284 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



COMBS MELTED DOWN. 



I made a nucleus of four frames of brood 

 without bees enough to protect the combs. 

 As the hive was not properly shaded, the 

 combs melted down, the larvse were cooked 

 by the heat of the sun, and the bees were 

 dead in a heap on the bottom of the hive. 



VIRGIN KILLED LAYING QUEEN. 



I had a small swarm from a nucleus, and 

 put it back without killing one of the 

 queens. A few days later I found drone-cells 

 built from worker comb; and as they occu- 

 pied a compact little space in the center of 

 one comb I concluded that my remaining 

 queen was probably not impregnated, so I 

 placed the hive over a strong colony, and 

 evidently the bees did their duty, as that 

 colony is booming to-day. 



NO HONEY LEFT IN THE BROOD-CHAMBER. 



In July I found one super full of honey, 

 and I removed it. A few days later I lifted 

 that colony to see how much was in the 

 brood-chamber, and found that they had no 

 honey at all, having depended upon that in 

 the super. The nectar failing just then, I 

 had to feed them. 



In September I examined a super and 

 found from 20 to 25 lbs. of nice honey. I 

 went out there a week later to get it, and in 

 place of the fat combs of honey I found 

 them almost empty. The handling had 

 disturbed and alarmed them; and in order 

 to assure themselves of its safety they had 

 removed it to the brood-chamber. Truly, 

 as Burns says, 



The best-laid plans of mice and men 

 Gang aft aglee. 



I have said nothing about any of the 

 "smart" things done with my bees, as 

 these notes are supposed to relate only to 

 my mistakes, which I hope may be of some 

 slight service to my brother novices in bee 

 culture. 



Los Angeles, Cal. 



A SWARM THAT DID NOT CLUSTER 



BY WM. GRAMS 



In Siftings for Dec. 15 mention is made of 

 swarms not stopping to cluster. This seems 

 to be an unusual stunt, and so I should like 

 to tell of an " experience " which I had last 

 July. 



As a building contractor I went about 

 three miles into the country to bid on a 

 small country schoolhouse. Bids were re- 

 ceived at the clerk's farm. The clerk, an 

 old Scotchman and an old acquaintance of 

 mine, had gotten a hive of bees from me 

 some ten years previous ; but from lack of 

 attention they had not increased, for the 

 reason that all swarms that ever issued 

 went off. The people at the farm were sure 

 that some of the swarms had gone off with- 

 out clustering. I thought, of course, that 

 they had not seen them. At any rate, aft- 

 er three years there was only one' stand of 

 bees left ; but there was an empty hive 



there which had always been ready to put 

 the new swarm in. 



Aa soon as I came to the place my old 

 friend took me out to see the bees. It was 

 an ideal place among the fruit and shade 

 trees, where there was plenty of room to lly. 

 He asked me if I thought that they had al- 

 ready swarmed and gone off, as usual, or 

 whether they would swarm soon. I really 

 did not know. Of my twenty colonies, not 

 one had swarmed up to that time. The 

 hive was crowded with bees. I told my old 

 friend that, judging from the number of 

 bees in the hive, they should have swarmed 

 before, but that it might be that the queen 

 got lost in the attempt to swarm, and that 

 possibly, as soon as they were ready again, 

 they might come out. I had to explain, as 

 usual in such a case, what I meant by get- 

 ting ready, which I did to him and half a 

 dozen others who were then waiting for the 

 opening of bids for the schoolhouse. 



We were all in a room ready for this occa- 

 sion not ten minutes after looking at the 

 bees, when some one came in and reported 

 that the bees were going off. We went out 

 just in time to see the last of them going 

 over the tree-tops. The boys followed them J 

 which was easily done, for it was such I 



large swarm that there was a cloud of bees 

 They followed them while I got the hive 

 ready. 



The bees went about half a mile and then 

 began to circle around a large scrub oak. I 

 had the hive ready by that time, and about 

 a dozen of us went over to the tree with the 

 empty hive into which I intended to hive 

 the swarm after it had clustered. When we 

 reached the tree, most of the bees were still 

 flying around; but many were alighting on 

 the trunk of the tree, where I found a hole 

 about three inches in diameter, about four 

 feet from the ground. The bees were run- 

 ning into this hole at full speed, without 

 clustering. I had the hive ; but there was 

 no chance to do any thing with it. They 

 were running into the hole so fast that I 

 supposed the queen had already gone in; but 

 I continued to watch the mass of bees as 

 they ran from the ground up toward the 

 hole. To my surprise I found the queen, a 

 fine specimen, and with a lucky twist I 

 caught her firmly by the wings and showed 

 her to the crowd, with the statement that I 

 thought this must be an after-swarm, and 

 that, as there was only this one queen with 

 the swarm, the bees would return to the old 

 stand, which they did. 



I caged the queen, put the new hive on 

 the old stand, and in a short time all of the 

 bees were in the new hive on the old stand. 

 I must confess here that my experience 

 with bees is not so extensive that I could 

 tell whether the queen that I took from the 

 swann was a virgin or a laying queen. She 

 seemed to me very slim. But the main 

 thing was that the bees came back. 



These bees surely did not cluster, nor did 

 they make any attempt to do so; for all of 

 tliis occurred in about an hour. 



Sturgis, S. D., Jan. 5. 



