trouble among the bees 

 until the berries came in bloom. It keeps my colonies 

 about at a standstill. I hope that some of the ex- 

 perienced beemen will give more light on the subject. 



Watsonville, Cal., June 24. C. W. Arnett. 



[The fact that you say the trouble began after the 

 bees began to work on the Himalaya blackberry 

 rather suggests that this plant may be indirectly the 

 cause. It is possible that some hairy substance, or 

 the pollen itself, perhaps, besmears the bees in such 

 a way as to make them unwelcome to their former 

 comrades. If any of our subscribers have had a 

 similar experience we should be glad to hear from 

 them. — -Ed.] 



Propolis on Hoffman Frames 



I am using Madary's ten-frame hive, which is 16 

 inches wide, and I find that, after the Hoffman 

 frames have been handled a few times, enough 

 propolis gets stuck in between them to make it im- 

 practical to use the full ten frames. I have been 

 asking several beekeepers how it would do to use 

 nine frames and a follower ; but they all say that a 

 follower is a bad thing, as it gets stuck in the hive 

 by brace-combs. What would you do under the cir- 

 cumstances? 



Modesto, Cal., Feb. 5. Subscriber. 



[The use of a follower is largely a matter of per- 

 sonal opinion. Some beekeepers will not use them 

 — can not be hired to use them — while others prefer 

 them every time. It is true that it is often difficult 

 to get a follower out without breaking it. Possibly 

 those who will not use a follower could be induced 

 to do so if the construction were much more sub- 

 stantial than it is now. 



Under the circumstances, since your hives are not 

 quite wide enough for the ten frames we would cer- 

 tainly use nine and a follower. — Ed. ] 



