THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



63 



going to have time to squint through 

 all the hives? A dozen swarms might 

 " elojDe " while one was deciding 

 whether or not another dozen were 

 ready for the trap. Is there any date 

 governing these things'? If so, just 

 wait till I get out my order for self- 

 hivers. 



Yours in a quandary, as ever, 



Kit Clovek. 

 Dubuque., lotoa. 



We never made it a practice to clip tlie wings of 

 queens, nor do we approve of doing so. Wliere 

 one queen wliose wings are not clipped ma}" fly 

 to parts unknown witli her swarm, tliere will be 

 half a dozen clipped queens lost in the grass, or 

 in some way destroyed on account of not being 

 able to fly. The loss of queens and swarms is 

 entirely prevented by tne use of the drone-and- 

 queen trap, or the Svvarm-hiver. Try them, you 

 Who have so much trouble at swarming time. 



A word about young queens: when they hatch, 

 the time they should be fertilized, commence to 

 lay, etc. 



If a second swarm issues it is usually on the 

 eighth day after the first swarm comes off, that iSi 

 the second swarm is due OLi tliat da3'. Seven days 

 later the young queen should be laying, provideil 

 the weather is sucli tiiat she could take a fligh' 

 when five days okl. It is understood, of course, 

 that queens do not as a rule fly to mate unless the 

 weather is as fine as it should be when the bees 

 gather honey. Now, my good woman, do not 

 trouble yourself about a swarm issuing from a 

 second swarm until the following year, as bees 

 seldom swarm until they have a queen one year 

 old. 



It is not an unusual thing for the first swarm 

 that issues to cast a swarm late in the season, as 

 the first swarm has an old queen. As lo the time 

 the young queens commence to lay that is not of 

 the least consequence. Certainly no one need 

 open a hive and examine the cells to ascertain 

 the fact. If the bees hcem to be doing well, rhat 

 is sufficient assurance that all is right with the 

 colony. 



Our swarm-hiver is mentioned. If this arrange- 

 ment is used and a swarm is captured, the swarm 

 should be given a new location in the apiary the 

 same as they should had the bees been hived 

 in the usual way. If a second swarm is expected 

 the hiver should be set again. But why permit 

 a second swarm to issue ? After the first swarm 

 has been cared for, why not open the hive and re" 

 move all the queen cells but one? Or, why not 

 remove all the cells and three days later intro- 

 duce a fertile queen? It strikes us that ''Kit Clo- 

 ver" has been reading some bee-paper not up with 

 the times, or she would understand some thingg 

 concerning bees she now seems to know but little 



about. Had she read the leading bee journals 

 published in the United States she would long 

 ago have discovered that there is an arrangement 

 which when applied to hives obviates the neces- 

 sity of clipping tlie wings of any queen, climbing 

 into (oak) trees for a swarm of bees and the loss 

 of any swarms when they issue. 



Take our advice and cast away those two-cent 

 bee-papers whose editors have not discovered the 

 fact that improvements in bee culture are contin- 

 ually being made. Head the Am. Bee Journal, 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture, the Review, and above 

 all, the Arn.'ULTUKisi'. These publications keep 

 their readers posted on all matters relating to new 

 and valuable devices that will help tlie novice to 

 solve the iiroblem, •' How to make bee culture a 

 success." — Ed.] 



Siftings in Btt Culture. 



CONDUCTED BV M. A. KELLEY. 



Periodicals for review, exchanges and corre- 

 spondence intended for this department should 

 be addressed to 



M. A. Kelley, 

 Mtlton, W. Va. 



Honey with lemon juice is said to 

 be a good remedy for la grippe. 



It is said by high authority that 

 drones will die if they are not fed by 

 the workers. 



Several beekeepers in the South re- 

 port surplus honey-dew, honey stored 

 in mid- winter. 



Cheese cloth and all other foreign 

 materials are not suitable for making 

 the sejDtum in foundation. 



Well, well, so it turns out that sev- 

 ei^al parties have invented Alley's 

 "Swarmer" before he published his 

 invention!! 



That's all in their minds.— Ed.] 



Heating the place with the smoker, 

 a lamp or by any other means is the 

 very latest remedy for stings. 



Bee stings as a cure for rheuma- 

 tism seems to be gaining advocates. 

 Try it, ye rheumatic ones, and report 

 the result in the Api. 



