598 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 20, 1900. 



Mr. Purple — The honej- that wa.s as near as I could say 

 collected from the straight sweet clover, beginning from 

 the first of July, was white, but beginning from about Aug. 

 10th, when burdock began to bloom, it was quite green. I 

 am sorry I did not bring some samples, but the sweet clover 

 honey was about as white as any white clover honey I ever 

 produced. Take it in a can a foot deep, I can see the bot- 

 tom very plainly, a good deal like water. 



Mr. Aikin — The reason I askt the question is this : In 

 Colorado we have a Rocky Mountain plant called cleome, 

 and one bee-keeper in particular comes up every year and 

 talks about the green honey that he gets from cleome. 

 Some of the rest of us don't get that colored honey from the 

 same plant. It occurred to me here, where there is none of 

 it, perhaps we don't know what causes the color in the 

 honey, for they do have in that country some honey that is 

 quite green. It is almost as green as is some of the honey 

 I have seen down here in one of your stores that was said to 

 be buckwheat honey. I don't know what is the trouble 

 with the honey, but I do know it comes green in some cases, 

 not only the honey, but the comb as well is green. That is 

 all I can tell about it ; I don't know why. 



Mr. Kreutzinger— I wish to say that yellow sweet clover 

 produces light white honey, while the white variety pro- 

 duces a greenish color. 



Mr. Purple— May I ask Mr. Aikin if he has any burdock 

 out there ? 



Mr. Aikin — I do not remember ever having seen a 

 stalk of it. 



Mr. Purple — I have lots of it in places, and it is a great 

 honey-producer. I was anxious about it when I began 

 noticing it ; the bees will work very fast on it. 

 fCoutinued next week.] 



Contributed Articles, l 



Further Particulars of Oueen-Rearing. 



liV W. H. PRIDGKN. 



TO take up the subject where Dr. Miller left off in his re- 

 ply to " Apis Mellifica," on page 470, allow me to say 

 that as soon as the cells or cups are workt on a few 

 hours, or from evening until morning, they are given to 

 colonies to be completed, and the queenless bees placed back 

 over the excluder to be ready for the same operation the 

 next day. If one prefers it, he can tack wire-cloth to the 

 bottom of a hive or hive-body (which ?), block it up as the 

 Doctor suggested, and transfer the combs, bees and all, 

 from the upper story to it. and after the cups are accepted 

 and dispo.sed of, return the bees and combs to the story 

 above the excluder ; but the plan recommended above en- 

 ables one to handle hives instead of frames. 



The object in waiting 10 or 12 days after the cell-start- 

 ers are prepared over the excluder, is for all the brood to be 

 sealed, and to have a good force of young^ bees, as the Doc- 

 tor says, as we want no unsealed brood with queenless bees 

 that are expected to accept cups. 



A few days ago, 54 cups were given at one time to the 

 same bees, shaken from the combs, and confined 3 hours 

 before, and 52 were accepted. Late in the evening of the 

 same day, the batches of accepted cups were given to differ- 

 ent colonies to be completed, and the bees were placed back 

 over the excluder, whence they came. 



To have the cups invariably accepted and given a send- 

 off and shaping-up that they will get under no other treat- 

 ment or conditions, give them to bees taken from a colony 

 that has a laying queen and unsealed brood, tho it is not 

 important that there should be unsealed brood in the combs 

 from which the bees are taken, for just as good if not better 

 results are obtained by shaking the bees from a few combs 

 of a colony in a single-story hive, in a normal condition, 

 into a ventilated hive, prepared with a comb filled with 

 water, and several containing pollen and honey, than is the 

 case when the upper story, as described, is transferred from 

 over the excluder to a frame covered with wire-cloth, or an 

 ordinary bottom-board with the most of the board cut away 

 and the hole covered with wire-cloth. If bees are confined 

 for this purpose, the ventilation should be at the bottom, I 



and not far below the brood-frames or combs, as we want 

 them to cluster on the combs. 



The only disadvantage in getting the bees where there 

 is a queen, is that the queen must be found, which often 

 takes more time than it does to place the combs over an ex- 

 cluder, and then shake the bees from them. 



Just so, the bees to be used as cell-starters are taken 

 from a colon3' in a normal condition, and placed on combs 

 minus unsealed brood, they will accept cups in from two to 

 five hours. Such bees must be confined to prevent their de- 

 serting the hive, even if the queen and brood be taken away 

 and the bees left on the old stand in the daytime, if other 

 colonies are near, and they must be ventilated to prevent 

 suffocation. With these facts to consider, every one can 

 arrange matters to his own liking. 



c; If one has trouble in fixing the cups so that they are 

 readily accepted and has to resort to first giving them to 

 queenless bees, when built over an excluder, the upper story 

 of the cell-builders can be placed over the ventilator until 

 the cups are accepted, and then place it back over the ex- 

 cluder, and the desired end is accomplisht, provided there 

 be no unsealed brood in the upper story at the time ; but it 

 should not be forgotten that the shaking of the bees from 

 the combs, even if it be into their own hive on the same 

 combs, materially hastens the conditions for accepting the 

 cups. 



The only advantage in having the bees to be used as 

 cell-starters above an excluder, is that they are ready for 

 use at any time without having to look up the queen, and 

 by the judicious use of excluders one can accomplish nearly 

 everything pertaining to queen-rearing without having to 

 find old queens. 



I would have no idea of calling in the hired help and 

 spending an hour looking for a skittish black, or any other 

 kind of queen, when I could shake and brush the bees from 

 all the combs in a few minutes, place them in another hive, 

 and the hive containing the brood over the old hive, above 

 an excluder, until the bees crawl up, and then take the bot- 

 tom hive away and leave the top one on the old stand. 



One comb of brood should be left below with the queen 

 which will go towards forming a, nucleus with the old queen, 

 in case the object is to introduce a queen to the bees made 

 queenless, and thus keep the old queen until the acceptance 

 of the new one is assured. Warren Co., N. C, Aug. 1. 



The Swarming of Bees— Experience. 



BY F. GRBINKK. 



NOT all Prof. Cook says on page 530 on the above subject 

 is in perfect accord with my experience. For instance, 

 he says : " Nearly all the bees that are mature enough 

 to fly, including drones and queen, push out in the act of 

 swarming." It seems to me that this is putting it stronger 

 than the case warrants. On opening a hive after a swarm 

 has issued from it, there will be found plentj' of drones and 

 quite enough worker-bees to carry on housekeeping quite 

 decently. One may often see laden workers enter the hive 

 during the act of swarming. 



The Professor further says : " The queen rarely goes 

 out until the last of the bees' swarming out," and, in sub- 

 stance : " The queen does not lead the swarm." The lat- 

 ter I think is just as the Professor says : The workers are 

 the leading and deciding element in all the enterprises, un- 

 dertakings and ventures of a colony, and it appears to me 

 that the queen is chased or driven out of the hive when it is 

 decided to swarm. According to my observation the queen 

 is generally among the first half of the lot as they sally 

 forth. 



Prof. Cook places the time of bees swarming between 

 the hours of eleven and two. In regard to this matter I 

 wish to say ; A great deal depends upon the weather and 

 the atmospheric conditions generally. On a hot, sultry 

 morning one may look for swarms much earlier than on a 

 cool morning with a heavy dew. I have had swarms with 

 old queens come forth as early as 6 o'clock in the morning, 

 and then again as late as 6 in the evening. I want to be in 

 mj' yard from 9 till 3, and then I sometimes miss it. 



Swarms having virgin queens may come out at any 

 time during the day, rain or shine, but of course the most 

 swarming occurs during the midday period. 



I have not been able to observe that the hight of the 

 place a swarm selects for clustering depended on the queen, 

 whether a virgin or a laying queen, a swarm with a virgin 

 being more apt to cluster high. All I have observed, is, 



