614 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 27, 1900. 



When I next visited that apiary. I think about 10 days after- 

 ward, I was surprised to find that those strong- colonies did 

 not show many bees. Where those bees had g-one to I could 

 not tell. They said it was the winds that did it ; but when 

 the same thing occurred a few years later in the vicinity of 

 Denver, covering- a territory of from 10 to 20 miles in diam- 

 eter, the bees disappeared in the same general way. We 

 don't know what happened to them. The same trouble was 

 experienced a little bit last year, and a little bit the year 

 before. 



Pres. Root — I desire to break right in here. Do you 

 wish to continue the discussion, or have a stereopticon of 

 about 10 minutes before closing ? I have a few slides show- 

 ing bee-keeping in England as it is practiced to-day. 



Dr. Mason — We are to have a question-box during our 

 sessions, and somebodj- should have charge of that box ; 

 I move that the chairman appoint a committee of three to 

 take charge of it. (Motion carried.) 



Pres. Root — I will name on that committee O. O. Pop- 

 pleton, of Florida; R. L. Taylor, of Michigan; and R. C. 

 Aikin, of Colorado. We want the members of this Associa- 

 tion to hand in questions ; don't be afraid to ask questions 

 on any subject whatever, and they will receive some sort of 

 an answer. 



Stereopticon views were then thrown on the screen 

 showing the anatomy of the bee, etc., and were described by 

 Prof. C. P. Gillette. " 



The convention then adjourned until 9:30 a.m. the next 

 day. jCoutinued ne.xt week.] 



I Contributed Articles. | 



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Finding Queens— Various Methods Described. 



BY .-VDRIAN GETAZ. 



VERY often, beginners in bee-keeping, and others that 

 are not beginners, have trouble in finding queens. 

 During a honey-flow, with a colony not excessively 

 populous, gentle bees clinging to the combs, the simplest 

 way is to take the combs out and examine them. Put them 

 in a comb-basket, and if the queen has not been found, look 

 over them again, putting them in another comb-basket. 

 Look in the hive also. It is necessary to use as little smoke 

 as possible so as to avoid starting the queen to run and hide. 

 I always begin at one side, first blowing a little smoke be- 

 tween the comb and the wall of the hive, so as to drive the 

 queen between the combs if she happens to be against the 

 wall. I then take out only one comb on that side and be- 

 gin on the other side, continuing thruout. The object is to 

 prevent the queen from being left on the walls of the hive. 



A correspondent wrote some time ago that he frequently 

 lost his queens, and finally got in the habit of looking 

 under the cover of the hive before working with the colony, 

 and often finds the queen there, that is, under the cover. 

 That correspondent is smoking his bees entirelj' too much. 

 Only enough smoke should be given at the entrance to keep 

 the guards from starting an assault against the operator. 

 Then raise the cover just enough to send some smoke under, 

 and as soon as the bees begin buzzing, take off the cover. 

 If there is a super, take it off in the same manner as you 

 did the cover. 



However, when the circumstances are not as stated 

 above, another method must be pursued. Put an entrance- 

 guard or a queen-trap in front of the hive. Shake every 

 comb, as j'ou take it out, in front of the hive, and put it in 

 the comb-basket. When all the combs are out, look before 

 the entrance-guard and you will find the queen there 19 out 

 of 20 times. Sometimes, if the queen has been frightened, 

 she may have left the combs. She may be found inside of 

 the hive, but not often. 



A frightened queen will run from the light and hide in 

 the first crack or dark place she can find, and the most 

 probable place she has taken is inside the entrance-guard 

 or at the entrance of the hive right under the wall. If there 

 is a crack in the bottom of the hive, she is almost certainly 

 under the bottom and will turn up after awhile, after you 

 have hunted her perhaps for hours and could swear that she 

 is nowhere. 



In some cases, I am almost certain that the queen went 

 simply out by the " front door," and hid somewhere, proba- 



bly under the hive-bottom. That was before using en- 

 trance-guards or rather queen-traps. 



It takes but little shaking to drop a laying queen and 

 most of the bees, but a virgin queen hangs to the combs 

 much better, and very often does not fall. So if she is not 

 found in front of the queen-trap, it is necessary to look 

 over the combs, transferring them to another comb-basket. 

 Do not put the combs back into the hive until the queen is 

 found. 



In hunting a virgin, I always look over the combs be- 

 fore putting them into the basket. If the queen is neither 

 on the combs nor in front of the trap. I smoke the bees in 

 the trap from inside the hive, and thus drive most of the 

 bees out of the trap, and the queen in the upper story of the 

 trap. But it is very seldom that such operation has to be 

 resorted to. 



In favorable circumstances, such as are described in 

 the beginning of this article, and if the operator has been 

 careful and not scared the queen, she will be found on the 

 combs, and often she has not even interrupted her work, 

 and can be seen laying eggs. Generally she has retreated 

 from the light and taken refuge between the bottom of the 

 comb and the bottom-bar, if there is a space there, as there 

 generally is. Then when the operator looks over the comb, 

 there begins a game of hide-and-seek. 



When the operator looks for the queen he always turns 

 the comb and himself so that the sun will be at his back 

 and strike on the comb. As soon as the comb is in that 

 position, the queen skips on the opposite side, remaining 

 near the bottom and among the bees that are there ; for the 

 bees, as well as the queen, have retreated to the lower part 

 of the combs, except those that are filling themselves with 

 honey. Then when the operator turns the comb over, the 

 queen skips again on the other side ; not that she cares for 

 the operator, but away from the sun and light. 



After the combs have been in the comb-basket 5 or 10 

 minutes, the queen, if there, has generally left the bottom 

 of the comb, and can much more easily be found on the 

 surface of the combs. 



If there are on some combs some queen-cells that are to 

 be saved, it is better not to shake the bees, as the embyro 

 queens might be injured. Such combs are to be put in a 

 basket by themselves, and after 5 or 10 minutes, when the 

 bees are quieted, examine carefully, that is. if the queen 

 has not been found elsewhere. If the bees are piled up to- 

 gether, smoke them very slightly, just enough to disperse 

 them. Those that are filling themselves with honey need 

 not be disturbed, as the queen is not there. 



Knox Co., Tenn. 



Paper Drip-Catcliers for Sliipping-Cases. 



BY G. M.. DOOIJTTLE. 



QUESTION :— I am told that you use drip-catchers, or 

 paper pans inside of your shipping-cases, when sending 

 honey to market, to catch the drip from any section 

 that may chance to get marred or the capping to the cells 

 broken in any way so that the honey leaks, thus preventing 

 this leak or drip from soiling the floor, counter, or cases of 

 honey below it, as it otherwise would, were no such thing 

 used. What I should like to know is, how you make these 

 paper pans. I have a way of folding them over a sheet of 

 tin, cut to fit the inside of the case, but it is rather slow 

 where hundreds of them have to be prepared in a single 

 season. If some one could invent a machine for doing this 

 work, that would not be too expensive, it would be a great 

 boon to bee-keepers. The going over each corner sepa- 

 rately is the part which takes the most time. I think j'ou 

 can do the bee-keeping fraternity no greater favor at this 

 time than by describing in the American Bee Journal your 

 method of making these drip-catchers. 



Answer : — As those who have section honey will be 

 preparing the same for market at this time, this question 

 comes in very opportunely ; and I know of no one thing 

 which helps as much to bring favor to our goods as do these 

 drip-catchers in the bottom of each shipping-case. Some 

 years ago, while in New York city, I saw cases of honey 

 piled >S to 12 high, and the drip from the upper cases ran all 

 the way down to the floor, daubing the snow-white cases, 

 which had been gotten out and put up with great pains, not 

 only spoiling all their beauty, but making them a sticky, 

 nasty mess to handle. Up to that time I had not used drip- 

 catchers, but then resolved that I would try to fix some way 

 so that my honey should not appear in market in that con- 

 dition. That winter, while attending a bee-keepers' con- 



