668 



was discovered about the 15th of August. 

 On the 21st, as an experiment, a laying 

 queen was run into the entrance of this col- 

 ony by the " smoke " method, and, contrary 

 to what might be expected, was accepted 

 and at once began laying. We have known 

 of other instances like this, so that, up to 

 this time, our story reveals nothing out of 

 the ordinary. However, contrary to the 

 usual rule, the laying workers did not dis- 

 appear. Their haphazard work, consisting 

 of several egg's in one cell, eggs attached to 

 the sides of the cells, and eggs everywhere, 

 in fact, continued right along, and yet in 

 the midst of it all could be seen the work of 

 the laying queen. She proved to be a good 

 layer, as her work could be distinguished by 

 the regularity and uniformity — that is, the 

 eggs were in regnilar order, and always 

 placed in the same way in the bottom of the 

 cells. All about could be seen the work of 

 the laying workers, the appearances going 

 to show that they apparently entered into 

 competition with the queen. It is not often 

 that one can witness in a single comb such a 

 curious combination of the regular and ir- 

 regular placing of eggs, bordering upon 

 (shall we say?) a mixture of the sublime 

 and the ridiculous. Patches of perfect 

 worker brood could be seen surrounded by 

 scattered drone brood, cells containing lar- 

 vae and eggs both, others with five or six 

 eggs, etc. How long this struggle between 

 the normal and the abnormal would have 

 kept up we do not know ; for on September 

 1, fearing that the abnormal might prove 

 the stronger we called off the game, remov- 

 ing the laying queen, and placed her in a 

 hive where she would have full sway. 



Was this queen an unusually courageous 

 one, or one who disliked to show her author- 

 ity? The colony being so long without a 

 good laying queen was made up of old bees, 

 most of which were black and shiny. Had 

 conditions gotten so bad that they had given 

 up all hope ? or had the laying workers be- 

 come so numerous that there had not yet 

 been time in the ten days that had elapsed 

 since the queen had been introduced for 

 their woi'k to come to a stop? 



AN AMERICAN BEEKEEPER IN NORWAY. 



We were recently favored by a visit from 

 a native of Norway, Mr. Ewald Omdahl, 

 Drammen, Norway, who is nevertheless an 

 American beekeeper in every sense of the 

 word, for he uses American hives and fix- 

 tures, and he is a close student of Ameri- 

 can methods. Among writers in this coun- 

 try he is a great admirer of Dr. C. C. Miller 

 and the late E. W. Alexander. 



Mr. Omdahl's chief business is the manu- 

 facture of leather; but he has a beautifully 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



kept apiary, managed according to the vei'y 

 hitest and best accepted pi'adices of Amer- 

 ica, right in the heart of a city of 30,000 

 inhabitants. The bees are obliged to fly a 

 considerable distance. During his three 

 trips to this country he has made a special 

 study of American methods, and has visited 

 various noted beekeepers. His apiary is 

 made up of Carniolans and Italians, not 

 crossed, but in their purity. He prefers the 

 Carniolans, because they work better in all 

 kinds of weather, and are easier to handle. 



We doubt whether there is a bee-cellar in 

 the United States with such elaborate means 

 for controlling the ventilation and tempera- 

 ture as this one of Mr. Omdahl's. It is 

 built especially for wintering bees, of con- 

 crete, and the temperature is accurately 

 maintained throughout all variations of all 

 outside temperature by means of electric 

 heaters, which can be turned on or off at 

 will. These heaters do not exhaust the air, 

 nor do they gi\e off any bad odor. 



This cellar has been used three years 

 without any loss of colonies. Drammen is 

 located on the sea coast, hence is not sub- 

 ject to any violent changes of weather. In 

 many ways the climate is like that of 

 Northern Ohio, as bees are generally re- 

 moved from the cellar the latter part of 

 March to get the early pollen which comes 

 in the fore part of April. 



Among the sources of honey may be men- 

 tioned the dandelion, willow, maple, fruit- 

 blossoms, alsike clover (two crops), rasp- 

 beiry. some white clover and basswood, 

 much heather in some localities, sunflowers, 

 blueberry, etc. Two honey-flows are se- 

 cured from the alsike — one beginning about 

 June 20, and the other in August, but this 

 latter crop is not so sure. The wild rasp- 

 berry blossoms more or less all summer 

 long. The principal sources of surplus 

 honey are the alsike clover, the raspberry, 

 and the heather. A peculiarity of the 

 heatlier honey, as is well known, is that it is 

 so thick that it must be extracted before it 

 is sealed over, else it can not be taken from 

 the combs at all in the ordinary centrifugal 

 honey-extractor. From one five-story col- 

 ony of pure Ca?:niolans. whose queen was 

 imported from Carniola (Austria) the year 

 before, he took $32.00 worth of comb and 

 extracted honey. 



Mr. Omdahl feeds 25 lbs. of sugar syrup, 

 made of two parts of granulated sugar and 

 one of water, to every colony in the fall-^ 

 generally the first week in September. This 

 amount is fed rapidly and at one time. The 

 sugar is the unbleached yellow granulated 

 sugar, 98 per cent pure, which is obtained 

 from the condensed-milk factories. It is 

 probably imported from the West Indies. 



